to do for the wedding, desperation is not far off.” Sharon Lynn grinned ruefully and admitted, “And there are any number of people in town who’ll be relieved that someone else is going to help with the cooking in here. I’ve been a bit absentminded lately. It’s given the menu some interesting and not entirely successful twists.”
Patsy grinned back at her as she climbed off the stool and started to join Sharon Lynn behind the counter. “What do you want me to do first?”
“Sit back down and eat some breakfast.” Before Patsy could protest, Sharon Lynn added, “That’s not charity. It’s just common sense. You’ll be dead on your feet in no time unless you’ve eaten something. I think scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast ought to do it,” she decided, going to work before Patsy could argue.
Everyone she’d met so far had been so kind Patsy couldn’t quite believe her luck. Suddenly she regarded Sharon Lynn suspiciously. “Justin didn’t put you up to this, did he?”
“Justin didn’t put her up to what?” the very man in question inquired as he came through the door along with a gust of hot, dry air.
“Hiring me,” Patsy explained, meeting his gaze for an instant.
For once, with his sunglasses tucked in his pocket, Justin’s eyes were visible. She could read the shock registered there. Even though she knew it was justified, it hurt nonetheless.
“Really?” he asked, regarding his cousin warily. “Sharon Lynn, could we talk for a minute?” With a glance in Patsy’s direction, he added pointedly, “In the back.”
“No, we cannot,” Sharon Lynn told him. “I’m busy.” She flipped Patsy’s eggs on the grill, reached for the toast and buttered it, then placed it all on a plate and slid it in front of Patsy. “Enjoy. The crowd will start coming in in about ten minutes.”
Patsy nodded. “I’ll be finished.”
Justin slid onto the stool next to her. She wondered if he meant to intimidate her, but he merely advised, “If you gulp that down, you’ll have indigestion. Sharon Lynn doesn’t go light on the grease.”
She glanced at him. “Worried about my health all of a sudden?”
“Obviously she’s expecting to get a full day’s work out of you. I don’t want to see her cheated.” He regarded her meaningfully.
So, there it was, Patsy thought wearily. The trust he’d promised the day before had barely lasted overnight. She leveled a look straight at him and kept it steady. “I thought you were going to give me an honest chance to start over.”
He sighed. “You’re right,” he conceded grudgingly. “I was.”
“Has something changed since last night?”
“He probably had to answer a lot of questions out at White Pines last night at the family poker game,” Sharon Lynn chimed in cheerfully. “It’s made him edgy.”
“I am not edgy,” he retorted. “I’m just trying to look out for you. Obviously I’m wasting my time. You think you know it all.”
Sharon Lynn grinned at him. “When it comes to Patsy, yes, I do think my judgment’s better than yours. After all, I am the one who predicted...”
Justin scowled. “Never mind.”
Patsy stared at the two of them, trying to guess what the unspoken hints were all about. “Predicted what?”
“Nothing,” Sharon Lynn soothed. “Justin’s just the family worrywart. Why don’t you get back here and fix him some scrambled eggs and a couple of pancakes? I’ll pour him some nice strong black coffee. That ought to improve his mood.”
To Patsy’s surprise, he didn’t argue. Instead he turned his attention to Billy.
“So, young man, what are you up to over there? Has any of that cereal actually made it into your mouth?”
Billy promptly abandoned the mess he was making and reached for Justin. “Up?” he pleaded.
Patsy envisioned all the goo on Billy’s hands being transferred to Justin’s starched uniform shirt and winced. “No, baby. I don’t think so.”
To her amazement, Justin ignored her and accommodated Billy. He scooped him up, apparently oblivious to the mess the baby was bound to make of his clothes. Apparently a whole lot more bonding than she’d been aware of had gone on the day before.
“He’s fine where he is. You don’t have to do that,” she told Justin, eyeing him nervously as Billy patted his cheeks with sticky hands.
“It’s not a problem.”
“But—”
“I said it’s not a problem.”
And that, she concluded, was that.
After that, she didn’t have time to worry about it. As Sharon Lynn had predicted, the counter began to fill up with regulars eager for a little breakfast and a lot of chitchat