Chapter 23

Adam slowed down his jeep as soon as he got to the signboard that read 'G-Foodtz.'

He turned and went down the narrow street and eventually saw the small café. He parked beside it and turned his engine off. He looked back at the kids seated in the backseat. "We're here," he told them.

They all got down.

Reece yawned and stretched his hands and legs. "Man, that ain't a long ride at all, I had barely snoozed, yet we've arrived," he complained.

"Sister Lucy said it was a trekkable distance after all," Matt said with a small shrug.

"Let's go! Let's go!! Let's go!!!" Scarlett said eagerly as she jumped up and down beside Adam, yanking his arm as well.

Adam chuckled, "Alright Scarlett...relax yeah?"

Caleb walked ahead of the four of them and pushed the door to the café open. The small bell at the entrance dinged as the door flew open. They all entered after Caleb.

Adam looked around and saw it was a nice, little establishment. The booths were all clean and all but there were few people inside.

They saw Lucy in a light blue apron, clearing off the plates a customer had used from a table. She held her hair back in a messy ponytail.

"Yo! Waitress! A table for five!" Reece said loudly causing Matt, Scarlett, and Caleb to laugh and at once Lucy looked up from what she was doing and scowled immediately she saw them.

She wiped her hands on her apron and hurriedly cleared off the plates then came back to meet them.

Adam looked around and saw that the workers were few as well. Only Lucy and another female youth who were the waitresses, a tall guy with dark curls who stood behind the counter, probably the guy for making drinks and all, then a cook for the main meals.

"Let me show you to your table," Lucy said with a stiff smile.

She then turned and led them to a booth. As they were following her; Reece leaned over to Caleb and said in a loud whisper, "Golly! The customer service is so uptight...we gonna have to complain about this."

Caleb laughed and Lucy turned back to give them both a sharp glare. Adam smiled a little at her when she looked his way.

Soon they were all settled on the purple chairs.

"What can I get you?" Lucy asked with an eye-roll.

"Drop the sass gurl...," Reece laughed out making Matt and Caleb laugh as well. Scarlett was trying to grab a tissue out of the box to play with, but Adam was keeping it out of her reach.

Lucy leaned on the table and growled at Reece, "Make one more annoying comment and I'll shove a ketchup bottle down your throat, capisce?"

Reece cowered and leaned back.

Caleb snickered at him.

"Is there a problem here?"

They all turned to look at the youth who had spoken. She had wavy oak colored hair and dark blue eyes. She raised an eyebrow at Lucy but sent Adam and the other kids a small smile.

"It's nothing, Trixy. They're my family," Lucy said then turned to glare at Reece. "And my brother is making fun of me."

Reece laughed when she called his name and sent Trixy a small wink.

"Guilty as charged," he grinned.

Adam's heart almost stopped functioning when he heard the word 'family' drop from Lucy's lips.

"Oh, I see," Trixy said with a smile.

"Still...be nice Lucy," she grinned before walking away to attend to a man that just walked in.

"I'd like a sandwich!" Scarlett said with glee, snapping Adam out of his thought. He turned to grin at her.

"Me too."

"Yaay!" Scarlett threw her hands up, jubilating they were ordering the same food.

"So, Lucy," Adam turned to her with a smile. "We'll have two sandwiches and root beer with a slushie," he said, and Lucy wrote the order down.

"I'd like a blueberry pancake and a hot chocolate," Matt told Lucy.

"I don't mind a chilled glass of lemonade," Reece said with a grin.

"I'll just have mineral water, thanks," Caleb said.

"I'll be back soon with your orders," Lucy told them and walked towards the kitchen.

"So... what do you think Mr. Adam?" Caleb asked once Lucy had gone.

Adam shrugged slightly. "She seemed to have cooled down, but I can tell she likes working here. And this place isn't that popular, so they don't get many customers," he replied.

"Are you going to let her continue working here?" Matt asked as he looked around again.

"This place isn't half bad, and if she really wants to work, I can't stop her. I'll just need the time when her shift ends so I'll pick her up," Adam said.

Lucy then arrived with their orders.

"Enjoy your meals," Lucy said once she had given them all that they ordered. As she made to leave, Adam stopped her.

"Hey Lucy, come sit with us for a moment," he said and patted the empty space beside him.

Scarlett hurriedly attacked her sandwich, not really paying attention to anyone.

Lucy hesitated.

Reece looked up from his phone at her. "C'mon Lucy, there ain't many people here at all," he said as his eyes scanned around.

"Yeah, just three giggling girls who wouldn't stop bothering that guy at the counter and that man that just came in and is reading a newspaper," Caleb agreed.

"What I mean is I'm still on my shift and I don't want to get fired for taking a break," Lucy said and looked away.

Adam laughed. "Nonsense!"

He stood up and nodded for Trixy to come forward.

"Hey, can Lucy take a break for a moment? We kinda need to talk a bit," Adam asked.

Trixy sent Lucy an amused look. "Yeah, sure. I take breaks all the time when there are a few customers around. I was even going to log into my social media account," she told Adam.

"It's settled then," Adam thanked her and Caleb pulled Lucy down to sit beside him.

"Bye," Trixy waved and walked away.

"So, Lucy," Adam started while Matt took a sip of his hot chocolate. "If you really like working here I won't stop you, it's a neat establishment, not bad at all. But—" Adam paused and drank a little of his root beer.

Reece had down all his lemonade and returned to using his phone.

"But what?" Lucy asked.

"I'd need the time your shift starts and ends so that I can drop you off and pick you up every day," Adam said.

"Um...it starts at 8:00 am and ends at 4:00 pm," Lucy said.

Adam checked his watch.

"Cool, then it's just ten more minutes till your shift ends." He looked towards the door as a lady and a small girl entered.

"We'll wait for you, don't worry," He told her as she stood up.

"Yeah, thank you, sir," Lucy said and started walking away. Adam returned his gaze to his half-empty drink again. Lucy stopped and looked back.

"And Mr. Adam," she called, and Adam looked up.

She grinned at him, "Forgive me for what I said this morning, I was mistaken. You're a good man."

She then walked towards the woman.

Adam smiled and looked down.

That meant Lucy had forgiven him as well.

Scarlett tugged Adam's cloth. "Can I have your sandwiches, please? I'm still hungry," she pleaded in a soft tone.

Adam almost cooed at her.

"Sure," he said instead and pushed his untouched plate of sandwiches at her, truth was he wasn't really hungry anyway.

Soon Lucy's shift was over.

She took off her apron and handed it in.

"See you tomorrow Lucy," Trixy said with a wave.

"Yeah, bye," Lucy said and waved back. She went into the kitchen to tell the cook goodbye before coming out again.

"Um...goodbye Jon," she said as she passed the counter. The tall boy looked up from the poem book he was reading.

"Yeah. Bye," he replied curtly and returned his gaze to his book.

Lucy ran to meet Adam and the others.

"Let's go home!"

~~~

Adam's jeep pulled in the garage and he got down and pulled his briefcase out with him. He then pulled out another smaller grocery bag and a nylon bag.

He walked towards the house and opened the door and almost immediately a tiny blonde jumped on him, attacking him with a hug.

"You're back!" She grinned happily.

"Hey sweetie," Adam carried Scarlett and he closed the door.

"How was work?" Scarlett asked with a grin. Adam couldn't help smiling back.

"Great...boring but great," Adam replied.

"Matty's up in the library while Big bro and bro Caleb are in their room with their phones," Scarlett told him as he dropped his briefcase and the other bags down by the settee.

"What about Lucy?" Adam asked.

"Kitchen," Scarlett laughed.

Soon enough Lucy came out to the sitting room. "Mr. Adam! Welcome back! I was just getting dinner ready," she said with a smile.

"Hey, Lucy." Adam nodded at her.

The boys all came flying down the stairs.

Reece slid down on the staircase railing while the others ran down behind him. He jumped to his feet and ran up to meet Adam.

"Hey, man!" Reece grinned.

"You ain't gonna believe it but I created ma own blog!" Reece said.

"That's an achievement," Adam said proudly and patted Reece's back. Matt came to stand beside Adam as well.

"I finished a trilogy today," Matt said and he got a pat on the head.

"Um...that's great," Adam chuckled. Scarlett squirmed in his hold and he kept her down. She rushed to the nylon bag and poked her head into it.

"What did you buy for us?" She asked but Lucy snatched away the nylon and shot Scarlett a bad look.

"What have I said about peeping into stuff like that Scarlett?" Lucy asked with a small frown.

Scarlett whimpered out a 'sorry' and looked down at her feet.

Adam chuckled. "It's alright Scarlett, and I got you guys ice cream."

"Yaay!!" Scarlett squealed happily. Matt and the other boys all shared in the happiness as well. Reece collected the nylon from the unsuspecting Lucy and peered into it.

"Can I have the vanilla flavor?" He asked.

Lucy snatched the nylon back and scowled at him.

"No ice cream before dinner," she stated firmly, and they all whined.

"Not fair!" Scarlett whined.

"C'mon Lucy," Caleb protested.

"That's ours!" Matt said with a tiny frown.

"Lucy, don't be mean," Reece scowled.

"No ice cream before dinner, right Mr. Adam?" Lucy said firmly and turned to look at Adam for backup. Once she turned her head the others did the same as well.

"Please let's have it now," Scarlett pleaded, using puppy dog eyes.

Adam gulped a bit and Reece smirked inwardly. Good thing we have Scarlett on our side. Reece thought with a grin, he and Caleb shared victorious looks and Matt grinned at Scarlett. Lucy scowled at the boys.

Adam then sighed.

"Scarlett, let's have dinner first, okay?" Adam said lightly and took her hand. He looked back at the boys, "You'll have ice cream after dinner, it's better that way."

Lucy was the one smirking at them.

They groaned and followed him to the dining room. Then they all scrambled to their various seats while Lucy laid the dishes on the table with Caleb's help.

There were beef noodles, some baked fishes, a huge bowl of salad, filet mignons and some flans. Caleb placed a jug of apple juice on the table before taking his seat beside Matt.

Adam chuckled when he saw the food.

"Hey Lucy, what's this?" He asked, amused.

Lucy settled down in her seat and smiled. "I thought I could try some new dishes," she said.

"So... you’re saying this is the first time you've ever cooked all these?!" Reece asked with wide eyes.

"Un-un," Lucy hummed.

"We're doomed...," he moaned, and Caleb laughed.

"C'mon Reece, they look—" he paused to look for a suitable word. "Nice-ish."

Scarlett was the one that started first. She grabbed her napkin and started flapping it hurriedly, she wanted dinner to be over quickly so that she could eat some ice cream.

Adam did his once and successfully tucked it under his chin.

Reece was violently flapping his. He scowled at the cream napkin when it didn't straighten out like Adam's own. "C'mon stupid," he muttered under his breath.

Caleb flapped his, but it still didn't straighten up. Matt had gotten his right on the third attempt. He gave Reece a wry smile.

"Do you need some help bro Reece?" He grinned mischievously.

"No!" Reece snapped at him.

Matt was just rubbing salt in his wounds on how he hadn't gotten it right yet.

Lucy did hers and got it once.

"What?!" Caleb and Reece's jaw both dropped open at the same time. Lucy grinned and winked at them.

After all the napkin fiasco was over Adam said a short prayer and they all started eating.

The food was actually very delicious, and Lucy received compliments from every angle except Reece who just grunted and said it was passable.

"Oh yes, I just remembered," Adam started causing them all to turn in his direction.

He put down his fork and knife he had been using to slice his baked fish and looked at them with a smile.

"You've been here for two weeks now and I just thought that it wasn't really healthy for you all to stay here without proper education, and I'm not talking about the lessons you do daily," Adam said.

"Since tomorrow is Friday, I'm thinking of enrolling you all in schools so that you can resume the session with your mates by next week," Adam told them.

"You want us to go...to school?" Caleb asked with wide eyes.

Adam faced them with a grin.

"Yes."