Back when I worked at the diner, being this late, I would have just ducked into the back and pretend I'd been working the whole time.
But Indigo was not the diner, and I was really trying to make this work. So when I rolled up to the employee parking lot almost forty-five minutes late, I immediately marched up to my boss.
"Finn?" I called. "I'm here now. I'm sorry."
Finn Walker, the owner and business manager of Indigo restaurant turned and looked at me with an upraised eyebrow. "Everything okay?" he drawled in that low, somewhat dangerous voice of his.
I lifted my chin, letting him know I wasn't scared of him, even though I really was. Because for once my lateness wasn't my fault. Not entirely, anyway. "Actually, no," I said. "I was in a car accident."
His other eyebrow shot up. "Dear God, are you okay?" he asked, his whole demeanor changing. "Do you need to sit down? What are you even doing here? Do you need a ride to the hospital?"
I hid a chuckle behind my lips. "It was just a fender bender," I clarified. For all of his bluster, Finn was a total Boy Scout, mother hen. He clucked over his staff, checking up on our health, and making sure we were always well rested, and well fed before our shifts. "I'm fine," I reassured him. "It was my fault actually, my baby dropped his toy and I wasn't paying attention when the guy ran the stop sign."
Finn shook his head, looking murderous. "Traffic is getting really crazy around here," he snarled. "This town is growing too fast too soon and we can't keep up with it. It's losing all the small-town charm that made it so appealing in the first place."
At this, I had to hide my chuckle again. Finn had lived in Reckless Falls for less than a year. But here he was, already acting like a good old-fashioned townie.
But instead of laughing, I nodded sincerely. "Oh absolutely," I agreed. "There are way too many people, and in the off season too. And they all drive like maniacs."
Once again, the face of the man whose car I'd hit floated across my brain. Jameson Tellar. There was something so familiar about him. One of those little brain tickles that you get, that you just can't scratch.
But more than likely it was just my overactive brain trying to latch on to the first hot guy I'd seen in ages that I hadn't already slept with or gone to kindergarten with. This town was pretty small after all and any fresh face was exciting, especially when you were in the middle of a two-year dry spell like I was.
But it wasn't like I was ever going to see him again. He was definitely an out-of-towner. I knew the type. They came here to this restaurant and gushed about the scenery and the quiet small town ambiance, then got back into their cars and left the moment the weather turned bad.
Which it would be in a few weeks. Hell, they were already forecasting frost in the mountains. Summer was almost over and soon the town would be ours again.
Except for the patrons of Indigo. They never seemed to stop coming. From as close as Rochester and as far away as Florida. I had a couple from LA the other day and wanted to ask them what the hell they were doing flying across the entire country just to come to my little town. But I knew the answer. It was Indigo. This restaurant had quickly gained a reputation for the best cuisine in the Northeast and I had a part in that, however small. That was something that made me really proud.
Once I had reassured Finn that I wasn't going to succumb to my injuries and die in front of him, I started rushing around, trying to complete all my normal work in half the time. Checking in with my servers, running down the specials list, and double checking, yet again, with the head chef-slash-genius weirdo Jackson Nye that yes, the servers definitely were supposed to set the fish on fire tableside.
The fact that I was no longer slinging plates of slop at the diner never ceased to amaze me.
"Charlie?" one of the servers called, just before we were ready to open. "Gina's in the back!"
I nodded and immediately moved to the front of the house. Our hostess was breast-feeding, and needed to break a couple times a night to pump. I knew what hell that was, so that I'd arranged with Finn for her to use his office whenever she needed to. It was no big deal for me to spot the hostess, since I'd been doing this same job at the diner for years prior. I took my place and nodded at Benny to unlock the front door. I rolled my head from side to side, feeling the twinge of tenderness in my neck from the accident, but I pasted on a bright smile.
Which faded the moment Jameson Tellar walked through the door.