ONE MORE BABY FOR THE BOSS

  HOLLY RAYNER

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  1. Alex

  2. Alex

  3. Elijah

  4. Alex

  5. Alex

  6. Elijah

  7. Alex

  8. Elijah

  9. Alex

  10. Elijah

  11. Alex

  12. Elijah

  13. Alex

  14. Elijah

  15. Alex

  16. Elijah

  17. Alex

  18. Elijah

  19. Alex

  20. Elijah

  21. Alex

  22. Elijah

  23. Alex

  24. Elijah

  Epilogue

  Also by Holly Rayner

  Copyright 2024 by Holly Rayner

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.

  All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.

  CHAPTER 1

  ALEX

  “You’re new in town, aren’t you?”

  Alex Hart smiled at the elderly man at her table as she poured his coffee. Today was her first day waiting tables at the Sunny Side Up Diner, and — as the man had accurately surmised — only her third in the town of Hope’s Creek. “I just moved into my apartment on Sunday,” she told him. “Loving it so far.”

  The man snorted. “Don’t count on that lasting,” he said. “They call this place Hope’s Creek, but the truth is that it’s the place hope comes to die. Don’t put down roots here, or you’ll never get out.”

  Alex’s smile began to feel pasted to her face. There was no risk of her putting down roots in Hope’s Creek, of course. She never stayed anywhere longer than six months. Not having a permanent home made life a constant adventure, but she was used to the people she met having opinions about it, and this man seemed like the type to have an opinion about absolutely everything.

  “Do you know what you’d like to order?” she asked him.

  He gave her a wry grin. “Once you’ve been here a little longer, you’ll be better at this,” he said. “All the other waitresses know my order, because I’m in here every morning.”

  Well, it’s only my first day, Alex thought. She felt frustrated. Small-town people were supposed to be friendly. This man was almost certainly an exception to the rule, nothing more — but still, it was an inauspicious beginning to her job at the Sunny Side Up Diner. She’d hoped for better.

  I don’t know why I bother to hope for things. My bad luck is stuck to me like gum on my shoe.

  That was certainly true. Though she enjoyed her itinerant lifestyle, bad luck seemed to follow Alex everywhere. It was the reason she had never been able to hold onto a job for long — things seemed to slip right through her fingers. Sometimes she moved on because she was ready to, but often it seemed as if events were conspiring against her.

  But that won’t happen here. After all, this is Hope’s Creek — a great place to start having hope for the future. Although not if this customer was to be believed.

  She jotted down his order of a meat lover’s omelet and went back to the kitchen. Stacy, the other morning waitress, was also there, picking up a plate of eggs to take to one of her tables.

  “You got Edgar, I see,” Stacy said. “That’s bad luck. Your very first table, and it’s Edgar.”

  “He’s kind of a crank, isn’t he?”

  “Absolutely. You’d better memorize that.” She nodded toward the ticket in Alex’s hand. “He’ll expect you to know his order by memory the next time you see him. And triple-check his plate before you take it out, because if anything’s wrong with the order, he’ll give you hell.”

  Alex groaned. “Tell me they’re not all like him.”

  “Oh, they aren’t. He’s one of our worst.” Stacy glanced over her shoulder. “Looks like another one of your tables is being sat, though, so you’d better get back out there.”

  Alex looked. The man who’d just arrived was younger than Edgar, perhaps mid-thirties, in jeans that were worn but clean and a faded T-shirt. He had dark hair and lines around his eyes. A little boy of about five or six sat across from him at the booth, scribbling vigorously on a children’s menu.

  “What’s he like?” she asked Stacy anxiously. “Not another grump, is he?”

  “I don’t know,” Stacy admitted. “He’s not a regular. I don’t know him at all.”

  “I thought everyone knew everyone in this town. Isn’t that the reason Edgar knew that I’d just moved here?”

  “Well, I know him by sight,” Stacy amended. “His name’s Elijah Trenton. He owns a couple of the ranches on the outskirts of town, and some to the south as well. But he never comes into town, and he certainly never eats at the diner. I’ve never talked to him.”

  “You make him sound like a celebrity.”

  “Oh, he might as well be. Everyone knows Elijah Trenton. He’s probably the richest man in this part of Texas.”

  “So no pressure!”

  “So he’ll probably leave you a decent tip. Or none at all.” Stacy shrugged. “Rich men can go either way. Flirt with him a little, that’ll help.”

  “That won’t be hard,” Alex murmured. Elijah Trenton was seriously attractive. She might have flirted with him anyway, unprompted, just for fun.

  She straightened her blond ponytail and headed over to his table. “Welcome to Sunny Side Up Diner,” she said, giving him her most winning smile. “What can I get for y’all this morning?”

  “I don’t suppose you have blueberry pancakes, do you?” he asked, looking up at her. His eyes were as blue as the sky before a storm, and for a moment it took her breath away. She forgot that she was at work. She forgot that he was here with his child. She had to restrain herself from sliding into the booth next to him and putting a hand on his thigh.

  She blinked. Focus. He was waiting for her to answer the question.

  “I’m afraid we don’t,” she said. “We have banana, if that would work for you?”

  Elijah turned to his son, “Sorry, Jack,” he said. “No blueberry. Want banana? Or maybe regular?”

  The little boy pouted and threw down his crayon. “I wanted blueberry.”

  “Well, they haven’t got blueberry.”

  “I don’t know why we had to come here. I want to go home.”

  Elijah glanced apologetically at Alex. “I’m awfully sorry about this.”

  “Don’t worry about it!” This was more like what she had expected in a small town — friendliness that bordered on being over the top. He certainly hadn’t owed her an apology, but after Edgar’s rudeness, it made for a welcome change.

  “I’ll tell you what, Jack,” Alex said, bending down a little bit to talk to the boy. “We do have some chocolate chips in the kitchen. They’re supposed to be for the bakery. But I’m friends with the cook, and I’ll bet you that if I ask him really nicely — and if your dad says it’s okay — I could get them to do chocolate chip pancakes. Would you like that?”

  Jack perked up at once. “Yes please!”

  Alex glanced at Elijah, wondering whether she’d overstepped. “Is that all right with you, Dad?”

  “That’d be great.” He looked relieved, as if he hadn’t known what he was going to do on his own to resolve the situation. “Thank you.”

  “It’s not a problem at all,” Alex assured him. “And what can I get for you?”

  “Eggs Benedict and crispy bacon, please. Really crispy. Basically burned.”

  She gave him a friendly laugh. “That’s how I like it too,” she said. “I’ll make sure they do it right for you.”

  She thought her laugh might draw out a smile, but he remained solemn and stoic. “Thanks,” he said, handing her his menu.

  “Yeah, no problem.” She took it from him and went to put in the order.

  Stacy was at the POS machine. “I just got off the phone with Heather,” she said. “She’s got the flu. She’s not coming in at eleven.”

  “But you get off at eleven,” Alex said.

  “I know,” Stacy said. “And I’d stay, I really would, but I have to pick up my kid from school. I tried calling his father, but of course he’s not answering the phone.”

  “Did you call Marjorie?” Marjorie was the owner of the diner, and she was also Alex’s landlord, since Alex was renting the upstairs apartment.

  “I left a message,” Stacy said, wiping her hands on her apron. “Look, I’m sorry, Alex, I know it’s your first day, but I don’t know what else to do. You’re going to have to hold down the fort until she calls.”

  “By myself?”

  “The cooks are here, and I know you’ve waited tables before. I can’t miss pickup.”

  “There’s no one else who could get your kid?”

  “There’s really not. I’m so sorry. I know this is not ideal.”

  It was about as far from ideal as a person could get, Alex thought. Her very first day on the job and she was going to have to go it alone. She wasn’t prepared for that in the slightest.

  But she was determined to try. After all
, it wasn’t Stacy’s fault this was happening, and there was nothing for it now but to give it her best effort. “You go,” she assured Stacy. “I can handle this.”

  “Keep trying Marjorie,” Stacy said as she took off her apron. “If you can reach her before the lunch rush kicks in, you should be all right.”

  “I’m sure I will be. Go. You don’t want to be late.”

  Stacy hurried out the door. Alex looked around at the restaurant. She was now responsible for Stacy’s two tables of customers in addition to her own two — well, that wasn’t so bad. She would go and check on Stacy’s tables, explain what had happened, get caught up on where they were in their meals—

  The door swung open and nine more people walked into the diner.

  Alex stopped cold. This was more than she had bargained for. The hostess began showing them to seats, and Alex knew she needed to go and check on them, bring them drinks… but now she had seven tables, and more people could come in at any time. She had just finished learning the menu. She might have been able to handle this at a familiar restaurant, but this place was so new to her. How could she keep up?

  I just have to. That’s all.

  Still, as she went to greet the new tables, she couldn’t help feeling as though her bad luck had caught up with her again. Some first day this was turning out to be!

  Twenty minutes later, Alex felt as if she was in the middle of a marathon. Two more parties had arrived. Edgar had left, thankfully, but she was still in the weeds and she could feel the irritation of the customers as she struggled to make it to each table with their food.

  “I’m so sorry about all this,” she said as she swung by Elijah’s table to refill his coffee. “Is there anything else I can get you right now?”

  “You’re fine,” Elijah said. “We can see you’re busy.”

  She wondered what he meant by that. Was there judgment in his tone? It was impossible to be sure. Maybe she should take his words at face value — but then, maybe he was subtly reprimanding her for being too busy to provide good service.

  “We had someone call out sick,” she said, hoping that he would understand.

  He nodded and said nothing.

  Alex’s mood darkened. It seemed as though he was upset with her — and that was completely unfair. She’d done nothing except try to make the best of a bad situation.

  Rich men are so entitled, she thought as she walked away from his table. He probably wasn’t used to having to wait for anything. Maybe he and his kid should just eat at home from now on. What were they doing in a diner anyway? This was no place for a rich guy. He should be eating brunch at a five-star restaurant or something. The service there would be great. He wouldn’t have to wait for anything. Then he would be happy.

  Then maybe she’d be able to focus and get some work done, and stop looking over at those long, hard thighs, those broad shoulders, those blue eyes that threatened to make her forget about all her other tables and give all her attention to him.

  She shook her head, trying to clear it, and hurried to the window to pick up more plates of food.

  This shift couldn’t end soon enough.

  CHAPTER 2

  ALEX

  The rest of Alex’s first week was just as bad as the first day had been.

  On the second day, she came in to find that the menu was entirely different from what she had worked so hard to memorize. “What is this?” she asked, staring at it. “This is completely different from yesterday.”

  Stacy wasn’t working today — it was an older woman named Veronica, and she clearly had an attitude about new hires. She looked down her nose at Alex. “This is the Tuesday menu,” she said. “I’m sure that you were told about this in your training. We offer a different menu every Tuesday.”

  “I wasn’t told.”

  “You probably just forgot,” Veronica sniffed.

  Alex felt slapped. She hadn’t forgotten. She wouldn’t have forgotten something like that. And she had worked so hard on memorizing the standard menu. It seemed impossible to her that this detail had been overlooked — and yet, somehow, it had.

  The upshot was that the entire day was a mess. She wasn’t able to answer any questions about the menu without consulting it herself, and the customers noticed. By the end of the day, she felt stupid and worn down, and she wanted nothing more than to climb into bed and hope that maybe tomorrow would treat her a little more kindly than today had.

  But the third day — if it were possible — was even worse. The power went out overnight, thanks to a storm, and as a result Alex’s alarm didn’t go off. By the time she jolted awake and ran downstairs to the restaurant, she was an hour late — and to make matters worse, Marjorie was there.

  “I’m so sorry,” Alex gasped as she scrambled to tie her apron.

  Marjorie frowned. “You know, I like to rent the upstairs apartment to people working at the restaurant so they’ll be sure to show up on time. I never expected something like this.”

  “I know. My alarm didn’t go off because of the storm.”

  “You should set an alarm on your phone so that doesn’t happen. You’re a millennial; I shouldn’t have to tell you these things.”

  “My phone was on the charger and it died,” Alex explained.

  Marjorie sniffed. “The power outage was at two in the morning. Your phone wasn’t on the charger until then? I suppose you were out partying until all hours.”

  “I wasn’t,” Alex said, and it was true. She’d had her phone off the charger late because she liked to listen to a meditation app before going to sleep — it was something that always helped her to relax, especially when she needed a good night’s sleep. “I wouldn’t stay out late when I had work the next morning. That isn’t me.”

  “Well, I don’t know what is you,” Marjorie said. “The only thing I know is that you’re here an hour late, and Stacy has been running the place by herself. You’d better get in there and help her — and do better next time.”

  Alex nodded, feeling chastised and deeply embarrassed even though she knew the incident hadn’t been her fault and she hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d buy a battery-powered alarm clock, she decided as she scrubbed her hands and got ready to start her day.

  Maybe it was the stress of her first three days getting to her, but on day four one thing after another seemed to go wrong. A kid dropped his crayons on the floor, causing Alex to slip and drop a tray of water glasses. Nothing broke, thankfully, but water spilled all over the customers, and it was clear they were angry about it. Afterward, Alex saw them talking to the manager on duty. She was so upset about how things were going that she forgot to clock out for her lunch break, which led to yet another stern reprimand. The restaurant was understaffed again, and her feet began to ache from all the running around.

  Friday was supposed to be her day off, and she had been looking forward to it desperately, but on Friday morning at eight o’clock, her phone rang. She fumbled for it, jolted out of sleep. “Hello?”

  “Alex?” Marjorie’s voice was brisk and businesslike. “I need you to come down to the café, please.”

  Alex’s heart skipped a beat. Had she made another mistake? Had she gotten her schedule confused? “I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought Fridays were my day off?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did someone call out? Do you need me to fill in?” She was eager to show that she could be an asset, given the way things had been going so far.

  “No, that won’t be necessary,” Marjorie said. “I need to meet with you for a few minutes, that’s all.”

  Alex felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach — this couldn’t possibly mean anything good. “I’ll be down in five minutes.”

  “I’ll expect you in ten,” Marjorie said wryly.

  Alex burned with humiliation as she threw on some clothes. That really hadn’t been a very fair remark. She knew she’d had her problems, but it wasn’t as if she was habitually late. And nothing that had happened had been her fault.

  It’s my bad luck catching up with me again.

  She hurried down the stairs to the restaurant and found Marjorie waiting by the door to her office looking impatient, even though Alex knew she hadn’t even taken the five minutes she’d asked for.