Before That Night: Unfinished Love Series: Caine & Addison, Book 1 Read Free

But you’re just a kid yourself. How is that even possible? Where are you guys even living?”
    Dammit, she had to go back to lying. But she tried to word it just so. “Our Aunt Bernadette lives not that far from here.”
    That made the alarmed I’m-calling-social-services look on his face dissipate.
    “It works out great because the kids don’t have to change school districts this way,” continued Addison on a panicked ramble. “Only, Aunt Bernadette is way older than my mom, and living on a fixed income—social security and retirement can only go so far. So I need to do my part to help cover the finances for the kids.”
    All partially true. The elderly woman she’d been hired to watch from eight to twelve on Monday through Friday was on social security and retirement. And she did tell Addison and her siblings to call her Aunt Bernadette.
    “Which brings me to my proposal for you, Joe.” Addison took a breath and steamrolled right along, hoping beyond hope that he saw the merit in the plan she’d been thinking up for days. “You’re looking for two new full-timers, both for the closing shift, right?”
    “Yeah. No one likes that shift so I need to split ‘em up across a few waitresses. Why?” Now he sounded curious where she was going with this.
    “Well, what if you just hire me to work a modified swing shift all seven days of the week? It’ll save you money. That way, you won’t need to pick up two full-timers at forty hours a pop; I’d be here right at the start of your dinner rush and stay until closing. Every day. Five and a half hours a day Monday through Thursday when you close at midnight, six and a half hours a day on Friday and Saturday when you stay open to one a.m., and five hours flat on Sunday when you close at eleven. Think about how much you’d save by just hiring one person to cover all seven nights.
    He looked intrigued…for about a second before he shook his head. “I always have two waitresses and one cook on the last shift, but one of the waitresses needs to stay after closing to close out the registers and all the other nightly duties. That’s the position I’m trying to fill.”
    “Even better. I can be your closer every night. You’ll have total consistency that way. So we’ll just shift the times forward a bit. About a half hour, right?”
    “Yeah, good guess. Did you help close for your dad’s friend’s diner, too?”
    It was a test, she could tell. “Ye— Okay, no,” she admitted. “I drove by here last night and saw the lights shut off at about twelve-thirty.”
    He was almost smiling now. What’s that saying about the magic of honesty again? “My morning crew comes in an hour early so you wouldn’t have to do too much.”
    “I’ll pick it all up fast, I swear. I’m smart. And responsible.”
    “I still don’t know.” He looked good and torn. “That’d be a crazy schedule for you to keep.”
    “It sounds perfect to me.” It really did.
    “Are you kidding? I don’t know any waitress who’d want to work those hours. Especially not for seven days straight.”
    Probably because those other waitresses you know have somewhere to go home to after they’re done with work.
    “Well you do now. I need to pick up my sister from school every afternoon, and since Aunt Bernadette isn’t all that active anymore, it’ll be great if I could be there to take the kids to the park, or even just be there to help them with their homework and stuff since her eyes aren’t that great either.” Reel it in, reel it in, he’s starting to look like Aunt Bernadette isn’t that great of a guardian either. “So yes, it’s the perfect shift for me. I promise, I won’t let you down, Joe. I literally can’t afford to let you down.”
    He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, frown firmly settled on his face.
    Oh no.
    “I’ll see you tomorrow for your first night.”
    The wave of relief that slammed into her almost knocked her to the ground.
    As she attempted to