But all I’m thinking is that I could score almost three hundred dollars in six hours selling fancy breakfast to fancy people. “When do you think I’ll be ready to be on my own?”

Darcy tilts her head at me. “Tell you what. Learn the menu this week, and when your Saturday shift rolls around, I’ll let you have a few tables on your own. But I’ll be here if you need me. Trust me, I want you to stay. You’re way better a worker than Rose was. We’ll get you trained as fast as we can.”

Apparently I’ve replaced this Rose person, who is currently in jail—but for what, nobody knows. She had a lot of regulars though, so I have a lot of kissing up to do in order to turn her regulars into my regulars.

“Pretty soon you and I will be working on ups and making a killing,” Darcy says.

“Ups?”

“Yeah, where we just take turns taking tables. Me, you, me, then you again. It’s way better than having a section of tables. And with the way you work, Miss May won’t have to hire anyone else to take up our slack. Just don’t quit on me. I know it’s hard.”

It is hard. Today was the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life. The Breeze Mart is just exactly that—a breeze. But I don’t mind working for my money. My feet though? They freaking hate it.

“I won’t quit,” I tell her. “But if I’m finished here, my ride is waiting for me. Unless you have something else for me to do?”

Darcy slides my pile of cash toward me on the table. “Nope. You’re done. See you next week.”

When I get in the truck, I try not to act as giddy as I feel. Arden can tell I’m holding out though. “So it went well, I take it?” he says. I’m surprised, and disappointed, that I notice how he smells again. Like he just showered with man-soap or something. And maybe he did. His hair is a little damp.

“Very.” I don’t want to tell him how much I made though, in case he’s not impressed. He probably gets that much for his allowance. “All I need to do is memorize the menu before Saturday and I can work my own tables. Darcy—she’s the waitress who trained me—said I’m a natural people person.”

Arden laughs. “That’s what we Southerners call sarcasm.”

I lift my chin. “I am a Southerner, idiot. And just because I’m not an Arden person doesn’t mean I’m not a people person.”

“Touché. But for the record, most people are Arden people. So it could be considered a flaw that you’re not.”

“I don’t fall for the mob mentality.”

“Believe me, I’ve noticed.” He shrugs. “I went to Cletus’s house to help him out with a few things. Nothing much.”

“How is he?” I haven’t seen Mr. Shackleford since the faux robbery. Maybe he’ll come in tonight and give me another Question of the Day. Ugh. I have to work tonight. On these same throbbing feet. At least I have a stool to sit on at the Breeze.

“He’s fine,” Arden says generically.

“You told him, didn’t you?”

“He figured it out on his own, actually.” Arden grimaces, as if he’d eaten something bitter. “He took it well, though.”

“By making you work it off?”

“He’s paying me. I figure if you’re working on the weekends, then I should too.”

Huh? What, are we married? “What does my working have to do with you working?”

He shrugs, uncomfortable with the turn in conversation. He jerks the steering wheel hard right, as if he was about to miss his turn. That’s when it occurs to me that we’re not heading in the direction of my house.

“Where are we going? I have to work at the Breeze tonight.”

“How much money did you make today, if you don’t mind me asking?”

When I raise a brow, he amends, “I mean, did you make more than you do at the Breeze Mart? Oh, don’t give me that look. I’m just asking if you think you could quit the Breeze Mart and only work at the Uppity Rooster. Then you’d have your weeknights off. You know, to do homework or, uh, fun stuff.”

Fun stuff. He’s still going after this whole accomplice thing. Not that last night wasn’t a complete riot. I can’t remember laughing so hard in my life, not even when that kid dug his hand around in our shitty purse. But fun is not the important thing here. Getting my parents home is.

“I need both jobs,” I say with more harshness than I intend.

Arden is undeterred. “I thought you might say that. But you’re going to work yourself to death with two jobs and school and then I’d feel rotten for putting it into your head. Couldn’t you just cut down on your hours at the convenience store instead of quitting cold turkey? Maybe just work two nights a week or something?”

For once in his life, Arden has a point. Working two jobs and school will be exhausting. My grades might start to slip. And I just can’t let myself be okay with that. Besides, with all the money I’ll be making at Uppity Rooster, why shouldn’t I give myself a break? Because our parents are counting on us, I can hear Julio say in his sternest voice. Don’t you want your parents back?

Of course I do.

“We need the money,” I say decisively. “Cutting my hours is not an option.”

Arden squeezes the steering wheel tighter. I can tell he’s trying to be diplomatic with me. “But what about you? What about what you need? I see how hard you work at school. That’s going to suffer, you know.”