Sheriff’s Pregnant Ex by Leslie North
5
Caitlin balanced the tray of dirty dishes on her shoulder and headed through the swinging door into the kitchen.
“Here you go,” she said to Alex, the dishwasher. “More coming. We’re slammed out there.”
The morning had been a trial by fire for Caitlin. By seven the breakfast crowd had filled all the tables, which turned over continuously until ten. After the first hour, she’d found her rhythm again as a waitress. It had been several years, but it seemed to be like riding a bicycle. You never forgot the skills.
“It’s those rodeo people,” Alex said, looking up from his work.
“Guess so,” Caitlin responded before heading back to the front. Aurora had told her earlier that they were already seeing an uptick in business due to crews coming to town to set up for the rodeo. To Caitlin, more diners meant more tips, so she kept smiling and moving.
She’d gotten a brief break before folks started coming in for lunch, and then she was dashing around again, taking orders, refilling drinks, and wiping down tables. Caitlin was delivering milkshakes to a table when she saw five women enter the diner. She immediately sucked in a breath when she recognized them as friends of her mother’s.
It wasn’t long before they all noticed her. “Caitlin,” Mrs. Fecto sneered. “I didn’t know you were back in town and working here.”
“First day,” Caitlin said, coming up with a fake smile as she went to the hostess stand to seat them.
“Does your mother know?” Mrs. Fecto arched a painted-on eyebrow at her.
“Not yet.” But she would in a matter of minutes, Caitlin realized. One of the women would send a text anytime now.
“Typical. She always was a rotten daughter.” She was partially turned as she reached for menus, so Caitlin wasn’t sure who said it, but her back stiffened just the same.
“Poor Hailey. So sad to be disappointed in your children,” one of the other women said with a little cluck of her tongue.
It was all Caitlin could do not to lash out at the implication that there was something wrong not just with her but with her brother, too. Her life might be a train wreck at the moment, but Ethan was serving his country. Couldn’t her parents even be proud of that? Apparently not. The only time Ethan had won approval was when he succeeded in sports in high school—and that was just because it gave her parents bragging rights in a small town where the local matches were big events. Her parents went to games and attempted to look important while bragging about their son.
The artistic leaning that Caitlin possessed since she was little had never meant anything to her parents because it hadn’t held any benefit for them. They’d even forced her to give up her opportunity to attend a prestigious art school, insisting that the tuition would be a waste of money. She’d ended up at a state college, and further disappointed them by dropping out before her senior year to pursue tattoo art as a profession. They’d never once seen her for who she was—only for who she failed to be, by their standards.
“Follow me, please.” Caitlin kept her cool and led the group to a round table in her section. She waited for them to sit before handing out menus and promising to return to take their orders.
Caitlin moved off to help other customers but was overly conscious that she was being watched by the women at the table. Whenever she came close to them, she heard more remarks like the ones they’d already made, calling her ungrateful, selfish, a failure. Other patrons were starting to look in their direction, and she just wanted them to shut up.
She reminded herself that after another minute, they’d have had their fun and would move on to another topic of gossip. Caitlin just had to hold out, keep a smile on her face, and do her job. On the outside she could look normal and professional, but on the inside all the insecurities brought on by her mother’s constant criticisms returned. She’d tried hard to get past all that, and sometimes she thought she had, but she still resented the way she’d been raised. Being back in this town, around these awful people, just made it all worse. But she wouldn’t let it dictate her actions. Not anymore, despite what these women said.
Squaring her shoulders, Caitlin approached their table and pulled her order pad from her pocket. “What can I get for you ladies?”
“A new server. We don’t want you,” Mrs. Fecto said. She’d had a son in the grade below Caitlin, and he’d been just as rude and obnoxious as his mother.
“Get somebody else,” one of the other women said with a little shooing motion of her hand.
Caitlin wanted to slap her order pad on the table and tell them to shove it where the sun didn’t shine, but she held back. Aurora had given her this job and was helping her out so much. She couldn’t repay her kindness by driving away customers. No matter what miserable, dried-up old shrews those customers might be.
“If you prefer,” she said and turned on her heel. I hate this town, I hate this town she repeated in her head. Her face felt hot and her humiliation was high, but she kept walking until she reached Aurora who worked behind the counter. “You’ll need to take table fifteen.”
“Why?” Aurora looked past her at the women seated there.
“They’re friends of my mother’s,” Caitlin explained, “and don’t want me to serve them.”
“Is that right? Those women are a bunch of cackling hens. I’m going to tell them to get lunch somewhere else if my staff isn’t good enough for them.” Aurora made to move past her, but Caitlin caught her arm.
“Don’t,” she pleaded. “They’ll just make a bigger scene, and I don’t want you to lose customers over me. Please.”
Aurora scowled, obviously not liking it. “Okay, but I’m going to have Marc put too much pepper or maybe paprika in anything they order.”
While Aurora took care of the women, Caitlin worked the rest of her tables, smiling and chatting on the surface while she was seething inside. How dare those women treat her so poorly? She could do nothing about it, though, so she kept her mouth shut and did her job.
It did seem to her like the women prolonged their lunch, taking every opportunity to shoot optical daggers in her direction. While they were eating dessert and drinking coffee, Brian walked in. Her frustration with the women was soon buried under the memory of the embarrassment she’d felt when she caught Brian reading the messages on her phone early that morning. The two he saw were damning, making it all too clear that she’d screwed her life up monumentally.
He stepped to the side and she caught sight of Jake standing behind him. They weren’t identical twins, but they had similar builds, and the same brown hair and green eyes. Jake’s were less open and trusting. She’d never been sure if he liked her or not. From the frown on his face just then, she was pretty sure the answer was “not.”
“Hi,” she greeted them. “Two for lunch?”
“That’s right,” Brian responded. She led them to a table by the window, adjacent to the group of five. “Is this in your section?” Brian asked before sitting.
“It is,” she said, feeling defensive. Was he going to refuse to be waited on by her, too? She could take that once on a shift, but not a second time. And not from him.
“Good.” He gave her an obvious wink and slid into the booth. “Wouldn’t want anyone else to take my lunch order.” He spoke the words a little too loudly, and she heard a gasp come from behind her.
“Look at her flirting with both Thorne twins.” The loud whisper came from behind Caitlin. “Slut.” The last was in a hiss, but plenty audible.
“Danger at six o’clock,” Jake muttered under his breath and cast her a sympathetic glance.
“How’s your first day going?” Brian asked, ignoring his brother’s words and the attention they were drawing.
“Fine. We’ve been busy,” she said, trying to keep things brief and professional. No need to add further fuel to the fire of those women and their gossip. “Can I get you two coffee or something cold to drink?”
“Sweet tea for me,” Jake said, his focus behind her on the women. Caitlin didn’t have to turn to know they were staring in her direction. She could feel that all up and down her spine. Other people were noticing, too, but their attention was more friendly curiosity. She supposed they liked the sheriff and were watching to see their interaction.
“I’ll have a Coke,” Brian said, smiling at her. “I’m glad it’s going well for you.”
“Why wouldn’t it?” Jake said, raising his voice slightly. “Darby Crossing is full of kind-hearted, welcoming people.”
“That’s right,” Brian agreed with his brother and matched his tone. “They recognize a good, hard-working person when they see one. That’s why I like being sheriff here.”
Caitlin appreciated what they were trying to do for her, but inside she still felt like scurrying away from the table and taking refuge in the kitchen. She stopped herself, though, since she’d never been one to run and hide.
“Coming here for lunch was a good idea,” Jake said to Brian. “It’s important to support one of our own.”
“Thanks,” Caitlin kept her voice low. “It means a lot to me coming from both of you.”
“Me? I’m just a simple rancher,” Jake said with a grin.
Caitlin didn’t think there was anything simple about running the biggest, most prosperous ranch in the area, but she was happy to play along with them. With the Thornes clearly on her side, hardly anyone would dare to attack her. They carried too much weight in this town and had too much public support behind them. A couple months in town started to look a lot less daunting than it had just thirty minutes ago.
“I’ll be back with your drinks.” She turned away from them, noting the subdued expressions on the faces of her mother’s friends. While she was getting the drinks, the women left, so when she put a Coke down in front of Brian, she touched his hand for a second. “Thanks, again,” she mouthed so only he could see.
He didn’t respond other than with the smile that had always melted her heart.
