Free Ginny Gold - Early Bird Café 04 - Croaked Wheat by Ginny Gold

knew exactly how to answer it. “It took some getting used to, but once I figured out the pace it was a lot of fun. But my favorite thing about that position was the creativity we were allowed.”
    Kori made a note. Creativity and confidence in cooking were key skills she needed. Ideally, Kori would be able to split her time between the kitchen and interacting with customers, so she had to hire someone who could fit into any area at any time, depending on the needs in each moment. “Tell me more about that,” she pressed.
    “Well, there were set menu items, but I was eventually allowed to tweak and improve them.”
    “Can you give me an example?”
    “Sure. Pancakes, for example. We used a mix that we bought in bulk. It was good enough. But I eventually created a mix from scratch that we used, and they still do.”
    Kori made some more notes. She was liking Allen more and more with each of his answers and she was going to find it hard to hire Kiera over him if he kept this up.
    “Why did you leave?” Kori asked. According to his résumé, he’d been out of work for at least a month.
    “There was no room for growth. What I really like about this position is that the café is small and growing, which would give me plenty of opportunity to prove myself to you.”
    Kori didn’t want to break his spirits, but she didn’t really see a whole lot of growth potential for whoever she hired. The position she had would be perfect for someone with less experience than Allen, someone like Kiera.
    Kori continued asking him questions until just after two and never once felt that he was trying to step on toes like Doug had. His answers and experiences were impressive, but by the end of the interview, she wasn’t quite as excited about him as at the start. He was definitely over qualified.
    When Kori was finished, and Allen had no more questions, they both stood and shook hands again. “Thanks again for coming in today. I’ll get in touch with you early next week once I’ve made my decision. Have a great weekend.”
    “Thanks. You too.”
    Kori closed the door behind him and headed upstairs to change before going to Nora’s.

CHAPTER 11
     
    Less than a half hour later, Kori was getting into Nora’s truck and they were retracing their route from yesterday. “How could he have cheated on his wife with the neighbor?” Kori asked. “Wouldn’t he want a bigger buffer between those two women?”
    Nora chuckled. “It sounds like you’ve given cheating a lot of thought.”
    Kori mock glared at Nora. “Yeah right. I barely see Zach as it is. I wouldn’t want to add something else to my life that would keep me away from him.”
    “I know. I was just busting on you.”
    Nora drove past Karin’s driveway and turned into the next one. Richards was written on the mailbox so Kori knew they were in the right place.
    “What’s your story today?” Nora asked.
    Kori gave it some thought. “Reporters. For the Maple Daily.”
    “And our names? I don’t want to be caught off guard again.”
    “We can stick with the same ones. I’m Linda Smith and you’re Julie Fellows.” Kori smiled at her cunning ways. She was having too much fun at it too.
    “Do you have a pad of paper to take notes with?” Nora asked, parking behind a car near the house.
    “Who uses paper anymore? I’ll record our conversation with my phone.”
    Nora shook her head. “You’re too much, you know that?”
    They both got out of the truck and made their way to the front door. Kori looked around at the small yard and noticed plenty of abandoned kids’ toys that looked like they hadn’t been touched in years. There was a plastic slide on its side, a rusted bike and a wagon with broken panels. She’d assumed Joline was younger than Marty—and Karin—but maybe she wasn’t. Maybe she had her own family with grown kids and she hadn’t bothered to get rid of their childhood toys. Or keep them in good shape for grandkids.
    Kori led the way up two steps to