AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I held up my hand to silence him and closed my eyes, focusing on inhaling through my nose and blowing it out past my lips. Only once I was sure I wouldn’t lose my shit, did I look at him again. “There’s nothing to reopen, Keith, because that conversation isnevergoing to happen. Unless you feel like getting yourself an attorney and paying back everything you’ve skipped out on for the past seven years, there’s absolutely no point. The custody arrangement we currently have in place stands.” It was a wonder steam wasn’t pouring from my ears as I took a step closer and lowered my voice so only he could hear. “And I suggest you tell your little girlfriend to let it the hell go, or I’m going to getreallypissed. Understand me?”
Keith’s nostrils flared and his cheekbones tinged pink with anger, but I didn’t care. What he was feeling was nothing compared to the fire I was currently banking deep inside of me. If he kept pushing this, I was going to make his and Hayley’s lives miserable.
I wasn’t stupid; I knew the only reason he was pressing this was to make his new woman happy. Despite the man standing in front of me, I knew the real Keith. He might have painted over his stripes, but eventually that would wash off, and the real man would be left standing.
Ford had been right when he said Keith had snowed me at the beginning of our relationship. He’d done a damn good job of making me think he was something other than a worthless loser, and I had no doubt he was doing the same with Hayley. It was only a matter of time until he fell into his old pattern.
We stood in the middle of my living room, staring each other down until he finally relented and nodded. I followed him to the front door and pulled it open, nearly laughing at the sight of Hayley sitting in the passenger seat, staring at my house.
“Wow, I’m surprised she let you come in here by yourself,” I said with a snort.
He turned back, posture defensive, brow cocked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure you know exactly what it means. Now, if you don’t mind, please leave. Now that my daughter’s home, I’d like to spend time with her.”
He’d barely stepped across the threshold before I slammed the door in his face. I threw the lock then leaned back against the door, closing my eyes and working to calm my breathing as I counted backward from ten. When that didn’t work, I did it again.
I regained my sense of control just as Hazel’s voice called out from her room. “Mommy, can we have noodles for dinner?”
When she was a toddler and the wordspaghettiproved to be too difficult, instead of some variation, she’s decided to simply refer to her favorite meal as noodles and call it a day.
I pushed off the door, a smile pulling at my face because as long as my baby girl was home, nothing else mattered. “Works for me, but only on one condition. You have to help me cook.” My girl loved to help her mom in the kitchen.
I finished the load of clothes I’d been working on, then helped Hazel put all her stuff from the weekend away. And once that was done, we made dinner together. And not once did I let Keith and Hayley taint our time together.
16
HARDIN
The dull, persistent throb behind my eyeballs worsened as the day progressed.
I’d spent the better part of the morning working on the books, and no matter how many times I ran the numbers, they weren’t adding up. From what I could tell, there was at least four thousand dollars missing that I couldn’t account for. It wasn’t unusual to be off a little here or there, but to have four grand missing from the accounts wasn’t just an oversight. It meant someone was stealing from the restaurant.
If Junior’s was mine the way it should have been, I would have been able to handle this on my own, but since my parents were still technically in charge, I had to call them to tell them about the stolen money. That conversation had gone over about as well as a drunk sorority girl attempting a keg stand.
Once again, my father had accused me of being too soft on my employees, saying that was why one of them felt they could steal from us, because they didn’t think I was strong enough to do anything about it. Never mind that the only time I came off weak to my staff was when my own parents undermined me right in front of them, however no matter how many times I pointed that out, my father couldn’t—or maybe wouldn’t—see it.
I was going to have to recoup that money somehow, I didn’t know how yet.
A knock sounded on my office door right before Kadence popped her head inside. On the list of people I wanted to deal with, she had to have been near the bottom, along with my ex, his new girlfriend, and my parents.
“Hey, boss. Would you mind if I ducked out a little early? I’ve had a bit of a headache all morning, and I think I need to sleep it off.”
I bit down the retort I wanted to spew and settled on something more professional. “Actually, Kadence, I would mind. Your shift has barely started, and you already called in sick twice last week. You’ve gone well over your allotted number of sick days. If it’s a mild headache, I suggest you take a couple aspirin to knock it out. But I’m afraid if you miss any more time, I’m going to have to let you go.”
Her mouth dropped open, sputtered noises of shock coming out. “But... I have a headache.”
“Headaches are easily managed with medicine, the kind we have in the first aid kit in the breakroom.” I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. “The decision is yours. But just so you know, if you leave, I’ll be taking you off the schedule for the remainder of this week, and I won’t be putting you back on it. I think I’ve been more than fair with you, but I’m putting my foot down.” I braced my hands on my desk and stood from my chair, leveling her with a hard look. “So what’s it going to be?”
Her face pinched up, and I could tell from her bratty expression she was used to getting what she wanted. It also made clear how shitty her work ethic was. She was so used to her parents swooping in to bail her out, she never had to try at anything, but I was officially done. My dad could either get on board, or get the hell out of my way.
“I’ll take some aspirin,” she said between clenched teeth.
“Good call.” I started for the door, giving her no choice but to back out of my office as I closed the door behind me. “After that, the parmesan and red pepper shakers need to be replenished. Thanks so much.”
I pushed past her and started through the kitchen toward the front of the restaurant. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at all the smiling faces I passed by. To say Kadence wasn’t very popular among the staff was a gross understatement.
“Bad ass, boss,” Penelope, one of my other waitresses, muttered under her breath as I passed her by.
