to face her. “Talk to me.”
She huffed. “There’s no need. I’m fine.”
“Considering you shot out of the break room like a rodeo bull from a stall, I don’t believe that. Help me understand.”
She shook her head, clearly exasperated. “There is nothing to understand. I told you, I’m fine.” The involuntary tremor of her eyelid informed him otherwise.
But she obviously didn’t feel comfortable being vulnerable. He thought back over the meeting and her reactions at certain points, then mapped together possible scenarios.
“Miss Abbott, what part of the new schedule is a hardship on you? Maybe I can work around the issue.”
* * *
That was absolutely not what Olivia expected Jack to say.
The strain in his voice told her that working around her schedule was going to cause a problem. She already knew that but hadn’t wanted to face up to it. The diner was not in a good place financially. The bank wouldn’t care what reason they gave. If they didn’t get their money, they’d foreclose.
“The new hours will not be a problem,” she hedged. Even though her weary mind strained toward being open with Jack, she could not.
It would be selfish to expect the entire restaurant, and by extension the community, Sully and her friends, to arrange their most precious resource of time around her, and she could not bring herself to do it. Not after everything Sully had done for her.
“It’s a prudent decision given the diner’s debt,” she added.
“That’s not your problem, though.”
“And my scheduling conflicts are not yours. So trust me to work it out and I’ll back off on inserting my titanium opinions at future employee meetings. Provided I still have a job.”
Jack’s lip twitched, as if he were about to crack a smile, probably because she’d so accurately described herself.
“I haven’t fired anyone. Yet.”
“I get the feeling Perry’s the period on the end of that statement.”
Jack’s jaw clenched. “He’s irresponsible, insubordinate, rebellious and inconsiderate. Not to mention far from dependable. I have gone above and beyond to teach and warn him.”
True. But that Jack would actually fire him rankled, even though she respected his rationale. The day crew stuck together like glue.
“You resent me.”
Was that a question or a statement?
Yes, she resented him a little. He wasn’t Sully.
Yet maybe that was exactly why Perry got away with so much. Sully had let stuff slide.
Apparently a lot of stuff.
Jack shifted and checked his watch. She hated that they were still clashing, but there was something about him that set off the worst and weakest aspects of her character. Not to mention that the last thing she wanted was for such a strong man to see her fragile and upset.
She raised her chin to try to be more tough and convincing.
He examined her in that probing way of his.
“If you need special consideration—”
“I do not.” She’d just have to suck it up, nap when she could, study harder and pray her guts out for God to help her understand the things she read in her brick-thick medical books. Once she learned something, she had impeccable recall, but it was the initial challenge of getting the data in, and her brain’s ability to comprehend it, that was the struggle. Even her dyslexia could be contended with. The comprehension problem that was aggravated by lack of sleep? Not so much.
Olivia sat at a crossroads, literally. As Jack waited patiently, peering at cars whizzing by, she knew she had a choice to make. And it wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, it was probably the hardest thing she’d ever have to do—concede defeat and come clean.
She had to succeed in her goals, and if that meant eventually breaking down and sharing her disability with her new boss, she’d do it in order to keep herself from failing the EMT program. But she wouldn’t tell him until absolutely necessary. He had enough to worry about without her neediness. The last thing she wanted to be was a burden.
He gestured to a sidewalk bench between two Bradford pear trees. “Please, sit a moment.”
With gritted teeth, she said, “I’d rather not. Please forgive my emotional outburst and abrupt exodus from the meeting, Mr. Sullenberger. Now, really, I must be going.”
Mainly because the earnest care in his eyes was starting to get to her.
“Please, call me Jack. May I call you Olivia?” A corner of his mouth curled into a smirk-lined smile, acknowledging that he hadn’t exactly waited for her permission on that front.
The joking tone and flash of amusement in his eyes surprised her. She hadn’t figured him as the type.
She nodded stiffly, keeping her chin down lest she lose her nerve for what she needed to say next. Then she looked up at Jack and said the last words in the world she wanted to say. “The new schedule won’t be a problem. It needs to happen. I know that. It’s fine.”
Jack stared at her. He leaned back, rubbing his thumb and forefinger along his lower lip, studying her in that calculating way of his. Shook his head. Leaned forward, steepled his hands and released a breath before raking all ten fingers through his buzz, which looked more light brown than dark blond, as it had in Sully’s photos. “You are one stubborn broad.”
She burst out laughing because he’d muttered it mostly to himself. And because it was true.
His eyes lit at her laughter and then he laughed, too. For a moment she felt frozen in time. He was drop-dead gorgeous, even when he scowled like his father, but with his finely chiseled face all loose in laughter like that, good gravy he was finer than fine.
Where were they? Oh, yes, her stubbornness.
“I’m not trying to be difficult or stubborn. I just don’t know any other way to be.”
“You’ve had it rough. No need to deny it. You’ve had to fight for everything you have.”
She peered at him, shock waves rolling through her. “How did you know that?” Did his dad say something?
“Intuition. And because I haven’t always had it easy, either. In fact—”
“In fact it’s mostly been hard,” she finished for him.
“Exactly. So, will you share with me what the trouble is?”
She nibbled her lip, wondering if she could trust him. Would he use the knowledge as power over her? Maybe. He was a hothead. The next time he got mad, he might revert to meanness and spite, just like her dad always did.
No. She couldn’t
