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I shrug a shoulder. “Maybe.”
“You never know what?” Mika asks, suddenly at our side holding a bin full of dirty dishes, her blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail.
Before I can say anything, Tish rattles off, “The hot new single dad next door bought her bakery and now he’s the ugly new jerk next door.”
Mika digests that slowly, then blinks at me with sympathy. “Really?” she asks.
I nod to confirm. “Eloquently summed up, yes.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s... fine. I guess. It has to be,” I add with another shrug. “Not much I can do about it now.”
“Well, I’ll keep an eye out for other places,” Mika says. “Carter will, too. He’s real good at that, actually.”
I smile gratefully. “Thanks.”
“Yo, ladies!” Bruno shouts from the window. “Food doesn’t deliver itself, you know.”
Mika rushes off with her bin while Tish and I approach the window.
“Sheriff wants his patty melt, Bruno,” I say.
“On the way. You got a phone call.”
“From who?”
“I ain’t your secretary,” he says as he turns back toward the grill. “Make it quick. Lunch rush!”
With an understanding nod, I enter the back and grab the old phone receiver dangling by the office doorway. “Hello?” I answer, keeping the grease-covered thing at least an inch away from my ear.
“Finally.”
I roll my eyes. Yet another reason my life sucks.
“Hey, Mark.” I straighten up as a shiver suddenly fires down my spine. “How’s Liam?”
“I just dropped him off.”
“Dropped him off? At the diner?” I ask, craning my head to peek out onto the floor.
“No, the house.”
The shiver tightens around my heart. “The house? My house?”
“Yeah,” Mark says. “I gotta work again.”
“So, you left your four-year-old son alone at the house? Why didn’t you bring him here?!”
“Because the last time I did that, you got pissed.”
“Oh, my god! Are you insane?!”
“Chill the fuck out, Lot. He’s fine.”
“How can you be so irresponsible?”
“I called you, didn’t I?”
