Chapter Eleven Taryn
“Do you ever get a day off?” Danny’s tone didn’t hide his exasperation where he stood on the opposite side of the counter from me.
I finished making his drink—a grasshopper latte rather than a steamer since it was Saturday morning—and handed it to him. “I remember when you were a great listener.” I stuck my hand on my hip. “For the bazillionth time, I’m working all the hours I can this summer to take the strain off when my classes go nuts this fall.” Taking the cup from Dash, my coworker manning the cash register, I went to work on the next customer’s drinks. “Haven’t you made some friends on the team you can hang out with?”
“As a matter of fact, today I’m moving into a house with a bunch of teammates who are a ton of fun. All of them redshirted their freshman year, so they’re juniors on the team, but closer to my age.” He sipped his drink and licked his lips.
Of course that was the precise second I glanced up at him. Like a laser my eyes tracked his tongue sliding over his full lower lip. Ruthlessly wrenching my gaze back to my task, I said, “Sounds perfect for you. Now you’re not stuck in the dorms. And you have more friends.” I lifted my brow.
He ignored the second thing. “You have no idea how excited I am to sleep in a real bed tonight.”
I slid the drinks I’d been making to the end of the counter and went to work on the next order. During the fall and spring semesters, Saturdays at the Coffee Kiosk were always busy. Summer semester usually ran at a slower pace—except for this morning for some weird reason. For a steady hour we’d had a line nearly to the door. Every table was occupied, both inside the store and out on the patio, as well as the benches beside the front door where Danny and I had sat and talked the other night.
The way I kept my concentration on my job while multiple women ogled my friend as they stepped around him to grab their drinks should have earned me a medal. Not that I could blame them. Danny looked effortlessly hot in a Wildcats T-shirt his shoulders stretched to the breaking point and a pair of running shorts that showed off his nice ass. With his bare feet shoved into a pair of Heydudes, his ensemble proclaimed he was up for a casual good time. In the few weeks since he’d discharged, his hair had grown out into a shaggy mop that gave his handsome features a rakish boyishness no woman could ignore.
Even as I made drinks practically by rote, I caught on that his attention was locked on me. Not once did he make eye contact with the other women who didn’t disguise their interest. The Danny from my past never missed an opportunity to flirt with the ladies. This guy talking to me was someone new—someone I couldn’t quite figure out.
As he watched me make drinks like a pro, he scowled. “Do you get a break at least?”
On my way to the sink to rinse out a pitcher to make another smoothie, I glanced at the clock that read 10 a.m. “Probably not for another hour.” I flicked my eyes in the direction of the never-ending line at the register and added, “Maybe not then if this doesn’t slow down.”
I had to hide a giggle at the way he huffed out an impatient sigh. It made me think of a toddler stomping his foot. “What time do you get off?”
“I’m done at two unless this rush decides to be endless.”
He rolled his eyes.
“What is your deal? My having a job is not news to you. Stop acting like it’s a personal affront.” I slid two berry smoothies and a caramel latte to the end of the counter and called out a name.
His smirk lightened the mood. “It is a personal affront, though, T. I’ve been on campus for a week, and we’ve only seen each other once.” He sipped from his drink again, but this time when he ran his tongue over his bottom lip, he stared right at me.
What the hell?
“I’ll be back this afternoon. Do not even think about trying to ditch me.” Raising his cup in a salute, he sauntered out of the shop.
Mine were not the only eyes that watched him go.
Giving myself a strong mental shake, I reminded myself the women admiring him now were going to lose their minds once they found out he played for the ’Cats. I could hardly wait to watch the ridiculousness from my front-row spot behind the counter in the Coffee Kiosk when the word spread that he was on the team.
Oh, joy. Oh, rapture.
Weirdly, my concentration took a mini-break after Danny left, and I goofed up two orders in a row. Unfortunately, as the assistant manager, I couldn’t give myself a break like I would one of the regular employees under the same circumstances. My mistakes only lengthened the line, which didn’t abate until noon-thirty.
When we served the last drinks to an older couple who’d stopped by after doing their Saturday-morning shopping, Dash, Sophie, Natalie, and I collectively sagged against the counters.
“Dash, Sophie, go ahead and take your break. Natalie, man the register. I’m going to restock, so I’ll be handy to make drinks if someone comes in. As soon as these two come back”—I nodded to Dash and Sophie—“Nat, you can take your break. You guys have been rock stars today. Make whatever you want for lunch on the house.”
Employees had a set limit for free food, but after the morning we’d just finished, my team deserved an extra perk, especially since none of them had had a break in almost five hours. Their tired grins conveyed their appreciation for my generosity, but it was a no-brainer.
I spent the next quiet thirty minutes restocking cups, lids, and flavorings behind the counter and napkins and sweeteners on the tables as I wiped them down. When I went out to the patio to see what needed tidying, my eyes snagged on the bench where I’d sat with Danny, and memories of how he’d crowded me and taken every opportunity to touch me while we sat together, swarmed my brain. I couldn’t figure out his deal. He’d friend-zoned me first! I’d reiterated our status the night I’d mistakenly thought we were on a date only to discover we absolutely were not. Not one thing had changed in five years. Yet since his discharge from the military, he’d been different, more attentive—except where my job was concerned.
Then it dawned on me. Once again, he was the new kid, only this time he knew one person—two, once he inevitably ran into Zoe on campus. Of course he’d latch onto a friend until he figured out where he fit in. I just had to compartmentalize my more-than-friendly feelings for him while we hung out a bit until classes started.
No big deal.
If I could only get my heart on board with my common sense, I’d be so much better off.
Hailey, the other assistant manager, showed up at two to relieve me. She laughed when my stomach imitated a dinosaur roar. “When did you eat?”
“Breakfast at somewhere before seven when the rush started. I swear, every other coffee shop in town must have closed and forgotten to tell us.” I sighed.
Her eyes saucered. “What?”
“Nonstop from seven until almost one, giving me just enough time to restock for your shift. On the plus side, tips were crazy-good. I heard Dash mention something to Sophie and Nat about a party at his place tonight.” I laughed as I tugged my apron over my head.
“You’re going to a party tonight, T? Do I get to be your plus-one?” was how Danny announced his arrival.
“That’s not what I said. My plans include food and a nap.”
Hailey shoulder-bumped me and whispered, “Who’s your friend?” She couldn’t have conveyed her interest in Danny any more loudly if she’d taken out an ad on a billboard.
“Danny, this is my co-assistant manager, Hailey Anderson. Hailey, this is my friend, Danny Chambers.”
For a second, his face clouded before he whipped out his nice-to-meet-you smile, the one that said he was being polite. He nodded in her direction. “Are you Taryn’s relief?”
Her smile faltered before she rallied. “Yep, but I can keep you company while she clocks out.”
With a shrug, I headed back to the office to drop my apron in the hamper, clock out, and grab my wallet and keys from my locker. All the while I was finishing up for the day, I told myself to ignore the twinge of jealousy trying to niggle its way into my consciousness. If Danny hooked up with Hailey, it wasn’t any of my business.
When I returned to the front of the shop, Hailey had come around from behind the counter. Her perfect posture displayed her rather impressive chest, which she kept trying to draw Danny’s attention to as she played with the end of the long brown braid she’d dragged over her shoulder. From what I’d seen while working with her over the past two years, she considered flirting with and occasionally hooking up with hot guys who came into the store a perk of the job. It came as no surprise she’d set her sights on Danny the second he walked through the door.
Usually, watching Hailey do her flirt thing entertained me. With Danny’s penchant for sharing himself with all the girls, the two matched perfectly. For a second I seriously considered stepping back into the office and heading out to my car the way I regularly did, leaving them to exchange numbers and make plans for later. Then Danny caught my gaze.
“Finally. How long does it take to clock out?” He stepped around Hailey in my direction. “Didn’t you say something earlier about needing food?”
I shrugged. “Yeah.”
After scanning all the sandwiches and pastries in the glass cases lining the front counter, he shot me a confused look. “You work in a place that sells it.”
“I didn’t have a chance to eat.”
Nodding sagely, he said, “It was a madhouse all day, huh, not just this morning?”
“Pretty much.”
“You were here this morning?” Hailey asked him. “Do you come in every Saturday morning?”
She had an aversion to weekend mornings, which was why I’d closed the previous night and woken up at dark-thirty to open and run the morning and early-afternoon shifts—and why I’d be waking up early again tomorrow to do it all over again. The fat wad of tips in my wallet was the only reason I kept my snark to myself. That and Danny’s curious disinterest in her.
“I come in when Taryn’s working.”
Hailey blinked at the finality in his tone. Truth be told, I did too.
“I already ate lunch, but I could do twosies with you,” he said, his eyes dancing.
“Twosies? You’re ridiculous.” Though I tried, I couldn’t hide my grin.
“We’re way past elevensies,” he said as though I should know this. He stuck his elbow out—a silent invitation to escort me from work.
I couldn’t leave him hanging.
Slipping my hand into the crook of his elbow, I pretended not to notice the smooth skin and hard muscle beneath my fingertips. “Fine. Out of self-defense, I’ll show you the best lunch place in town.”
“Took you long enough. I’ve only been begging you for a week to show me around.”
As we headed out of the store, I called over my shoulder, “Have a good shift, Hailey. See you tomorrow afternoon.”
“Bye, Danny. Nice to meet you,” she replied.
“Likewise,” he said without breaking stride or making eye contact.
Guess Hailey Anderson wasn’t his type. Weird. I was of the impression all women except for me were Danny’s type.
“My car is across the street,” he said as we stepped out onto the sidewalk.
“We don’t need it. The best lunch place in town is within walking distance. If you’d stayed in the dorms, you’d probably already know about it.” It felt strange to walk with my hand in the crook of his arm, but when I went to pull it away, he flexed his muscles, tightening my fingers against his skin.
To anyone passing us on the sidewalk, we probably looked like any other couple out for an afternoon walk. But that was a dangerous fantasy—one I resolutely refused to indulge in even as my pulse kicked up at walking so close to him. For a few minutes we walked in silence until I had to get out of my head.
“Did you already move into your new place?”
“The furniture store delivered my bed right after I came by to see you this morning. Finn and I lugged the desk and chest of drawers I bought yesterday up to my room last night after practice. Can’t say I’m going to miss sleeping on basically bare springs in a bed so narrow I could barely roll over in it.”
Before I blurted something stupid, I had to steer the conversation away from beds. Playfully, I bumped his shoulder. “You’re living with other players, huh? Guess that means you made the team?”
He shot me a wounded stare. “You doubted me, T?”
I pretended to think about it for a second before I relented. “Nope. Not even a little bit. When it comes to football, your dedication is impressive. The coaches probably added your name to the roster about halfway through your first workout.”
He puffed up at my praise, his response warming me more than the late July sun. “Damn straight they did. I told you they moved me into the third row in the team room.” His animated grin said I’d successfully navigated the conversation away from beds, and I breathed an internal sigh of relief.
“I have plans, T. By the end of the season I’m going to be starting at receiver. Wait and see.”
Chuckling, I said, “I believe you.”
Our conversation made the short walk to the Pickle Barrel even shorter. When I stopped in my tracks in front of the hole-in-the-wall eatery, Danny shot me a quizzical look. “This is the best lunch place in town?” Leaning in close, he whispered conspiratorially, “Can we go in together, or do we have to go in one at a time?”
“Ha. Ha.” I pulled my hand from the crook of his elbow and stepped toward the door. “It may look like a hole-in-the-wall, but they have tables inside and everything.”
While we waited for the sandwich geniuses to build our subs, I stepped over to the eatery’s namesake—a massive wooden barrel tucked in the corner of the room behind two of the three tables in the glorified drive-thru space of the shop. I snagged a paper bag from the receptacle on the wall and opened the lid to reveal hundreds of yummy whole dill pickles floating in a briny bath. Using the tongs hanging from a hook on the barrel itself, I pulled out a fat pickle and stuffed it in my bag. When Danny joined me, I asked, “You want one?”
“Hell yeah.”
I handed him the one I’d already bagged and went for another one. After I returned the tongs to their hook and replaced the lid on the barrel, I grinned at my friend over the top of my bag and chomped down on my salty, crisp, vinegary treat. Reflexively he covered his crotch with his free hand, his expression aghast.
“Easy there, tiger. No need for violence.”
Too late I realized that in my excitement to enjoy one of my favorite treats, I’d completely whiffed a chance to be subtly seductive. Then again, I’d never been much good at flirting, which was likely another reason Danny had only ever seen me as a friend. A memory of Hailey toying with her braid and drawing attention to her chest flitted through my head, followed by a related thought: instead of rolling my eyes at her, maybe I should take notes.
Though my face heated, I brazened it out. “Didn’t mean to shrivel your pickle,” I said before taking another healthy bite of dilly goodness.
He barked out a laugh. “You’re the best, T.”
Mercifully, the kid at the register interrupted, calling on us to pick up our subs.
In one thoughtless move, I’d managed to sabotage whatever was going on between us on the walk over when Danny had silently insisted I touch him the entire way. Except this was Danny. Nothing had been going on while we’d strolled down the street between the Coffee Kiosk and Pickle Barrel.
We took our sandwiches and pickles outside to the high-top tables built from old pickle barrels. Towering honey-locust trees shaded the stone patio in front of the place. Remnants of the trees’ long seedpods were scattered among the pink-and-white petunias in the narrow flower beds bordering a space exactly big enough to host four tables and chairs.
For a few minutes we ate in silence.
An appreciative “mmm” came from Danny’s throat before he wiped a napkin over his mouth. “You were right. Best lunch place in town.”
Shaking my head, I said, “You’ve been in town a week. How many places have you tried?”
His eyes twinkled. “Beats the dorms hands down.”
“Everything beats school food. I mean, the college cafeterias here are pretty good, but it’s still institutional. No way around that.” I swallowed another bite of my delicious pastrami sub. “Have you eaten anywhere off-campus yet?”
“A place called Stromboli’s. I gather it’s the team’s hangout.” Picking up his soft drink, he sucked some down though the straw and set the cup back on the table. “Their pizzas and wings are pretty damn good.”
“Agreed, though I usually do take-out from there.” At his quizzical look, I added, “Stromboli’s is a jock bar, not a place where I normally hang out.”
“Since when do you have a problem with jocks?” Though he asked the question casually, his avid expression told me he wanted an answer.
“I don’t have a problem with athletes.” I shrugged. “But some of the guys who play for the Wildcats get a bit caught up in all the female attention that comes with playing for the team. They aren’t always clear on who is and who isn’t a groupie.”
A thunderous expression crossed his features before he schooled them into something bland. “Football groupies, huh?”
“Football, basketball, hockey, track—they all come with their ‘fans.’” I softened my air quotes with a little smile.
Before he’d decided to attend classes at Mountain State and play for the ’Cats, I hadn’t paid much attention to the players and the women who wanted to play with them—unless one of those players mistook me for one of those women and I had to set him straight. Now I had attitude, and I needed to get over myself pronto. No doubt Danny would enjoy all that adulation from willing women who were on the same page as him: focused on a good time and nothing more. Which, of course, was none of my business.
“The other night when my dorm roommate and I ate there, I didn’t see many women at all.” He finished his sandwich, wadded up the wrapper, and glanced around for a trash can. Locating it near the building, he stood and tossed in his trash.
“Classes haven’t started. The groupies are mostly coeds with a few townies tossed in. Trust me. They’ll be hanging around soon.” I wrapped up half of my sandwich to take home and finished off my pickle. “What?” I asked when I caught the weird look in his eyes as I swallowed the last bite.
If it had been anyone else but Danny, I might have thought I’d seen desire lurking there. Crunching up my pickle wrapper, I stood and tossed it in the trash, talking myself down from the ridiculous notion.
“You’re not finishing that?” He nodded to my sandwich.
“The great thing about these subs is one equals two meals.” I smirked. “For normal people anyway. Maybe not football players.”
“And yet here you are, hanging out with a football player.”
“Good thing for you that you were my friend first then, huh?”
He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “Yeah. I guess.”