Boss Daddy: A Secret Baby Romance by Black, L. (good books for high schoolers .TXT) 📕

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Where is everybody?” I asked. “It feels dead here. The parking lot is basically empty.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “I meant to call you to let you know I might need you to jump behind the bar tonight, but you’ll start with just serving tables. Tonight is Jordan’s night off, and Mason and Tyler aren’t here. So, we have Jesse in the kitchen with the sous chef, and I’ll be behind the bar, but I’ll also be acting manager.”

“They all have the same night off?”

That sounded a little extreme, even for a non-theme night on a weekday.

“Not exactly,” she said. “I mean, yeah, but not.”

I laughed and reached over the bar to grab a cup and fill it with water from the soda fountain. “Thanks for clearing that right up for me.”

Ava laughed. “Yeah, I’m good at that. What I meant is Jordan just has the night off. Mason and Tyler went with Tom to Portland on a business trip.”

I was curious about what that could mean, but I didn’t pry. As comfortable as I felt there and as much I was starting to think of these people as good friends, I was still the new girl in a lot of ways. And I was an employee, not a family member. That meant I wasn’t privy to everything going on around the bar. If it was something I needed to know, they would tell me.

“That’s somewhere I haven’t visited yet,” I said, transitioning away from what I felt like was becoming an awkward point in the conversation. “I think I need to plan a time to go and see what it’s all about.”

Ava nodded. “It’s a neat city. Definitely growing.”

I finished my water and hopped down from the stool to bring the cup into the kitchen to wash it. The sous chef and Jesse were deep in the trenches of preparing for the late-lunch and early dinner customers who would be coming in soon. It was burger night, which meant all the prep surfaces of the kitchen were covered with stacks of vegetables and sliced cheese ready to put on the burgers, as well as containers of the special sauces and condiments they created.

I paused for a minute to watch them and let them tell me about the new burger they were introducing that night. The sous chef let on that it was actually Tyler’s recipe they were using, and they agreed he would be bummed to miss seeing the reaction from the customers. But they didn’t want to wait to introduce it. The regular customers expected something new that night, and they didn’t want to disappoint them.

I was nibbling on the corner of a slice of cheese they handed me when I walked back out to the front and found a woman sitting at the bar. It was confusing for a second considering the bar was still closed and I wasn’t sure how she got in.

The way the woman was smiling at me from the bar, however, told me she was perfectly in place. She didn’t feel uncomfortable and hadn’t wandered in on a whim.

“Hi,” she said as I approached. “I’m Amanda.”

She extended her hand, and I shook it, nodding as I realized who she was.

“Tom’s wife,” I said.

She nodded. “That’s right. We’re in town for just a short time, so I thought I would come by and visit. You must be Hannah.”

I was surprised she knew who I was, but I nodded. I expected her to elaborate on that a little, maybe tell me how she knew who I was before I even said anything. But she didn’t. I could only assume it was because Ava or one of the brothers had mentioned they’d hired someone new.

Ava came out of the office and got a bright smile on her face when she noticed Amanda. She waved at her as she headed for the door.

“Hey,” she said. “I’ll be over in just a second. I just need to open up. Have you ordered something to eat?”

“Not yet,” Amanda said.

“Burger night,” Ava said over her shoulder.

Amanda nodded. “I know. Anything new since the last time I was here?”

“There’s something new tonight,” Ava said.

“It sounds really good,” I said. “I was just back there, and they were telling me about it. I might have gotten to sample some of the ingredients.”

Amanda chuckled. “I noticed that when you came out of the kitchen.”

“It was really good cheese,” I laughed.

“Alright. You’ve convinced me. I’ll have that.”

“I’ll go tell the kitchen,” Ava said and headed back to tell the guys.

Amanda and I were chatting a little bit about the bar and how things were going since I’d started when Ava came back out. She sat down on the stool next to Amanda.

“I’m just going to sit here for like ten seconds while I still have a chance. Without so many of the guys here, I have a feeling we’ll be hopping pretty soon,” she said.

“Where’s Jordan tonight? I didn’t think he was going with the others,” Amanda said.

“He didn’t,” Ava said. “Tonight’s just his usual night off. I guess I could have called him in, but I try not to do that. He still really likes to keep to a schedule. There are a lot of times I can’t avoid it, and he’s really great about coming in for extra shifts and covering them when I need him to. But he likes having some predictability as much as possible. Maybe he’ll get through that someday.”

Amanda shrugged. “I don’t know. I come from a pretty big military family. Some of them bounce back after they get out and can pretty much go back to a completely normal life. Some have little tics and habits pretty much forever after that.”

“Well, I guess if he was going to hang on to anything, wanting to stay on the schedule isn’t the worst way the military could have stuck with him.”

“That’s for sure,” Amanda said.

I realized I was blushing just