by S E Isaac
“Sure thing,” she smiled brightly at my brother. When she didn’t move and continued smiling at him, I had to roll my eyes.
Jacob always caught attention everywhere he went. Women loved his tan skin, long surfer hair, and physique. All my friends wanted to have sleepovers just so they could see him. And, he is three years younger than me. Little bastard.
“Can you either ask him for his number or go grab the check, please?” I interrupted the waitress’s googly eyes on my brother, who was busy drinking his sweet tea. The waitress’s cheeks reddened and she quickly walked away from our table. “She’s cute, how come you didn’t ask her out?”
“Huh?” Jacob looked at me with an eyebrow rose.
“You’re an idiot,” I chuckled. “The waitress. She was drooling over you. Why didn’t you ask her for her number?”
“Don’t want it,” he shrugged.
“Don’t want it?” I nearly had a heart attack. My brother was always getting phone numbers. He didn’t believe in commitment so he kept his options open. My sisters and I nagged him about not being a player, but he paid us no mind.
“Nope. I have a girlfriend.”
My fork fell against my plate. Several people in the restaurant turned to our table. I paid them no mind because my wide eyes were locked on Jacob. He shrugged and took another bite of his food.
“A girlfriend?” I gasped. “Like a relationship?”
He continued chewing and nodded. We sat in silence for a minute or so, which irritated the hell out of me. I wanted him to cough up information on this lady, who had settled my brother down.
“Details, Jacob. Since when?”
“A few weeks now.”
My heart was going to stop if he kept up the surprises. I felt like I had been tossed in the Twilight Zone or maybe I was dreaming. None of this made sense. My irresponsible, ladies’ man brother now had a job and a girlfriend.
“Who is she?” I asked, gathering a fork full of food and taking a bite. Jacob choked from my question. He drank some of his tea and swallowed hard.
“She’s… It doesn’t matter. You won’t care as long as I’m happy right?”
“Jacob,” I warned. “Is it someone I know?” When he started choking on his food, I knew it was. I kept a small circle. A very small circle. In fact, I really didn’t have any friends besides those at the–
“Jacob Nez! Are you dating Tabitha!” I gasped. His cheeks turned dark red. My mouth nearly dropped to the table. “Oh. My. God.”
“It’s not a big deal. I mean, we’re grown adults. I know you don’t want me to date any of your–”
“I’m so happy for you, Jacob,” I interrupted with a smile.
“Wait. What?” he asked, confused.
“Tabitha deserves to be happy. If your ugly butt makes her happy then I’m happy,” I smirked. Jacob rolled his eyes and laughed.
“Thank God.” He let out a deep breath. “We’ve been scared to death that you’d kill us.”
So many dots were being connected. It explained why Tabitha never went into detail about her mystery guy. Or why Jacob was always at the eatery when I came back from my bank runs. He was there to see Tabitha not mooch for food. Never in a million years would I have thought those two would hit it off and start dating.
“How’d you two even hook up?” I asked without thought. It wasn’t any of my business, but curiosity was going to drive me crazy until I knew the answer.
“I saw her walking home from work one day. I had just got done surfing and offered her a ride home. We ended up talking forever in my truck, exchanged numbers, and voila six months later we’re dating.” He said it as though it was no big deal.
“So, all these women you’ve been sleeping with were actually Tab–” I closed my eyes and groaned. “Don’t answer that. I do not want to know the fucking answer to that.”
“What happened to no cursing in public?” Jacob teased.
Chapter Four
Giovanni
“Not going to lie, Jacob,” I said, leaning back in my office chair. Jacob sat on the opposite side of my desk facing me. “You really surprised me.”
“Oh?” he asked quietly.
“I figured you’d be late to work or take extra breaks. Something.”
“But I haven’t,” he said defensively.
“Relax,” I chuckled. “That’s why I called you in here.” His eyebrow rose. “I called you in here to tell you that you’ve done a great job the past two weeks, and I’ll call that sister of yours.”
“She says she believes me. Has since day one.”
“So… you don’t want me to call her?”
“No. I mean, you still can or maybe I can invite her here to the restaurant for lunch or dinner. Then you can tell her if you don’t mind,” he replied.
“Cut your hair and I’ll let you be her waiter,” I grinned. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail. He still wasn’t budging on the haircut
“That’s so wrong,” he laughed and shook his head. “You fight dirty.”
“What can I say,” I shrugged. “I’m a Russo.”
Jacob stared at me long and hard. I could see the wheels turning in his mind. He wanted to make his sister proud, but he loved his hair just as much or more.
“What if someone else is her waiter, but you stop by the table?” he finally asked.
“You really love your hair, don’t you?”
“Actually, my girlfriend is the one who really loves it,” he chuckled slightly.
“Ah. I thought you were a ladies’ man like Tony.” Jacob rolled his eyes in response. “Just saying,” I held my hands up in surrender.
“I’ve turned over a new leaf,” he shrugged. “Well, I’m trying to anyway.”
“Proud of you, kid,” I smiled genuinely. It was nice to see him get some sense. “I’m off the next two days so you can either have your sister come in tonight or have her come back Monday.”
“Can I grab my phone out of my locker and call her?”
Damn. He even kept his phone in his locker. Most new hires got busted for having their phones on them at least twice during their probation period. Maybe Jacob would end up becoming a full-time employee after all.
Two hours later, there was a knock on my office door.
“Yeah?” I called out and looked up from my computer. The door opened and Jacob popped his head in.
“I have to get back to the dishwasher, but she’s here. Table Six. Her name is Bethany,” he blurted. “She’s wearing a red button-up shirt.”
“Okay, I will–”
“Thanks. Have to get back.”
And, just like that, he left, leaving me laughing to myself.
“Good talking to you,” I continued to laugh, closed my laptop, and stood up. This was the first time I was going to be verifying to a family member that someone worked for me.
The restaurant was packed. It usually was on Friday nights. I looked around the room.
“Hey, boss,” Larry said, walking up to me.
Larry was a five-year waiter. He’d been with me since I opened the doors. He was in his fifties, balding but what hair he did have was red, and freckles covered his pale skin.
“Hey, Larry,” I replied softly. “Which table is six? My brain is fried from going over numbers all day.”
“Six,” he turned his head towards me and grinned. “The news spread fast.”
“News?” I questioned. He nodded his head and leaned over to my ear.
“There’s a beautiful woman sitting there. Rumor is, she’s Jacob’s sister.” He whistled and held his hands to his chest like they do in old cartoons when the character is in love. “Boss, I’m telling you. She is gorgeous.”
“Hey, boss,” Jarold said, standing on the other side of me.
What is this break time? I frowned.
“Come to see table six?” Jarold asked.
The way these boneheads were acting, I could only hope and pray that they hadn’t drooled all over the poor woman. Hopefully
, they kept some standard of professionalism when they saw her. They were acting as though they had never seen a pretty woman before.
“Table six?” I looked at Larry. He pointed to the left.
“Table by the window. She has her back to us. She’s wearing the red shirt with her hair pulled up,” Jarold answered. “She smells like heaven, too.”
“For the love of God,” I groaned. “Get back to work.”
At this rate, this woman was going to file a sexual harassment lawsuit against my business.
These damn dummies.
I found table six and walked around to where I could see Bethany.
“Hello, I’m–” I said but stopped when I suddenly found myself unable to speak.
The woman sitting there was absolutely beautiful. Larry and Jarold hadn’t been lying. She was stunning. It had been a long time since a woman stopped me in my tracks.
Her skin tone was a slightly lighter tan than Jacob’s. Her brown hair was pulled up in a messy bun. She looked up at me with hazel eyes.
“Hi,” she smiled. “You must be the owner that Jacob has talked about.”
“That would...,” I cleared my throat. “Yes. That would be me.”
The woman held out her hand, and I shook it. Her hand was soft. She wore pink nail polish.
“I’m Bethany, Jacob’s sister,” she said sweetly.
Fuck, even her voice is perfect.
“I’m Giovanni Russo,” I replied with a smile.
“Love the name.”
“Thanks.” I was calm on the outside, but on the inside, her compliment had made me like Jell-O.
“You’re Tony’s older brother, right?” I nodded in fear of sounding like a total idiot. “You guys don’t look alike.”
“Hopefully that’s a good thing for me,” I blurted with a little bit too much attitude. I was mortified by my tone, but she surprisingly laughed.
“It’s a good thing,” she nodded. “Not to be mean to Tony, but I see him as a little kid. He was always over at our house. He’s like the other brother, I never wanted,” she teased.
Tony knew about Bethany?
Tony and I were eight years apart. When I went off to college, he was just starting middle school. But I came home for holidays so he could have mentioned Jacob’s smoking hot sister. That little shit was going to catch hell when I saw him next time.
“Yeah. He’s the brother I never wanted, too,” I joked, in hopes of easing my nerves.
“I’m sorry that Jacob has you coming over to me to tell me that he works here,” she giggled. “I told him, I believed him, but he was determined.”
“Yeah, he originally wanted me to call you.”
She groaned and rolled her eyes, making me laugh.
“He seems like a good kid,” I added.
“He’s getting there,” she smiled. “Thank you for giving him a chance and hiring him.”
“Well, I had a feeling if I didn’t, he wouldn’t have ever left my house,” I teased. She covered her mouth and giggled.
“Yeah,” she lowered her hand. “You’re probably right. He really wants me to buy him that surfboard.”
There it was. The reason why Jacob so desperately wanted a job. Must be a super expensive board if a job wasn’t going to cover it. Or maybe he just didn’t want to use his money on it and was having Bethany spend her money.
“Why are you frowning?” Bethany’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
“Sorry. I was just thinking how he better not be using you.”
Bethany’s eyes widened and her cheeks reddened. I had somehow embarrassed her. I racked my brain for reasons of how I did. My own eyes widened and I groaned when I realized I had come across as protective of her.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“No, it’s okay. It was sweet,” she smiled. “And, it’s his birthday present.”
“Ah. Gotcha,” I nodded and looked around the room.
“Oh. I’m sorry, I’m keeping you from work,” Bethany sighed. I quickly turned and looked at her.
“No. You’re not,” I blurted. She laughed at my expense and I once again found myself groaning.
On the inside, I was kicking myself repeatedly. What the hell was wrong with me? She was just a woman. A very beautiful woman, but still I shouldn’t be acting like a kid.
“I have to be honest,” she whispered and laughed softly. “Jacob has been trying to get me to meet you.”
“Yeah, for the job verification thing,” I nodded.
“No,” she shook her head and grinned. “As in, he was trying to play cupid.”
“Oh.”
“Yep. Oh,” she teased and took a sip of her water. “I’m here to let you off the hook. You can tell him, you aren’t interested and that you’ve done the verification.” Her words sounded confident, but her red cheeks told another story.
“Do you want me to not be interested?”
Chapter Five
Bethany
My heart raced as I stared up at Giovanni. The man was drop-dead gorgeous. He had a chiseled jawline, olive complexion, short brown hair with it a bit longer on top, and gelled back. His black suit looked like it was tailored to fit him. He even smelled yummy.
“Well?” he asked huskily, making me squeeze my legs together. How could a man be so sexy?
“I mean…” I swallowed hard and looked around the restaurant before looking back at Giovanni.
“May I?” he asked, gesturing at the empty seat across from me.
“Not at all,” I said softly. He pulled out the chair and sat down. I nervously played with the tablecloth.
“This really isn’t professional of me,” he chuckled and then rubbed the back of his neck. “In fact, it’s completely unprofessional, but you don’t want me to be interested in you?”
“I…” My cheeks felt like they were on fire. “It’s just that I figured you wouldn’t be interested so it would let you off the hook if I gave you an easy out.”
“Ah. I see,” he whispered and nodded. “Would you be interested in going out sometime?”
My heart skipped several beats. My chest tightened and I was glad to be sitting down because my legs were shaky.
“I don’t want you to feel sorry for me just because my brother works for you,” I looked nervously around the room to avoid eye contact. “I completely under–”
“I’d be interested in taking you out on a date.”
My eyes locked on his.
“What?” I gasped quietly.
“I’d love to take you out on a date,” he said. “And not because your knucklehead brother works for me.” Him calling Jacob a knucklehead made me laugh.
“He is a knucklehead.”
Giovanni nodded.
“He is, but I can’t hold it against him too much since he introduced us.”
If any other man had said that sentence I would have thought they were saying it as a cheesy pick-up line. However, the way Giovanni said it sounded genuine. Or maybe he was just a true player and had the game down to an art.
“Are you a ladies’ man?” I blurted.
The words had barely left my mouth and I was already groaning. Giovanni’s head fell back and he busted out laughing. After several seconds of laughing, he finally looked at me and shook his head.
“Definitely not a ladies’ man. That’s more of Tony’s thing,” he chuckled. “I haven’t been on a date since…” He tapped his chin as he thought. “Hell. I’m not even sure.”
“Makes two of us,” I sighed and then laughed. Giovanni looked at me and smiled.
“So, do I get the honors of taking you out on a date?” he asked with a hopeful look.
“I don’t know what your schedule is like, but my employees have kicked me out of my shop for the entire weekend. So I’m free tomorrow or Sunday.”
Tabitha and Ricardo had nagged me for days on end about me taking a few days off. They text me day and night. Put sticky notes on my laptop, and on my car. They were determined to get me to take
me time. I had a feeling Jacob had been a part of this the whole time.
“I’m also off this weekend,” Giovanni said with an eyebrow raised. We both looked towards the kitchen and then back at each other.
“That boy,” I laughed. “I’m really–”
“Relax, Bethany,” Giovanni smiled. “How does tomorrow sound? You can choose the place and time.”
“Oh, I’ll let you decide. I make decisions all day so I’m all for someone else making a decision for me,” I admitted.
“I know how that goes,” he groaned. “Being an owner is a lot of work.”
“Agree a thousand percent and then some.”
“Would you be okay with me picking you up? We can drive around and figure out where to go together. That way it’s a joint decision,” he grinned.
“That’s one way to do it,” I smiled. “Guess it’s a date then.”
“Your brother’s boss,” I groaned out loud as I continued to pace back and forth, in my apartment.
I had been trying to give myself reasons to back out of the date. My nerves were sky high, and my stomach was in knots. Why had I agreed to this? I hadn’t been on a date since… hell, dinosaurs roamed the Earth. I didn’t know how to date; even if it was one date.
Giovanni had left the table shortly after us arranging the date. Jacob had blown up my phone when his shift ended. One of the waiters had overheard the date and ran to the back to tell Jacob, so of course, he had to call me to verify. I had felt so ashamed to even answer his question, I had hit ignore on his calls.
Finally, Jacob texted me: Chicken shit. LOL I’m happy for you. Shortly after that, he messaged me: Told you, you guys would hit it off. You owe me.
Ding dong!
The sound of my doorbell ringing startled me and jerked me from my thoughts of last night. The knots in my stomach tightened. My chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it and my knees turned to Jell-O. I braced myself on the front door and took slow, deep breaths.
“Coming,” I managed to say.
One last deep breath, I stood tall, straightened out my tank top, and checked myself over in the full-length mirror by my door. Other than my cheeks being pink, I looked somewhat decent. I unlocked the door and opened it.
