Daddy's Sweet Girl (Montana Daddies 3)

That had been about eight hours ago and her shift was nearly over. Thank the Lord. She just wanted to go home, take some pain killers and crawl into bed. She didn’t care about food or anything else.

Home. Pain killers. Bed.

“Abby, I need to talk to you.”

She groaned at those words. She didn’t have the energy for Gloria right now. But the older woman was her boss and Lord knew, she needed this job. She walked slowly to where Gloria sat in a back booth, trying to school her face into something pleasant. Or at least so she didn’t look like she’d enjoy wrapping her hands around the older woman’s chicken neck and ...

All right. Enough of that. She wasn’t usually given to murderous urges. But she was exhausted.

Gloria didn’t even glance up, didn’t invite her to take a seat in the booth seat across from her even though Abby had been on her feet all day. She had her laptop open and documents spread out across the table. For Gloria, this was work. But it was mostly show, since she was usually socializing with her friends or online shopping.

Oh well, she was the boss so Abby figured it wasn’t any of her business. It was a little annoying that she took up an entire booth which could be filled up with paying customers during peak times.

But again, not her business.

“Oh, there you are. Took your time.”

Abby wanted to point out that she’d been standing there for at least a minute before Gloria had bothered to raise her dyed-platinum head.

But again, her boss. Not for her to argue.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

“I’m going to need you to work tomorrow.”

Abby froze. That wasn’t happening. Normally, she’d take all the extra hours she could get her hands on, but she’d gotten through today by telling herself she could relax tomorrow.

“I can’t.” The words left her mouth before she even thought them.

Gloria’s bright blue eyes narrowed. “Rachel needs tomorrow off and I need you to cover for her.”

She wanted to ask why Rachel needed the time off, because she was pretty certain it was because Gloria wanted her to go to the club with her tonight. Republic was the place to be seen in Wishingbone. Not that Wishingbone was trendy. It wasn’t a big city. However, if you wanted to be seen, you went to Republic.

She should just agree to work the shift. She didn’t want to get on Gloria’s bad side. She had the habit of exacting revenge against those who pissed her off. The only reason she’d never turned her bitchiness on Abby was because she barely even noticed her.

“I don’t feel well,” Abby told her, surprising herself. Since when did she lie? Although it wasn’t entirely a lie. She was feeling flushed and light-headed, but she knew that was from exhaustion not a virus.

Gloria waved a hand away. “Are you contagious?”

“No,” she admitted.

“Then you’ll be fine. You do look like shit, though. You might try putting on some make-up. Our customers don’t want to be put off their food.”

The insult sucked the breath from her lungs. It hurt. And she wished to hell she could tell Gloria where she could stick her job. But unless she wanted to end up homeless or find herself missing a few fingers or toes then she knew she couldn’t say a word.

“I’ve got you down for the early shift. You can go now.”

Abby just turned away. She hated being stuck. Hated feeling like a coward. But what choice did she have?

So, she turned around and shuffled out the door.

By the time she got home, she was so tired

she could barely see straight. She stumbled into her house, shuffled down to the bathroom to grab some painkillers and wash her face. Then she moved into her bedroom, pulled on her pajamas, threw her uniform into the laundry pile, pulled the curtains and slid into bed.

Bliss.

KENT POUNDED ON THE door again.