The Windfall (20 page)

* * * * *

I wiped down a glass and set it behind the bar, my eyes scanning for Emma for the hundredth time in the three hours since my shift had started. Even when she didn’t make it on time, I still tried to attribute it to the accident. As the lunch crowd started to file in, I stayed busy making drinks and helping the wait staff with some of the tables. No one else seemed concerned that she wasn’t there and, for a second, I wondered if maybe she had taken a few days off to not only avoid me but hopefully use the money I had given her for some much deserved rest.

But my curiosity turned into concern shortly after that thought. Emma wasn’t the type to take days off unless something was wrong, money or no money. So, on my lunch break, I walked back to the kitchen where Chris was busy slinging burgers.

“Hey, fry pan man,” I said, my hands in my pockets. He flipped me the bird as he didn’t turn away from the smoke and fire billowing from the massive grill. “What do ya need, barboy?”

“Where’s Emma today?” I asked casually, hoping I didn’t sound too eager. “Is she sick or something?”

“I dunno,” Chris answered, flipping the burgers on the grill with his spatula. “She just called and said she wouldn’t be in. I figured she didn’t need to give me a reason. She hasn’t taken a day off since she started working here.”

I swallowed hard; it was because of me. It had to be. What if she was going to quit her job to avoid me because I was working there? I couldn’t let that happen. She loved working at Keefer’s and everyone there loved her. I would feel like the world’s most supreme asshole if she did something like that. “She, um, she’s coming back to work, right? I mean, she didn’t quit or anything?”

Apparently something in my voice struck a chord because that’s when Chris turned around, his eyes narrowing as he looked at me. “What did you do?”

I removed one of my hands out of my pocket and ran it through my hair, feeling lower than low. “I, uhhh. Aww, hell, Chris. I messed up.”

I never saw it coming. One moment I was standing there, the next Chris’ beefy paw had me jacked up against the wall, his face red with anger. “What the hell did you do?”

Despite his size, Chris was lightning fast and way stronger than he looked. “I left out a small detail about my life,” I forced out, feeling the brute force of Chris’ power against my neck. One squeeze and I wouldn’t be able to breathe. “Can you let me go so I can explain, at least?”

“I knew you were trouble,” Chris grumbled as he reluctantly loosened his grip on me. “I saw how you couldn’t keep your eyes off of her. I swear to God, if you’ve hurt her in any way, I will beat you so badly that your own momma will feel the pain.”

“I didn’t hurt her,” I said, holding up my hands. “I swear it. I’m the one who gave her that money, the big tip she got yesterday, and didn’t tell her it was from me.”

Chris whistled and turned back to the grill, flipping the burgers once more like he hadn’t just shoved me against the wall. “You butted into her personal life. Dude, that’s like the worst thing you could do. She’s never gonna forgive you for that. She’s extremely private.”

“Yeah, I know,” I sighed, sagging against the wall. “I just wanted to help. She told me about her dad and all and I just wanted to relieve some of the stress off of her shoulders.”

Chris turned around halfway, his face full of surprise. “She told you about her dad?”

“Yeah,” I replied, feeling miserable about the situation.

“Wow,” he said, tapping his spatula against the edge of the grill. “I can’t believe she did that. She only told me after she’d known me a couple of years and probably only then because it got to a certain point that I needed to fix her schedule so she could take him to appointments, but she hasn’t known you that long.”

“I really care about her, Chris,” I said simply, my heart aching over the pain I might have caused her. “I just want to help her as much as I can.”

“Well, then you better start groveling, my friend,” Chris said with a shake of his head. “Because she isn’t just going to let you back in without a damn good reason. I should probably go ahead and shoot you to put you out of your misery.”

“Do you think she would see me?” I asked hesitantly, figuring he knew her better than anyone else. “If I went to her apartment?”

“Maybe,” Chris said slowly, taking the burgers off of the grill and carefully placing them on the waiting buns. “But again, I would be prepared to grovel.” He turned around and checked the clock on the wall. “But you’ve still got two hours in your shift.”

“Can you do without me?” I asked, thinking that now since we had gotten through the lunch crowd, it wouldn’t be that busy before my relief would come in. “Lunch rush is over and I’ll make it up, I swear.”

“I’ll have to dock your pay,” Chris said.

I nodded and peeled off the bar apron tied around my waist. “Thanks. This means a lot.”

“You might as well try, at least. But she’s probably not going to be at her apartment. She’s likely at her dad’s house,” Chris informed.

“And what are the odds you know where that is?” I asked.

“Dude, she would
kill
me if I gave you that information. Like, dead.”

I looked at Chris, concern filling every cell of my existence. “Chris, I can’t explain it right now, but I just
need
to know she’s okay. Not just emotionally, but physically. I just need to know.”

Chris drew in a deep, concerned breath. “I don’t know why, but you make this sound pretty serious. You’d better not be bullshitting me, barboy. And she’d better be okay.” He shook his head and reached in his pocket. “She’s going to kick my ass for this,” he mumbled. “This is the address to her dad’s place outside the city.,” Chris replied, writing something down on a piece of paper and handing it to me.

“Thanks,” I said, genuinely meaning it. Chris didn’t have to help me out, and I wasn’t really sure why he would, but for some reason, he was.

“Don’t get used to it,” he grumbled as I turned to go. “Hey, barboy.”

I turned around to find him glaring at me. “If this doesn’t work and she doesn’t want you back, I’m gonna have to fire you. I can’t have my best worker not wanting to be here.”

“Understood,” I acknowledged before heading to the locker room. I would gladly give up my position if Emma didn’t want to work this out. This place made her happy, and I wasn’t going to do anything to take that away from her. I’d clearly already done enough of that.

I grabbed my stuff and walked out to the car, hopping in before programming the address into the GPS on my phone. It was going to take me about forty-five minutes to get there so I had plenty of time to work on my groveling to get her to forgive me.

* * * * *

I sighed and drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, looking at the time on the clock. I only had twenty-six minutes before I reached my destination and had yet to come up with a good speech to give her when I got there. Everything sounded so rehearsed. Then again, I was doing just that, rehearsing it.

Glancing in my rearview mirror, I realized that the same car I’d seen since shortly after leaving Keefer’s was still behind me in the traffic. The car hung far enough back and the windows were tinted just dark enough that I couldn’t get a good idea of who might be behind the wheel. My first thought went straight to Felix and his goon. I hadn’t heard from them since they’d called and threatened the women in my life if I didn’t get them money. I had no intention of giving them any money, and I’d been trying to come up with a good plan when Emma called all upset. At that point, instead of talking to my mom about the Felix situation, I’d found myself talking to Emma’s voicemail over and over, hoping to get her to answer her phone so that I could explain myself and apologize.

But now, with the possibility of being followed, that all came back to the forefront. Whoever it was, they were close enough that when I changed lanes, they followed suit. It made me wonder if this was part of what they had warned me about, some scare tactic to convince me to give them the money and be done with it.

I changed lanes again and then threw on my blinker with barely enough time to make the left hand turn before I missed it. The rear end of my ‘Vette fishtailed a bit, but as I regained control the car tailing me reappeared in my mirror. My hands began to sweat under the grip I had on the steering wheel. After that stunt, there was no doubt — I was being followed.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Emma

I pulled the car up to the house and shut off the engine, looking at the overgrown yard once again. Usually, I got one of the neighborhood boys to cut the yard but money had been tight and I just couldn’t afford to pay him to do it. I had vowed that this would be the year I was going to get the yard spruced up and at least make it look like someone was living here again. I couldn’t do anything about the fading, peeling paint on the house itself just yet, but eventually I would. One thing was for certain, the money from Cooper wasn’t going to help with Dad’s yard. That money was going back to Cooper just as soon as I could pull it out of the bank and I didn’t care what he said about that.

With a sigh, I opened the car door and grabbed the medications from the passenger seat, my heart twisting at the thought of what those medications had cost me. Much more than money. “Another round of lies for Emma. Yay,” I muttered to myself. When was I going to learn that happily ever after didn’t exist anymore? Life pretty much just sucked most of the time.

Shutting the car door, I walked up onto the porch and knocked on the door before I turned the knob, trying to control my anger. I didn’t need to drag my dad into my mess of a life. He had enough to worry about without having to worry about me.

“Knock, knock,” I called through the screen door as I stepped in. I smiled when I saw Dad walking toward me. Seconds later, I was wrapped in one of his life-changing hugs. “Hey Dad, how are you?”

“Emmabug.” He smiled, his nickname for me bringing a wider smile to my face. “What brings you here?”

“I brought your medications,” I announced, holding up the bags. “And some food.”

Dad eyed the bags, his smile fading a little. “That’s a big bag of medication. How were you able to get that much, Em?”

I walked over to the table and sat the bags on it, gathering enough strength to lie to my dad. I hated the thought of not being truthful with him, but this one had all good intentions. “I was able to save up my tip money and purchase a month in advance. That way you won’t have to worry about running out.” I immediately felt like the biggest hypocrite alive.

“Tips must be pretty good these days,” he replied slowly. As I turned around, I saw the skepticism on his face and knew he didn't really believe me. But it was the story I was sticking to. “I got lucky and took care of a rather large party a few nights in a row. They tipped me really well.”

“I hope you put some of that money aside for you, too, Emmabug,” he said, his brow furrowing. “I don’t like the idea of all of your hard-earned money going to my medications. I can take care of myself.”

“Of course, Dad,” I said, throwing an arm around his frail shoulders. “I’m taking care of myself and of you. You did it for nearly all of my life, so it’s my turn now.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Don’t try to pull that crap over on me, Emma. I know you aren’t doing anything for yourself.”

“I surf,” I said defensively, removing my arm and crossing them over my chest. I did things for myself but my dad was my top priority. I couldn’t afford to lose him. He was all I had left.

“Surfing isn’t enough, Emma,” he crooned, walking over to his favorite chair. The house hadn’t changed much over the years other than a few signs of wear and tear, the age starting to become a factor. It needed a major facelift, but that wasn’t on the immediate concern list. I would have to add another job to my schedule. I thought about the money sitting in my bank account and felt the guilt well up inside. I really needed to give it back for the reason I had gotten it in the first place — tainted money, tainted with deceit. Even though I felt like Cooper’s intentions were probably good, it was still wrong. And while I would make sure he got the money back, I couldn’t face him just yet, the hurt was still too raw. That’s why I had called Chris and done something that was very unlike me, I’d taken a day off to sort out my feelings and try to figure out what to do going forward. I loved working at Keefer’s but I couldn’t work side by side with Cooper. Maybe he would go back home, and I wouldn’t have to see him again.

“You sure are in some deep thought over there. Care to talk about it?”

I hadn’t intended to talk to Dad, hadn’t intended to put any of my problems on his plate, but Dad always knew how to help. He somehow always had just the right advice to help me figure things out for myself. I sighed heavily. “Oh, Dad. I have a situation and I don’t know what to do,” I said, chewing on my lower lip. “What would you do if someone gave you money, a lot of money, and you didn’t ask for it and you didn’t want it?”

“Does this have anything to do with this mysterious tip money for the meds?” he asked.

I nodded and rubbed a hand over my face wearily. Coupled between Tim showing up at the pharmacy yesterday and Cooper’s deception, I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night and it was starting to take its toll. “This guy I had been seeing gave it to me anonymously.”

“Had been seeing?” my dad asked, raising a brow.

“He lied to me, Dad,” I offered defensively, picking at the lint on my shirt. “I thought he was a good guy, a truthful guy, but it turns out he’s no different than the rest of them.”

My dad rubbed his chin thoughtfully, his keen eyes watching me. “Why do you think he’s no different? I mean, does he have all the same qualities as the other guys who haven’t lived up to your standards? Let me ask you this, Emmabug . . . what attracted you to this guy in the first place?”

I thought about Cooper’s crooked smile, his fantastic laugh, the way he had come to my rescue and stood up to Tim before he even knew me. I thought about how he’d made me feel safe and cared for, how he’d had me thinking of a future with him. But all of that was before I knew he was a billionaire, before I knew he was capable of keeping something so significant from me. It made it hard to believe that the Cooper I had fallen for was still going to be that Cooper now that I knew his secret. How could he be? Knowing that fact made me see that we were so different and I really had no idea who the real Cooper was.