Danielle sipped on a glass of water. “You must think I’m a total moron. Right this moment, waitress number four sent from the job service should be here. Do you see her? Because I don’t.”

Madison stood. How difficult could it be to take people’s orders and bring them whatever they had requested? “In that case, I’ll help.” A little bonus was that if Grandmother Eileen found out she was now serving other people, she would crumble to ashes. A grin formed on her lips. “Where do we start?”

“I guess the safest would be to start with the coffee machine.”

Madison stood and strolled around the counter. That couldn’t be that challenging. She came to a halt in front of a huge beast with controls that looked like they were out of a space shuttle. “What’s that?”

“The coffee machine.” Danielle sighed. “Listen, didn’t you tell me Sherry is a waitress?”

“Uh, yeah. Why?”

“Do you think she could help us out sometime? I really would like to work with professionals for a change.”

“Sure. I’ll ask her. And maybe we leave this thing here”—Madison pointed toward the coffee beast—“for her.” She searched for something she could do without getting a headache. “What about beer? I can draw beer, and I know how to mix a few cocktails.”

Danielle wiped a few lose strands of hair out of her face. “That’s great, but at this time of the day I doubt a lot of people will order alcohol.”

“Oh.”

“But you could take care of the counter. When someone orders something, you write it down and tell Jack or me. And then you can do the decoration or something.”

Decoration? Whatever. She pushed up her sleeves. “Okay.”

Twenty minutes later, she was drenched in sweat.

Danielle’s orders were bombarding her and Jack as if the Archer was three times as full. Jack was constantly handing her beverages from the space ship for her to dump chocolate powder on top of. She also added a package of sugar and a cookie. Not two or three, just one, as Danielle and Jack told her repeatedly. It wasn’t as if a customer would be complaining about an additional cookie, so what was their damn problem?

Danielle leaned against the bar, observing Madison, who filled a glass of Coke. “How’s Jake doing, by the way? Any problems after the surgery?”

“No, he’s fine.” At least as far as she knew. When she’d left the house, he had seemed healthy. You should ask Sherry about him sometimes. These are the things you should know.

“Great.” Danielle took the prepared drinks, put them on a tray, and was gone.

“Hey, Madison,” Jack called over. “You know how to do a Virgin Colada?”

“I’m an expert when it comes to virgins and Piña Coladas. Does that count?”