by R A Wallace
She’d kept her clients in Pittsburgh thinking that she would need the work to supplement her overall income. Over the years, her client-base from Teaberry and the immediate surrounding areas had grown. Perhaps, now that she was in her early forties, she was at a point where she could be more selective with her time.
Towel drying her hair after the shower, she stood at her closet door and sighed. Now she just needed to figure out what to wear. After a day in pantyhose and a skirt suit, she wanted nothing more to do with business attire. She reached for some cargo pants and a comfortable shirt, debating which shoes to wear. If she was going to be on her feet all night, she wanted to be comfortable.
***
Doug shot Jim a look across the bar room and the two men shared a smile. Business at the Station Pub & Grill had been steady all day and the early dinner crowd was going strong. Doug scanned the restaurant to make sure everyone was receiving prompt service then walked over to join his partner behind the bar.
“You sure you got this?” Jim asked.
“I’d rather watch the floor than interview the new hires,” Doug said honestly.
He could take the lead on the interviews for their new catering service, but he was happy to let Jim do it. Besides, he knew Jennifer was due in anytime. She could handle the bar better than anyone he’d ever seen and that would free Doug up to go back out on the floor.
Jim looked up when a couple of men approached the bar. He mentally gave both applicants points for showing up on time. One of the men was around five eight, blond, and looked to be in his twenties. The other was around six feet or so, his hair was mostly gray, and Jim guessed his age to be somewhere in the fifties. The blond reached the bar first and gave Jim and Doug a genial smile.
“Good afternoon,” Tyler said.
Behind him, the other man gave a nod, took a quick look around the bar, then focused his attention on Jim and Doug.
Based on their applications, Jim knew the younger man had more experience with food trucks, having spent the last decade or more working county fairs and similar venues.
“Tyler Jankowicz?” Jim asked the blond. He received a quick “Yes, sir” for a response. Jim looked at the other man. Steady gray eyes returned his gaze. “That makes you Alvin Drexler?”
“It does,” Alvin agreed.
“I’m going to talk with Tyler for a bit first, but I’ll be with you shortly.” Jim turned to Doug. “Doug can get you a drink while you wait.” Jim motioned for Tyler to follow him back to his office.
Doug watched the two men walk away. They passed Jennifer as she ducked behind the bar and walked over to join Doug.
“Jennifer, glad you’re here. This is Alvin. He’s going to be interviewing with Jim next. Can you get him whatever he’s drinking? I’ll go check on the restaurant side and be back to help you.” Doug smiled warmly at the lawyer that had been spending a lot of time with his partner lately. He’d come to enjoy her company and steady demeanor. No matter how busy they got, Jennifer was the calm in the storm.
Jennifer delivered the cola that Alvin asked for and spoke to him often in between filling other drink orders. Soon after, Jim returned and Alvin followed him into the back room. As promised, Doug rejoined her behind the bar and began handling some of the orders.
“Those guys are for the new catering truck?” Jennifer asked Doug during a brief lull.
“Yeah, we have our first event lined up for it. One of the Swindell twins is having an engagement party out at their farm,” Doug said as he scanned the room.
“I heard about that. Good for you guys. I’m sure it will be a great new revenue source for the restaurant.” Jennifer saw someone flagging her at the end of the bar and went to wait on them. When she was done, she found Jim had returned to the bar and Doug had gone back out on the floor.
“All done with the interviews?” Jennifer asked.
“Yeah, looks like we’ve got two new employees. Thanks again for helping with the paperwork on that.” Jim looked down at the attractive woman next to him and wondered again why she was giving up her evenings to help him at the bar.
“Every now and then the law degree comes in handy,” Jennifer grinned.
“Seriously, are you sure you want to spend another Friday night at a noisy bar?” His concern showed on his face.
“Are you planning to be here?” Jennifer looked directly in his eyes. She watched him nod as she held his gaze. “Well, there you have it then.”
“We should probably talk about us and our future sometime soon,” Jim said as he heard someone call his name behind him.
“Looking forward to it,” Jennifer replied as someone else flagged her.
***
Dan Parker was glad he’d used the new ordering app as soon as he pulled into the parking lot of the Station Pub & Grill. The place was packed. He walked into the restaurant and saw several people he knew. To most, he just waved or gave a polite nod. It looked like one table hadn’t yet received their dinners, so he walked over to speak with them.
“Tom. Hello all,” Dan said to Caro, Barbara, and Matthias before turning back to Tom. “We’ll see you tomorrow, right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it. Ethan’s on board also.” Tom turned back to the others. “It’s cider day tomorrow. We’re doing the first run of the season.”
“Oh, I’ve never seen that done.” Caro looked up at Dan and clasped her hands together below her chin. “Can you use another pair of hands?”
Dan smiled warmly at the woman who had been a guest of Megan’s bed and breakfast when she’d first met Tom. “We would love to have you.” He looked at Barbara and Matthias to include them. “If you’re in the area and just want to see how it’s done, stop by.”
Matthias looked over at Barbara with raised eyebrows. His wife nodded. “We’d love to. I’ve never seen it done either,” Matthias said.
Dan glanced at the time on his phone. “I’d better let you go. I need to pick up our food and get home. Megan has been making applesauce all day and freezing it. I didn’t want her to cook dinner on top of all of the other work so I offered to pick up dinner.”
After paying for his food, Dan headed out the door. Caitlyn was on her way in and held the door open for him.
“Have fun tomorrow,” Caitlyn said with a smile. She saw Doug working the floor in the restaurant, so she went into the bar to wait until he was free. Jennifer was working the bar and Jim was taking orders from one of the booths on the bar side.
Caitlyn climbed up onto a stool and smiled gratefully when Jennifer slid a cold glass of white wine in front of her. “Hey, how’s it going tonight?”
“Great crowd so far,” Jennifer said before dashing to the other end of the bar to take an order.
Caitlyn felt a presence behind her and didn’t have to turn to know who it was. Doug looped one arm around her shoulders and leaned in to plant a kiss on her temple. She noticed that he made a habit of doing things like that whenever she sat in the bar. She decided very early on that she liked it.
“I hear you have a good crowd tonight,” Caitlyn said as Doug easily slid onto the stool next to her.
“We do at that,” Doug agreed. “We also hired two new guys to handle the catering truck.”
“Congrats. I’m sure that will take off in no time.” Caitlyn watched Jennifer effortlessly dealing with multiple orders simultaneously.
“We already have our first booking. The Swindell engagement party,” Doug said.
“We’re invited to that.” Caitlyn turned to look at Doug. “I know that you’ll be busy at the restaurant given that it’s a weekend. I figured you wouldn’t be able to juggle everything and a party on top of it.”
“Jim and I have been talking a lot about that actually. You know, the fact that we haven’t had a lot of free time. With the success of the restaurant, we’ve already both stepped away from volunteering at the fire department. We still support them with donations from our proceeds but we both wanted to head in different directions.” Doug looked
around the restaurant. “But the business is still growing, and we need to make some more decisions.”
“My mom said she’d put in an appearance with me,” Caitlyn said as she watched her mother enter the restaurant with Ross close behind her.
“Good. You can check out how the catering guys are doing.” Doug turned and followed her gaze. “Are you going to join them tonight?”
Caitlyn shook her head and smiled. “They deserve some quiet time together.”
Doug’s eyes locked onto hers. “We need some of that too.”
Chapter Three
The early morning dawned cool, but the day promised to heat up quickly. Jax Anderson rinsed his breakfast dish in the sink and grabbed his lunch cooler from the fridge. They planned to be out of town for some of their jobs today. They agreed to bring lunch rather than try to buy it in town. He locked his front door behind him then climbed into his truck and started it up. He didn’t want to sit in his driveway with the truck engine idling too long. It was still pretty early on a Saturday morning and he didn’t want to disturb his neighbors any more than he had to.
After checking all of his mirrors, he backed out of his drive and stopped at the house next door knowing that Trina was usually ready early. True to form, Trina was out of her front door a short moment later. She opened the rear cab door and put her own lunch box in, then opened the front passenger door and climbed in. She flashed Jax a sleepy smile.
“Thanks for picking me up,” Trina said.
“Not awake yet?” Jax pulled away from her house.
“Jasmine had trouble sleeping last night.” Trina leaned back in her seat, grateful she didn’t have to drive.
Jax glanced over at Trina. “Does that happen often?” Other than the short visits he’d been having with two year old Jasmine, he’d never actually spent any real time with children. Everything he was learning, and he was learning a lot, was all new. Having them as neighbors had concerned Jax at first given his work relationship with Trina.
But now he realized that he felt the exact opposite. When Trina wasn’t working at the feed store with Dan in town or working on her online classes, she was working with Jax. After work, he either stopped over at their place or they would sometimes come over to his place. As a result, they often spent a lot of their time together.
Trina shrugged. “Usually she’s a good sleeper. It’s not really a problem. It just happens sometimes. There are other times when she sleeps a lot, and absolutely nothing could wake her.”
Jax thought that would royally freak him out. “What do you mean? Why is that?”
Trina looked over at him and grinned. “It isn’t a bad thing. Just sometimes, like, she might be having a growth spurt. Her body needs more sleep.”
Jax nodded. That made sense. “Okay, that doesn’t sound bad.”
“It’s not, but it would be helpful if it would line up with when I have big assignments due in my classes.” Trina watched the number of houses thin as they wound their way out of town.
“Yeah, I don’t know how you do everything,” Jax said. He honestly didn’t. “Are you sure you’re going to want to work with us in the winter?” He and Seth had been lining up a lot of snow removal jobs. Many would only require a plow on the front of Jax and Seth’s trucks, but others included clearing walkways and working with a shovel.
“If you have enough work to keep me busy, I’m in. I’m taking more classes now that the fall semester has begun than I was in the summer, but I’m still not taking a full load. I do need the work, so please keep me in mind anytime you can use an extra pair of hands,” Trina said.
“With snow removal, it’ll be your hands and your back.” Jax was only half joking.
“It’ll all work out in the end. So, where are we headed today?” Trina asked.
“We have Cy Douglass’s place, as usual.” They didn’t do anything with his fields, just the lawn around his house. Cy said he didn’t have the patience for yard maintenance anymore and after sitting on his tractor all day in his fields, he wasn’t going to climb onto a lawn tractor.
“He’s such a nice man,” Trina said.
Jax nodded in agreement as he made a turn onto another country road. “We need to do the dentist’s office and the carpet place over on Laurel Lane. There are the houses out on Eagle Lake Drive. And we’re doing the Swindell place. I guess they’re having a party of some sort tomorrow. We’ll do them after the Douglass place since we’re already out this far and they want to get the rental tents set up today.”
The Swindell twins didn’t want to worry about their lawn and had been one of the first people to hire Jax when he’d first started his business. He assumed that having their shop in the same building as Anderson Florist may have helped. Jax was all for any kind of business networking he could get to help build his company.
“Yeah, I heard about that. One of the twins is getting married.” Trina sat up in her seat when Jax pulled into the long drive of the Douglass farm.
“I never could keep them straight,” Jax admitted as he parked the truck. “Seth is meeting us at the Swindell place. He had another job to do first that he said he could handle on his own.”
“Okay, let’s get this done.” Trina opened the door and hopped down. She headed for the weed whacker, pulling on her protective gear as she went.
Jax offloaded the stand-on mower and took off. He was finished and loading the mower back on when Cy pulled into the driveway. He drove his truck around Jax to get out of his way and parked.
“Everything looks great,” Cy said as he walked toward Jax.
“You have a nice place.” Jax saw Trina walking back to the truck. “Looks like we’re ready to head over to the Swindell place now.”
“You handle their place too?” Cy asked with a frown. “You ever meet that lowlife she’s engaged to?”
Jax wasn’t sure which of the twins was engaged but obviously Cy didn’t agree with her choice. “No, sir.”
“Jill shouldn’t trust the likes of him.” Cy shook his head but stopped talking when Trina reached them.
“Hello, Mr. Douglass,” Trina said cheerfully as she pulled off her protective eye gear and stowed the weed whacker in the trailer.
“Good to see you, as always,” Cy said with a wave as he turned to walk to his house.
Jax shrugged and made sure their gear was tied down before hopping into the truck.
***
Seth arrived at the Swindell farm shortly after Jax. He had to negotiate around a vehicle exiting the driveway when he pulled in. He parked behind Jax to keep his truck out of the way. The three got out of their vehicles and quickly got to work. They wanted to get done so they didn’t interfere with the rest of the party preparations.
Trina looked out across the fields. The Swindell farm was even nicer than the Douglass place. The twins kept the house looking really nice, but they didn’t work the fields themselves. One of the twins had told Trina previously that they rented the land out to another farmer. The farmer had been using the fields for hay this year. Trina could see all the way across the fields to the old silos at the next farm over. There were large round bales covered in plastic dotting the Swindell fields.
Trina grabbed the weed whacker off the trailer and pulled on her protective gear. She wanted to do an especially good job today. If the twins were having a party, Trina was sure they wanted the place to look extra nice. She stopped at a flower bed and pulled a few weeds before firing up the weed whacker. She’d get everything done that she could with that, then maybe go back and trim some of the bushes around the house.
Chapter Four
The activity on the sidewalk in front of Tea & Thyme went unnoticed by its owner. Janice stared out the front window of the shop, unseeing, her mind turned inward. She’d left her twin at home early this morning and driven in to work on her own. Jill said that she might stop by the shop early this morning, but she was planning to be at the farm much of the rest of the day overseeing the preparations for the party.
The argument they’d had this morning was the same one they’d been having ever since Blake had first cast a shadow on their doorstep. Janice didn’t trust him at all. Jill trusted him completely. For the first time in their lives, Janice felt the fabric of her life being torn into pieces.
They had done absolutely everything together since birth. Now, that would all be gone. Janice knew that she could never live in the same house with Blake. Where would she go? She’d have to get her own place. She’d never lived on her own before.
The bells on the front door chimed, causing Janice to startle. The man who entered offered her an apologetic smile. He looked to be around her age and he was tall.
Janice plastered on a professional smile. “Welcome to Tea & Thyme. Can I help you?”
Alvin quickly cast a glance around the store then returned the smile as he approached the counter. “I’ve heard good things about your energy drinks. I could use some energy right now.”
Janice watched the laugh lines around his gray eyes become more pronounced with his friendly smile. She felt her own smile warm. “You’re in luck. We’re offering a special recipe today. Would you like to try it?”
Alvin watched the strawberry blonde head toward an area behind the long counter where drinks were obviously made and dispensed. He moved along the other side to stand in front of her and leaned against the counter. There were a couple of stools, but he ignored them.
“Sounds great,” Alvin said. He watched her add the ingredients to a blender before turning it on for a moment. She poured the colorful concoction into a to-go cup and passed it over to him.
“Try this. It’s on the house since it’s your first one. If you don’t like it, I can make you another flavor.” Janice watched the man carefully. She was proud of her ideas for energy drinks and took their development seriously, often researching and experimenting with each new recipe for months.
