THE REAL GYRO (Food Truck Mysteries Book 4) Read Free

poured a cup of coffee for himself. That was another new one. Usually Land just drank water on the job. I could count on one hand the number of times that he’d sipped his own blend, and most of those times were when I’d first known him when he drank it to ensure that the flavor was right.
    “So what’s her name?” I asked, knowing that he wouldn’t answer. Land was tight-lipped about his personal life, and I knew that whatever had happened would be kept secret. Still it could be fun to tease him.
    As I expected, he ignored my jibes and had gone about his daily routine of cutting up the ingredients for the condiments, which he made fresh daily. I went back to my routine and tried to ponder what had kept Land up so late. If it wasn’t a woman, then most likely it was related to the mysterious work he’d done in the Basque region of Spain before emigrating here.
    The truck opened a bit early. The condiments weren’t quite ready, but that was fine, since most of the early customers only wanted some of Land’s coffee to start their day. I started a second pot of coffee and went back to the customers.
    We didn’t stop handling the rush until just after lunch. The line dwindled to a few stragglers who were afraid to walk and sip their coffee at the same time. They loitered around the truck while I started to do some clean-up work.
    The spring day was one of the nicer ones. The sun was out, and the temperatures were in the upper 60s. The air was filled with the smells of flowering trees and bushes around the square. The promise of summer wasn’t far behind, and summer was our best season by far. I spent a few minutes just watching the people go by.
    Until I saw Sam walking across the square; I let out a groan loud enough to be heard by some of the customers. I moved to the back of the food truck as a few of them turned around. Sometimes I let my mouth get the better of me.
    “What the matter with you?” Land asked as he put some of the cutting boards and knives into the sink to soak.
    For a moment, I wished I could be tight-lipped like he was and play this off without telling him my business, but since Sam seemed to be heading straight toward me like a torpedo, it didn’t seem as if I had a choice. “I had a date last night,” I confessed. “Nothing special. A set-up by my parents.”
    “And you’re just now reacting to it? A little slow on the uptake, aren’t you?” he said as he flashed me a grin.
    I reddened. He was not going to make this easy. “No, I reacted last night, but he’s on his way here right now. I just saw him on the square and heading this way.”
    Land raised an eyebrow. “You’re so vain. Men do come downtown for other things besides see you,” he suggested. “Maybe he has business here.”
    I shook my head, wishing that was the case. It was too soon for him to be this pushy, which likely meant I’d have to be tough and let him down. “He’s a suburban realtor. He doesn’t do commercial property, so he’s here for me.”
    Land walked to the window and looked out. Apparently he didn’t mind being obvious about spotting Sam in the thinning crowds. “Where is he? Is that him?” he asked, pointing at someone old enough to be my grandfather. I was not amused.
    I came up to stand next to Land and looked around. Sam was gone. I couldn’t see him anywhere. Finally I decided to do a methodical search for him, scanning slowly from one end of the square to the other. And then I found him.
    From the angle of my body, Land was able to trace where I was looking, and he started to laugh. Normally, I enjoyed hearing Land laugh, since he did it so rarely, but not today.
    Sam was standing in front of Janelle Nolan’s truck, Holding out for a Gyro. They were having a rather intense conversation from the looks of it, since Janelle was ignoring the customers who stood in front of the window. I tried to imagine the circumstances where I would not serve a customer, but I couldn’t come up with one.