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.Jack started dealing and they returned to the game.Ryan won a few hands but lost more than he won, but considering these guys had been playing together for some time, he didn’t think he was doing too badly.In between hands, Ryan tried to strike up a conversation with Meyer again, but the man had moved on to other subjects to rant about and Ryan didn’t want his questions to come off as suspicious if he pressed on about the café.So the bastard had plans once the café was re-opened.Somehow Ryan needed to head it off.But what the hell could he do if he didn’t even know what the man was up to?Ryan wanted to confront Meyer, but he needed to process what he’d heard and talk with Megan.Her parents hadn’t been exaggerating when they’d told Megan that Meyer had it in for them.Now what could they do about it?Chapter 22Over the next week, Megan helped Margaret and Tess prepare to reopen the Hummingbird Café.Margaret and Tess interviewed a couple of cooks to replace Paul and hired Julian Taylor who had been the cook at the Prancing Pony before it had gone out of business several months earlier, thanks to the economy.Early on re-opening day, a Friday, Megan accompanied her mother and sister to the restaurant.Normally, the restaurant was open for lunch and dinner, but for re-opening day they would be opening at five for dinner.Megan had designed a quarter-page advertisement for the Hummingbird Café with a “buy one dinner get one free” coupon, which they had put in the paper as a grand re-opening special.Megan had suggested it as a way for people to know the restaurant was open again and to draw people in.They hoped for a good-sized dinner crowd.They drove in two separate cars to the restaurant, and reached it at the same time.Their parking lot was next to the convenience store and they had a view of the side of the store.Megan didn’t really like the restaurant being located so close to a gas station, but from what her parents had said, the rent was good and they did get some lunch traffic from customers of the gas station.Margaret frowned when they went to the back door.“Someone broke in,” Margaret said as she looked at Tess and Megan.“What?” Tess’s voice raised an octave as her eyes widened.Margaret stepped back to show Tess and Megan that the doorknob was loose and the door itself was opened a crack.Tess moved in front of her mother and pushed the door open.The door creaked as sunlight spilled across the immaculate kitchen.“Nothing looks disturbed,” Tess said, her mouth turned down into a frown.“Did you leave cash in the register?” Megan asked as she followed the other two into the restaurant.Tess shook her head.“I always clean it out at night and put the money into the safe.When I closed up the restaurant two weeks ago, I left a minimal amount of cash in the safe and took the rest to the bank.”“We’d better check the safe,” Megan said.Tess led the way to the wall safe that was in the office behind a file cabinet.They pulled the cabinet away from the wall.“It doesn’t look touched.” She knelt in front of it and put in the code.The safe made a thunking sound and then the door swung open.Tess drew out the moneybag and flipped through the cash in it.“Everything is here,” she said before locking the safe again.She left out the bag in order to put the cash into the register when they opened for dinner.The three of them switched on the lights and searched the restaurant for anything out of place or missing, but came across nothing.“Not worth calling the police since nothing seems touched or missing,” Tess said.“Maybe it was kids,” Megan said.“They could have been scared off before they had a chance to come in and wreak any havoc.”Tess nodded.“That could be it.”Margaret didn’t say anything.She looked sad and as if she was having a hard time being there.It was the first time she’d been in the restaurant since her husband had passed away.Megan swallowed.It wasn’t easy for her to be here, either.She remembered the last time she’d seen her father in the kitchen and how he had been hard at work at the stove.He’d been stirring chili and she could almost smell it now.The memory caused an ache behind Megan’s eyes.It was difficult enough for her to be here right now and she couldn’t imagine how her mother was feeling.They opened up the doors and windows, allowing the cool breeze to freshen everything up.The café had been closed for two weeks and it was stuffy inside.The restaurant needed to be open and ready for dinnertime, with a good crowd to serve, hopefully.After being closed for more than a week, they weren’t anticipating much of a crowd until people got used to the place being open again, but hopefully the ad would make a difference.The new cook, who was to replace Paul, showed up around noon to prep for dinner.Julian seemed nice enough as he got to work, although he was on the quiet side.He gave Megan an odd feeling—probably due to the fact that he kept to himself.But then again, her father had been quiet and focused when he worked in the kitchen, too.Fortunately, the young man Tucker, who served as both busboy and dishwasher, hadn’t gone on to find other employment during the past two weeks and was still with them.Megan worked on things that didn’t involve running the café itself—Tess and Margaret took care of all of that.Megan went to the flower shop on the other side of the convenience store and bought red carnations while she arranged for the morning flower delivery to start once again.She returned to the restaurant and cleaned the clear glass vases, filled them with water, and put fresh cut carnations in each one before setting a vase on each table.She cleaned the front window and it sparkled as sunlight came in through the window, casting a dazzling radiance on the place.She helped Tess make sure the bathrooms were cleaned, sprayed air freshener to freshen the atmosphere and then dusted and cleaned off every surface in the café, including mopping the floor.They filled the condiment containers to be ready for guests, and cleaned and refilled the glass salt and pepper shakers, and put them on the tables.Silverware wrapped in cloth napkins was put on each table.Tess and Megan went over everything twice just to make sure it was all done.Tucker showed up in the afternoon and they put him to work, too.He was a nice kid, about eighteen, and a hard worker who finished his jobs quickly and efficiently then asked what else he could do to help.Megan had designed new menus during the week using her talents as a graphic designer and they made sure the specials were with each menu.Today the special was chicken pasta parmesan, something that Julian had said was a specialty of his, and he prepped the ingredients for the dish.The dessert of the day was Margaret’s peach pie.They had a couple of other desserts, but she was already known for her pies.As far as duties, Margaret would go wherever she was needed.She would cook, serve, or do anything else that needed to be done.The sun was setting as the time rolled around for the café to open for dinner.The lights had been dimmed slightly and the clear bud vases and drinking glasses on the tables sparkled.Megan played hostess—waitressing skills were beyond her talents.She’d worn a simple black dress that complemented her figure and fairly sensible but pretty low heels that went well with the dress
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