“Sorry.”
Luke smiled, kissing my palm shortly again. “I can’t leave you with anyone apparently. You end up buried in a saw dust pile, or pretending to be a doctor, or forgetting to eat.”
I blushed. I wanted to say something, but the cold was catching up to me. My lips started to tremble. I shifted in my bare feet to relieve the chill seeping up. “Luke...”
Luke picked up my hand higher, slipping it around his neck. He released it until I was hugging him. His arms encircled my waist and he held me against his body. “Cold?”
“Yeah.”
“What am I going to do with you?” He rubbed his palms across my back, up and down to warm me.
“I could help you.”
Luke smiled. “You’re supposed to be taking it easy.”
“Where’s Gabriel?”
He shrugged. “Somewhere washing dishes or taking orders.”
“Is anyone else busy?”
His lips parted but he paused, smirking. “I kind of don’t want to tell you.”
“Why?”
“I’d have to call them and then they’ll take you off somewhere.” He ducked his head close to mine, his lips traced over my cheek, close to my ear. “Maybe I should let you stay with me. At least then I can keep an eye on you. Want to play here?”
I was supposed to take it easy and go to bed early, but it was only seven. How late was he planning to stay? “If I did stay, I could help out. And I’m really close to home. Whenever I get tired, I’ll go there.” I didn’t want to tell him that I didn’t want to go home right now. I’d spend hours wondering how Nathan was. I’d rather stay busy.
“I guess it isn’t breaking the rules if we aren’t doing Academy work.” He took my hand, guiding me back to the fridge door.
Uncle was bent over the large flat grill, scraping away bits of leftover food and cleaning the area. He sensed us and looked up. He did a double take at Luke. “Was my fridge that interesting?”
“Sang loves it.”
Uncle blinked and glanced at me. “It’s not a make out room.”
Heat returned to my cheeks. Is that what they all thought we were doing?
“I just needed to talk to her,” Luke said.
“There’s an office.” Uncle turned to me. “Haven’t seen you around, little bird. Thought maybe Luke lost you. Where have you been?”
“She had school stuff last week,” Luke said. “Midterms.”
“Ah.” Uncle’s voice was croaky, like he’d been shouting all day. “I like that. School’s important.”
“Do you want her to make another pie?” Luke asked. “Or clean out the freezer? She wants to help out.”
“I want her in the front,” Uncle said. “I told you, she should be working tables.”
“She can’t carry food,” Luke said. “She’s clumsy.”
I eyeballed him. I was clumsy? I wanted to contradict him but at the same time, I wasn’t sure I could handle delivering food or being a waitress. I didn’t know how. I didn’t want to be in the back alone with other people if Luke was going to be up front. I wanted to be near one of them. Besides, no one else seemed to have noticed I wasn’t wearing shoes. I tried to remember what else there was to do in a diner. “I could wash dishes or use the register.”
Luke flashed me a look, but I widened my eyes, as if saying I didn’t know what he wanted from me. Did he want me to go sit in the office?
Uncle snapped his fingers, pointing at me. “See? She’s a go-getter. And she’s cute. Put her to work out there by the counter.”
“What’s she doing here?” Gabriel asked, materializing with a bucket of dirty dishes. He planted them on the counter and wiped his brow. “What? You called her in to work, too? Is she finally going to take a shift?”
“Ah,” Uncle said. “That reminds me. I need your info, sweetie. Next time you come by, bring me your Social Security card and an ID.”
The guys glanced at each other over my head. “Uh,” Luke said, “Uncle, Sang doesn’t have ... I mean she...”
I glanced at the guys. “What do you mean?” I asked. “I’ve got those somewhere in the house.”
Luke shook his head at me, but addressed his Uncle. “She doesn’t really...”
“What?” Uncle asked. He pointed the end of a wide metal spatula at him. “You want me to pay her under the table? What is she? A refugee? Illegal immigrant?”
“No, it’s complicated.” Luke cut his hand through the air. “I’ll tell you later. But yeah, can you pay her in cash?”
Uncle shrugged, shoving a finger across the white of his eyebrow. “All the more reason for her work the front.”
Luke sighed. “Okay, okay.”
“Someone dismiss Megan. Little bird, go stand behind the register. Let them show you what to do.
Gabriel deposited his dirty dishes on the counter near another guy washing at the sink. He gave me a questioning look, silently asking why I was there. I tried to make hand signals but Luke tugged my elbow. Gabriel started scraping and stacking as I was dragged out of the kitchen.
“Luke,” I said softly. “Why can’t I just show him my ID?”
Luke squeezed my hand, a light smile playing on his lips. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just easier, that’s all.”
I felt there was more to this, but I didn’t know the questions to ask. How was this easier? Uncle made it sound like a complication. Although when I thought about it, I didn’t really know where my ID was. Didn’t I have one? Did he mean a birth certificate? It must have been at the house somewhere. I’d try to look for it later.
The dining room was nearly empty. I scanned for the guy that had been there before, but didn’t see him.
Luke guided me to the register by the counter. “Okay,” he said. “What you want to do is guard this thing with your life.”
I glanced at the computerized register. “Guard it?”
“You stand here,” he said, nudging me behind the register. “I pass out these tickets to customers.” He plucked one up from off of the counter nearby. He showed it to me. “There’s a bar code.” He pointed to a laser gun thing sitting on a pedestal by the register. “Scan the code.” He scanned it. The register beeped and displayed an amount, and asked about payment. “Cash or ch
arge only, we don’t handle checks. If it’s a charge, take the card, run it through this.” He pointed to the edge of the register where there was a credit card machine. He showed me buttons to push and where to stack finished receipts.
“Okay,” I said. It seemed simple enough, but I was still nervous. This wasn’t like making a pie. This was handling money. Other people’s money. What if I mixed up tickets and credit cards? What if someone couldn’t pay? What if I broke it?
Luke wrapped an arm around my shoulders, squeezing me. “I’ll be right here,” he said.
“Should I sit people?” I asked.
“Not barefoot,” he said. “I’ll show you how to do that another day. Right now, it’s not busy so just babysit this thing.” He leaned in, kissed me on the forehead. A warm tremble started through my head as it was the first time his lips touched anything other than my hands. He’d done it so quickly, like he was trying to get away with it. “And no flirting with the guys.”
“Does that include you?”
He laughed and walked off.
The good thing about guarding a register is that it doesn’t move anywhere. I thought if I had to work while I was supposed to be relaxing, this was the easiest job to have. It was another half hour of standing and staring at the walls before a customer arrived at the counter with a ticket. He’d been sitting at one of the booths reading a newspaper and sipping a coffee.
I was smoothing out the ticket so I could scan it when the man opened his wallet, dropped a five dollar bill on the counter, and started for the door.
My mouth fell open and my heart stopped. What just happened? I gazed at the five dollar bill on the counter and then checked the ticket price. A dollar ninety-five. All he had was one coffee. Did he mean to leave a whole five dollars?
I lifted my head, checking the dining room but the man was out the door already.
“Oy, Trouble,” Gabriel positioned his cleaning tray on the counter and stood next to me. “Why are you looking like a fish out of water?”
“That guy left a five for a two dollar ticket.”
Gabriel smirked and shoved a hand on his hip. “What? Old Cody? He drinks more than five dollars’ worth of free refills on the coffee when he comes in here.” He nodded his head toward the register. “Just drop three dollars into the tip jar.”