“It’s a secret.”
“So, in other words, you have no idea.”
“You don’t think I have a plan?”
She smirked, which wasn’t quite as attractive as her smile, but was still cute. “Is it as good as your plan to serve up burned frozen pizza so I’ll take over the cooking?”
Busted. “I’m pleading the Fifth.”
“And I’m pleading exhaustion. We can work on the menus more tomorrow and we also need to talk about placing an ad. I think it might be good to get one or two really experienced servers in here before opening, and I think we’re going to be buried in applications.”
“I’ll be wrapped up most of the day with Peterson and the fire inspector and a few other things. I’ll try to sneak in some menu planning so we can talk about it over dinner. Which, by the way, is your turn tomorrow.”
“Whatever. Just throw the silverware in the sink and I’ll wash the dishes in the morning.”
While she was in the bathroom, he tossed the paper plates and dropped anything washable into the sink. As long as the day had been, he wasn’t ready to turn in yet, so he flipped on the television and tried to get comfortable on the couch. Thirty seconds later he turned the TV back off and made a mental note to call the cable company. Or a satellite dish company. Any company that could offer him a distraction.
“Good night,” Darcy said as she made the quick trip from the bathroom to her bedroom.
“Night.”
And then there was silence. It was late enough so there weren’t any cars driving by to make road noise that was just enough to drown out the slight creak of Darcy’s mattress as she climbed into bed. The rustle of covers. The small sigh as her head hit the pillow.
He knew she slept on her left side, with her arm tucked under her pillow, because he’d been lucky enough to wake up curled around her, and the memory was slowly killing him.
And it was only the second night.
* * *
DARCY AVOIDED JAKE AGAIN in the morning by staying in bed until he’d left the apartment. The idea of having their morning coffee together, all sleepy-eyed and messy-haired, seemed intimate to her and she wanted no part of that. It was hard enough keeping their arrangement focused on the business.
She’d just finished washing the few dishes they’d dirtied when the phone rang. Kevin had arranged for a landline to be put in before Jake had even arrived, from what he’d said, because cell coverage was so spotty. Spotty being practically nonexistent, of course.
After drying her hands, she picked it up on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Kevin.” She was hoping to be a little more settled in—both literally and emotionally—before reporting in to the boss. “How are things going?”
“Good.” That was the truth, more or less. The number of hours she spent tossing and turning, trying not to think about having sex with his business-partner-slash-old-friend Jake, weren’t really Kevin’s business. “We’ve made a lot of notes on the front end and we’re working on the menu.”
“You’ve got the Jasper Burger, right?”
“Number one on the list. Number two being Jasper’s Big-Ass Steak.”
A couple of seconds and then he laughed in her ear. “That’ll sell out every weekend.”
“That’s pretty much what Jake said.”
“I guess I should have told you he prefers Jake.” That would have been nice, she thought. “Nobody but me calls him J.P. and he hates it.”
“So I heard.”
“Any problems? You guys getting along okay?”
“We’ve got a handle on it. Other than his genius plan to coerce me into cooking every night by feeding me burnt frozen pizza.”
“Not much for takeout up there.”
She snorted. “To say the least. The gas station was having a sale on microwave burritos, though, and just in time for my night to cook.”
“Ouch. Is he around, by any chance?”
“He left about an hour ago.”
“He was supposed to call me half an hour ago.”
“Must have slipped his mind.” Seemed to be a problem with Jake Holland.
“I’ll leave a message on his cell so if he passes through a signal, it’ll remind him. Let me know if you have any problems, okay?”
“Yeah. Tell Paulie I said hi.”
“She misses you. Says the new girl can only carry one plate at a time and doesn’t know scotch from chocolate milk.”
Darcy laughed. “It’s nice to be missed.”
They hung up and she debated on whether or not to go downstairs. The menu was her top priority because they needed to have ingredients on hand before they started hiring cooks. Once they’d narrowed the list down to a few choices, she intended to put them through their paces in the kitchen. They had to be able to master the Jasper Burger recipe, and they couldn’t hire anybody who couldn’t cook a perfect big-ass steak.
She worked on it for several hours, playing with and discarding meal ideas. Playing with the pricing. It was tough to balance the two demographics—hungry sledders with a little money to throw around versus families looking for an affordable night out—without a big disparity on the menu. And, as Jake had pointed out, they didn’t want to be overstocked on a wide variety of ingredients right off the bat.
After a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, she set aside the pub’s menu and started a grocery list. They needed real food in the apartment, even if she had to cook it herself, because being limited to things available at the gas station’s convenience store was not only killing her appetite, but wasn’t going to do her waistband any favors, either.
The trip to the grocery store took up most of the afternoon since it wasn’t a short drive, and she was happy to see Jake walking down the apartment stairs as she parked her car. She’d been so focused on stocking their kitchen so she wouldn’t have to make the drive again any time soon that she forgot she had to carry all the groceries up the stairs.
She was barely out of the car before he was looming over her. “Where have you been?”
“Not being a huge fan of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I went to the store and did some shopping. Actually, I like a PBJ sandwich now and then, but not with grape jelly. I like strawberry preserves.”
“It didn’t occur to you to maybe leave a note?”
“No, actually it didn’t.” Maybe she should have, just as a courtesy, but he needed to back off. “Are you going to help me carry these bags up?”
“Dammit, I was worried about you!”
“When I’m doing work for the pub, that’s your business. When I’m not, it’s not.” She couldn’t make it any more plain that he was overstepping. And because knowing he’d been worried about her made her feel all warm and gooey inside, she needed to nip it in the bud.
“We also happen to be sharing a living space, and no matter how platonic it might be, if you’re going to disappear for hours, it’s polite to leave a damn note.”
“Fine.” She could be just as loud as him. “Next time I’ll leave a damn note. Hopefully it won’t get wet.”
When she tried to go around him to get to the trunk, he stopped her with a hand on her arm. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
“I’m not lying about your number, Darcy. It was pouring and I was on a dirt road and a car was in the ditch. By the time I pushed her out, I was soaked and so was the paper. The ink ran and I couldn’t read it.”
“I said forget it. It doesn’t matter.”
He cupped her chin in his hand, gently but firmly lifting it so she had to look at him. “It does matter. You think I blew you off and I didn’t. I wanted to see you again and because I was a nice guy and helped a woman get her car out of a ditch, you think I’m an asshole.”
>
Her opinion of him wasn’t anywhere near that low, but before she could tell him that, he bent his head and kissed her. There was nothing tentative or shy about it this time and it brought back every minute of that amazing—almost freaking magical—night. It also brought back the teenager-like giddiness as she waited for his call. And how hurt she was when the phone never rang. How stupid she felt.
How much worse it would be to add professional humiliation on top of it if she had to go running home before the pub was open, nursing a broken heart. She broke off the kiss, turning her face away from his.
“Darcy.” His voice was rough.
“Technically, while I’m here I work for you. You’re my boss and if you do that again, I’ll quit.”
She pushed past him and grabbed a few bags out of the trunk to carry upstairs. He could lug the rest. After dropping the load in the kitchen, she went into her room and closed the door. Dropping her head back against the wood, she tried not to cry.
He probably hadn’t deserved that, but it was the only way she could think of to make him stop touching her.
Jake wasn’t the first guy not to call when he said he would, but he was the first she’d invested that much hope in. It was the first time she’d cried into her pillow instead of muttering disparaging comments about the nature of men and moving on with her life. And that scared her.
CHAPTER FOUR
JAKE BURNED OFF some of his anger making trip after trip up and down the stairs with groceries, but by the time he’d brought up the last bag, he still had a low simmer going on.
She was full of shit. Their working together—and him technically being her boss—had nothing to do with her pushing him away. She was pissed he hadn’t called her and she wouldn’t allow herself to believe him no matter how many times he told her he’d tried. That wasn’t on him and she was grasping at straws trying make it otherwise.
“I carried them up, you put them away,” he called to her door. “I’m going to make sure they locked up downstairs.”
He didn’t say it out of courtesy but so, if she was in a snit, she’d know it was safe to come out and put the groceries away without running into him. The last thing he wanted to do after the day he’d had was sort canned goods from boxed and try to figure out how to fit everything in the fridge.
It didn’t take as long as he’d thought to do a walk-through of the restaurant, so she was still at it when he returned. She looked calm enough, but he’d spent enough time watching her to see the tension in her shoulders.
Jake wasn’t one to let things fester, so he grabbed a bag to unload. “I shouldn’t have kissed you. You made it clear to me you weren’t interested in anything but working with me, and I should have respected that. But the boss card?”
“That was uncalled for,” she said before he could, which surprised him. “I just needed some space, and that was an excuse.”
“And you’re still mad at me. Admit it.”
“Fine. I’m still mad at you. And before you say it, maybe you tried to find me, but I didn’t know that, so I was hurt and I was mad.”
And that’s where the lashing out had come from. Not anger. Hurt. “How many freaking boxes of macaroni and cheese did you buy?”
“It’s my favorite food.”
“And you gave me shit about frozen pizza?”
“No comparison.”
He lined up the boxes in the cabinet and peeked in another bag. “So, if you were hurt when I didn’t call, I guess that means you cared if you ever saw me again or not?”
When she got really still, studying the label on a can of green beans, he forced himself to be patient and wait for the answer. “Yes, I cared. I wanted to see you again.”
“And now?”
She set the can in the cupboard and turned to face him. “Throwing that whole boss and employee thing at you outside was wrong because of why and how I did it, but the truth is, I do work for you. More importantly, I work for Kevin and this is important to him. I don’t know how much money you have to throw away, but he doesn’t have a lot, so we have to make a success of this place.”
“I promised Kevin I wouldn’t touch you.” Saying it out loud somehow seemed to make the guilt better and worse at the same time.
“Why did he think you would? I swear, if you told him—”
“I didn’t. He didn’t mean you specifically. He just didn’t want me getting involved with whoever he sent.”
“Is that a problem you have often?”
“No, which is why it pissed me off when he said it. And when you said it.”
“I like you, Jake.” The words would have had him singing and dancing on the inside except he heard a but coming. “But after one night, I liked you enough to be hurt when you didn’t call. If we start something and then we have a problem, I won’t be able to stay. I’ll let Kevin down and I’ll let myself down.”
He was pretty sure if he backed her up against the counter and kissed her again, she wouldn’t slap his face for it. But she was vulnerable right now, so that would make him a jerk. And she was right about Kevin. If the pub suffered or, God forbid, failed because things went south between him and Darcy, Jake would lose her and one of his best friends.
“I’m not giving up,” he told her. “Once you’re back at the bar, you might see more of me than you think.”
“Sure. You’ll call me, right?”
“Hey!” She laughed at him, then turned back to the last couple of bags of groceries. “Stop buying cheap pens, woman. We’d probably be married already if you’d used a damn Sharpie.”
“You’re a real funny guy, Jake Holland.”
So damn funny he tossed and turned half the night, wondering how much truth was in his words and imagining what might have been if she’d just used indelible ink.
* * *
DARCY NEEDED CHOCOLATE. With alcohol. Alcohol-infused chocolate with a bag of potato chips on the side. She was going to strangle Jake Holland with her bare hands, even if she had to sneak up behind him and knock him unconscious first.
Her car was nothing more than a car-shaped mound of more snow than she’d ever seen fall at one time. The windchill could freeze a person’s eyes closed if she took too long blinking. She felt caged in the building, and Jake was going out of his way to be as sexy as possible.
He had to be doing it deliberately. There was no way a man could be like that naturally. In the three weeks since they’d talked and come to an understanding there would be no sex, he’d gone out of his way to make her want him. She was sure of it.
Half the time the man didn’t have a shirt on. January in northern New Hampshire and she’d find him painting the stall doors in the men’s bathroom, dripping paint down his naked chest in a way that encouraged a woman’s gaze to follow the eggshell path south. He must have switched shampoo or soap or something because she was constantly aware of how delicious he smelled. And half the time when she glanced at him, he was watching her with that same look in his eye he’d had the night they met, just before he’d kissed her.
She needed a distraction, so she picked up the phone and punched in the number for Jasper’s Bar & Grille. And, just as she’d hoped, it was Paulie who answered.
“Hey, Paulie, it’s Darcy. Can you spare a few minutes?”
“Of course. Let me pick it up in the office. Hold on.” Darcy heard her yell to somebody she was taking a break and to hang up the phone after she picked it up in the office. Kevin had yet to invest in a real phone system. “Okay, that’s better. So, hey, hear you guys are getting a hell of a snow up there.”
“Yeah. It’s making Jake twitchy because the sledders will be out in hordes this weekend and every engine he hears is lost dollar signs.”
“Plenty of riding time left after the Valentine’s Day thing. What is the thing, anyway?”
“He says he has a plan. He’s yet to tell me the plan, but he says he has one.”
“How are you two getting along?”
Now, that was a loaded question. On the surface they got along fine and worked together well. Under the surface? They were both a little ticked off they’d talked themselves out of having sex. But she couldn’t say that. She and Paulie were friends, but Paulie and Kevin were best friends.
“We work together well” was what she settled for. “We were supposed to start interviewing wait staff today, but I think we’re having a snow day instead.”
“Oh, I should tell you Kevin wore his T-shirt to dinner at his parents’ and now all the kids want one, too.”
Darcy groaned. “I can’t believe Jake had those made.”
He’d special-ordered three T-shirts, one for each of them. Emblazoned on the front were the words Jasper’s Big-Ass Steak House. She had to admit, she’d laughed pretty hard when he gave her hers.
They talked a few more minutes, mostly about what Darcy should be looking for in wait staff, but then Paulie had to go mediate a situation and promised to call later, when she had more time.
Sick of the beige walls, Darcy pulled on her parka, boots, hat and gloves, then wrapped a scarf around her face for the trek down the flight of stairs to the back door. It was that cold. Once she was in the kitchen, she reversed the process and piled it all up for the one-minute walk home later.
She heard Jake’s laugh before she went through the swinging doors and she stopped, peering through the small window. She could only see him over the pile of stuff sitting on the coffee counter, waiting to be put away, but everything about his demeanor said he was talking to a woman. Whoever she was, she either had a sled dog team or drove the plow truck.
Darcy pushed through the doors and went around the counter to the table Jake was sitting at with a fortyish-looking woman with very short blond hair and a bright smile.
“Oh, here she is. Karen, this is Darcy Vaughn. She’s more or less in charge of everything on this side of the swinging doors. Darcy, this is Karen Sikes. She’s here to interview.”
Alone With You Page 4
