Folk Around and Find Out (Good Folk: Modern Folktales #2)(59)

“Paid for, I know. It’s your personal mantra.” She chuckled, happy—excited, even. “Gosh, Hank. I can’t thank you enough. I—I can’t—”

“Don’t thank me. You do the work and you’ll get paid for the work you do. No thanks required.”

She looked like she wanted to give me a hug, so I flatted my lips, kept my arms crossed, and shifted away. She’d get mostly shoulder and arm if she decided to go for it. I had a strict no-touching policy with my dancers and employees. Handshakes were okay, nothing else. They needed to know that I saw them as professionals. Touching was a two-way street and not something I welcomed.

In a business full of blurred lines, paramount importance should be placed on clearly defined and enforced boundaries. Firsthand, I’d witnessed the ramifications when the people in charge of keeping dancers safe allowed lines to be crossed. That behavior and those consequences would never be okay with me.

Hannah bounced on the balls of her feet and hopped back a distance, still smiling, still looking pleased, but thankfully taking the hint. “Well, okay then. I guess—do you—when do I start?”

“Go talk to Charlotte when you get a moment. The two of you can work on the schedule and I’ll finalize the PD, benefits, and salary with her on Wednesday. Then we’ll see what we see. Sound good?”

“Sounds great!”

“What sounds great?”

We both turned and made room for Beau as he strolled up, smiling his charming smile at Hannah, then me.

Hannah looked at me as though for permission to tell him. I nodded once.

“I’m retiring, Beau. I’m hanging up my pasties for a desk job.”

“If that’s what you want, then that’s great, Hannah.” Beau wrapped her in a hug of congratulations.

“Thanks,” she said shyly, accepting his embrace with enthusiasm.

Hannah’s stage name was Goldie, on account of her gold hair, and had been ever since she’d started with me years ago. Right now, she was glowing. That was great to see.

“It was all Charlotte’s idea,” I announced as they detached. Beau already knew this, of course. I’d told him last night, but I wanted Hannah to be aware, to give credit where credit was due. “She suggested you for the job when she turned in her notice. She’s the one who suggested I increase the responsibilities.”

“Are you serious?” Hannah squealed, spinning around, presumably to find Charlotte.

“Yep.”

“Well, let me go say thank you, then!”

“Who’s stopping you?” I grumped back, pleased for Hannah, of course, but irritated at the reminder that Charlotte would be replaced. By anyone.

Hannah snorted at my tone, rolling her eyes at me, but said nothing. She turned away and jogged toward Charlotte.

Beau moved to stand at my shoulder as Hannah departed. “Shelly got your AC working again. She’s still inside, testing a few things out, but the unit should last for a good while now. When I fixed it in June, I forgot to—”

“Fine. Thanks. How long before we can go back inside?”

Beau gathered a deep breath before responding. “You’ll have to wait until tomorrow. It’ll need at least eighteen hours to cool down the inside.”

“Great.”

“Give everyone the night off. They’ve done enough today.”

“I will.”

“Go out, all together. Have a few beers. Relax with your staff. Seems like an opportunity.”

I nodded, liking this idea, but said nothing. I’d ask Charlotte what she thought.

“Hank. You’re still irritated. I would’ve thought you’d be happy with how the day went, all things considered. Looks like most of your regulars came out for this little event.”

Grunting, my attention snagged on the lemonade stand, and my vision narrowed as disappointment thrummed in my chest. It looked like Charlotte’s momma was abandoning the post. The kids were already in their car, their grandma sliding into the driver’s seat. Beau’s brothers had taken over, with Jethro taking the money and Cletus pouring the lemonade.

I’d missed my chance.

Well, that’s just fucking great.

Mouth sour from more than just lemonade, I tossed the remainder of my drink to the ground and turned a frown on Beau. “Hey, let me ask you something.” I reckoned he would know whether or not it’d be okay for me to be seen saying hi to Joshua and Sonya without causing trouble for Charlotte. If presented with a future opportunity while in public, I didn’t want to miss out on talking to them again.

“What’s up?” Beau wiped his hands off on a rag, paying close attention to his cuticles.

“Let’s say I sorta know two kids in a family of four and think they’re awesome. Just really awesome people.” I gestured to Charlotte’s momma’s car, currently pulling out of the lot.

“You mean Charlotte’s kids?”

“Yeah. Joshua and Sonya, specifically. I don’t know the other two.” I lifted my eyes beyond him and continued in an academic tone. “What want to know is, on a scale from one to ten, how socially—socially—” My brain stopped because it was officially my birthday. And New Year’s and Cinco de Mayo and Rama Navami, and Shelly Sullivan was now my most favorite person in the entire world.