Her Scream in the Silence (Carly Moore #2) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,7

shit.

This was something else Jerry had been right about. Max owned the place, but everyone knew Ruth ran it.

“Now!” she barked. Before she turned the corner, she stopped and pointed her finger at me. “And don’t you dare leave this bar!” Then she stomped off.

Max dragged his feet, and it would have been comical if he weren’t a twenty-nine-year-old man, deferring to his hired help. But if I’d learned one thing about Max, it was that he was excellent at handling conflict with or between any customers in his tavern—he’d even whipped out a knife to defend me from a drunken lecher—but he couldn’t stand to make anyone on his staff unhappy. He tried to placate all of us, attempting to ride the middle ground so he didn’t look like he had a favorite—which tended to backfire and make everyone unhappy. Ruth and Tiny had gotten into a spat the week before, but Max had refused to intervene, even though Ruth was clearly in the wrong. (Not that I was stupid enough to tell her.) We’d all walked on eggshells for two days until Ruth had reluctantly apologized, telling Tiny that Franklin had called her out for being a bitch.

In this situation, I understood why Ruth was upset—hell, I was grateful for it—but I had to agree with Max that it wasn’t smart to fire Lula. Better to let her quit or run off again on her own terms. I could make it work until that happened.

I headed to the service counter, and Tiny and I jumped when we started hearing muffled shouts.

“Mom and Pop are arguing again,” Tiny said with a grin, but I could tell he was as unnerved by it as I was. Especially since I was part of their argument.

Ruth emerged ten minutes later, but Max stayed in his office.

“You,” she barked to me as she headed out to the bar. “Come with me.”

I shot Tiny a worried look, but he just shrugged and smiled.

I followed her behind the counter.

“I’m running the bar tonight. Max’ll help once the football crowd shows up. You and Lula’ll wait on the customers through dinner.”

“Okay.”

She frowned. “Lula ain’t me, so you’ll likely be pickin’ up the slack for her.”

“The dinner crowd on Thursday is usually pretty light. I should be okay.”

She smacked her hand on the bar, her eyes blazing with anger. “Why the hell aren’t you pissed off?”

My eyes flew wide. “About Lula?” I shook my head. “Ruth, when I started, the agreement was that I’d only work until she came back. I’m only glad I get to stay on part-time. I’ll take whatever I can get for hours, as long as I’m not hurtin’ you.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she said in frustration. “Worry about yourself.”

“Maybe she won’t stick around,” I said, “but in the meantime, at least you’ll get more help. And maybe a few days off.”

“And a raise,” she said fiercely. “Max is payin’ us minimum wage in addition to our tips.”

I blinked, sure I’d heard wrong. “Are you kidding?”

A grin tugged at her lips as she shrugged. “I tried to get health insurance and paid vacation, but at least I got us a raise.”

A new worry hit me. “Can Max afford that?”

“Don’t you worry about Max,” she said. “He’ll be just fine.” She grabbed two shot glasses, set them on the counter, then filled them with whiskey. Picking up the glasses, she handed one to me and kept hers raised. “To better days.”

I clinked my glass with hers. I could drink to that. “Amen.” We both downed our drinks, and I set the empty shot glass on the counter just as a young couple walked through the door. “Looks like it’s time to get back to work.”

Ruth made a sour face. “What do you know? It’s after five and Lula hasn’t shown up for her shift yet.” She shook her head. “Get used to it. She’s never on time.”

I walked around the counter to greet the customers and tell them about Tiny’s Thursday night special—chili cheese dogs. (We weren’t exactly a classy joint.) As soon as I got their drink orders, a family of five walked in. I invited them to take a seat anywhere they would like. As Lula wasn’t here, then I’d be waiting on everyone until she came back or Ruth came out to help.

We got several more customers, and things were hopping before Lula showed up at six.

“I’m sorry, y’all!” she exclaimed as she hurried out from the back, tugging her loose