With a Grain of Salt (Lindell Book 3)

Chapter 19

Walker

There isn”t a single soul walking on this earth that could convince me that the paperwork involved in running a business isn”t a punishment created by the devil himself.

I”m elbow-deep in sales tax forms, trying to figure out how the last quarter of the year is going to turn out for the bar. I have an accountant who handles a lot of the stuff from the bar, but I may have to start handing more off to them. It”s honestly becoming a little too overwhelming for me, especially now that I can”t seem to focus on a single thing.

If my liquor license hadn”t just been renewed, I”d probably be pulling my hair out. As it is, I”m already annoyed by the score we got from the health department earlier this week. Combine that with Claire calling out, claiming to have a sick child, I”m in a mood I can”t seem to pull myself out of.

”You”re still mad?” Megan asks when she gets closer to me to grab a clean glass to fill an order. ”I was going back to get it. It was one little towel.”

”I”m not mad,” I tell her, trying to give her a reassuring smile.

She pulls in a deep breath before going back to work.

The towel in the sink while the health inspector was here isn”t that big of a deal, but it did deduct points. I”ve prided myself on keeping a perfect score every year since buying the bar and, let me tell you, it took a load of hard work and a lot of sweat to get it that way.

It”s not only my pride that I have to worry about. People in town will talk about that score. Getting a one hundred is the expectation and to drop below that gives them something to gossip about. I”m not going to lose customers because of it, but it still chaps my ass a little.

Adrian Falk, the health inspector, actually lives here in Lindell. Although he wouldn”t let major infractions slide by, he normally would”ve given Megan the chance to pull the towel from the sink rather than hit the bar with a violation. I don”t expect any sort of special treatment, but it feels like it was an assholish thing to do while I wasn”t here when he arrived.

I”m surprised to see Claire come through the door fifteen minutes before her shift. I imagined she was lying about her kid two days ago and was working on the assumption that she”d just quit.

She smiles at the customers as she heads to grab her apron and does what she always does, looking out over the bar and seeing where her attention is needed the most.

”How”s your daughter?” I ask when she steps closer to me.

”A little better. She still can”t breathe out of her nose. It makes for some very long nights.”

I can see the exhaustion in her eyes and the darkening of skin under it.

”Do you want me to see if Megan can work the wedding tomorrow?”

She narrows her eyes at me. ”Why would I want that? Does this have anything to do with—”

”If you”re tired, maybe you should rest.”

I know the second the words leave my mouth that they were the wrong thing to say, but it”s impossible to pull them back in.

She steps in closer to me, that delicious scent of sugar cookies that she carries on her skin infiltrating my nose. My body”s reaction to it is beyond embarrassing.

”If I rested every time I was tired, I”d never get out of bed.”

Jesus, also not the best thing to say to me right now. I can think of so many scenarios that include this woman in a bed for hours on end.

I swallow as she lifts up on the tips of her toes.

”I can handle the wedding tomorrow. The question is can you handle what we did the other night in a way that doesn”t interfere with my job here?”

”I can handle it,” I promise, my throat working on a swallow.

Her eyes dip to my neck, pausing for the briefest of seconds on my lips. I swear it takes every ounce of power I have not to pull her to the back and revisit exactly what we did the other night.

The woman is so damned dangerous. She”s so alluring and delicious that she could easily take up every waking thought if I let it. Who am I kidding? She”s in my thoughts constantly.

”I finalized the list for tomorrow. Would you like to see it?”

She takes a step back, but the distance only makes me want to reach out to her and pull her closer again.

”I don”t think that”s necessary. Would you like me to meet you here to help you get everything loaded?”

I shake my head. It”s hard enough fighting the urge to put my mouth on her while people are here. We”d never make it to the Graves Estate if she showed up here to help me and we were left alone.

”Three o”clock at the manor would be good. I already took the bar over there this morning, so I could get Chase to help me move the thing. It”s heavy and damn near required a forklift.”

I feel on display when her eyes drop to my arms, and I fight the urge to flex. Maybe I”m not mistaking her interest in me, and I can only hope she”s picturing me using all of my strength to move the massive bar.

I swear I can feel her hand again on my lower stomach, her fingers tracing the dips and valleys of my abdominal muscles.

”Table six has been waiting for a drink for a few minutes if you wanted to get clocked in a few minutes early,” I say, instead of suggesting a little one-on-one meeting in the back room.

She nods, her tongue sneaking out, the pink tip barely visible as she wets her lips.

I swear the very last thing I need right now is to be picturing this woman tracing that piece of her over the tip of my leaking cock.

I turn away from her abruptly, but I can only pretend that the paperwork on the bar top has all of my attention for a few seconds. The moment she steps out from behind the bar to head to table six, my eyes are locked on that fine ass of hers.

As the night goes on, there”s always some part of me that is paying attention to her. I realize ten minutes into her shift that fighting the urge to look around and find her in the bar is futile. I do better when I just accept it and let it happen. I don”t know if I look up and glance at the patrons when she isn”t here as often, but if anyone questions my darting eyes, I can argue that I”m just keeping an eye on my business.

I pull in a deep breath when I see Hailey Murry standing at the bar. I hired her not long after she got to town several months ago, but it didn”t work out. The woman couldn”t keep an order straight if she tried, and I never got to find out if she could wash dishes because she broke most of them before she could get them back to the kitchen.

I can”t recall once in my years of owning this bar, and the years working here before my run in the military, that I had seen a worse waitress.

”Hey, Hailey,” I say as I approach, mentally working through what I can say if she asks me to hire her back.

She wasn”t surprised when I had to let her go. She just looked up from the mess she was cleaning in the back room and asked if I would mail her last check or if she should pick it up here. Having been fired many times before, she must”ve understood that the last check normally isn”t direct deposited.

”What can I get for you?”

She looks over my shoulder at the mirrored wall of liquor bottles.

”Anything that eases the burn of getting fired again?”

I feel so sorry for this girl’s inability to find something that she’s good at, but not enough that I can afford to put her back on the floor to break every glass she touches. I’ll go broke replacing wrong orders for free in less than a month. Of that, I”m certain.

”Coke and Patron is pretty popular among those having a bad day,” I suggest.

She gives me a tight smile. ”Make it diet and you have a deal.”

I breathe out a sigh of relief that she didn”t put me in the position to have to deny her. The girl is as sweet as pie. There was a lot of forgiveness by customers when she first started because a pretty smile and a sincere apology can go a very long way, especially when there”s alcohol involved, but it only lasts so long.

I make her drink and move on to the next customer, but not before lifting my eyes and finding Claire smiling at a table of women here for a girls’ night out.