The Talk of the Town Read Online Free PDF

patch of light swirling with dust motes and cigarette smoke.
    “I have a new part-time worker for you, Gary,” she said by way of greeting. “Luke Bauer just signed on to fill in when and where you need him.”
    Tall and thin and a tad stoop-shouldered, the older man squinted thoughtfully at Luke, pressing all the crinkles around his eyes into a new pattern.
    The younger one, a stumpy little guy with thick brown brows that formed a single line above his eyes, pulled a hand-rolled cigarette out of his mouth and said, “Bauer?” in a clearly shocked tone.
    “That’s right, Willie,” Roxie confirmed a little too brightly. She turned ever-so-slightly to Luke. “Willie Newcomer here is assistant foreman, while Gary Koch”—she gestured toward the older man, who held several sheets of paper in his hand— “is our head foreman and most indispensable employee.”
    “Tell many more like that and your nose will be too long for your face.” Gary laughed in a low rumble that faintly resembled the idling lift truck.
    She laughed, too, and began to relax. Gary teased her only when he was in a good mood. It was his subtle way of letting her know he accepted her decision to hire Luke as a good one.
    “Actually,” Gary said now, “I could use him full time.”
    Roxie shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. “Someone else quit?”
    “John Corder,” he confirmed. “Said he couldn’t live on what we’re paying, so he’s packing up Janice and the kids and heading west.”
    “To California,” she said.
    “The Promised Land,” he scoffed.
    “Well, I hope he finds something that suits him.”
    “He wants to hire on to help build that new Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.”
    She nodded and looked at Luke. “So, does full time work for you?”
    Willie’s expression turned sour at her question.
    Ignoring the acid-faced man, Luke looked at Gary. “When can I start?”
    “Tomorrow too soon for you?” Gary asked.
    “What time should I report?”
    “We start loading the trucks at seven.”
    “I’ll be here at a quarter till.” That meant he would have to get up at five in order to eat breakfast and walk the two-plus miles to work, but he would do it and be glad of it.
    Hearing his answer, a disgusted Willie stuck the cigarette back in his mouth and stalked away.
    “I’ll leave Luke with you, Gary,” Roxie said. “You can show him around, explain a bit about his job and such while I speak to Fesol about putting him on the payroll.”
    She pivoted then and walked out of the warehouse with a pert spring in her step. Even Willie’s obvious disapproval couldn’t dent her newfound cheer. Gary hadn’t raised so much as an eyebrow. In fact, he seemed happy to have replaced a worker without having to go through a lot of rigmarole.
    On the other side of the double doors, she stopped and, after the briefest hesitation, she gave in to the urge to look back.
    Through the streaks on the windowpane, she watched as Luke removed his worn blue suit coat. He folded it neatly and draped it over his arm with a precision that pleased her. She was a very precise person herself. Not, of course, that that had anything to do with anything.
    Even at this distance she could see how much better he looked without that awful old jacket. She could see, too, that he was in excellent shape. His shoulders were broad and his arms were more muscled than she’d have imagined. Not that she’d imagined anything about his muscles, but—
    “Are you thinking of cleaning it?” inquired someone behind her.
    Roxie started and whirled around, her mouth popping open and her hand flattening on her chest as she came face-to-face with the company’s payroll clerk. Tall and gaunt and decked out in his usual work attire of a black suit, white shirt and wide black tie, Fesol Vernal had something of a grim-reaper look about him. He also had an annoying habit of sneaking up on people, which drove her to distraction.
    “Fesol!” she scolded him