The Farmer's Daughter: The Dragon Dream: Book One Read online

Nodding, Craig sensed he was in dangerous territory. “Been there,” he commiserated. “I bet he never said it again.”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  “Alright then. Can you find your way back to the deli?”

  “I can.” She stood. “Thank you for hiring me, Mr. Moore. You won’t regret it.” She turned smoothly and left, rubber band still entangled in her fingers.

  Craig watched her go, the skirt swishing pleasantly around her legs. He found himself smiling for no reason at the lingering scent of roses. His mood was lighter now, and he wondered why. With no immediate answer, he dismissed it and returned to his paperwork, a smile still in place.

  R ebecca Wilson, known simply as Becky, watched in amusement as her new charge tried to operate the meat slicer. Her hazel eyes laughed pleasantly.

  “How do you do this?” asked an exasperated Angela, looking in dismay at the broken pile of deli meat in front of her. There wasn’t a whole slice in the entire pile.

  “Practice,” replied Becky. She picked the pile up with a piece of waxed paper and quickly wrapped it in a larger piece. “Don’t worry about it, hon. We’ll just use it for sandwiches and salads.” The matronly woman wrote the type of meat and the date on the wax paper wrapper before placing it in the refrigerator. Returning to Angela’s side, she said, “Now, let’s try it again.”

  This time, Becky gave more hands-on instruction and the next pile came out much better. Together they weighed and wrapped it, placing a sticker with the price over the overlapping wax paper. The deli manager allowed Angela to pass the processed ham to the waiting customer. Who just happened to be Flo Jamenson.

  “Thank you, dear,” Flo said kindly, taking her order and placing it absently in her hand-held basket. “I didn’t know you worked here.”

  “I just started today.” It was easy for Becky to see Angela’s suppressed sigh, though she didn’t think the customer noticed. The older woman was the town’s biggest gossip, even before her husband’s death. Flo was always on the younger woman’s case about something, but Angela had been raised not to disrespect her elders.

  “That’s so nice. I didn’t know Craig was hiring though. He has such a low turnover.” The widow managed to give the air of complete innocence. “Why, my grandson tried getting a job here just a few weeks ago and was turned down. How did you manage it, dear?”

  Angela shrugged. “I showed up in the right place and the right time I guess.”

  “I see.” Disappointment was obvious in the widow’s tone and face. She had obviously been looking for more details. “Good luck on your new job, Angela.”

  “Thanks. I’ll see you in church.”

  Flo nodded absently and left.

  Watching the older woman disappear around the aisle corner, Angela shook her head ruefully.

  “She’d been wandering around the store for a good five minutes waiting for you to come out,” Becky commented in amusement. Best to make light of it. “It’s always nice when your neighbors seem to know what you’re doing before you do. It saves calling time.”

  Angela laughed. “At least she’s obvious about it. The only thing she said wrong was about her grandson.”

  “Who’s nine and lives in Jordan,” agreed Becky, her laughter chiming in. “My word, girl, but I’m glad you got here before Harry could come begging for his job back. You’re going to be so much nicer to work with!”

  “I haven’t been here very long.” The young woman was embarrassed, and Becky knew she must be struggling with anxiety if her embarrassment was showing.

  “Doesn’t matter. You’re going to be here a while, I can tell. You’ve got spunk.” The deli manager patted her shoulder, trying to put the new employee at ease.

  “Mother’s always called it a smart tongue. It gets me into trouble all the time.” But the girl was taking a deep breath and seemed to be relaxing. A smile played at the corners of her mouth.

  “It shouldn’t get you into too much trouble here.” Becky wiped down the counter as she spoke, glad to see the girl relaxing. But then from the corner of her eye, she saw Angela’s hands twitch and knew the girl saw something she wanted to clean or reorganize. She’d get to that in a moment. There were other matters to be addressed. “Just remember – the customer is always right, especially when they’re dead wrong. You handled Flo well. Remember to never argue with Cori or Susan. They both like to make trouble if they can. If you can remember those two things, you should be fine.”

  Becky paused in her chore to wonder if she should throw in the warning about Craig. The younger girls always seem to develop crushes on the confirmed bachelor. But having known Angela and her family for years through their church, she didn’t think it would be an issue. Anxiety and depression aside, Angela was too mature to fall for a handsome face, and far too busy with her schooling to notice any attention directed towards her. The girl didn’t even seem to be interested in their handsome young pastor who had taken a liking to her. Which was when Becky realized she was getting just as bad as old Flo.

  “What’s so funny?” asked Angela, her hands fidgeting.

  “Oh, just a thought about Flo. Don’t worry about it.” The girl’s fidgeting was amusing to her. She knew the deli was immaculate if a tad unorganized. “You really want to start reorganizing things, don’t you?”

  Angela laughed lightly. “Just a little.”

  “Give yourself a few weeks,” she advised, glancing at the clock on the wall above the counter. “If you still don’t like the method to my madness by then, I’ll give you the chance to show me a better way.”

  The young woman laughed again and nodded her head. “So, what now?”

  “Now, we grab a break before it gets busy again.” The stout woman decided to sit in one of the nearby folding chairs, thankful for the chance to rest her swollen feet. She beckoned for Angela to sit in the one next to her. “Sit, sit. I’ve missed church a few Sundays. Tell me how your mother’s doing.”

  Angela sat next to her, looking grateful for the break. Becky knew the significance of today, and it looked like it was weighing on the other. “Mom’s fine. Fretting over Cassie going into her senior year and worrying about me finding a second job. Well, third if you count working Saturday mornings at the karate center.”

  “That’s to be expected. All mothers worry!” Becky smiled, thinking of her own children. “I don’t remember. Are you in vet school yet, or still pre-vet?”

  “I’ll be starting my last year of pre-vet after Labor Day.”

  “Good for you! Doc Maynard must be looking forward to you taking over someday.”

  “Hey, you two!” called out David as he came up and leaned against the deli case. “Craig doesn’t pay you to sit around and gab, you know. If he wanted to do that, he’d have offered Flo a job.”

  Becky grinned at the manager saucily. “I don’t see any customers, do you?”

  David laughed. “No, but I don’t remember you ever sitting with Harry and gabbing.”

  “For your information, it’s not gabbing…it’s called catching up. As for Harry, all he wanted to do was talk about baseball.”

  “What’s wrong with baseball?” Angela asked innocently.

  David laughed, and Becky sighed.

  “Nothing, if you happen to like the game,” Becky explained tolerantly. “Which I don’t. I think it’s a stupid game. I mean, a bunch of grown men hitting a ball with a stick and running around in circles? Don’t they have anything better to do with their time?”

  “Apparently not,” remarked Angela dryly.

  “For millions of dollars a season, I’d swing at a ball and run around in circles.” David winked at Angela as he joked, and the young woman laughed.

  “You run around in circles as it is.” Becky shook her head, her graying hair swishing around her chin.

  “Yeah,” answered the manager. “But Craig doesn’t pay as well.”

  “They don’t even deserve half what they make! You see, this is what’s wrong with the world!” Before she
could go into her usual tirade on the subject, the deli manager heard Angela’s continued laughter and looked at her with raised eyebrows.

  “Sorry,” said Angela contritely. “But I just realized one more thing to remember about working here.”

  “Oh?”

  “Don’t mention baseball around you!”

  David joined Angela as she laughed again, and Becky couldn’t resist joining in. If this was what it was going to be like having Angela working here, she thought it was going to be more than tolerable.

  “Alright, David,” said Becky when they were done laughing. “You’ve had your fun. Go bother the ones up front. Larry might need your company.”

  “Don’t work too hard now.” David winked at the two and walked away still laughing.

  Shifting on the hard chair, Becky turned to her new co-worker with a grin. “Now, where were we?”

  4

  A fter Cori Hadlock left the store that night, she stopped in at the Four Horse Saloon on the outskirts of Sawyersville. The bar used to be a pleasant place to unwind after the late shift before going home to a lazy boyfriend and two squalling brats. It was a clean and respectable enough establishment. But since she and Travis were up to their necks in gambling debts, the bar was just another job.

  She sat at the bar, a few regulars greeting her. Ordering and receiving a beer, she took a long draught of the ice-cold liquid before turning on the stool to look around casually. Not many around yet, it wouldn’t start hopping until after eleven. The only one out of place at this hour was Harry Flynn. He was sitting at one of the out of the way tables, concentrating hard on his own drink. Cori sighed deeply and hopped off the stool. Hoping the bar would pick up soon, she crossed the room to sit with the old man.

  “Tough break, Harry.”

  Flynn looked at her, his eyes bleary from too much drink. “Oh, hi. How was your day?”

  Cori laughed as she grabbed a chair from a nearby table and sat across from him. “You lose your job to a kid, Angela Carman of all people, and the first thing out of your mouth is – how was your day? How many have you had?”

  The grungy man shrugged. “Don’t know, don’t care.”

  “How long have you been here?” she asked, taking another swallow from her own drink.

  “Since I left the store the second time.”

  “The second time?”

  Flynn nodded, motioning to the bartender for another drink. “Yeah, I tried getting my job back. I’ve worked there for close to twenty years, you know. But Craig said no. I guess swinging at him didn’t help any.”

  “No, I wouldn’t think so.”

  “So, how’d the kid’s first day go?”

  “Fine, as far as I can tell. She’s still there.” She smiled at the bartender as Tilly exchanged Flynn’s empty for a full one and left a fresh beer for her as well.

  Flynn made a sad sounding noise. He drew his new glass of whiskey and ice closer to himself. “Yeah, Craig wanted the displays switched around tonight.” He downed the whiskey like it was water. The drunken man set his empty glass on the table and leaned in close to the attractive woman sitting across from him. “You like to make trouble, Cori; do you think you’d like to make some now? Enough to make the Carman girl quit, or get fired? Because I want my job back.”

  She wasn’t sure if it was his body odor or his breath, but Harry reeked of something rotten. Leaning away from the overpowering stench, she set her beer down and remembered the lecture she had gotten the last time she’d ‘caused trouble’ at the store. Craig hadn’t been happy with the lie about switching nights with Emma; Emma hadn’t been happy either. “Are you serious?”

  Flynn nodded. “Very. Mable might be a nag, but I love her, and she prefers clean money. It’d mean the world to me.”

  “It’d cost you that much,” muttered Cori. “If you’re serious, talk to me when you’re sober and we’ll deal.”

  He leaned in closer, not noticing how she leaned away. She was in danger of tipping her chair over to keep out of reach of his stench. “Maybe, just maybe, I could get Mr. Crane to ease up on you and your boyfriend’s debt.”

  Cori didn’t ask how he knew about it. She had seen him at Crane’s casino, at Crane’s table, often enough not to ask too many questions. “You could do that?”

  He slumped a little. “I might try if you’d say yes.”

  “You’re making it up,” said Cori disgustedly. “You couldn’t do it.”

  “I could too!” the drunk man exclaimed a little too loudly. He lowered his voice at her frantic hushing motions. “It would take some bargaining and swindling, but I can do it.”

  Cori leveled a finger at him. “Tell you what…if you can get Crane to back off enough so I don’t have to keep turning tricks in this dingy little bar, I’ll do whatever you want. You’d have to come through with your part of it before I’ll even considering helping you.”

  Flynn smiled. He nudged his chair around, so he could pat her leg under the table. “Thanks Cori. You’re wonderful.”

  She managed not to sneer at him. “Don’t thank me yet.” She downed the rest of her beer and grabbed the new one Tilly had left. “I’ll see you later, Harry. Take it easy.” She didn’t take long in crossing back to the bar.

  Flynn still smiled and waved to the bartender for a new drink. He as confident he’d soon have his old job back, just as soon as he could talk to Mr. Crane.

  Hours later, as Cori showered away the filth from the bar, she considered Harry and his offer again. He was a desperate drunk, but he was a drunk with connections.

  Or the illusion of connections, she wasn’t sure yet. Harry did sit at Crane’s table quite often.

  As much as she wanted to stop prostituting herself, she almost hoped Harry wouldn’t be able to do as he promised. She liked Angela, always had, and enjoyed having her working at the Cupboard. It had been fun hanging around her craziness in high school.

  Maybe Harry was drunk enough to forget their conversation by morning. He’d still been at the bar when she left, so maybe he already had. Hopefully he’d go home and sleep it off, then wake up ready to hunt for another job. Unlikely, but worth hoping for.

  Cori stepped out of her shower, not feeling any cleaner. The hour was late, but Travis would wake up no matter how quietly she came to bed. He would want to prove to her how he was a better lover than any man she’d been with at the bar. He was ten times better, but he never believed her.

  She was tired of this life.

  Perhaps one friendship, even a friendly acquaintance, was worth sacrificing if it gave Cori her life back.

  A fter Craig and David had finished going over the cash drawers and receipts from the day, they spoke of Angela.

  “So, what do you think? Is Angela going to work out as Harry’s replacement?” asked Craig as he locked the safe holding the day’s earnings. It was enough for a run to the bank in the morning.

  “I think so. She’s a hard worker, and if she doesn’t understand something, she’s not afraid to tell you.” David stretched his lean frame. “She and Becky were getting along pretty good earlier.”

  “Yeah, I heard them laughing while I was sitting on the deck. That’s going to be a pleasant change around here. I hope Becky thought to warn her about Susan and Cori.”

  “I’m sure she did,” David assured him. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about though. We haven’t had any trouble from them in a while.”

  “That’s because I threatened to fire them if they didn’t quit acting like they’re still in kindergarten.” Craig shook his head in exasperation. He looked at his manager and saw his exhaustion. It was always rough on David when Miranda was on her week-long vacation, no matter how much the store owner tried to help. He always repaid the other man back by giving him a long weekend off when the other manager came back. “Go on home, Dave. I’ll check on Angela and see how close to being done she is and finish locking up.”

  “Fine by me. See you in a few days.”

  “
Enjoy your time off,” said Craig as the manager slipped out the back office door.

  “I will,” came the faint answer, the other man’s voice dampened by the night air.

  Craig left his office and walked down the hallway leading to the main part of the building. Turning the corner into the back aisle of the store, he was blindsided as a blurry figure rammed into him. He grunted and staggered, even as the other person fell to the floor with a squeak.

  “I am so sorry!” Angela looked up at him frantically. “I didn’t see you! Are you okay?”

  “You’re the one on the floor,” he pointed out. Was there some way he could help her up without touching her? She scrambled to her feet and his indecision was over. “What were you doing?”

  “I was having trouble with the display, so I decided to take a little break. This is a really nice waxed floor…and since we’re closed…I…”

  “Yes?”

  “I took my shoes off to do slides. I’d get a running start and see how far I could slide.”

  Craig smiled in amusement. “How old did you say you were?”

  Her chin raised defiantly. “My grandmother always says you’re never too old to have fun, even if it means acting like a kid again.”

  “Sounds like something my grandmother would have said.” He looked down the aisle to her starting point. The cardboard display was propped up against the far end of the aisle. Shaking his head in amusement, he said, “Come on. I’ll help you wrestle the display up.”

  “You’re not mad?” she asked as they started down the aisle. School supplies such as notebooks on one side and water guns and summer toys on the other side.

  The store owner shrugged. “Why? Nothing was broken. Besides, we all need to have a little fun once in a while.”

  “No, a lot of fun. There’s a difference.”

  Now Craig laughed. He had the fleeting thought as they began to piece the cardboard together that he was glad this girl appeared in time before Harry could come back asking for his job. He didn’t miss the little weasel one bit.