“No, ma’am, I mean, yes, ma’am, I’ll take them right now and won’t forget again,” Darren muttered as he dug the bottle of ibuprofen from his pocket. “I’m sorry, I just…it was busy and people, they just kept—and I didn’t know what—” Darren snapped his mouth shut, biting his tongue for good measure. For someone who didn’t talk much, he’d turned into a babbling fool. He fumbled with the lid until Virginia took the bottle from his hand.
“Darren, just calm down,” she chided as she opened the bottle and poured out two pills. “People were asking ‘cause they were worried about you, that’s all. Sure, a few were just nosy, but you’d be surprised how many people who come in here feel kind of protective over you.”
Darren wasn’t surprised as much as he was completely poleaxed. “What? Why? They don’t know me!”
“They know enough.” Virginia handed him the painkillers, cupping his hand in hers when he would have pulled it away. “They know you’ve been hurt bad enough to be scared of your own shadow. Ain’t a lot of people here who don’t want to know why that is and how to make you feel safer—the good Sheriff and his man included.”
Darren tugged and Virginia released his hand as she pursed her lips. He tossed the pills into his mouth and walked over to the sink, needing to escape her sharp gaze. As tired and miserable as he felt right now, Darren didn’t trust himself not to blurt out his entire life story. He wasn’t used to the compassion he’d seen in so many people’s expressions today, Virginia’s included, and it unsettled him to the point he actually felt his lower lip quiver.
That wouldn’t do at all. Darren grabbed a clean glass and filled it half way, keeping his back to his boss. He washed the medicine down and took a deep breath, willing away the sudden stinging in his eyes. Her next words were much more effective than his attempt.
“Sheriff Stenley and Severo came back to give you a ride home. They were worried about you riding your bike back in the dark, what with you being hurt and all.”
Darren gripped the lip of the steel sink to keep from turning and screaming in frustration. He wanted to be away from people and questions and sympathy-filled eyes! “I can get home just fine,” he ground out then nearly whimpered from the pain. Gotta remember not to grind my teeth or clench my jaw for a few days—unless I want to look like a wuss.
“Darren.” This time he did startle at Virginia’s voice, coming so closely behind him. Her hand on his shoulder sent his pulse into overdrive. “Let them help you. That’s all they want to do. You’ll be home in a few minutes, and I’ll know you made it safe and so will they, okay? And I think maybe you should take a couple days off—”
“No!” Darren spun around, dislodging her hand and cracking his hip bone against the sink. He ignored the bright starburst of pain that bloomed from the contact. “I can work, I’ll do better tomorrow, I won’t freeze when people ask me and I won’t break the eggs or anything!” Please, he wanted to beg, please don’t make me be alone! Which was ridiculous and he knew it. Hadn’t he needed to escape from the customers today? But he hadn’t been alone—there’d been people in the kitchen, and the café had been busy all day.
Virginia grabbed his hands, stilling them. Darren hadn’t even realized he’d been waving them in the air as he spoke, as if the movements added weight to his words.
“Look at me, Darren.”
More than a little afraid of what he’d see, Darren forced his attention from a spot over Virginia’s head down to her glittery gaze. The burning sensation started back up in his eyes and spread down to squeeze at his throat. Darren sucked in his bottom lip and bit it to keep it from quivering as Virginia gave him a look filled with understanding and concern. He couldn’t keep his focus on her eyes and keep his own from welling up, so Darren chose to watch her lipstick-stained lips as she spoke instead.
“Honey, you are not being punished here, okay? I don’t care about the eggs, I care about you being hurt, and tomorrow when you wake up, that knot on your chin, and probably the new one you just gave yourself on your hip? Well, both of them are going to ache like a bitch.”
Darren knew his cheeks had to be flaming pink. Virginia didn’t curse often, and hearing her do so now was half mortifying and half humorous. And she seemed to know it, because her thin lips twitched before stretching into a wide grin.
“What’s the matter, you don’t think old women cuss?” Virginia didn’t wait for him to answer, which was a good thing because he couldn’t. “Well, we do, probably worse than any man you’ve ever known.”
“My mom never did, but she didn’t live long enough to be old,” Darren admitted and was so shocked he revealed that much he would have bolted if Virginia hadn’t tightened her grip. He snapped his gaze up to hers, fully expecting a barrage of questions. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity but she only nodded once, which Darren took as an acknowledgment that she’d heard him.
“Tell you what, you take tomorrow off—just tomorrow,” Virginia said firmly when Darren started to protest. “You’ve been in here almost every day since you started. You need to take at least one day off. You do that then come back to work the next day, if you feel up to it. Meanwhile, you let the sheriff give you a ride home.”
“But—”
“It’s either that or you can take a couple days off whether you like it or not. Part of your job means following whatever work schedule I set for you.”
Well, Darren
