Which was especially good right now, because Tori really wanted to sit down. And sleep.
“I told you I don’t mind filling in beyond my regular hours if you need it. I was at my computer until two, though, so I’m glad you’re doing lunch.” Paige would fill the gap between Tori and Ava. When Tori got called in without warning, she usually tried to keep the hours to a minimum.
“I’m going to talk to Rose later, and call Mitch. I’m thinking if I bring a playpen in, I can bring Sarah in with me to open and then Rose can pick her up here once it’s a decent hour.”
“If we change up the schedule, I can cover for Liz. If it’s planned in advance, I can change my schedule accordingly.”
Paige smiled and shook her head. “I appreciate you and I’m so glad you’re here, but a person who works until two in the morning doesn’t become somebody who gets up to work at four-thirty in the morning just like that. You’re a night owl. I’m a morning person.”
There was no denying that. “Schedule me however you think it’ll work best for everybody and I’ll work around it. But, yeah, I’m not sure the customers would like the version of me that gets up at four-thirty every day.”
Taking her soda, Tori went out through the kitchen door into the parking lot. She’d gotten a text from Gavin earlier, asking her to stop by his place on her way home. Since his place was a very small mobile home at the back of the diner’s parking lot, it wasn’t much of a detour.
She knocked on the door and wasn’t surprised to find him dressed and ready for his shift at the diner. He always went in early because he truly loved his job and nothing excited him more than cooking whatever he had planned for the day. There was a good chance he’d already been over there, tucked away in the prep area while she was out front.
She sat on his couch and looked around. “Have I ever told you this is the tiniest trailer I’ve ever seen that wasn’t hooked to the back of a pickup truck?”
“Every time you come in. And I’ll say what I always say. It takes like five minutes to clean the entire thing.”
Paige had lived here until she moved in with Mitch, from what Tori had heard. The trailer had come with the diner and Paige hadn’t cared that it was small and not...recently renovated. It was all hers and it was home.
“So what’s up?” she asked, because it was obvious he was looking for somebody to talk to.
He leaned against the fridge. Thanks to the floor plan, he was still only a few feet away. “I have an opportunity to cook for a restaurant in Kennebunkport.”
Tori’s eyebrows arched. “Holy crap, that’s amazing, Gav! Maybe you’ll get to cook for former President Bush.”
“I have to prove myself. It’s like a tryout, I guess. But it’s a fancy place, Tori. For a lot more money. And he also owns two restaurants in Boston.”
“When do you go? Do you need my car?”
He laughed, holding up his hands. “I have my truck.”
“The exhaust is held up with a wire coat hanger and you get about six miles to the gallon. You can’t show up in Kennebunkport in that. Take my car to save on gas, if nothing else.”
“I’m not sure if I’m going to go.”
“Whoa.” She sat forward on the couch, seeing the conflict in his expression. “This is a great opportunity for you. It’s a step toward living your dreams. What do you mean you’re not sure if you’re going to go?”
“What if I get the job? If I leave, who’s going to cook at the diner? Carl only does breakfast but, even if he did dinners, he can’t work that many hours every day. His wife would kill him.”
“Paige can hire a new cook.”
“Who? Where is she going to find somebody? After all she’s done to support me, I can’t just leave her like that.”
Tori grabbed his hand, squeezing it and pulling him down on the couch next to her. “It’s because of all she’s done to support you that you have to go. She’s so proud of you and she wants you to follow your dreams. Why do you think she’s bought all those weird ingredients and let you test recipes on her customers?”
“I talked to Carl this morning. I know you had to come in and cover for Liz. She could have morning sickness for months, right? I can’t tell Paige that, on top of that, she’s going to lose her dinner cook.”
“We’ll make it work. I can cook. Paige can cook. Hell, I bet Rose would help out.”
“Rose has enough on her plate. And she doesn’t need to be on her feet that long.”
“She believes in you. We all believe in you—the whole freaking town, Gavin—and we’ll figure it out.”
“You can’t run a kitchen with rotating, untrained staff. There’s quality and consistency and—”