He sighed again. “I already told her to change back into her sneakers, even if they do look silly.”
“You mean sillier than a grandmother showing enough cleavage to make a saint drool and enough leg to make a thoroughbred envious?”
He held up his hand. “Okay. Okay. The heels were a bad idea, and maybe the skirts are a bit short.” He shrugged. “But hey, the rest of my new theme seems to be a hit. The kids really like the eye patches and swords I’ve been handing out, and I think we burned up a blender tonight making Jolly Roger Zingers.”
He leaned over the counter toward her. “And I saw you prodding Fiona along a couple of times when she got chatty with the customers. Don’t. They like talking to her, and she’s giving the place a homey, friendly feel.”
“Did you also see that guy try to slip a twenty-dollar bill in her apron pocket?”
Dave straightened with a frown. “I thought she handled that quite well. Unlike your little stunt last month, she didn’t accidentallydump his drink over his head. She merely waggled her finger at him and scampered away.”
“My guy wasn’t trying to stuff money in my apron.”
Dave sighed louder and harder. “Tell me again why you work here?”
Camry tapped her chin with her finger. “Gee, let me think. Maybe because on Columbus Day they rolled up the sidewalks and closed the town when the tourists left?”
“Portland’s just down the road.”
“I prefer the peace and quiet of this place.”
“That’s right, Dr.MacKeage, I forgot you came here from Florida.” He snorted. “The problem with you brainy types is that you think we working stiffs don’t know how to run our own businesses.”
Camry gaped at him. “I am not an academic snob. The only reason you even know I hold a doctorate is because your stupid employment application asked me to list all my schooling.”
“To which you had to add an entire page for all your degrees.” He suddenly stared over her shoulder for several seconds, then glanced down the bar. “Betty,” he said, motioning the bartender closer. “No more drinks for booth nine, okay? All four of those guys have had enough. And if they give Wanda any trouble, you have her come see me and I’ll handle them.”
“Okay, Dave,” Betty said, returning to the blender she’d left running.
“And your point is?” Cam asked Dave the minute she had his attention again.
“What were we talking about?”
“I believe you had just implied I’m a snob.”
“Oh, come on, MacKeage,” he said with a sudden smile. “You need to lighten up. It doesn’t look good in front of the staff when you give the boss grief. And I don’t want to have to fire you, because”—he leaned closer—”I actually like you,” he whispered, his smile widening as he straightened back up. “You sort of remind me of a Jack Russell terrier I used to have that was always growling at me, as if she needed a good fight to keep herself entertained.”
“I remind you of your dog?”
“I loved that dog, God rest Pip’s soul,” he said with a laugh. He arched his bushy eyebrows at her. “You want to know what finally settled her down?”
“Not really.”
“I got her a boyfriend, which in turn got her a litter of babies. Mellowed my little darling right out, those pups did.”
Cam just gaped at him.
“So the moral of this little story,” he had the audacity to continue, “is that instead of scowling at your customers, maybe you should trying smiling at them.”
She snapped her mouth shut and scowled at him.
He sighed. “You’ve been living in Go Back Cove and eating here for what . . . seven or eight months? And working for me for two? And in all that time, I have never once seen you with a date.”
“Maybe I’m gay,” she snapped.
Dave chuckled. “Nope. It’s not the girls I see you watching, it’s the men. Oh, you’re interested, all right. You’re just too scared to actually play with the big boys.”
Camry made a point of visually searching the wall behind the counter, even going on tiptoe to look down the length of the back wall of the bar.
“What are you looking for?”
“Your degree in psychology.”
His laughter came straight from the belly as he took the slip and money from a customer who’d walked up to pay his bill. “My degree is from the school of hard knocks, kiddo, and it took me thirty years of tending bar to earn it.” He hit some buttons on the register, then shot her a wink. “You watch Fiona working the room tonight, Cam, and maybe you’ll learn something. That girl’s got a gift for making people smile. How was your dining experience?” he asked the man, handing him his change.
“Delightful,” the customer said, glancing over at Camry—specifically at her chest. “I’ve heard the food here is good, but I especially like the uniforms.” He cleared his throat. “Except maybe they don’t work so well on all your waitresses.” He leaned closer to Dave and lowered his voice so Camry wouldn’t hear.
But of course she did.
“That older waitress,” he continued in a whisper. “I kept expecting the laces on her corset to pop and maim someone, and she tripped and nearly spilled beer on me.”
“We’re rethinking the uniforms.”
“Or you could just hire younger waitresses,” the lech suggested.
“Doris is the prettiest woman here,” Camry growled at him. “And the best damn waitress we have!”
The man stepped away in alarm, and all but ran for the door.
Dave sighed again. “Will you lighten up?”
“Will you get real?” she said, spinning away and heading for the kitchen.
Honest to God, she really didn’t know why she worked here.
Other than that it might be entertaining.
And she was notlike some stupid old Jack Russell terrier!
She was a happyperson, dammit, right down to her blistered toes.
Chapter Five
“Good Lord, what’s wrong?” Fiona asked, pushing her busing cart into the kitchen and stopping beside Camry.
“What? Nothing. Why?”
“Because you look like you want to punch someone.”
Camry took a deep breath—at least as deep as her stupid corset would allow—and forcibly shook off her foul mood. “Sorry. I was just wondering why I work here.”
“Because you love people.”
“I do?”
“Of course you do, silly,” Fiona said with a laugh, giving her a playful punch on the arm. “You spend all week with a bunch of dogs, so you need to work here on the weekends to remind yourself that you’re human.”
“My dogs are better behaved than some of the customers.”
“You’d be bored to tears if you spent all your time around well-behaved people. That’s what I like best about you, Cam. You say what you think, and you back up what you say with action.”
“I do?”
“Sure. Take me, for instance. I know you’ve been wanting to browbeat my name out of me so you can call my parents, but you’ve been treating me like an adult even though I’m not one. That’s why you can’t bring yourself to go through my backpack to find my ID.”
“How do you know I haven’t?”
“Because I’m still here, aren’t I? And you know why? Because I remind you of yourselfwhen you were my age, and that’s why you’re so determined that I’ll call my parents on my own.”
Camry shot her a lopsided grin. “Did you say you were sixteen, or sixty?”
“MacKeage! Your order for table ten is getting cold,” the cook shouted from the serving station. “Where in hell’s your pager? I’ve been beeping you for ten minutes.”