the room and tables filled the space between. The stage and wood-planked dance floor occupied the right side of the opposite end, and on the left wall was a massive and well-stocked bar with an enormous flat-screen television tuned to ESPN. From the walls hung a variety of vintage-looking signs and antique sports equipment and a collection of mounted animal heads. Though dead animals usually creeped her out, somehow it fit.
Joe Junior clearly had spared no expense when he renovated, and if the food was half as appealing as the atmosphere, it was no wonder it was so busy.
P.J. led her across the room to the bar and had her wait while he talked briefly to the bartender, a petite and energetic-looking woman. She gestured him through a door next to the bar. Reily assumed it was probably the kitchen.
She waited, pulse jumping in anticipation, watching as the waitresses hustled food and drink orders to their tables. If it was this busy on a Thursday night, she could only imagine how packed it would be on the weekends. Even if she could only get a position part-time, she could make a killing in tips.
P.J. reappeared a minute later, emerging from the back with a man Reily assumed was the owner.
P.J. gestured her over. “Reily, this is Joe Miller. Joe, this is Reily Eckardt, the woman I told you about.”
For some reason she had pictured the owner as older. In his forties or fifties at least. In reality he couldn’t have been much older than thirty. He was tall and slender, and attractive in a dark, brooding sort of way. He wore faded blue jeans, a black T-shirt with the bar logo and a deep scowl.
Uh-oh. He did not look happy to have been disturbed.
P.J. took Reily’s hand and shook it warmly. “I have to get back on patrol. It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Eckardt, and I hope everything works out for you. Hopefully I’ll be seeing you around. And of course if there’s any news about your car I’ll call you.”
There wouldn’t be, and they both knew it. It was long gone.
She smiled anyway and said, “Thank you, Officer.”
When he was gone, Joe Miller leaned against the edge of the bar and regarded her with a long, slow, assessing look, his dark eyes lacking even the slightest trace of warmth or friendliness. When he spoke, his voice was so low and deep she had to strain to hear him over the blare of the jukebox. “P.J. tells me you’ve hit hard times and you’re looking for temporary work here in town.”
Hard times was an understatement. “I’m pretty desperate, Mr. Miller. If you have any position at all I would be eternally grateful.”
“What kind of experience do you have?” he asked.
She had to lean in so close to hear him, she caught the scent of his aftershave. Old Spice, just like her father used to wear. It made him seem slightly less intimidating. “I’ve waitressed and tended bar for the past six years.”
“You’ve got references?”
“Of course. I had a résumé but it was stolen with my car.”
He grabbed a pen and an order tablet from behind the bar and handed it to her. “Write down the name and number of your most recent employer.”
She hesitated. The bar she’d worked at since she was eighteen was owned by her best friend’s father, Abe. Abe was the town gossip. If Joe called him, it would take five minutes flat before the entire city learned that she hadn’t made it to Nashville.
But she didn’t really have a choice, did she?
She wrote down the name and number and handed it back to him.
“How long were you planning to stay in town?” he asked.
Everything had happened so abruptly, she hadn’t had the chance to give it much thought. “I’m not exactly sure.”
“I need someone for at least six weeks. If you plan on hanging around for a week or two, then taking off, don’t even waste my time.”
Yeesh! The guy didn’t mince words, did he? “I need enough money for a bus ticket, plus first and last month’s rent in a new place once I get to Nashville. So I’m thinking six weeks at least, depending on how many hours you’re willing to work me.”
His tight-lipped nod said he was satisfied with her answer. He waved over the bartender.
“Lindy, this is Reily. She’s going to give you a hand while I make a phone call. Consider this your audition,” he told Reily, his expression suggesting that he fully expected her to blow it. Then he slipped through the door to the back. Not the warmest guy in the world, but she was in no position to complain if he was willing to even consider giving her a job. From what she’d seen of the diner, even if they were hiring, the tips would be nothing compared to this place.
Lindy handed Reily an apron. “You don’t look familiar. Are you from town?”
Reily secured the apron around her waist. “Just passing through, hoping for temporary work to get me to Tennessee.”
“And you chose this hole-in-the-wall town? Why not Denver?”
“I actually hadn’t planned to stop at all, but my car was stolen from the gas station off the highway a few miles back. Everything I owned in the world was in it. Including my money.”
Lindy gasped and slapped a hand to her chest. “Oh, you poor thing! You lost everything?”
“Luckily I had my purse with me so I have my ID and my cell phone, but everything else is gone.”
“What about clothes?”
She looked down at the tank top, jeans and cowboy boots she was wearing. “You’re lookin’ at ‘em.”
“If you do end up staying in town awhile, I’m sure we can find someone your size who would be willing to donate some clothes.”
“That would be really awesome, because until I can make some money, staying is my only choice.”
“Well, I hope it works out here. Since our other bartender, Mark, busted his wrist Monday, it’s pretty much been just me and Rick, but he only works a few evenings a week. This weekend is going to be a nightmare, even with Joe behind the bar with me. It’s about time he hired me some help.”
It sounded as if Joe needed her as badly as she needed him. She mentally crossed her fingers that he would take pity on her.
Lindy pointed out the location of the things she would need, then they got to work taking orders and making drinks, tasks that were second nature to Reily. She chatted up the customers, using a bit of mild flirting when the circumstance necessitated it, finding everyone friendly and curious as to who she was. In the twenty-five or so minutes it took Joe to call on her references, she’d been welcomed to town by at least a dozen people. Paradise sure was a friendly place, and so far it was living up to its name.
Joe reappeared from the back and stepped behind the bar, his expression unreadable. Reily’s heart did a quick flip-flop. She hoped he liked what he had heard from Abe.
“So, how did she do?” he asked Lindy.
“She’s
