LYNX: A Forsaken Riders MC Romance: (Alpha Male Biker Club Bad Boy Romance) (Motorcycle Club New Adult Contemporary Short Stories) Read Online Free PDF Page B

out,” she said. “Want me to cover out front so you can work back here?”
    Her dad looked around at the mountain of stock on the floor and the boxes around his feet that seemed to be bursting at the seams.
    “If you wouldn’t mind?” he asked.
    “Of course not!” She hugged him again and made her way towards the door. “That’s what I’m here for!” She smiled brightly and walked back down the hallway to the front of the store.
    Her heart started to weigh heavy in her chest, and when she saw Dean, she held out her hands and shook her head.
    “Why didn’t you tell me things were bad here?” she whispered.
    “Oh, you know Dad,” Dean said dismissively. “He never wants to worry you.”
    “But maybe I could help… I mean, think of all of the people that come through the diner each day. I could be advertising somehow. I don’t know.”
    “Oh yeah, because how many folks passing through really need anything we have here?” he snorted. “It’s regular customers and people from town… That’s all we can hope for and all we’ve ever had.”
    She could sense the sadness in him too, and she knew why; whereas the town would always support each other and the businesses there, sometimes it just wasn’t enough. She doubted her dad had raised prices for over a decade, and with the cost of living rising each year, they were going to start struggling eventually.
    “You go and do what you need to,” Tammy said with a sigh. “I can watch over things here.”
    Dean slapped his sister affectionately on the shoulder and made his way to the front door.
    “I owe you one!” he called back to her. “Want anything from the store?”
    Tammy shook her head and watched him go. After losing her mother, she knew whatever adversity was thrown at her family, they could handle it… Maybe her dad would just have to break out of his comfort zone a bit and admit he needed to move along with the times.
    As she sat and toyed with the cash register, she began to daydream about hiring a designer and getting the store set up online so they could reach people throughout the country. There had to be ways they could revive the business and keep themselves afloat. Tammy was positive that they would be fine. She was just going to have to convince her dad to start thinking outside the box a little.
    Dean was back before she knew it, and they sat and chatted for half an hour before she headed back to see her dad and then decided it was time for her to head home.
    “Catch you later, boys.” She smiled and blew them a kiss.
    As she started on her slow walk home, she stopped and bought herself a magazine and an iced coffee. She wondered how Lexi was and if she would be hearing from her. She looked into her purse and checked her cell phone to make sure she hadn’t missed any calls, but all that was waiting for her was a text from Jamie asking her to come through on a favor…
    Jamie: Seeing as you bailed on me yesterday, please can you cover my shift tonight? X
    Tammy groaned but knew she owed her. She just ran out of there without any warning, and she didn’t have any other plans. She reluctantly placed the magazine into her purse and typed a hasty reply:
    Sure, I’ll be at the diner for 6pm x
    “So much for my lazy day,” she said aloud as she left Main Street and continued to the outskirts of town.
     
    ***
     
    As the evening came around, she found herself glad to be heading out and having something to do. Normally nights in alone were something that she relished, but after being so brutally dismissed by Lynx, she wanted to keep busy and not have time to think about the fact that she was twenty-five and unmarried.
    She drove to the diner in silence, and when she got there and saw that she was the only waitress working, she was relieved. There was only one chef in the kitchen, and she could tell it was going to be more than quiet. The owner Joe was sitting behind the counter, and he looked surprised when Tammy walked through the