A Turn in the Road - Debbie Macomber [28]
“Ah…I left it at home. I’m Bethanne.” As soon as she said it, she regretted not giving him a fake name.
“Bethanne,” he repeated, then nodded as though he approved.
“What’s yours?”
“I go by Rooster.”
“Rooster?”
“After the John Wayne movie,” one of the other bikers explained.
“Oh, okay,” Bethanne murmured. “True Grit, right? The original version.”
“Right.”
The biker pointed across the booth at the two other men. “That’s Willie and the good-looking one is Skunk. This here is Max,” he said, nudging the man beside him.
“Bethanne,” she repeated.
The two men across from Rooster nodded. Ignoring her, Max looked out the window. The two other bikers were adding cream to their coffee. Rather than encourage further conversation, Bethanne retreated behind the counter. Her hand trembled slightly as she returned the coffeepot to the burner.
The door opened again, and a steady stream of customers filed into the café. Bethanne glanced outside, seeing that the bus had arrived ahead of schedule. She’d been too distracted by the bikers to notice. She grabbed the coffeepot again and moved toward the counter, which had filled up first. Annie had taken on waitress duty, as well, and the two of them were running from one end of the café to the other. In no time the two coffeepots were empty.
“I need coffee down here,” an ill-tempered man shouted from the rear of the café.
“Coming right up,” Bethanne promised. She started taking orders and shuffled them to Marie as fast as she could. Once the coffee had finished brewing, she hurried to the grouch by the window. He had an entire booth to himself.
“Is this decaf?” he demanded.
“No…I don’t believe so.”
“Get me some decaf.”
“I’ll need to brew that. It’ll be a few minutes.”
“What kind of joint is this?” he complained loudly.
“Would you like me to take your order?” she asked, thinking charitably that he was probably hungry and tired.
“No, I want my decaf coffee.”
“Is that all?”
“No,” he said pointedly, “and the longer you stand here arguing with me, the longer I’m going to have to wait for my coffee. I have to get back on that bus, you know.”
Bethanne realized she should have automatically brewed a pot of decaffeinated coffee. There was simply too much to remember.
“I’ll get it,” Annie called out, and hurried toward the coffee machine.
Bethanne was still taking orders when she noticed the decaffeinated coffee was ready. Dropping off more orders with Marie, she picked up the coffeepot and rushed over to the complainer. He sat with his arms crossed, scowling. He didn’t bother to right his cup so she did it for him, and filled it to the brim.
“You overfilled it,” he snarled. “Now there’s no room for cream.”
“Sorry.” She reached for a second cup and poured again, leaving it three-quarters full.
“That’s only half a cup!” he nearly shouted. “I suppose you intend to charge me for a full one?”
Bethanne started to add more coffee when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Rooster, the older biker, stood directly behind her.
“Listen, buddy,” he said, and the threat in his voice made her shiver. She couldn’t see his face but she saw the reaction of the man with the coffee and he seemed to cower in the booth.
“I’m real hungry, and when I get hungry I get cranky. You’re delaying my meal. Trust me, you don’t want to see what happens when I get cranky.”
The other man didn’t move. In fact, it looked as if he’d stopped breathing. The rattle of dishes died down and conversation fell to a soft hush. Soon the whole café had gone silent as Rooster bent over the man in the booth.
“That coffee’s just fine now, isn’t it?” Rooster asked.
The other man nearly jerked his head off in his eagerness to assure Rooster it was.
“That’s what I thought.” Rooster gently patted Bethanne’s arm as he returned to his friends.
“I think your order’s up now,” she said. He winked as he passed by, and Bethanne did her best to disguise a smile but knew she hadn’t succeeded.
Still grinning she walked back to the kitchen and placed the orders for the four bikers on a large tray and delivered them to