Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 19701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 99(@200wpm)___ 79(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 99(@200wpm)___ 79(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Businessmen and women and the college kids were my customers. It was a surprisingly good living for a fifty-year-old bar in the middle of nowhere.
Mom had seen to that with grandma’s hundred- year old pie recipes, and the bread we served to all customers. Those two things, plus my Wednesday's specials of whatever came into my mind, were a hit.
Most of my regulars were locals and by regulars, I mean old man Cecil who came in every day and held up one end of the bar on his favorite stool and his partner in crime Josiah who would join him an hour later after his wife let him loose.
Those two could put away the beer. I liked the company though, especially on those days when the pickings were slim. That usually happened when it rained because Moss Creek became a wet muddy mess then.
Every step I took on the way to the bar I was afraid of running into him. I was like a cat on a hot tin roof for sure. Luckily I made it there without incident, but he might as well had been there. I could still feel him.
I had to put hot cock and even hotter guy out of my mind and get down to business. It always takes me a minute to talk myself into wanting to be here. Three months after momma passed away daddy followed right behind and left me the bar.
That’s the reason Dale had given in the note he left me when he decided to ditch me at the altar two weeks ago. Because I was now stuck in our one-horse town according to him, and he didn’t want to live here and thought it best we went our separate ways.
After four years of giving him my body, he decided I wasn’t worth it. I was mad enough to spit, especially after that Cora snickered in the church when Dale’s sister came with the note.
I’d had to walk out of there with my tail tucked between my legs. I thought I’d never be able to show my face again but I had a business to run. The girl who was going to watch the place while I went off for a week to Charleston for my honeymoon was off the hook.
I’d given strong thought to letting her carry on, but after a long night spent with self-pity, ice cream, and chocolate, I decided that it was best to rip the band-aid of humiliation off quickly to get it over with. The sooner I face the town and show them that I wasn’t as hurt as they thought I should be, the better.
I forbade anyone to mention it to me but old Cecil and Josiah wouldn’t let it rest. Those two were highly offended on my behalf and let anybody who would listen know it. I just put the whole thing out of my mind and decided that it never happened.
I did find myself over the last two weeks throwing stuff around in the supply room and I might’ve broken a bottle or two of beer back there but other than that I was doing okay f0r a woman whose guts had been ripped out through the hole in her chest where her heart once lived.
I opened the doors and locked them behind me so I could go do what I had to in back. We weren’t open for business until elven thirty anyway and I was usually here by myself for the first few hours until the girls came in.
I’d hired four local girls, two for the afternoon shift and two for the nights with a third person swinging on the weekends when things really picked up around here.
With pen and clipboard in hand, I went through my supplies ticking off what needed replenishing and what would tide us over until the next delivery, glad that I could at least concentrate.
I didn’t serve any real food, except for Buffalo wings, mozzarella sticks, those pies, and my Wednesday special, which was usually some kind of sandwich or battered fish or poultry deep-fried in peanut oil.
For snacks, they got peanuts at the bar and salsa and chips at the tables, so it was pretty easy going here. Still, it was enough for those frat boys on the weekends and the businessmen and faculty during the weekdays.
If someone wanted real food they could head on down to the diner for a bite but she closed her doors at seven and I stayed open until midnight during the week and one on the weekends.
I was giving real thought to opening up the kitchen in the back and serving more sturdy fare but that was going to take some thinking on my part. I’d have to find a cook and maybe a whole staff and revamp the place.