Rose showed up to work an hour early to tell Missy about her date with Shane. Reliving it with a captivated audience made it sound and feel that much more exciting.
‘Are you going out again?’ Missy asked.
Rose grabbed her dark green waist apron and tied it around her. ‘I hope so. I’m not sure about etiquette.’
‘I’m sure he’ll ask again soon.’
Rose tucked a pad and pen into her pocket. ‘I hope so.’ She didn’t want to jinx anything, but she wanted this to be the start of something new and exciting in her life. At least that hope wasn’t going anywhere.
The kitchen doors swung open, and she came face to face with Elisa, one of the other seasonal girls. Fresh out of college, and eager to make it her last summer in The Burrow, the girl’s glossed lips pouted at Missy. It was a good thing she was Missy’s cousin. If it weren’t for her aunt strong-arming her, Missy would have never agreed to hire the girl.
‘The party is here,’ she said and flitted away.
‘Party?’ Rose asked.
Missy was in the middle of building a burger. ‘Surprise! Don’t worry. It’s only Mrs. Donahue and her bridge group. They picked out the menu already. So, all you have to do is attend to them. Refill drinks and whatever.’
Mrs. Donahue? Rose gritted her teeth. Out of everyone in town, why did she have to see the woman who’d spotted her and Shane together at the diner?
Sparing herself any teasing from Missy, she said nothing.
Rose took a deep breath and went to greet the women. ‘Good afternoon.’
Mrs. Donahue, the tallest of the women – her poof of white hair adding to her height – eyed Rose up and down. ‘It’s nice to see you again, Rose.’ She winked, and a slow smile spread across her mouth.
Heat burned Rose’s cheeks, and it took all her effort not to turn around and hide in the kitchen for the rest of the day. ‘What can I get you to drink?’
While giving their orders, the women played musical chairs as some complained about the amount of light coming through the windows, and others wanted to sit next to a particular person. Once they settled in, they left Rose alone for the most part and played through the afternoon.
Rose counted the hours until dinner so that she’d see Shane again. She tried not to anticipate it too much but couldn’t help it. He had said he’d come.
The moment Shane barged into The Siren, she knew something was wrong, and she hadn’t the slightest idea what.
‘Hey,’ she said, grabbing a menu for him.
‘I’m not here to eat,’ he said, crossing his arms. He leaned his hip against the hostess station and jutted his chin out.
‘Oh,’ Rose said, blinking a few times. ‘What’s up?’
‘Someone around here thinks she can do my job better than me.’
Rose lowered her gaze to The Burrow patch sewn to his sleeve. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Don’t play dumb with me, Rose.’
Mrs. Donahue’s group stopped talking, and they made a bad show of pretending they weren’t listening. His voice was loud enough to get everyone’s attention.
She grabbed his arm and led him to the hallway closer to the bathrooms. ‘What’s going on, Shane?’
‘Rose, this is serious. You’re bordering on obstruction.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘The information I gave you wasn’t something to be used for your benefit,’ Shane said. ‘I told you that in confidence.’
She crossed her arms. ‘It wasn’t for my benefit.’
‘I find that hard to believe. You’ve been manipulating this from the start. How do you think it sounded when I called shelters asking about the victim and three of them questioned me thinking that my colleague had already done the job for me?’
‘I never said I was a colleague.’ They must have misheard or tried to cover for themselves.
‘That’s not the point, Rose. I’m here for a job, and that’s it. I don’t need someone messing with my life again.’
Again? ‘I’m not messing with you. I needed to know –’ Her words caught in her throat. She wasn’t sure what she needed to know anymore. But her curiosity had lost his trust.
The men’s room door opened, and Donnie stood there, zipping his fly. ‘Is everything all right?’
Rose turned to him and met his wide-eyed stare.
‘Everything is fine,’ Shane said. ‘Right, Rose?’
‘Of course.’
Donnie shrugged and passed through to the dining area.
Shane lowered his voice. ‘This is above and beyond curiosity now.’
‘That’s all it is,’ she said. ‘Why do you think there’s something more to it?’
‘What do you expect me to believe? You’re the only one who saw the girl. The one who found the only evidence of what happened. Tell me I shouldn’t be suspicious in a town filled with people pushing themselves into everyone else’s business.’
As his gaze penetrated her, words flew from her mind once more. ‘What do you want me to say to that?’
‘Nothing. I want you to say and do nothing. Stay out of my investigation, Rose. I mean it.’ And with that, he turned on his heel and strode out of the building as quickly as he’d come in.
Rose huffed and looked down at the crackling menu clutched in her fists. She inhaled and pressed the menu against the surface of the hostess station, smoothing out the wrinkles.
Without a glance at any of the gawking customers, she charged into the kitchen. ‘I have to talk to you.’
‘Damn it, Rose,’ Missy said, whipping around. She lifted the grill cleaner in surrender. ‘You scared the shit out of me.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Donnie told me you and Shane were arguing.’
Shane had done most of the talking. ‘He came in here accusing me of butting into his investigation.’
‘What happened?’
Rose crossed her arms, digging her fingernails into her skin. ‘I called a few homeless shelters to see if the girl had been to one of them lately.’
‘So, you did butt into it,’ Missy said.
‘I was trying to help.’
‘No wonder he came in all sexy and broody.’
Rose snorted. ‘Sexy and broody? More like hot-headed and rude.’
‘Come on, you know I have a thing for uniforms.’ She did. Whenever her husband Jake came back from his tours overseas, it was hard to pry her away from him for the first few days.
‘That’s beside the point.’
‘Is it, though?’ Missy asked. ‘I understand you want to know more about why she jumped and all that, but don’t make enemies along the way. We might not have a lot of crime here, but you shouldn’t try so hard to piss off the Chief of Police.’
‘What’s the big deal? I mean, I’m their key witness.’
‘That doesn’t give you the right to interfere. Let the man do his job.’
‘I want to. I do.’
Missy smirked. ‘Do you?’
‘Not at all,’ Rose said, unable to look Missy in the eyes. ‘But I can’t explain why. There’s something inside of me. I need to know if she’s okay.’
‘But how will that help you? Are you going to contact her family yourself? Give them the rundown of how you watched their little girl jump into the water?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘There isn’t a good ending for anyone in this situation. Leaving it to the professionals is the best thing for everyone. At least until you find something else to obsess over.’
‘I’m not obsessed.’
‘Sure you are,’ she said.
Rose knew she was right, but that didn’t mean she had to agree aloud. Voices from the other room chose for her. ‘I’m going out there.’
Missy didn’t stop her.
They’d been in enough sibling-like arguments that both knew when they were wrong. It was her turn. This time, she’d done wrong by Shane. Instead of getting upset with Missy for calling her out, she wanted more than anything to apologize to him. She’d picked at something within him, stirring up a deep, emotional reaction. From her perspective, he had it all wrong. She wanted to know more about the girl, but not to get in his way. She’d fallen further back from where she wanted to be and feared he’d never speak to her again.
Missy was right. It was time to stop before she stepped on his toes even more and ruined whatever was left of their fledgling relationship. She swallowed through the tightness in her throat. Even her body knew she was making the wrong decision, but she had no choice.