“No.” This wasn’t going to happen. Working in the café was not the job his sister would take.
“Yes.” Nikki crossed her arms.
“I won’t let you.” Shit, it was the wrong thing to say. It was the exact opposite of what he would need to say to dissuade his sister from taking yet another dead-end job she would eventually get fired ignominiously from, probably because of her deadbeat boyfriend. “I mean, obviously, do whatever the hell you want. But it’s a bad idea.”
How Nikki could make a nod look sarcastic was beyond him.
Molly – who was wearing a dirty T-shirt that was snug around her curves, and jeans that fit her just right – looked like she was getting the gist of his meaning.
“You can’t mean that you don’t want her to work with me?”
“I don’t mean –”
“Why not?”
“There’s not a –”
Nikki nodded, her eyes looking viciously pleased. “Yeah, tell us.”
“You think working in the café isn’t good enough for her?” Molly sounded incredulous.
Colin was a smart man – he knew he should back away slowly, keeping his eyes on them, the way he would from a junkie holding a knife.
But he wasn’t that smart. “I don’t.”
He swore Molly’s spine grew at least an inch taller, and she was still seated. “Excuse me?”
“I can see how that might offend you, but the thing you have to remember is that my sister is smart.” Oh, crap. This could not end well.
“Ah. Okay. A smart person couldn’t possibly work in a little old place like the Golden Spike Café. That must be why I’m doing it.”
Here we go.
“I’m just a singer. And you know us Songbirds, we’re flighty as all get out. Anyone who makes a country record doesn’t have an IQ more than twenty. Never been sure mine even made it to double digits, actually.”
“Molly –”
“Is this the way you always talk to your sister?”
Colin didn’t feel like he was talking to anyone but Molly at this point. “I talk to her the way she needs to be talked to.”
“Well, that’s the most chauvinistic thing I’ve ever heard.”
If a man could produce steam, Colin could feel it rising from the back of his neck. “I feel like maybe this isn’t any of your business.” He turned to look at Nikki, who still had her arms folded tightly, and her lips even more so. “Come by the station when you’re done here.”
In a cheerful, fake voice, Nikki said, “An order? Lovely. No, thanks.”
Fine. They would do it here. Molly opened her mouth to say something else, but he shot her the look he’d given Jimmy the crackhead that time he’d tried to charge at him with the blowtorch. “This is Todd’s fault. That asshole has kept you under his thumb for long enough. You’ve got to get out of there. Come live with me. You can have the spare room, I’ve told you that a million times, but you have to do it this time.”
“This has nothing to do with him. You’re just mad because I’m not getting the job you think I should get. And you know what the truth is, Colin? The truth is this – no one thinks I’m good enough. And they’re right. I’m not.”
“That’s bullshit!”
“Is it? I’m a McMurtry, just like you. I’m never going to be good enough for this town. You might have risen to the top of the sheriff’s department, but that has nothing to do with me. You’re his son, yeah, but I’m her daughter. I had an interview at the Frostee Freeze up the coast today, and I was told I was under-qualified. Sixteen-year-olds aren’t told that. No one expects a damn thing from me, and they’re right not to. The only one who does is you, and you have to get over it. I’m never going to be the person you want me to be.” Nikki said to Molly, “I’ll take the job. We’ll work out the pay later. What time do you want me at the café tomorrow?”
Molly’s eyes were wide. “Eight.”
“See you then.” His sister spun and paced away. She couldn’t be going far – he didn’t see her car parked anywhere close by. Colin didn’t want to watch Todd scream up in his Camaro to pick her up. Colin never had the desire to illegally discharge his weapon as much as he did when Todd’s ride was in his line of sight.
He glanced at Molly. With good reason, she looked confused. “I don’t boss her around like that all the time.” He scrubbed his face with his hand, hard. “God. The damn Frostee Freeze. I have a friend at the golf course, a guy who’s married to one of the instructors who owes me a favor. I could’ve pulled some strings and she knows that. Not that that makes it a sure thing. She’s damn right no one in this town would ever let a McMurtry girl rise any little bit higher than her means.”
“I’m well aware that this is a gold rush town, but are we in eighteen fifty-three now?”
His temper was still frayed, but it didn’t mean he had to be an ass to Molly. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing wrong with working at a café.”
“Well, yeah.”
“It’s just that…well, my dad met my mom in a diner.”
She tugged on the hem of her dirty blue shirt. She was a wreck – sweaty and filthy – and still managed to be adorable. “And?”
“He married her because he thought she was beautiful. He hated her because he thought she was worthless.”
Molly stared. “Oh.”
What the hell was he thinking, opening up to a perfect stranger like this? A hot one, yeah. But still a stranger. “Everyone thinks Nikki’s the same. Beautiful and worthless. Useless.”
“Then they’re all idiots.”
He cracked his neck and grazed his holster with the heel of his right hand. “Yeah, well, those idiots are my job security.”
“If it helps, I have no money and she probably won’t work for me for long.”
“Good.”
Molly blinked. “Yeah, that still sounds condescending. You get a lot of action with that attitude?”
“I do all right.” He pushed out his chest. “I can show you if you want.” It was a rebellious, stupid thing to say. It wasn’t even flirting, it was grandstanding, a rooster move.
“No thanks. I’ll stick with your sister.”
“She can do better.”
Carefully, coolly, Molly’s eyes swept his body, all the way down to his boots and then back up again. “So can I.” She swept into the café, closing the door behind her.
Shit. Colin often had women ticked off at him, for a lot of reasons that were usually purely professional. But not these women.
He stalked back to his patrol car and then, closing the door like he did a million times a day, slammed it on his thumb.
The pain felt earned.