her chair, fidgeting with the end of her ponytail.
I took a beat to scan her resume. There wasn’t much to it. It didn’t look like the chick had ever actually held down a real job. She graduated from some rich-ass private high school in Connecticut two years ago.
Damn. She was young. Nineteen or twenty, tops.
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, Shannon’s observations were dead on. This girl would get clobbered after one busy night at the bar.
I sat down across from her. Sydney made a tiny gasp that sent the blood revving through my veins.
“Um ... hi. Shannon said I was going to meet with Mr. Reddick?”
I finished reading her resume and set it down on the rest of the papers Shannon had already made her fill out.
“He’s tied up right now. It’s just you and me.”
“Oh,” she smiled. “That’s fine. I just ... I really wanted to thank you, all of you, for giving me a chance.”
I rested my elbows on the table. My leather vest creaked as I shifted my weight. I felt like this huge, hulking thing compared to her. A monster, maybe. A beast. Sydney couldn’t have weighed much more than a hundred pounds.
“So,” I said. “Why?”
“Why what?”
I picked up her resume. “Why this town? Why this club? You’re slumming. What are you, nineteen?”
“Twenty,” she answered quickly.
“So you can’t even work behind the bar,” I said.
“But I can serve drinks,” she said. “And I’ll be twenty-one in six months.”
I let out a laugh. “If you last that long.”
Goddamn. Twenty. It was like this girl and I were different species. If she knew where I’d been at her age, I figured she’d cry or run screaming from the room.
Maybe she should.
As soon as I thought about it, something came over me. She didn’t belong here. She could get hurt. And I found myself angry that she got under my skin enough that I wanted to protect her.
“So,” I said. “What’d you do?”
“What do you mean?”
I tossed her resume back at her. “Did you flunk out of college? Did they find out Daddy’s little scheme to put you on the field hockey team or whatever was all a lie? Or did they find out some geek took your SATs for you?”
Her jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”
“Why are you here?” I asked again.
“I don’t know that that’s any of your business,” she said.
“Yeah? You’re sitting here in my actual business asking to come work for me. That makes everything about you fair game. So, I’ll ask one more time. Why are you here in Lincolnshire?”
Her bottom lip quivered. Then she took a breath and steeled herself against the onslaught of my inquisition.
“You think you have me all figured out. You think that piece of paper defines me.”
I smiled. “Well, it’s your piece of paper.”
“My family is rich. Very rich. I’m not ashamed of that. But I’m not. I’m here on my own. I already told you I came to work with my uncle. To learn from him. To ... start afresh.”
I don’t know what it was, but something about that ignited an even deeper fury from me. What could this girl possibly have to run away from?
“I just want a chance to prove myself,” she said. “Because you’re right. I’ve been spoiled as much as you think I have.”
“I’m not here to judge you,” I said.
“Aren’t you? Like you said. This is your business. I know I don’t look like the other girls you have working here. I’m not from here. And I’ve never worked in a bar before. But I’m not afraid of it. I’m a fast learner. And I can work hard.”
“Do you have a way to get here?” I asked. I’d only ever seen her driving her uncle’s car.
It seemed like a legitimate and straightforward question. But Sydney’s color drained. “I ... uh ... I had a rental car ... but ... that’s going to fall through. I can figure something out though. I’ll never miss a shift. I’ll be punctual.”
“Shannon’s a tough girl to impress,” I said. “She’ll try to break you down. She means well, and she’s the best waitress we’ve ever had. If you do what she says and stay in her good graces, you’ll be fine.”
I looked back down at her resume. “But I gotta level with you, you should have just left this thing at home.”
Sydney slid off her stool. Her fingers shook as she picked up the paper. She folded it and put it in her purse.
There was