Sweetest Goodbye (Navy Book 3)

Chapter 17

Kate kept looking at the clock. It was almost lunch time and she wondered if Lee was going to come as he usual did. She refilled the coffee cups for a few customers then wandered back behind the counter and began to buss it.

She heard the bell and looked up expecting it to be Lee but it wasn't. It was the man named Earl that she and Lee had encountered at the steak house two days earlier. He had his two buddies with him as he stopped in the doorway looking over at her. Kate felt the same chill chase up her spine that she had felt at the restaurant. Earl gave a malicious smile before he turned and led the way to a table in the front of the restaurant. Luckily it wasn't her section, it was Irma's, so she breathed a sigh of relief.

Kate continued on with her work as if she hadn't noticed anything but watched under lowered lashes as Irma approached the men. There was brief conversation and the men got up and moved to a different table, towards the back of the restaurant. One of her tables.

Irma sauntered over to her with a smile that had been similar to Earl's. "You have an admirer," Irma said as she joined her behind the counter. "I told you moving a man into your house would give people the wrong idea about you."

Kate ignored her as she as she picked up three menus and approached the table. Her best bet was to play it friendly, as if she was clueless about what had happened between them and Lee. "What can I get y'all to drink?" she asked with a smile that she hoped didn't look too forced.

"Y'all, you're not from around here, are you?" Earl asked as he let his eyes slide up her body and Kate held back a disgusted shiver.

"No." She didn't expound on the answer as she waited with her pencil poised above her pad, ready to write their order down as soon as they gave it.

Earl gave her one last look then told her what he would have and his friends followed suit. Kate wrote it all down smiled and told them she would be back to take their order soon. As she walked across the restaurant she could feel their eyes on her back as she glanced at the clock again. If Lee was coming he was late and that wasn't like him. He had never been late. It probably meant he wasn't coming, and if there was ever a day that she wished he would come it was today.

She took her time with the drinks, giving them plenty of time to choose what they wanted to eat because she wanted to make as few trips to the table as possible. She was taking too long and she must have been flushed because Chuck gave her a double take and asked her if everything was alright.

"I'm not sure yet Chuck, would you mind watching my back until this table leaves?"

"Sure," he said looking at the table she had nodded towards. "I know the man; he's always been trouble."

"Thanks," she said as she loaded up the drinks and, unable to put the moment off any longer, approached the table. It seemed to Kate that the three men were having an argument of some sort as their low voices sounded rushed and urgent. She couldn't figure out what it was about though because as she approached the table they grew silent.

Earl watched her closely as she delivered the drinks with a steady hand and then tucked the tray under her arm as she prepared herself to take their order. "What would you all like?" she asked with a forced but friendly smile.

"Now that's an interesting question, what would we like?" Earl leaned back in his chair balancing on the back legs. Kate had never wanted anyone to fall as much as she wanted him to fall in that moment.

"Let me rephrase that, what would you like to order off of the menu?"

Earl let his gaze slide over her in a lewd way that gave Kate the creeps, but she waited patiently for him to give her his order.