Marjorie had always seen the little paper in that romantic light.
Sam slid Serena’s lunch in front of her. “Is there anything else I can get for you?”
She eyed the dark circles forming beneath his eyes. “I think what you’d better do is go sit down for a while. You’re trying to do too much today.”
“Serena’s right, Sam. The busiest time is over. Justine and Shameka and I can handle it from here. You’ve done a wonderful job on your first day, but why don’t you rest until I can drive you home?”
A man at the next table gestured to get Sam’s attention. “How about some coconut pie over here?”
Sam nodded toward the other table, then flashed Serena and Marjorie a smile. “I’ll rest later. Right now I have pie to serve.”
Serena frowned at her mother. “You really shouldn’t have encouraged him to work today. It’s too soon. He has to be in pain.”
“You’d never know it from watching him. He’s not slowed down since we arrived this morning.”
“Mother, only yesterday he was in the hospital with a concussion, broken ribs and a sprained wrist. It’s absurd that he’s working today. He should have taken off at least a few days to recuperate.”
“I suggested that this morning. He said he’s tired of lying around doing nothing and he wants to get his debts paid off as soon as possible.”
“And if he collapses on the job? Have you considered that you could be liable under those circumstances?”
“In the first place, I’m not going to collapse. In the second, I wouldn’t blame your mother if I did.”
Serena hadn’t heard Sam behind her until he spoke. She turned her frown at him, hiding her slight embarrassment at being overheard. “I still think you’re trying to do too much too soon.”
“And I thank you for your concern,” he replied, his firm tone making it clear that he wasn’t in the market for advice.
With that, he moved on to another table. Serena sighed and pushed away her mostly empty plate. “Okay, I give up.”
“Don’t worry about Sam, dear. I’ll make sure he doesn’t overdo it.”
Serena gave what she hoped would pass for a negligent shrug. “Why should I worry about him? I have my own problems to deal with. And I have a meeting with a client in twenty minutes, so I’d better be on my way.”
“Are you going to talk to Marvin today?”
Serena winced. “That depends on whether I can find him—and if he’s sober enough to understand me when I do.”
“I know this won’t be easy for you, dear. But if it must be done to save the paper, then you have no other choice.”
“I know.”
“Just try to be kind about it, will you? Don’t be an attorney—be a sympathetic friend.”
Serena barely resisted rolling her eyes. “I’m not sure Marvin is going to think of me as any kind of friend while I’m threatening to fire him, Mother. But I’ll try.”
She was still mulling over her mother’s advice when she drove out of the diner’s parking lot a few minutes later. She had tried to be a sympathetic friend to Marvin, and it hadn’t worked. No amount of advice or lenience or understanding had accomplished anything with him. Now she was going to have to be something he had never allowed her to be—his boss. As much as she dreaded it, she was prepared to do what she had to do.
She might never forgive Kara for putting her in this painful situation, she thought, practically seething with pent-up anger and disappointment in her older sister.
Chapter Six
Often when she had trouble sleeping, Serena wandered outside, where she let the sounds and scents of nighttime soothe her. Though she doubted it would help on this particular night, she stepped out the door at just after midnight wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sandals and carrying a cup of herbal tea. She headed for the yard swing beside her mother’s rose garden, her favorite place to sit on balmy nights.
Tonight someone else was already sitting in her swing.
“Looks like you’ve found me again, Ms. Schaffer,” Sam drawled, looking at her from the shadows of the covered swing.
Her pulse jumped, as it always seemed to do when she encountered this man. She kept trying to attribute it to natural wariness of a mysterious stranger, but she was aware there was more to it than that. She would be lying to herself if she denied the attraction that she felt for him—and she tried to always be brutally honest with herself. It seemed much more sensible in the long run than self-deception.