Free Believe Me (Hearts for Ransom Book 3) by Georgia A Evans Page A

sitting around the table told her what they wanted.
    It wasn’t until she was serving their turkey dinners that she paid any particular attention to them again. The huge man with the blonde crew cut was telling a story, and the other seven people were paying rapt attention.
    “So, I’m at Mercy House Nursing home, and I get back to the unit where Jan Daniels is working, to pick up a fellow named Leonard,” he said. “While I was waiting for Jan to get his coat on him so I could transport him, he reached around and goosed her—like over and over. She was turning around to keep her seat end away from his hand; at the same time she was getting his coat on him. Jan kept saying, ‘Hands to yourself, Leonard,’ but that old man wouldn’t listen. He just kept telling her she had a great tush.”
    “Are you making this up?” a big-boned woman with shoulder length, brown hair asked.
    The man crossed his heart. “About that time a woman with a cane let out a bellow that I bet you could have heard at the hospital if you’d been listening. She took off after one of the other women with her cane flyin’. She kept yelling about her arm getting broken.”
    He looked up as Claire set his plate down in front of him. “Thank you,” he said in a friendly voice. Then he returned to his story. “And, while all this is going on, another old man is standing over by the fish tank talking to the goldfish. But do you know what really takes the cake?”
    There was a murmur around the table as they waited for him to finish his story.
    “A little old lady sat in the middle of all this commotion—sound asleep. She didn’t so much as bat an eye.”
    “Why didn’t you help Jan?” Emily asked, frowning.
    He grinned at her. “I would have if the surfer dude who works with her, Lance, I think his name is, hadn’t gotten back when he did. He grabbed the woman with the cane and started dancing her in a circle. She forgot she was even mad at the other woman. I took Leonard with me, and that poor Jan looked like she’d have liked nothing more than to sit on a chair and scream. I tell you, we might get some kooks at the hospital, but there isn’t enough money in the world that would persuade me to trade jobs with her.”
    Claire heard their laughter and chatter as she folded up the serving platform. She found herself pondering what it would feel like to be carefree as she made her way through the door leading to the back room of the Ransom Ready to Run building, where the Butlers crew had set up a makeshift workstation.
    She had just sat down with a glass of iced tea for her break, when Stan walked over to her, an unhappy expression on his face.
    “Claire, one of your diners has asked to speak with you out in the lobby.” He waited until she set down her tea and stood up. “We trust that she isn’t going to complain about any of the food or our service. You know how important it is to Mr. Butler that we make a good impression, don’t you?”
    Claire sighed. “I’m sorry. She’s just an acquaintance. She asked to speak to me when I had a break, and I completely forgot about it. I’ll be right back.”
    “Please see that you don’t take too long,” he instructed her. “We don’t want her food to get cold.”
    One of these days when Claire was just a little too tired to use her common sense, she was going to ask Stan if he had an invisible friend. The man didn’t know how to use the pronoun “I.”
    Besides, she would be quite content to forego the entire conversation with their patron and let Emily enjoy her food right at that moment, but she was going to the lobby at the customer’s request. What would “they” have her do?
    She silently trudged to the door leading to the lobby. Emily was standing a few yards on the other side of it when Claire walked through.
    “I’m sorry, Emily,” Claire started. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but if this is about my daughter, it’s really not your concern.” That was the