Sanctuary

it.
    “Lex isn’t feeling well. I’ll be taking her breakfast shift.”
    Brian grabbed a kitchen fork and hurriedly scooted the sausage around before it burned. “You’re going to wait tables?”
    “That’s what I said.” She grabbed a short apron from a peg and tied it on.
    “When’s the last time you waited tables?” Brian demanded.
    “The last time I was here and you were short-staffed.”
    “You’re a lousy waitress.”
    “Well, I’m all you’ve got, pal. Lexy’s got a crying jag headache, and Kate’s heading over to the campground to straighten out the mess there. So live with it.”
    Sam picked up his cap and edged toward the door. Dealing with his son was one thing, and that had been hard enough. He wasn’t about to take on a daughter in the same day. “I’ve got things to do,” he muttered and nearly winced when Jo shot him a killing look.
    “Well, so do I, but I’m waiting tables because the two of you decided to go at each other and Kate and I had to spend half the damn night listening to Lexy cry and carry on. Now the two of you, I see, have shaken hands like real men, so everything’s fine and dandy. Where are the damn order pads?”
    “Top drawer, under the cash register.” Out of the corner of his eye, Brian saw his father slip out the door. Typical, he thought grimly, and drained the sausage. “The computer’s new,” he told Jo. “You ever work a cash register computer?”
    “Why the hell would I? I’m not a sales clerk, I’m not a waitress. I’m a goddamn photographer.”
    Brian rubbed the back of his neck. It was going to be a long morning. “Go up and pour some aspirin down Lexy’s throat and get her down here.”
    “You want her, you get her. I’ve had more than my fill of Lexy and her drama queen routine. She was wallowing in it.” Jo slapped the pad down on the counter and stalked to the coffeepot. “Center of attention, as always.”
    “She was upset.”
    “Maybe she was, until she began to enjoy the role, but it wasn’t my fault. And I’m the one who was stuck with her. It was after two before Kate and I got her calmed down and out of my room. Now she’s the one who claims to have a headache.” Jo rubbed hard at the center of her forehead. “Any aspirin down here?”
    Brian took a bottle from a cupboard and set it on the counter. “Take the pot in and make the first rounds. Blueberry pancakes are the special. If you have to scowl, scowl in here. Out there you smile. Tell the customers your name and pretend you can be personable. It should offset the slow service.”
    “Kiss my ass,” she snarled but grabbed the pot and the pad and swung through the door.
    It didn’t get any better.
    Brian was slicing a grapefruit and grinding his teeth at the two orders that had been sitting under the warming light for a full five minutes. Another two, he thought, and he’d have to dump them and start again.
    Where the hell was Jo?
    “Busy morning.” Nathan breezed in the back door. “I got a glimpse of the dining room through the windows. Looks like a pretty full house.”
    “Sunday morning.” Brian flipped what he thought must have been the millionth pancake of the day. “People like a big breakfast on Sundays.”
    “Me, too.” Nathan grinned at the grill. “Blueberry pancakes sound perfect.”
    “Get in line. Goddamn it, what’s she doing out there, building the pyramids? You know computers?”
    “I’m the proud owner of three. Why?”
    “You’re now manning the cash register.” Brian jerked a thumb behind him. “Go over there and figure it out. I can’t keep stopping what I’m doing to fix it every time she fucks up a bill.”
    “You want me to work the cash register?”
    “You want to eat?”
    “Why don’t I work the cash register?” Nathan decided, and walked over to study it.
    Jo rushed in, her face pink and harassed, her arms loaded down with dishes. “She had to know. She had to know what it would be like today. I’m going to kill her if I live through this. What the hell are you doing here?” she shot at Nathan.
    “Apparently I’ve been put on the payroll.” He eyed her as she dumped the dishes in the sink and grabbed the waiting orders. “You look real cute today, Jo Ellen.”
    “Bite me,” she muttered and shouldered out the door.
    “I imagine she’s been just that pleasant to the customers.”
    “Don’t spoil my fantasy,” Nathan told him. “I like to believe she saves those ass kicks just for