Love in a Nutshell - Janet Evanovich [8]
Just like Steve wasn’t hiding another goofy grin. Now, at least, she knew what was up.
“No biggie,” she said. “I’m game. Bring it on.”
And he did. Two more tubs soon joined the first.
“Is that the end of it?” she asked.
“Dunno. There might be more,” Steve said before ambling off.
“How’s it going?” Laila asked when she arrived with yet another stack of dishes a couple of minutes later.
Kate gestured at the mess. “Could be better. I’m not sure I get the rhythm of this place.”
“And that, my new friend, is where the third nugget of wisdom comes in.”
“Which is?”
The older woman smiled as she added her contribution to the mess. “Ask Steve once you’ve caught up.”
Another dishwasher might have whimpered, but not Kate. She was made of sterner stuff. Craftier stuff, too. After feeding another couple racks into Hobart, she took a quick glance around the kitchen. The servers and the cooks were all out front, too wrapped up in their current conversations to be paying attention to her. She quickly stowed the three remaining unwashed tubs on the floor, in the open area beneath Hobart’s exit ramp.
She’d barely had time to hide her grin, too, when Steve arrived with another load. He did a double take at the clean counter.
“Wow! Did you really get through all those dishes, Tink?”
“Tink?”
“Short for Tinkerbell. You made that stuff disappear like magic.”
Tink wasn’t the sort of nickname she wanted to encourage, but she’d have to deal with that later.
“Just doing my job,” she said, knowing that his view of the dirty tubs was blocked. “And Laila said you’d share her third restaurant hint with me as soon as I was caught up. So how about it?”
“No can do,” he said with a nod to the dishes he’d just delivered.
She’d been expecting this.
Kate gave Steve her best smile. “You know, that’s one awesome-looking orange-and-white VW van with all the old surf shop stickers out in the employee parking area. It’s yours, right?”
“Down to her tires,” he answered with obvious pride.
“I thought so!”
“Betty’s the real deal. I found her in a junkyard when I was seventeen, and…” His brows drew together. “Hey, why are we talking about her right now?”
“Steve, order up!” one of the line cooks called.
“In a second,” he answered without looking away from Kate.
“Now, before it’s cold!” the cook bellowed.
“Betty looks like you keep her nice and neat,” Kate said.
“I do.”
“Then you’d probably be real sad if all these dirty dishes ended up in her, wouldn’t you?”
His tan seemed to fade. “No way. You wouldn’t.”
If her mascara hadn’t already been sweated off, she would have batted her eyelashes. “I might.”
“Yo, Steve!” the cook shouted. “Now!”
Steve briefly looked his way. “Yeah, just hang on, would you?”
“Sounds like you’re pretty busy,” Kate said. “I, on the other hand, have plenty of time to go out to the parking lot and bring Betty a little gift. Or you can tell me Laila’s third nugget of wisdom.”
The cook had started hissing something unintelligible in the secret language of angry fry cooks.
Steve winced at the sound.
“So what’s it going to be?” Kate asked.
Steve hesitated for just a second, appraising Kate with a friendly stare. “You’re tougher than you look, Tink.”
It was nice to hear. For so many years, Richard had told her that she wasn’t tough. Her moving to Keene’s Harbor and her nutty plan to turn a broken-down family vacation spot into a B&B was all about showing that she could survive—and more than that, succeed—without anyone’s help. She had something to prove to herself and the world before she was ever going to let a man back into her life.
“Thanks, Steve,” Kate said.
Over at the grill, the cook seemed to be speaking in tongues.
“You might want to hurry this along,” Kate said.
Just then Jerry strolled into the kitchen from the taproom area. Unlike Kate, he looked well rested and free of food stains. “Sounds like you have an order up, Steve,” he said.
Steve bolted for his food, glancing back over his shoulder at Kate and Jerry. “Understatement.”
Jerry toured the dishwashing area, then gave Kate a crooked grin. “Looks