“I could help you with that. I could—”
“Go!” she said, laughing as she pushed him out the door, then locked it behind him
.
Once she was alone in the little shop she meant to go straight up to bed, but then she thought maybe she should juice the lemons. Roan had purchased a big commercial juicer and she could try it out. It would probably only take a few minutes to do all the lemons.
Hours later it was midnight and she had the juicing done, more vegetables cut, and even the utensils set out to start the soups in the morning. As she made her way up the stairs she was staggering with fatigue. She set the alarm for four a.m. She probably wouldn’t need that much time to get ready but she wanted to be safe.
She fell into bed and was asleep instantly.
Eighteen
Sophie knew the people of Edilean meant well, but right now she wanted to push them all out the door and lock it. It wasn’t even lunchtime yet but she was dizzy with fatigue and her mind was spinning with all the orders she’d had to fill.
At 4:15 a.m. she’d been downstairs making what she’d thought were vats of soup, but if the breakfast traffic was any indication of what was coming at lunch, the soup wouldn’t last an hour. At four-thirty Reede called and said he was sorry but one of his patients had gone into labor and he had to attend to her. “And her husband,” he’d added. Roan arrived at six-thirty and made the coffee.
When Sophie unlocked the front door at seven, there was a line outside. She’d planned to serve eggs and ham on bagels, but no matter how fast she moved she couldn’t keep up with the demand. Roan rang up the receipts, but he loved to talk, and people in line were impatient. Several times during the day Sophie thought of the woman having a baby. Giving birth had to be easier than the chaos of the little restaurant.
All morning Sophie had the big flat griddle filled with eggs and ham and she tried her best to do it all.
At 11:20 when someone said, “Are you serving lunch yet?” Sophie nearly burst into tears. She hadn’t had time to clean up from breakfast and she knew there wasn’t enough soup.
“Need some help?” came a voice from behind her. It was a voice that was so familiar, and so comforting, that Sophie smiled before she turned around. But then, she realized who owned the voice and saw his face at the same time.
It was Carter.
He was at the head of the line of people waiting for Sophie to take their orders, then make their sandwiches, ladle soup, and serve it all to them.
If Carter had shown up the day before she would have panicked. Just plain gone into an attack of fear. Were the police behind him? Were they waiting to take her away to jail for stealing the precious Treeborne cookbook?
But right now she didn’t have time for the luxury of a panic attack. “The cookbook is being sent back to you and would you step aside so I can take these people’s orders?” She glared at him, daring him to make a scene. She didn’t see any police, so maybe Carter had come alone. If that was true, then all she had to do was say something to Roan and he’d usher Carter out. Probably by the seat of his pants.
“Hey kid!” Roan said. “Make up your mind. You’re holding up the flow.”
“Yeah,” the young man next in line said.
“He’s just leaving, aren’t you?” Sophie narrowed her eyes at Carter, then lowered her voice. “You’re not in Treeborne country now and nobody is going to put you at the front of the line.” She couldn’t help smiling at that thought. Edilean may have its problems but it wasn’t owned by a tyrant of a man who allowed his son to do anything he wanted to anybody.
Carter looked genuinely puzzled, as though no one had ever suggested that he shouldn’t be given special privileges.
A lot of words came to Sophie’s mind of what she’d like to say to him, to tell him how he’d hurt her, and how she wished she’d never met him. But she didn’t have the time. “Go back to where you belong. People work here.”
Still looking as though he didn’t understand what was happening, Carter moved out of line and Sophie took an order for a brie and cranberry panini sandwich.
She couldn’t help but glance at Carter as he walked toward the door. On the drive to Edilean there’d been a dozen times when she’d thought that if he’d shown up she would have thrown herself at him. On one long stretch across East Texas she imagined that he’d so regret what he’d done and would say to her that he’d use the Treeborne resources to tear the earth apart looking for her.
But by the time she got to Tennessee she knew he wasn’t going to come for her. And by the time she reached Virginia she was boiling with anger.
Turning, she began to put a sandwich together. She had already apologized fifty times to people because they had to wait so long for their orders. Only two people had complained, and Roan had escorted both of them out the door.
“Anybody else have any comments to make?” he’d asked in a voice that was used to filling auditoriums. No one else had said anything bad.
As Sophie made the sandwich she looked up and saw Carter pulling a white apron off a peg. The sunlight came through the front windows and flashed off his golden hair. She used to like the blondness of him, like his pale skin. But now he looked almost girly.
“What do you think you’re doing? You can’t—” she began as he took gloves from a box.
“I’m going to help,” he said. “Don’t you think I owe you that much?”