Hexes and Deadly Bids by Opal Adair

Author:Opal Adair [Adair, Opal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter nine

It was shamefully hard to find Lizzy. The hard-working staff blended into the background with a practiced invisibility, only stepping into view to fill a glass or make a dirty dish disappear. It was a skill I’m sure the guests appreciated, but it made me a little sad. People deserved to be seen.

Lizzy was hurriedly stacking cups from an empty table into a large plastic bin. That container looked far too big for the likes of her to be carrying, but she handled it with an ease that made me wonder if she pressed iron in her spare time.

I stopped a few feet away from her, carefully positioning myself away from the paying guests. “Um, excuse me, Lizzy?”

She looked up, confirming my suspicions. Her large green eyes settled on me with surprise and confusion. “Yes?”

I extended a hand. “I’m Summer, River’s sister.”

She looked down at her dirty hand, then at my extended one. Slowly, giving me plenty of time to pull back, she reached out and took it. “Pleasure to meet you, Summer. Your brother is a real nice fellow.”

“So I keep hearing.” I dropped her hand after a good shake.

She shifted from foot to foot nervously and looked down at her bus bin. “I hate to be rude, ma’am, but I really shouldn’t be chatting with you while I’m on the clock. There’s a lot of work to do.”

“Yeah, I get that, and I admire your work ethic, but this time Mark said it’s okay for you to have a chat with me.”

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “That does not sound like Mark.”

With a little shrug, I dropped down into a chair at the still dirty table she was working on. “It was a bit of a summary. In reality, he grumbled and glared quite a bit and acted like it was a huge waste of time.”

Hesitantly, she slipped down into a chair next to me, looking downright uncomfortable with the idea of sitting while on the job. Despite the worry, I could practically see relief spread across her as she took the weight off her feet.

Once seated, she gave a reluctant nod. “That does sound a lot more like him. It’s weird that he’d let us talk while on shift, though.” She frowned thoughtfully. “It must be important.”

“It is. I wanted to talk about Davis and the night at the auction.”

Lizzy’s eyes suddenly shimmered with unshed tears. “Oh.”

And, just like that, I felt like the meanest woman in history. I hadn’t been in this conversation for five minutes and I already was making a sweet girl cry. I slunk down in my chair, willing myself to fade from sight. “I’m sorry.”

She sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “It’s okay. It’s just all so fresh. He didn’t deserve that.”

“You knew him?”

She nodded and worked her apron across her dirty hand. “Yeah. We went to school together. He was always so nice to me, even when the other kids weren’t.”

Ugh! Did that ever tug on my heartstrings.

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