And if I could maybe bring her back into the fold, so to speak, where was the harm? Surely she’d be much happier if she felt free to sit with the rest of the staff, kibbitz with us through the night, go out for a beer now and then. I just wanted to understand what was going on-why this perfectly ordinary, if extremely quiet woman inspired such apprehension and ostracism. It was pretty obvious that no one in this restaurant, aside maybe from the new guy, thought my being at Yak’s table was a good idea.īut I knew my intentions were good…weren’t they? I certainly didn’t want to hurt her. It made me feel oddly protective of her, and for an instant I second guessed myself.

Yak lowered her head again, but I could see her fingers trembling where they held her page down. She was afraid of me? Me? Nobody had ever been afraid of me. Shock, disbelief, consternation, fear… That last one really brought me up short. It was that even though her mouth wasn’t saying a word, her eyes were speaking volumes.

It wasn’t so much the colour, though they were a nice shade of brown. I’d never really looked Yak directly in the face, even though we’d worked in the same kitchen for over a month. The thing that really got my attention was her eyes. Yak looked up with such an expression of shock, you’d have thought I’d just done a striptease in front of her.

Her empty soup bowl was pushed to the side and she was reading…as always. She always took off her hairnet during our lunch breaks, and let her straight, dark, shoulder length hair dangle like a curtain hiding her face. I could just about hear the collective gasp behind me, but Yak seemed oblivious to my approach. I stayed at the normal lunch break table long enough for Elliot to introduce the new cook, Ed, to everyone, then I quietly picked up my tray and walked over to Yak’s table. For all those looking for an interesting paranormal romance we decided to share one scene:Īfter a month of containing my curiosity and getting nowhere with my crafty inquiries, I decided to take the bull by the horns on my next shift. From this Friday Yak by Lois Cloarec Hart will be available for purchase – as e-book only.