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“I’m glad.”
“They don’t regret anything,” she said. “Don’t think that. I mean they are happy it’s turning into what they hoped for. I just wanted you to know that.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“They said they’d never be able to get it like this. They didn’t know how to run it like you are.” She stopped what she was doing. “I’m not telling them secrets or anything like that. Just it’s so clean and smooth when I’m working. Not like when they ran it. It’s like this even when you’re not here.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “I know what you’re saying. Having good staff goes a long way.”
“I know,” she said. “At my last job it was easy to see that one bad person could make it hard for everyone else.”
He lifted his eyebrow at her. “Did that happen to you?”
“What?” she asked. “I wasn’t a bad employee.”
He smiled at her grin. “That wasn’t what I meant.”
She sighed. “I know. I just kept to myself there like I do here. It’s easier that way. But like any place that has a lot of employees, there are cliques. I’ve never been one to belong to groups so that helped.”
Or it could make it worse because you are more easily ganged up on too. He wouldn’t say that.
“Morning,” he heard and turned to see Zeke coming in the door.
“Morning,” Hadley said. Zeke winked at Hadley and he tried not to get annoyed over it.
“Ready for a busy day?” he asked Zeke.
“I am,” Zeke said. “Glad that Hadley is on desserts. People are coming in just for her sweets. I’ve been trying to pump her up more and get her to tell me some of her secrets.”
He looked over at Hadley and saw her head down working. There was definitely flirting going on here from Zeke. He wasn’t sure if Hadley was receptive or just not showing it because the boss was here.
“She’s a pretty tough nut to crack, but she bakes like a dream,” Duke said.
She looked over at him and smiled softly. No eye contact with Zeke.
Interesting. He was guessing there were no thoughts in her mind for Zeke. If she had any for him though, he had no idea.
At three he was in his office checking over the schedule for next week. He hadn’t planned on being here this long and was going right to Duke’s when he left to finish the night off in the kitchen there.
He saw Hadley walk by his door and called out to her. She stopped and moved back. “Yes?”
“Taking a break?” he asked her.
“I am. It’s slowed enough for me to do it now. I put an order in and am going to get some air.”
“I’m just leaving,” he said. “I’ll walk out with you.”
He grabbed his keys and got up. She had a drink in one hand and a piece of his quiche on a napkin in the other. His eyes dropped to the bite she’d taken. “It’s really good,” she said. “But I’m sure you know that.”
“There wasn’t much left,” he said.
“No,” she said. “I grabbed the last piece now before someone else got it.”
They got outside and she continued to eat her snack. “Is Zeke bothering you?”
“No,” she said quickly.
“Looks like flirting to me. Which is fine if it’s reciprocated or the person on the receiving end doesn’t feel uncomfortable by it. I just want to make sure.”
