Riley's Secret (A Moon's Glow Novel # 1) (5 page)

“Hi. Could you tell me where I could find, ah…?” I
glanced down at the form. “Nathan.”

A grin spread slowly across his face before he looked
me up and down. “Are you sure you’re not looking for Eddie?” He leaned against
the counter, giving me a flirtatious grin. “’Cause that would be me.”

I smiled. “I’m sure.”

“Fine then, you want the boss man. He’s the one elbow
deep in pots and pans.” He pointed to a guy washing dishes at the back. Nathan
had been the one singing loudly. Everyone close to him was singing along and
laughing. After I thanked Eddie, I made my way slowly over to my supervisor, weaving
around a girl that was about sixteen. Her hair was black with a pink streak
down the center of her head. She glared at me as I stepped past her. She was
standing beside Eddie, helping with the sandwiches. I ignored her, but dodged a
large bowl that was almost jammed into my stomach. “Sorry,” a man in his
thirties said, smiling as he rushed past me.

I finally managed to get to the sink, where three
people were doing the dishes. A teenage girl with blond hair in braids was
drying and a woman in her mid-twenties was putting them away. I approached the
guy that was to be my supervisor, wondering if any of these people had heard of
dishwashers.

He was tall, maybe six feet and his wavy blond hair
almost reached his shoulders. “Excuse me, are you Nathan?” I asked quietly.

He turned around, smiling. “That’s me, but you can—”
He stopped speaking when he saw who I was. But I knew what he was about to say:
“You can call me Nate.” The person that was in charge of my community service
was none other than Nate Green. His smile disappeared, replaced by a scowl.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were in jail.” He tossed a plastic dish
he had just washed into the empty sink, where it clanged against the stainless
steel.

“I was, thanks to you. Now I have two hundred hours of
community service to do, so if you don’t mind, I guess I have to report to you,
as much as I hate to say it.”

He grabbed my arm roughly, but when his hand touched
my skin, it was surprisingly soft. He dragged me through the busy kitchen to
the front desk, with curious faces staring as we passed.

Once we were standing in the front hallway, he let go
of me. “You can’t be serious, Julia. I am not working with her.” Disgust
dripped from his words.

Julia dropped the pen she had been holding and leaned
back in her office chair. “Nate, she’s a volunteer. You are in charge of the volunteers,
remember?”

“No, she’s not. She’s forced to be here. It’s not the
same thing.”

“Doesn’t matter the reason, she’s here to help. Now
put her to work.”

He scowled at me again and then a slow grin appeared
on his face. That grin suddenly made me nervous. “Fine, after you help serve
lunch, you’ll be in charge of cleaning the washrooms.” He leaned against the
desk, crossing his arms in front of him.

I gulped, but made sure he didn’t notice. “What do you
mean?”

“You know, cleaning the toilets. I’m sure you’re great
at that,
Princess
.”

I cringed inside. He was right. I had never cleaned a
toilet before. Actually, I had never cleaned anything before, but I certainly
wouldn’t be telling him that. All I wanted to do was wipe that smug look off
his face. “Anything I can do to help, is fine with me.” My voice was all
sweetness.

He scowled again, obviously expecting a different
reaction from me, like maybe running out the door screaming. I wasn’t going to
give him the satisfaction. “Fine, follow me.”

As I walked away, I thought I saw Julia smile.

A Purpose

Nate put me with Eddie and Mia, the girl with the pink
stripe in her hair, making sandwiches. As I buttered bread and added ham and
cheese, Eddie chatted with me while Mia ignored us completely.

He told me tales of growing up on the east side of
Creekford. His family was poor and he grew up trying to stay out of trouble. He
also told me of the times he would steal from the corner store to put food on
the table for his two younger siblings. He never saw his mother and his father
died when he was little. His mother worked two jobs and it still wasn’t enough.

By the time we were ready to serve the food, I was
almost in tears. I hid it well though. Eddie had no idea who my family was and
I had no intention of telling him.

“Where are you from, Megan?” he asked after he
finished his latest story.

Why did he have to ask me that?

Thankfully, a woman approached me with her plate out.
I asked her what kind of sandwich she wanted. “Roast beef please,” she answered
with a friendly smile. I handed her the sandwich, hoping Eddie would forget his
question. Of course I wasn’t that lucky.

“Where are you from?” Eddie repeated.

Nate just happened to be walking behind us and heard
him. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, but it was in no way a friendly
gesture. “Didn’t she tell you her last name? She’s a Banks,” he informed the
guy next to me before continuing down the line, checking to see if we had
enough food.

My cheeks heated, embarrassed for myself and for Eddie.

“Oh, you’re a Richie, are you? That’s okay, so is boss
man.” He was smiling as he said this. I thought he would feel embarrassed after
telling me about his life, but thankfully he didn’t seem to be bothered at all.
“So what did you do to Nate?”

I plopped a sandwich on the plate of a man who was
wearing a “Birthday Boy” button on his gray dress shirt He was a large man,
with hair that looked like it had once been black, but there wasn’t much left,
so I couldn’t be sure. “You must be Frank,” I said, grinning at him,
remembering Julia on the phone talking about a cake.

He returned the smile and added a wink. “I am and you
must be the new girl I heard about.”

“My name is Megan.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Megan,” he said as he was
about to walk away. I placed a second sandwich on his plate. He looked up at
me, surprised.

“Happy birthday.”

He smiled again, nodded and continued down the aisle.

“Are you going to tell me, or are you going to make me
guess?” Eddie prodded, still waiting for my answer.

“I didn’t do anything to him. Why?”

“Because he doesn’t seem to like you and I’ve never
seen him that way with anyone before. I’ve been coming here for two years,
since I was the getaway driver in a corner store robbery. Like you, I had to do
community service here. He was extremely helpful and kind. He really helped me
get my life together and even signed me up for a scholarship for college.” He
paused when a short bald man approached him, wanting some salad. He placed some
on his plate and continued. “I’m just finishing my first year. I’m going to be
a lawyer. A public defender actually, I want to help people. Nate has that way
about him. He inspires others to do their share. Actually, a lot of people that
volunteer here don’t come by choice.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Why was Nate
being so rude to me when he was so great to Eddie and the others? They were
here for the same reason I was. “I don’t know why he doesn’t like me. We go to
the same school, but I hadn’t spoken to him until last night.”

“Last night?” His brow furrowed. “Oh, you’re the chick
who burned down that house.”

I dropped the metal tongs I was holding just as I was
about to pick up a sandwich for a little girl with midnight-black ringlets.
“What are you talking about? I never started the fire.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t judge, given my history.”

I had picked up the tongs, but now I slammed them on
the table. The metal smacked against the wooden surface. “I didn’t. Why do you
think that?” I yelled, causing some of the other volunteers, especially Mia, to
stare in our direction.

His face turned to confusion as he held up both hands
in surrender. “Hey, don’t look at me. I heard it from Nate. He said you told
him that.”

“I never said anything to him.”

“Then why are you here?”

I sighed, hating that my life was turning into a B
movie. “The police think I know who did it and are punishing me because I won’t
give them their names.”

“
Been there
. I wouldn’t squeal back then
either. Today I might.”

I saw Nate standing near the door of the game room.
“Can you cover for me, Eddie?” I asked, handing him the tongs I was using.

“Sure. Give him hell.”

“Oh, I intend to.” I marched over to Nate and shoved
him. He fell back a bit, a look of surprise on his face. “How dare you tell
people that I started that fire,” I said in a low growl. I was mad, but I
didn’t want to draw any more attention to myself.

His familiar scowl crossed his face. “Get back to the
serving line,” he said with a dismissive tone, turning away from me.

I grabbed his arm, making him face me again. “Why do
you think I started the fire?” I whispered.

“You told me you did last night.” He placed his arm
against the doorjamb and the smug,
I’m better than you
look he was
famous for returned.

Now I remembered Detective Carver telling me that a
witness had stated that I admitted to starting the fire. It was Nate. He was
the reason I was handcuffed, fingerprinted and spent most of the night in a
police station. I wanted to hate him for what he did, but instead, I felt the
need defend myself. I didn’t want him or anyone else to think I could do such a
thing. “No, I didn’t.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed like he was dealing with
a four-year-old having a temper tantrum “When I stopped you from entering the
house you said you had to help because this was your fault. Remember?”

I hadn’t remembered saying that until now. I was so
afraid for the family that at the time, most of what happened was a blur. “I
didn’t mean it literally. I meant that I knew who did it.”

“Then why won’t you tell the police?”

I was silent. I didn’t know how to answer that.

He sneered and a fraction of his left dimple appeared.
“That’s why you’re here, right? Because you won’t tell them who did it.” My
silence confirmed it. “Well, then, I’m sorry for misinterpreting you, but you
should tell the police what they want to know. I bet I could figure it out. You
don’t hang out with all that many people. I could probably call them right now
and guess that the five friends you eat with every day at school were
involved.” The shock on my face brought out a real smile on his. “I thought so.
But don’t worry, I won’t say anything. It should come from you. But if
I
figured it out, don’t you think the police will?” With that, he walked away,
leaving me speechless.

“So what happened? He still looked pretty pissed,”
Eddie asked, handing me my tongs as I slunk back to my spot beside him.

“Now he doesn’t approve that I won’t tell the police
who did it.”

“That doesn’t sound like him. He’s very understanding,
even though he’s perfect.”

“Not to me he’s not.” I tried to forget about Nate and
focus on why I was here, handing off a sandwich to the last person in line.

Eddie started to clean up his section, picking up
lettuce that had fallen onto the table and placing the tongs into the large
plastic bowl. “Maybe his problem has nothing to do with the fire.”

I turned to face him. “Well, what is it then?”

He picked up the bowl. “Beats me. Maybe you should ask
him.” He walked away, heading for the kitchen.

I cleaned up my section, picked up my tray and
followed him.

After the lunch dishes were taken care of, Nate told
me I could take a break. I sat down at one of the tables to eat a sandwich and
a tossed salad. Julia came into the room and took the empty seat next to me.
“How’s it going so far?”

“Good. My feet hurt though. This might surprise you,
but I’ve never worked before.”

“No, I’m not surprised.” She laughed. “I wanted to
apologize for this morning. Nate told me he was wrong about what happened last
night.”

I froze, my fork in midair and turned to her. “Did he
tell everyone?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

She smiled. “Probably just Eddie and me, we’re his
favorites.” She poured some dressing over her salad and began mixing it into
the lettuce with her fork.

“He’s so different here. I’ve never even seen him
speak to anyone at school unless he’s tutoring.”

She nodded. “He’s happiest here. He loves helping
people.”

“Eddie called him the boss man. What does that mean?
He’s younger than Eddie,” I asked, before taking a bite of my salad.

“Just that he’s been here longer. And he has a passion
about this place. He worked at the one in Philadelphia before he moved here.
He’s been volunteering since he was a kid. The Rileys know him somehow. I’m not
sure, they’re not clear on the details, but they put him in charge a lot.” She
eyed me while taking a bite of her salad. “After you clean the bathrooms, do
you want to help me out? I’m going to be working with some women who have job
interviews next week. You’d be good with helping them figure out what to wear.
I’ll help them with what to say.”