if she actually owned the diner, but she ran it like she did. She was much older than her brother Cyrus with a wide girth and a constant snarl, and she was quick to remind everyone that she was the one in charge in and out of the diner. She expected things to be run a certain way—her way—and she was quick to crawl up your ass if you screwed up. I was just about to rush back upstairs to fuss at the kids when they both came up behind me.
I let out a sigh of relief. “Louise is already waiting for you out back.”
“Of course she is,” Charlie groaned. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a collared shirt with his baseball cap pulled down low over his eyes.
“Hey.” When he turned back to look at me, I smiled and said, “Hope you have a good day.”
He rolled his eyes and sassed, “Whatever.”
Normally he was such a sweet kid, always trying to do what he could to help when things got tough. In the mornings, he just couldn’t help himself, and the grumpy, hormonal teenager came roaring to life. I tried to be understanding. He and his sister had been through so much, so most mornings, I would just ignore it and hope that he’d be better in the afternoon.
I waved goodbye, but he just ignored me and walked out of the back door. Noting her brother’s bad mood, Hadley gave me a sympathetic look and said, “Hope you have a good day, too. See you after school.”
“Okay. Check ya later, squirt.” I smiled and watched as she followed her brother out to meet Louise.
As soon as they were gone, my morning turned into a blur. Customers kept rolling in one after the other, and by the time my break rolled around, I was exhausted. My feet were killing me and the muscles in my legs were throbbing as I took my cup of coffee over to one of the empty booths in the back of the diner and sat down. Thankfully, my spirits were lifted as soon as I counted up my tips for the day. All things considered, I was doing alright. With Detective Brakeman’s help, I’d gotten the kids enrolled into a good school and found us a safe place to stay.
I was still worried that trouble would find us, but after talking with Cyrus, I felt better about the situation. I hadn’t been working at the diner long when he approached me. While Louise seemed tough as nails, Cyrus had a softer side to him. He was a big guy, tall and burly, but he had a sweet smile. He was handsome with his dark hair and coal black eyes, and I liked the little gray bristles in his goatee. Apparently he’d been watching me with the kids and knew something was up, but he didn’t ask questions. He just slipped me a card with a strange phone number on it. He told me to call it if I ever ran into any trouble, day or night. He promised that I was safe there at the diner, and I believed him … at least for the time being.
When my break was over, I went to the kitchen to gather up the day’s trash and headed out back. I walked out into the alley, but stopped in my tracks when I found a man sifting through the dumpster. When he saw me, he stopped moving and just stood there, frozen in place. He was dirty, covered in dark soot from head to toe, and his clothes were all tattered and torn. The temperature had dropped over the past couple of days, and I knew he had to be freezing. He was a mess, but it wasn’t his appearance that got to me. It was the deep sadness in his eyes that tugged at my heart.
The large bags of garbage were getting heavy in my hands, so I took a step forward, doing my best not to scare him as I headed towards the dumpster. Once I got closer, he took a step back and said, “Umm … My name’s Sam. Me and Cyrus go way back … and he said it’d be okay for me to come by after lunch from time to time.”
I’m not sure what it was, but something about the kindness in his voice drew me to him. Without thinking, I smiled and stammered, “No need to rush off. Why don’t you