A Brevia Beginning

by Michelle Major

  “I’m sorry. You work here?”

  “Unfortunately.” When Scott didn’t reply, Jon continued, “I’ve worked in restaurants most of my life. Trained as a chef up in New York. But I got hurt over in Iraq and, well...ended up back here.”

  Scott had noticed the full kitchen, although from the looks of it, nothing had been cooked there for years. “Riley’s doesn’t serve food.”

  “Used to when my dad had it.” Jon shrugged. “Now I wash glasses, clean up, handyman stuff. Whatever needs doing. You gonna change things around?”

  “I’ve owned the place for less than twenty-four hours. My head is still swimming.” And pounding.

  “That didn’t answer the question.”

  “You’ve still got a job if you want one.”

  “I do.” Jon stuck out his bony hand and Scott shook it. “Nice to meet you, boss.”

  “You, too, Jon.”

  “I got one more question for you.” Jon nodded toward the unused kitchen space. “My apartment’s only an efficiency. I can’t cook anything worth eating. I clock in here at six-thirty most nights. Would you mind if I brought in some supplies and made myself dinner before I started? I’ll keep it clean.”

  “Is that what you’ve been doing?”

  “Nope.” His gaze dropped to the ground. “Luke didn’t want to deal with it or have customers smelling my meals, but—”

  “I don’t care what you do in the kitchen. I’m not using it. We’re having a staff meeting in a few minutes. Be great if you could be there.”

  “Thanks.” Jon shrugged out of his coat. “I’m going to get started moving last night’s empties.”

  Scott nodded, feeling overwhelmed by the task in front of him. He liked the fact that he was moving, at least. It gave him less time to think about what he couldn’t do. Like his real job.

  He heard voices at the front of the building. He glanced out to see four women, including Lexi, come through the entrance. He’d contacted the five waitresses and two male bartenders from the employee records he’d found in the desk. One of the women had just had a baby, which explained Lexi’s hire. Both of the guys had come in right after lunch to go over things. Scott had asked the waitresses to meet just before they opened tonight. He had no idea what he was going to say to them. Should he give a football-huddle pep talk or beg for help? He’d never been an employer. Never had to worry about anyone on the job but himself. That was about to change. He had his first employee meeting to run.

  “Hello, ladies,” he called with more confidence than he felt. “How is everyone doing tonight?”

  All four women stopped and stared at him. He recognized Tina from last night, her gaze still an open invitation. Lexi looked wary, making eye contact with everything except him. The other two women he didn’t recognize. He’d left messages for both of them earlier, so he didn’t know what they thought of the change in ownership.

  He stepped forward. “I’m Scott Callahan, the new owner of Riley’s Bar.”

  “I’m Misty,” the first woman told him. She was older for a bar waitress—early fifties if he had to guess. Her jet-black hair curled on top and was held back by a shiny clip. She couldn’t have been more than five feet tall. It was hard to imagine her hefting a tray of glasses. But that remained to be seen.

  “I appreciate all of you coming in.”

  Tina gave him a slow smile. “I didn’t know you were going to buy the place.”

  Scott returned her smile. “I didn’t know Luke was your boyfriend when you invited me for a drink.”

  She shrugged. “We’re on a break.”

  “I’m single.” The fourth waitress piped up. “My name’s Erin.” The young woman sidled up to him. “I’ve been here awhile, so I can help you with anything you need.” She wrapped her long fingers around his wrist. “Anything.”

  He heard Lexi snort as he unhooked his wrist and stepped away from Erin. He felt like more of a fraud as he tried to think of what they’d want a new boss to say. “I’m going to do my best to make Riley’s Bar the spot for nightlife. I think there are a lot of opportunities for improvement.”

  “You can say that again,” Misty agreed.

  “First and foremost, we need to take care of our customers—both current and potential. I’m going to be making some changes that will help with that.”

  “What kind of changes?”

  “Making this place look a little better for one thing. Nightly specials, more events to get locals and visitors in the door. It’s your job to keep them happy once they’re here. I want good customer service. Be attentive but not overbearing.”

  “Do we let them hit on us?” All the women but Lexi giggled. She looked horrified.

  “Only if you want them to.” He smiled. “But I’d prefer you kept your time here professional.”

  The three experienced waitresses nodded, while Lexi continued to look straight ahead. She seemed as nervous as a deer at a shooting range.

  “What about tips?” Tina asked. “Luke used to take part of what we got because he made the drinks.”

  “He skimmed your tips?” Scott didn’t know why this surprised him. He’d checked the liquor on the shelves earlier and found several bottles watered down. Apparently, Luke hadn’t been cutting corners only on the alcohol.

  “He said it was his fair share,” Misty offered.

  “What’s fair is that you keep the money you make.” Scott stepped behind the counter. “Most nights I’m going to be handling the bar. Max and Jasper, the other bartenders, will fill in as needed.”

  “You know how to mix a decent Tom Collins?” Misty asked.

  Scott nodded. “I can mix almost anything.” He had spent time as a bartender when he’d been younger and had picked up a thing or two from his favorite haunts in D.C.

  They watched him as if they expected more. He’d called them in here, but now had no pearls of wisdom to dispense. Basically, he’d wanted to see what he was working with. Other than Lexi, they all looked competent and at home in the bar.

  He pulled shot glasses down from a shelf and grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. He needed something to take the edge off. Just one. He turned to the man standing in the doorway. “We’re going to have a round to welcome the new owner. Join us?”

  Jon Riley shook his head. “No, boss. I’m five years sober.”

  Scott’s hand paused in pouring. “Sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “It’s fine,” Jon said quietly and disappeared through the door.

  “I don’t want one, either,” Lexi told him when he pushed four of the small glasses forward.

  “You on the wagon, too?” Tina asked.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea to drink while working.”

  Scott felt a hot burst of irritation skim along his spine. He didn’t need to be judged by his little mouse of a waitress. “It’s a special occasion,” he told her. “Maybe if you relax, you won’t have so much trouble keeping the glasses on the tray instead of the floor.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll be fine. Thanks.” With a huff, she followed Jon.

  “Anyone else got a problem?”

  In response, the remaining waitresses each picked up a shot glass. They toasted and downed the whiskey. It burned his throat, but after a moment the familiar warmth uncurled in his stomach.

  “Thanks, boss,” Misty told him and headed toward the back behind Lexi.

  The other two women left the glasses on the bar and after a bit of small talk, meandered out the front door. Lexi and Misty were the two working tonight.

  When he was alone again, Scott cleaned up the glasses and wiped down the top of the bar. He stared for a moment at the whiskey Lexi hadn’t drunk. It seemed a shame to waste perfectly good alcohol, so he quickly downed it before putting the glass in the stack to be washed.<
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  He turned to see Lexi watching him from the side of the bar. “Do you think that’s a good idea?” she asked quietly.

  “Sweetheart, none of this is a good idea.” He returned the bottle of Jack to the shelf. “Luckily, I’m not much one for caring. If it feels right, I go for it.”

  “And drinking on the job feels right to you?” She took a step closer. “It seems to me that’s what got you this bar in the first place.” She pulled the apron in her hands over her head and reached behind her back to tie it, causing her breasts to push against the soft material of her light pink T-shirt.

  Scott sucked in a breath. Hell, the T-shirt wasn’t even formfitting and its conservative crew-neck collar practically covered half her throat. Misty was wearing a low-cut, skintight number that barely held in her ample chest. But it hadn’t had any effect on him. Unlike Lexi’s buttoned-up outfit.

  He walked around the edge of the bar and took her arm, spinning her away from him.

  “What are you doing?” she said with a gasp.

  “Helping you,” he answered and tied her apron strings together. “It seems to me the reason I’m in this mess is because of you and your contract.”

  “You wanted to buy the bar,” she argued.

  “I wanted to pick a fight with Luke,” he countered, resting his hands on her hips, unable to resist circling his thumbs against the place where her shirt hem met the fabric of her black dress slacks. Attorney clothes, clearly made of expensive material. Not the sort of pants someone wore to serve drinks.

  Which reminded him that Lexi wasn’t the sort of woman who should be waitressing in a bar. “If it wasn’t for your ever-helpful legal skills, we would have exchanged some big talk and called it a night. Now I’ve got a business I don’t want in a town I don’t want to live in.”

  She went perfectly still, whether because of his words or his touch, Scott didn’t know. But her voice was breathless when she spoke. “Maybe you should have stopped to think before you agreed to anything. Maybe if your ego wasn’t so big you would have left when he told you to go.”

  Ouch. Scott didn’t want to admit how close to home that hit. The phrase if you’d stopped to think could have saved him so many different times in his life.

  “I never do,” he said quietly. “Stop. Or think.”

  Because then he might remember how lonely he always felt, how afraid he was of needing someone and being left alone, the way both his parents had done when he was a kid.

  “You should try it sometime,” she said, her voice just a whisper.

  “What’s done is done.” He pulled her closer to him and whispered against her ear, “It’s easier to do what people expected of me—which isn’t much.”

  * * *

  Lexi felt her heart squeeze tight. It was so quiet in the bar at the moment. She was surrounded by Scott, the warmth of his chest against her back and his spicy, soapy scent mingling with the tangy smell of liquor on his breath.

  That was what did it, brought her back to her right mind. The alcohol was the only explanation for why he seemed to want to touch her as much as she wanted to be touched by him.

  She drove her elbow back, surprised at how quickly he moved to block the shot. “You’re messing with me—”

  She stopped when the front door opened and half a dozen men walked through. One called out, “There’s an under-new-management sign in the window. What’s that about?”

  Another gave a long whistle. “Hey, there’s a flat screen now. Is that new?”

  “I’ll be watching you tonight,” Scott whispered to her. “Just remember that.”

  Her mouth went dry as he turned away.

  “Put it up today, boys,” he answered. “Got cable set up, too. Have a seat and we’ll find a game to watch.”

  A round of cheers went up and the men came over to shake Scott’s hand. They moved toward a table, but he pointed to the other side of the room. “You’re going to have a better view over there, fellows.”

  He’d moved them from her section to Misty’s, but only smiled as Lexi glared at him.

  She spilled one glass the entire night, a huge improvement from her first shift. She didn’t have the natural gift of gab that Misty did, flirting and making small talk with the customers. But Lexi did her best to keep up, making sure she got every order right and moving as quickly as her legs could carry her.

  She was getting used to the noise and the smell of the bar, the customers who got more boisterous as the night wore on. Lexi didn’t have a lot of experience with boisterous. Her father’s idea of out of control was playing opera music instead of something mellower during dinner. Even in college, Lexi had stayed away from bars, worried there was something in her, some sort of predisposition for addiction, like her biological mother had had.

  Her dad had told her in great detail about how she would have to overcome the deficiencies in her gene pool throughout her life. He’d made her believe that if she got too close to the wild life that had killed her mother, she might end up down that same dark path. She had only a few snippets of memory of her birth mom. The scent of her musky perfume and being left alone in their small apartment for long periods of time. But she was curious about “the other side of life,” as her dad called it.

  Being in Riley’s Bar, serving customers, was a revelation to Lexi. She didn’t really have a desire to drink, but the energy from the people around her made her feel more alive than she ever had.

  Scott took a shot with another customer. She didn’t know how much he’d had tonight and it wasn’t any of her business. He didn’t seem wasted, although he hadn’t last night, either. She still knew he was trouble. He tempted her to be different than the person she’d worked so hard to become. The way he made her feel could be dangerous to her very soul. She wanted an adventure, but how far was she willing to go to get a real one?

  The bar emptied soon after the football game was over, which she figured was normal. She took off her apron and hung it in the back hall, counting the money from the front pocket. She’d made twenty dollars in tips. Not a lot, but the cash meant more to her than any paycheck she’d ever received from her father’s firm.

  “You did better tonight.”

  She turned to see Jon Riley in the doorway that led to the unused kitchen. “I practiced carrying drinks around all day,” she said with a grin.

  “It worked.” He returned her smile. “You’re not a natural but you’ll get there.”

  “My mom was a waitress her whole life,” Lexi said, then wondered why she’d shared that.

  “There’s worse ways to make a living.”

  She thought about her father and the underhanded legal deals he’d gotten into the habit of arranging to keep his firm on top. Maybe that was a type of addiction in its own right. She’d never made a connection between her adoptive father and her biological mother, and the thought made her skin crawl the tiniest bit.

  “She was an alcoholic,” Lexi blurted. “Lost custody of me when I was six. Working in bars killed her.”

  Jon shook his head. “The booze killed her. You’re not like that.”

  “How do you know?” Lexi asked, suddenly needing reassurance from this virtual stranger.

  “I’ve been down that road,” he said simply. “I can recognize a person battling demons. Sometimes it’s easier to drown yourself than work on what’s really wrong.”

  She heard Misty’s laughter ring out from the front of the bar, followed by the deep tone of Scott’s voice.

  Jon jerked his head toward the sound. “That boy has a war waging inside him. He’s got a good heart but he’s going to have to do some digging to find it again.”

  “Can someone like him be helped?”

  The man shrugged. “Maybe. But they’ve got to want it. And you’ve got to risk that if they don’t, you’re gonna be
real hurt trying for ’em.”

  She thought again about her mother, wondered what her demons had been and if anyone had tried to help her.

  The door to the front of the bar swung open and Misty’s head popped through. “Scott poured an extra glass of wine. Want to join me for a drink?”

  Lexi turned her head. “I think...” She paused and glanced back over her shoulder. Jon had disappeared into the kitchen again. “I’m going to head home now.”

  Misty shrugged. “Your call. Nice work tonight. Scott thinks you’re too slow but I could see you busting your hump the whole time.”

  Lexi felt color rise to her cheeks. Scott thought she was too slow. She’d been worrying about how to help him, and he’d been talking trash about her. She swallowed against the embarrassment rising in her throat. “Have a good night, Misty,” she said. Grabbing her purse from the hook, she headed for the back door.

  She wrapped her arms around herself against the cool night air. Fall temperatures were dipping, even here in the South. She hurried to her car, and once back in her apartment, slipped off her shoes. Her feet ached, her shoulders were sore. Most of her body hurt from using muscles she’d never dealt with before. She wore heels as an attorney but never spent hours standing.

  Even though it was late, she ran a bath and slipped into the warm water, letting it soak away some of her aches and pains. She liked to be clean. That was one thing she did remember from the time before Robert Preston had adopted her. She’d spent a lot of time dirty.

  The bathtub in Julia’s apartment might not be large or fancy like the deep soaker she’d left behind, but it did the trick. By the time she put on her soft cotton pajamas, she felt relaxed again.

  She’d padded to the kitchen for a glass of water before bed when she heard the soft knock on the door. This time she didn’t worry that it might be her father. From the way her stomach dipped, she knew who was waiting on the other side.

  Chapter Four

  “It’s late, Scott.” She hated that her voice sounded breathless. “What do you want?”