“Hey, Curtis…” A familiar voice cut through the din and I lifted a hand, then turned to shoot a smile over my shoulder. Never ignore the customer, no matter how busy you were.
My gaze collided with Rachel Manning’s, who leaned with both hands on the countertop. “Be right with you. One minute.” The sixty seconds was a promise I might struggle to keep but I finished scooping the ice cream, added the syrup and the milk then got this one hooked onto the shake machine.
The other two I had running weren’t quite done yet. There was food in the window, so I snagged that and sailed over to deliver it to the table with some of Bubba and Jake’s football buddies.
“Hey, Frankie,” Rip said. “Settle a bet for us.”
I raised my brows.
“If it’s a quick one.”
Both guys popped their biceps up to show off their arm muscles.
“Who’s bigger? Me or Kent here?” I glanced from Rip to Kent. They were practically the same size.
“Kent,” I said, his was a fraction higher. “Can I get you guys anything else?”
Rip’s whole expression fell as the guys hooted and hollered, but they shook their heads. Leaving them to their great muscle debate I did a sweep of the packed tables.
I just needed to get those shakes out then wait for new orders to be ready, but I thought I had everyone covered.
Scooting back around the counter, I headed for Rachel. I put out a napkin and a glass of water for her. “Sorry about that.” It had definitely been longer than a minute.
“Yeah, making me wait a whole extra thirty seconds,” Rachel deadpanned. “How dare you?”
Amusement tickled through me at the open mocking in Rachel’s expression as she rolled her hazel eyes dramatically.
“I could make it longer,” I offered in a dry tone with a glance at my watchless wrist.
She snorted, sliding onto one of the counter seats. “I appreciate the thought, but I’d rather go ahead and order.”
Grinning, I pulled out a damp cloth from the clean stack and wiped down the counter. I was pretty sure I had already cleaned it up, but better to be sure. “Well, if you insist. What can I get you?”
“Big and thick,” she said, lips twitching. “Innuendo implied but not necessary.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes.
“And a strawberry shake.” But she glanced over at the case. “If you can chip it out of the frozen tundra.”
“I can,” I told her. “It’ll be a minute or three.”
“Sounds good.” She pulled out a notebook and flipped it open. There was reading material in there and she had a pen and paper. When she caught my look, she said, “Homework. I think better when I take notes.”
“God,” I said on an exhale. “I feel that.” Taking notes was definitely how I could commit info to memory faster. The shake machine cut off. “Be right back.”
“Take your time,” she drawled but I was already turning away. Two of the three shakes were done blending and I got them poured, whip cream added, and slid in tall spoons and grabbed straws before whipping out to deliver them.
On the way back, I checked on my other tables, pre-bussing dishes where they were finished, and getting fresh drink orders for those who wanted refills. Back behind the counter, I sorted the dirty dishes into the bus tubs, then wiped my hands and cleaned out the shake cups and poured the third shake to get it delivered along with food, then got more shakes going.
Heating up the scoop in hot water seemed to help but I was going to end up pulling a muscle at this rate. I caught Rachel’s snorting laugh and glanced over to see her shaking her head.
“Sorry, it’s not funny.”
“No, it’s funny,” I corrected and made a face at her. Then I amped up the drama of trying to free the ice cream and that earned me a real laugh. Once those shakes were started, there were people at the register to pay and more people coming in the door.
I still had two more hours of this. Packing away the exhaustion, I kept moving. Rachel waited patiently for her shake, though her burger and fries were ready at almost the same time.
Despite the temperatures outside she wore her long, dark brown hair in loose waves around her face. Her cosmetics, almost minimal, seemed natural and on point today. Whatever she’d done made her hazel eyes pop and also gave the more angular parts of her cheeks and chin a softer look.
