“So you need a room for the night?” he asked.

“Probably several nights. He said it would take a few days.”

“You must have done a number on it.”

Standing across from him, I leaned into the counter. “I don’t have much luck with vehicles.”

“Know your strengths and your weaknesses,” a woman said behind me with a country twang. “That’s what I always say.”

I turned to see a waitress who looked to be in her mid-thirties, carrying a platter topped with several plates of food. She was wearing jeans and a dark blue scoop neck T-shirt that read Max’s Tavern. Her short blonde hair was pulled into two tiny pigtails at the back of her head, and she was pretty even with little make-up.

I shot her a grin and she grinned back.

“I like her, Max,” she said. “Don’t you scare her away.”

Max laughed. “She’s renting a room across the street.”

The woman shifted her attention to the family in the booth as she set down the plates one by one. When she returned to us, she propped a hand on her hip. “Like I said, don’t be runnin’ her off.”

I cringed. “That bad?”

“Are you really stayin’ overnight?” She looked me up and down. “You’re not the Alpine Inn’s typical client.”

Oh crap. What did that mean? Was it a rent-by-the-hour kind of place? “I’m scared to ask what the typical client is.”

“Don’t you listen to her,” Max said, picking up a rag behind the counter and wiping down the bar top. “I’ll put you on the end where there’s not much action. It’ll be quiet as a graveyard.”

The waitress leveled her gaze on him.

“What?” Max said, holding his arms out from his sides. “For what it’s worth, Ruth, I don’t have any other guests tonight besides Big Joe and Jerry, so Ms.…” He gave me an expectant look, waiting for me to offer my name.

“Carly,” I said cautiously.

“So Ms. Carly,” Max said with a grin, “will have plenty of quiet and privacy.”

“Uh-huh,” Ruth said. She turned to me with resignation in her eyes. “I’ll have Franklin bring up a set of sheets when he meets me for my break.”

“Hey now!” Max protested. “Don’t go besmirching my establishment!”

“When was the last time you ordered new sheets for the dump you call a motel?” Ruth asked, both hands planted on her hips again.

His back straightened. “That’s neither here nor there.”

The woman turned to me with a tight grin. “And that’s why I’m havin’ my man bring you a set of sheets. Don’t you worry. I replaced all my sheets a couple of months ago when we went to Costco down in Knoxville. Four-hundred-thread-count sheets and they feel as smoooooth as silk,” she said, her drawl becoming more pronounced on the last few words.” She shot Max a glare. “Damn cheapskate’s too tight to buy good quality sheets.”

“Ruth,” Max said with a sigh, “you’re gonna make her think my place isn’t good enough for her.”

“Maybe that’s because it’s not,” she snapped back.

“I’m kind of stuck here,” I admitted. “My car broke down, and Wyatt says the repair might take a few days.” Then before I could chicken out, I added, “Say, if you know of anyone needing temporary help while I’m here, I’m available.”

Ruth leaned her arm on the bar top and leveled her gaze with Max. “We’re down a waitress what with Lula running off to Chattanooga with that trucker. You should hire Carly until she comes back.”

“I ain’t decided if I’m gonna let Lula come back this time,” Max grumbled. “I’m tired of her taking off whenever she damn well feels like it then popping back in as if nothing happened.”

“Who do you think you’re foolin’?” Ruth said with a disgusted shake of her head. “This ain’t the first time she’s run off, and it surely won’t be the last. You’ll take her back, just like you always do.”

I decided to jump in before they really started arguing. “I’m not looking for anything permanent, but I can definitely fill in until I leave or Lula comes back. I waitressed back when I was in—” I shut myself down before I could get out the word college. The old me had a master’s degree in elementary education. Charlene Moore had barely graduated high school. The thought provoked another wave of unexpected grief. I loved teaching, but the credentials would have been too difficult to fake. The thought of going back to school for another five or six years to study something I already knew…

I could cry later. Right now I had to finish the statement I’d left hanging before my new acquaintances regarded me with the same suspicion I’d seen in Wyatt’s eyes. Of course, it didn’t matter much if they thought I was strange. In a few days, this place would be in my rearview mirror.

Make the best of it, Carly. You need the money.

“I used to waitress back when I was in Michigan, before I moved to Atlanta.” Too much backstory. It makes you look desperate. “In any case,” I said, sounding a little too chipper, even to my ears. “I can fill in until you take Lula back. If you take her back.”

He groaned. “Ruth’s right. I take that fool-headed girl back every time, but one of these days, enough will be enough.”

“Well, it won’t be anytime soon,” Ruth said, then looked me up and down. “The jeans’ll do, and I’ll get you a T-shirt from the back. How soon can you start?”

“I can start right now,” I said in shock. This had been way too easy.

“Then come on,” she said, gesturing for me to follow her into the back. “Let’s get you ready for the Monday night rush.”

I followed her, tugging my worthless suitcase behind me. This place was empty. Monday night rush? It looked like they didn’t need one employee, let alone two.

“Hey!” Max called after us. “I never said she was hired!”

“We all know who the real boss is around here,” Ruth said over her shoulder. “So don’t you worry your pretty little head about it.” Then she snickered.

“I heard that slur against my manhood!” Max shouted at her.

“I meant you to!”

Once we were in the back, Ruth took my suitcase and wrangled it into a small office that barely had enough room for a desk. Several keys on plastic key chains hung from hooks on the wall behind it.

“Isn’t Max the owner?” I asked, trying not to worry that he might fire me any second just to remind Ruth of her place.

She waved a hand in dismissal. “Max likes to be the face of the bar, the good-time guy, but everyone knows I run it. He pays me well, so I let him pretend he’s the boss.” She winked. “Most of the time.”

“So you think he should fire Lula?”

She angled her head back and eyed me up and down. “Damn, girl. I thought you said this was temporary.”

“What?” Then I realized what she thought I was getting at. “No. I mean, yes. It is. I’m out of here as soon as Wyatt fixes my car, which will hopefully be in a few days.”