Close to You
“She’s right,” Riley adds. “Take a deep breath and give yourself a break.”
“Is it always the same amount?” Addie asks.
“No, but it’s never big. It varies from forty to a hundred.”
“You don’t think the new girl, Leah, is stealing from us, do you?” Addie asks with a frown.
“Maybe she doesn’t know how to count back change?” Riley asks diplomatically.
“I don’t know, but we should talk to Kat about it,” Addie says.
“Leah’s here now, so I’ll text Kat to come in here,” I reply, thumbing out a message to Kat. A few seconds later, she walks through the door and we tell her what we’ve found.
Kat’s eyes narrow. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this right now. I won’t tolerate this in our place.”
She stomps away, out the door, and we all look at each other, then hurry to follow her into the bar.
There are no customers right now. We haven’t opened for lunch yet.
“Leah,” Kat says as she walks behind the bar toward the petite blonde. “Are you stealing from me?”
Leave it to Kat to just lay it all out there.
Leah’s eyes widen in shock. “What? No!” She glances over at us, then back to Kat. “I would never do that.”
“Cami, can you please tell Leah what you found?” Kat asks, her eyes pinned to the girl’s. Leah’s reaction seems sincere.
“The tills have been short after you’ve been on shift,” I say, and show her the reports from each day, how much there should be, and how short it is. “Do you know where the money could have gone?”
She shrugs, looking thoroughly perplexed.
“Could you be giving back too much change?” I ask, grasping at straws.
“No, the register tells me how much to give, and I always count it out.” She bites her lip and looks at Kat imploringly. “Honestly, I’m not taking money that doesn’t belong to me. At the end of my shift, I take my cash tips, and I add up the credit-card tips and take those too.”
“Wait.” I hold my hand up, stopping her. “You take your credit-card tips at the end of the shift?”
“Yes.”
“That’s it,” Kat says, her whole body sagging in relief. “I must not have told you, Leah, but the credit-card tips are added up during the pay period and added to your paychecks.”
“Oh!” Leah clasps her hands over her mouth. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay,” Addie says with a nod. “Now you do. Crisis averted.”
THE NEXT MORNING, Landon and I are having coffee and getting ready for our day ahead when his phone rings. I make myself busy feeding Scoot, trying not to eavesdrop.
Who am I kidding? I’m totally eavesdropping.
“Are you kidding me?” he asks, a frown on his handsome face. “They couldn’t have caught this before I left Italy?” He sits back in his chair and scowls at his coffee. “So I have to take a day off of work and drive two hundred miles out of my way because someone else fucked up.”
Uh-oh.
He’s quiet for a moment, and then says, “I’ll be there this afternoon.”
He hangs up and sighs. “What do you have going on today?”
“Just the usual, why? What’s wrong?”
“I have to go up to the Naval base north of Seattle to sign some paperwork that the morons in Italy forgot.”
“You have to go all the way to the base? They can’t fax it to you?”
“No, I have to sign it in person.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Come with me.”
“Sure, I’ll just blow off work and go up to Seattle with you.”
“Great.”
“You’re serious.”
“Absolutely,” he replies, and smiles. “Let’s make a night of it.”
He wants me to spend the night in Seattle with him. In the middle of the week. I bite my lip while I think about work. I don’t have anything that won’t keep a couple of days.
“What do you say?” he asks.
“Let’s do it. I’ll make some calls.”
“Great.” He tugs me into his lap and kisses me firmly. “I get you all to myself for a while.”
“I’ll be a captive audience in the car,” I reply with a laugh.
“Good.”
In less than an hour, I’ve called Addie and Kat to fill them in, and Kat agreed to stop by to feed Scoot tonight. I packed an overnight bag and we are on our way north. Thankfully, there is no winter weather to speak of, so it should be a smooth ride.
Landon lets me choose the music, and we sit in silence for about an hour, listening to music, holding hands, just being with each other. Sometimes, these are my favorite moments with him. When we just are.
He squeezes my hand and I look up to find him smiling at me. “Doing okay?” he asks.
“I’m great.” I lean in and kiss his shoulder. “You?”
“I’m great too. A bit irritated that we have to take a trip up for this.”
“So, this is paperwork that they should have had you sign before you came home?”
“Yes. Pain in the ass.” He shakes his head and then offers me a smile. “You’re welcome to sleep if you want.”
“I know, but I’m fine.” I shrug and look out the window, watching western Washington pass us by. “It’s been a mild winter.”
“I prefer it that way,” he replies. “Makes it easier to work.”