Free Energized by Mary Behre Page B

boy might be right. I don’t seem to be too steady.”
    â€œWhere’s Karma and Ross?” Niall asked, stacking the plates on a tray.
    â€œRoss said he’d be back. We lost an entire tray of food about ten minutes ago. Some Navy guys came in and got fresh with Sadie. Don’t know what happened. Karma was calming her down out back. Didn’t you see them?” Virgil asked, hobbling over to the freezer and pulling out an ice pack.
    â€œNo.” Before Niall could say anything else, Paulie spoke up.
    â€œNight’s been cray-cray, Boss. Dawn left before the dinner rush started and I do mean rush. Then some sailors from the USS
South Carolina
came in for their first at-home meal in months. Words and Sadie’s temper flew. The new girl managed to calm down the guests while Karma hustledSadie outside. Then
blam
!” Paulie clapped his hands together. “One minute the new girl’s carrying out six meals, and the next, dishes and food all over the kitchen floor. She thought for sure she was going to be fired.”
    Niall swept his gaze around the kitchen. The only trace of disaster in the room was confined to a few shards of what had likely been a plate in a corner.
    â€œWhat new girl? Dawn’s out sick? Sadie and some sailors? Six meals lost? Sonofa . . .” His string of questions was more of babbled frustration than any real inquiry. Virgil, smart man, just seemed to know it.
    â€œIt’s fine, Niall,” Virgil said, patting his free hand on Niall’s shoulder. “Just our way of letting you know we’re glad you’re here to save us and not halfway around the world.”
    Count on Virgil to be both poignant and joking in the same breath. Niall exhaled and smiled, since that was clearly what the old guy wanted.
    â€œAll right, since I am here, point me in the right direction.” Niall hoisted the tray onto his shoulder and turned for the door. “Where are these going?”
    Paulie pulled the ticket off the counter. “Table four. Hey, when you get back, can you find Karma? Tell her to hurry up. FYI, that plate by your thumb is gluten free.”
    Using his foot, Niall gently pushed open the swinging door. The rooms were lit by flickering candlelight on the tables and on the walls. The place was alive with guests at every table in every section. Clinks of silverware on plates, pings of ice cubes in glasses, and the murmur of the patrons’ voices added a homey ambience to the Cat.
    Moments like these, Niall understood why Ross had wanted this building. There was an atmosphere of comfort and elegance to the place the old Cat never had. The cozy feel certainly, but not this genteel elegance enhanced by the flickering of the candles in the wall sconces in all four of the rooms.
    He’d been expecting chaos but everything looked normal. And signs of being a very good night for the business. They almost never had a midweek night this packed in the otherstore. He’d have to remember to tell Ross . . . whenever his brother showed up again.
    Niall made his way through the Master Room, down the narrow hallway separating it from the Three Bells, and through the glass-paneled door separating it from the Quarter Room.
    Inside tables had been pulled together to change it from several two-tops to one six-top. The three sets of couples at the long table were surrounded by four more two-tops at each corner of the room, granting every guest the illusion of intimacy and privacy in the busy restaurant.
    Pressing the curved handle down, Niall then used his left arm to shoulder open the glass French doors. The chatter at the six-top stopped as all eyes turned to him.
    Smiling, he spotted the tray stand set up next to the table and lowered the tray. He lifted the first meal in the air. “Who had the gluten-free linguini with white clam sauce?”
    Inexplicably, the patrons erupted in applause.
    â€œOh, thank you! I was just in the