Twilight: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 3

them to a table in the far corner. “Oh my God,” Dean moaned as they pulled the wooden chairs up to the table. “This smells soooo good. I’m starving.”
    “Me too.” Sam contemplated the three empty chairs at the table. “Wonder if anyone else is sitting here? Other groups seem to be sitting together.”
    Bo shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m anxious to talk to Lex and Carl. We didn’t get the chance to tell them anything much on the walk back.”
    “Looks like you’ll get your chance.” Dean nodded toward the front door, which was behind Bo. “Here they come.”
    Sam, sitting beside Bo across the table from Dean, turned to look. Lex and Carl waved, heading straight for their table.
    “Hi, folks,” Carl said, plopping into the chair beside Dean. “Hungry?”
    “As a horse.” Dean grinned at Lex, who’d taken the empty seat beside Bo. “What’s on the menu?”
“Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, baked apples, biscuits and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.” Leaning back in her chair, Lex beckoned to someone Sam couldn’t see. “Everything’s made fresh right here every day, and there’s plenty of it. People work up a healthy appetite here.”
“That’s certainly true.” Bo rested his elbows on the table. “I hope y’all don’t mind talking about the case during dinner. We’d like to share what we learned this evening, since we didn’t get a chance to talk about it on the way back here.”
“Of course, that’s fine.” Carl glanced up and smiled at the woman with the red scarf, who’d approached the table. “Sandra, I’d like to introduce you to some very special guests. This is Dean Delapore, Sam Raintree and Dr. Bo Broussard from Bay City Paranormal Investigations. They’re here to look into those things some of our guests have seen. Guys, this is Sandra Leland. She’s our head cook.”
Sandra held out her hand, shaking with each man in turn. “Nice to meet y’all. I saw that thing once. Creeped me right out. What’ll you have to drink? We have water, iced tea and lemonade.”
“You can have wine too, if you like,” Lex added. “We have plenty.”
Bo smiled. “I’ll just have water, thank you.”
“Me too,” Sam told her. “Maybe another time on the wine.”
“Lemonade for me, Sandra, thanks.” Dean flashed his flirtatious smile. “Is it a requirement that everyone who works here has to be incredibly attractive?”
Sandra laughed. “Oh, you’re good. Too bad I don’t swing that way, I might take you up on it.”
Dean’s eyebrows shot up. “My apologies. Far be it from me to try to turn a happily outed lesbian.”
“No apologies necessary.” With a wink at Dean, Sandra hurried off to the kitchen.
“Well, there’s a mistake I don’t usually make.” Dean turned to Carl, his face the picture of innocence. “It’s great that y’all are equal opportunity employers. Your other employees don’t give her any trouble, I hope?”
Lex shook her head. “When we first hired Anne, she said a few derogatory things, but she apologized when we told her we don’t tolerate that kind of thing here and she’d be fired if it happened again. According to Sandra, Anne hasn’t given her any more trouble. They’ll never be friends, I’m sure, but I doubt they would be anyway. They’re very different.”
“Can’t see that Sandra’s orientation has ever affected her cooking,” Carl added. “Anybody who thinks it would, can’t expect to work for us.”
Smiling, Lex patted her husband’s hand. “We believe in giving people a chance to correct their behavior, but there’s only so much we’ll put up with.”
“You know what, I sort of figured that about y’all.” Leaning against the backrest of his chair, Dean darted a meaningful glance at Sam and Bo.
Sam stifled a groan at Dean’s smug expression. Armed with this particular tidbit of knowledge, Dean could conceivably make the next few days hell on earth by prodding Bo at every opportunity to “come out” to the staff, which Sam knew Bo very much did not want to do. Sam didn’t either, actually. Rather than convincing Sam that he and Bo could safely tell Lex and Carl about their relationship, Lex’s revelation about Anne just made him more determined not to. Clearly, Lex and Carl didn’t know their employees quite as well as they thought, which made Sam feel less than safe confiding in them.
Not that explaining his reasoning would stop Dean from pestering him and Bo both about it.