Beneath the Palisade (33 page)

“You’re the girls….” The table burst into a round of snickers. Only the fat pig in the center was able to make eye contact with him. “I mean, you guys are the ones who are opening the old beach cabins, right?”

Harper was ready for this one. He’d rehearsed an encounter like this before in his mind. He had endless avenues to go down. “You just called me a girl. Are you an idiot? You kind of look like an idiot. They all look like idiots, don’t they?”

“Harper, let’s just go.” It was obvious Ian wasn’t geared up for a confrontation.

“I’m not going anywhere. Sorry,” he whispered, “I’m not backing away from this one. This is our home now. If they sense fear, we’re goners. I’ll explain that to you later
.
”

“You uppity rich fairies think you can just move in wherever you want.” The fat pig seated in the center glared across the table.

“Uppity rich fairies?” Feeling the need to display a sense of calm despite the fact that every nerve ending in his body was making itself noticed, he sipped his water. Ian, refusing to look over at the table, slowly shook his head.
I know, this is one of those times where you’re fucked if you do and fucked if you don’t. I choose to be fucked if I do.

“What exactly is a fairy?” It was a fair question. Looking over to the table of Neanderthals, he smiled.
Come on, boys, collectively you should be able to come up with a clever answer.

The ringleader was robbed of an opportunity to respond when, like magic, Audrey appeared at their table. “Luke, Earl, Adam, how’s the breakfast this morning? We do a good job for you?” It wasn’t lost on him that Audrey had strategically placed her hand on the center pig’s shoulder, who he guessed to be Earl.

“Real good, Audrey.” All it took were those few words out of Earl’s mouth for him to see what a pansy-ass suck-up this guy really was. Like being caught red-handed by the teacher, Earl did his best, which wasn’t a half-bad effort, to cover up for the shit storm he’d entered into.
Story of your life, huh, Earl? Too stupid to ever catch on? That’s it, isn’t it. You’re an eating, shitting machine that will never contribute an ounce of value on this earth. You’re pathetic.

“Well,” Audrey continued in an even voice, “if you ever want to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner in the Smacker again, you’re going to apologize to these wonderful gentlemen for your rudeness. You got about one second to make up your mind which it’s going to be. Apologize or pay your bill and leave here for good. Your business won’t be welcome anymore.”

Harper fought to keep his inner smile from surfacing. Audrey, what a peach. Damn, the woman had balls.

“I’m sorry,” the younger of the three said, to Earl’s left.

“Not good enough. You look over to these fine gentlemen and give them a proper apology.”

“I’m sorry.” This time the dude looked up for a brief moment before staring down at his coffee cup.

“That’s barely acceptable, but I’ll take it for now. Adam, you want to give it a try?”

The guy on Earl’s right nervously rubbed his mouth and nose before looking over. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s better.” Audrey moved from behind Earl over to the side of the table. “Now, Earl, I believe it’s your turn.”

Earl, his face beet red, looked as if he was going to explode. He was fucked and he knew it.

“I’m… sorry.”

Audrey walked over to their booth and snatched up the ticket Francine had left earlier by Ian’s coffee cup. “This one’s on me. No reason you have to put up with that kind of crap in my restaurant. It won’t happen again. If for some reason it does, and I don’t know about it, I’m going to trust that you let me know. You guys are the best thing to happen to this community in a long time. Even if some of us are too stupid to realize that.” Audrey looked over her shoulder to make sure her point had landed on her intended targets.

“It was one big misunderstanding, Audrey.” Harper crawled out of the booth and stood. “Guys, I’m sorry we got off to such a bad start this morning. I hope there’s no hard feelings. Earl, is it?” The burly dude nodded at him apprehensively. It was clear he didn’t have a clue he was being manipulated.
Ah yes, the Callahan touch. “
May I see that piece of paper by your elbow?” Earl fidgeted in his seat. “Yep, I’m talking about your bill. Can I see it?”

Seconds passed before Earl’s mind caught up. When it did, he picked up the bill and surrendered it.

“We’re up to our elbows in alligators trying to get these cabins open. It’s taken a big chunk out of our savings, but you know what?”

Nobody seemed to have an answer for him. Harper chuckled to himself. Hands down, the face wearing the most lost look was Ian’s.
Keep going, you’re nailing this one.
“Audrey, let me see the bill you just picked up off our table, please.” Audrey handed it over. “Thank you.”
Okay, seal the deal. Bring it home.
“Guys, despite the fact we are up to our necks in bills right now, breakfast is on Ian and me. Audrey, we very much appreciate you offering to pick up our tab this morning, but we’re all here to make a buck. Enjoy the rest of your day, guys. I look forward to meeting you again. By the way, I’m Harper. Harper Callahan. And this is my partner, Ian. Ian Burke.” Part of sealing the deal was walking around the table and shaking the hand of each one of these douchebags.
The Callahan personal touch. Addicting.

“Come on, Ian. We’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do today. Audrey, let’s you and I settle up at the cash register.”

“Well, that was pretty amazing.” Ian hadn’t said a word until they were just about to the car.

“What’s even more amazing”—he stopped to make his point—“is the restraint you showed back there. I’m very impressed. In the back of my mind I was waiting for the detonation to go off.”

“I guess I was just surprised by the whole thing. Shocked.” Ian shook his head in disgust.

“I was shocked too. The Smacker feels like home.”

“When I finally recovered and felt the anger beginning to surface, Audrey appeared.”

“Here’s the deal. I give what I did back there a better than fifty-fifty chance of working. Hopefully, we just smoothed over some of their rough edges. Now, they could be even stupider than they look, which, frankly, is really hard to imagine, but if they are, then they’ll still want us out of their playground. Let’s hope for the best.”

Chapter 11

H
ARPER
crawled out from under the office desk where he’d been connecting cables to the new POS system. “There! Try it now.”

Alex powered up the server. The screen blinked a few times before the system began to load. “Looks like that did it. Are you sure you want me to go through the training on this?”

“Positive.” He knew he didn’t want to give up time hanging on the phone while a sales representative located in God-knew-where walked him through Reservations 101. “You’re going to be the point man at the desk most of the time. I want you to be the expert. Get to know the folks we bought this system from, and then you can train me, and probably Ian, as a backup on it in a language he and I can understand. Neither of us is terribly technical.”
Like I’ll ever find the patience to plow through that owner’s manual. Yikes!

“That’s cool. I get into this stuff.” Alex fearlessly paged through the manual.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Harper picked up his trusty legal pad and browsed through the notes he and Ian had made at breakfast. “There’s a photographer coming by sometime this afternoon to take photos for marketing. Ian’s all over that, so if he’s not around or out working the gardens, call him on his cell. The guy charges by the hour so we don’t want to keep him waiting around.”

“Got it. I plan on being here all day.”

“We need to talk about your schedule too. Have you finalized your hours at the Smacker?” He and Ian wanted Alex to be involved in the business as much as possible. Knowing that waiting tables at the Smacker had been a reliable source of income for him in the past, for at least this season, they’d work around whatever schedule he came up with.

“I was hoping to work just here, if you thought there would be enough for me to do. Ian mentioned he’d have his hands full gardening and could use help keeping the grounds up. The Smacker’s great, but I’m ready for a change.”

“That’s exactly what we hoped. Let me talk to Ian, and we’ll work on putting together a salary package that includes health insurance. Which brings up something else I want to talk to you about. Any chance you have an extra Dew in there? Let’s sit down for minute.”

Alex had spoken on several occasions about heading west. There hadn’t been much talk of it after his dad had made off with his money. He and Ian thought the timing might be right to see if they could get a more solid commitment out of him. If he was amicable to their little industry, they’d make it worth his while.

“Oh yeah, sure. Be right back.”

Harper sat down at the small table across from the front desk.
We need some art in here. That’s it! Maybe we can feature local artists and have a revolving gallery. We could sell their work.

“There you go.” Alex popped the top on a soda and handed it over.

“Thanks. I don’t drink soda that often, but I like the caffeine rush I get from this stuff. Makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.” Harper took a long pull from the frosty can.

“I went to the dentist this winter. I have to find something else to drink. This stuff is lethal. He told me I’d wake up one morning and my teeth would be on my pillow.” Alex laughed.

“Are you serious? He actually said that to you?”
Wow, he’s using the scare tactic big-time
. “So, Alex….”

“Yeah, what’s up?” Alex had relaxed considerably around both him and Ian. At first, the young man had seemed on pins and needles when they were together. It was nice to see him act naturally.

“Let’s talk future. Any idea what your plans are going forward? You mentioned you’d at one time thought about heading west. You still noodling that one?”

“Naw, not really.”

Harper was surprised to see his comfortableness fade a few notches. Alex fidgeted and broke eye contact.

“Look, we love having you around. You’re a great guy, and we need a right-hand man around here who gets what we’re trying to accomplish. Unless you can tell me otherwise, we think we’ve found him.”
Come on, Alex, what’s on your mind?

“I like being here, being around you guys. It’s just that….”

“I’m not going to judge you. I’m an attorney at heart, so you might hear an unsolicited opinion or two, but like Ian’s learning to do, just ignore it.”

“Harper, can I ask you something?” Alex resumed eye contact. A good sign.

“Sure.”

“How did you and Ian meet?”

“I hired him to landscape my backyard.”

“Huh?” Alex laughed, not understanding.

“I saw this landscaping commercial late one night, and this stud was in it who turned out to be Ian. I called the next day and he came over to discuss my yard. We’ve pretty much been a team ever since.” This didn’t appear to be the answer Alex had hoped for. “Hey, wait a second. Are you seeing someone? I’ve noticed Zits has been gone several nights lately.”

“I wish.” Alex was back to staring at his soda can.

“You on a bowling team or something?” He was happy to see a smile back on the young face. “If you’re seeking out ‘finding the right man’ advice, I’m sorry, but I’m the last person you should be talking to. I wasn’t even trying to meet someone when Ian walked into my life. It just happened.”

His last comment wiped away the smile. Hopefully not for good.
What is going on with this kid?
Confident there wouldn’t be any more clues forthcoming, he forged on. “Look, you’re a handsome, charming dude. I can’t imagine there aren’t guys your age just waiting in line to date you. Are there places you can go to meet other gay dudes?”

He’d never thought about it. It could be a whole different ballgame meeting guys up here. He couldn’t be sure about this, but there probably weren’t the opportunities for Alex that guys his age had back in the Cities.

“I’ve been hanging out at Norbert’s more.”

“Yeah, so? I don’t get it.”
Norbert’s, what the hell did that have to do with meeting guys?
It was a tacky convenience store.

“I’ve met a few guys there.”

“You meet guys at Norbert’s? How does that work?”

“There’s a magazine rack in the back of the store. Every now and then someone will stand next to me. I just stand there for a few minutes pretending I’m reading. Then I put the magazine back and walk out. If they’re interested, they follow me and we hook up.” Released from his apparent burden, Alex once again looked up. “We get in the car and—”

“
You do what?
”

The look of horror displayed on the young man’s face at Harper’s reaction was, in all likelihood, a mirror image of what Harper’s own face displayed. “Alex, I’m sorry, but do you mean to tell me you get into a stranger’s car and you go somewhere and diddle each other?”

“Sometimes they get in my car, but not very often.”

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever had my parent gene kick in. Wow! Sorry.” It was his turn to look away. The idea of Alex getting into a stranger’s car, the risk involved, was more than he could process at the moment. “I’m not judging you. You’re likely doing what you have to do, or need to do. I’m just more than a little freaked at the reality of it all.”