Franklin knew I was capable of bringing it all out, but I wasn’t surprised he wanted to follow me. “Ruth will put this to rights,” he said under his breath as we walked to the back together. “Don’t you worry.”

I shook my head and willed my eyes to stop stinging. “We all knew I started out as a temporary replacement.” I turned and offered him a tight smile. “I was lucky this lasted as long as it did.”

He leaned closer. “This is bullshit, Carly. You work circles around that girl. She lollygags around, leaving Ruth to pick up the slack.” He straightened back up and shook his head. “It ain’t right, and Ruth won’t get rid of you to keep her.”

I placed a hand on Franklin’s arm and held his gaze. “It’s gonna be all right.”

But I had to wonder what Max would do. I wasn’t sure there was a right answer here. Lula might not be a great worker, but the patrons loved her, and their loyalty mattered to the establishment.

Max stomped out of his office, Lula following on his heels, and stopped in front of me. “Carly, can I speak to you in my office?”

I shot a quick glance at Lula, who kept her gaze on the floor. That wasn’t a good sign.

“Sure,” I said, pressing a hand to my stomach to quell my nerves.

I trailed behind him into the room I was sure used to be an oversized closet at one point. He grabbed his office chair and turned it to face the door.

“Have a seat,” he said, gesturing toward it.

I did as he instructed, saying, “Nothing good ever came out of those three words.”

His lips were pressed into a thin line as he shut the door and sat on the edge of the desk, staring down at me. “I’m takin’ Lula back.”

My head bobbed as my mind raced. What would I do for work?

“I don’t want to, but I’m between a rock and a hard place, Carly,” he said in frustration. “Half of my customers love her to pieces.”

“I know, Max,” I assured him. “They were worried I might be taking her place, and we both assured them I wasn’t.” I gave him a tight smile. “I can’t be makin’ a liar out of the both of us.”

“The thing is,” he said. “I doubt she’ll stick around. The girl has serious wanderlust. She’ll be here for a month or two and run off again. I don’t want to lose you in the meantime. I know it’s not fair to ask, but would you stick around anyway? I’ll have to cut your hours, but I’ll be sure to have all three of you work on Monday and Thursday nights. And I’ll put you on Wednesday lunch shift. We both know that’s the best one.” He grimaced and leaned forward. “There’s just not enough business for three full-time waitresses.”

Didn’t I know it.

“What choice do I have?” I said with a chuckle. I doubted any other employment opportunities would present themselves. I was still living with Hank Chalmers, helping provide him with medical care and cooking his meals in exchange for room and board, so at least I didn’t have many bills. The only regular expenses I had were the gas it took to get to work and back—Wyatt had fixed up Hank’s car for me to use—and food that I bought for the household. I could make it work.

I stood and put my hand on Max’s arm. “Don’t look so worried. I’ll be fine.”

“Maybe Wyatt can help you out.”

My back stiffened. “I’ll be just fine,” I said in a tight voice as I dropped my arm.

His brows lifted. “Are you and Wyatt havin’ problems? I haven’t seen him around this last week.”

“No,” I said, taking a step back, a nearly impossible task given the room was about six feet wide. “But I don’t need a man to take care of me. I can take care of myself.”

Max grimaced. “I didn’t mean…”

“I know what you meant,” I said. “And I appreciate you being so worried about me, but I promise I’ll be fine. We’ll find a way to make it work. When does Lula start?”

“Tonight—if that’s okay. With it bein’ Thursday and all, I figured there’d be enough tips to spread round.”

But we’d all end up with less money at the end of the night.

“I should have just fired her ass,” Max said dejectedly.

“We both know you couldn’t do that,” I said, offering him a more genuine smile than before. “Business would likely suffer, and then all of us would be hurting.”

“I’m not takin’ her back full-time. I’m makin’ her share some of her hours with you,” he said.

“I’ll take whatever I can get,” I said. “I’m just grateful to still be here. I like workin’ with y’all too much to leave.”

“I meant it when I told you that you’re one of us, Carly,” he said, his voice tight. “You fit right in. Lula’s a flirt, so she’s popular with the customers, but she’s never been interested in getting too close to us. She comes in and does her job and leaves. We don’t know much about her. It’s like she’s guardin’ a lockbox full of secrets.”

I ducked my head to hide my shame. I had plenty of secrets I was guarding too, but I knew what he meant. I might have only been a part of the Max’s Tavern crew for a few weeks, but Max, Ruth, Tiny, and I had been through hell together. They’d stood by me through the entire nightmare, offering me shelter, comfort, and friendship. I felt a loyalty to them that went bone-deep, yet I still couldn’t tell them the truth about my background. Like the fact that my father had planned to marry me off to my lifelong best friend turned betrayer, but only so said best friend could be his successor in an illegal enterprise. After the wedding, they’d planned to have me killed in an accident no one would question.

Although I was fairly certain the freak accident was off the table now. Having given the matter some thought, I suspected they’d use my disappearance to make me look unstable. They’d still want to kill me, but they’d probably make it look like an OD. Or suicide.

“We all have our crosses to bear,” I said. “I better get back out there. I think Franklin and his crew are probably ready for their checks.” No one had gotten them that coffee, unless Tiny had given it directly to Franklin, but I suspected they’d forgotten about it in the excitement.

I headed for the door and Max called out, “Carly?”

Stopping with my hand on the doorknob, I glanced over my shoulder.

“I meant what I said about you being family. Thanks for being so awesome about all of this.”

Chapter Three

Ruth and I had fallen into a routine. I did four lunch shifts and she covered three. We each got one day off a week, and Max had closed the tavern until seven on Thanksgiving last week. Whoever did lunch would stay at the tavern in the slow period between the two shifts, since we were technically open at those times, and leave after the post-dinner cleanup if we were slow and until close if we were busy. Those days ran very long, between nine and twelve hours given the tavern opened at noon and sometimes stayed open as late as midnight, but the midafternoons were slow and Max didn’t have a problem with me taking breaks to visit the library or to use his computer in his office. We didn’t really get paid much per hour, but he always paid me for the full shift, even on the rare occasions I left for more than an hour.