13. Nick
13
NICK
“ I f I would have known getting you to sleep with a twenty-year-old would slap that goofy smile onto your face, I would've encouraged it sooner,” David said, leaning back on the couch and taking a drink of his bourbon.
My eyes flicked to his. “She’s not twenty. She’s twenty-eight, and it doesn’t have anything to do with her age. She’s a good person.”
David tipped his head and smiled around the rim of his glass. “Whatever you have to tell yourself.” He leaned forward, placing the glass on the table. “You deserve to have a little fun after the divorce.”
I was not amused at the way he was blowing off what was happening with Julia, but I couldn’t say anything. Not yet. I didn't know how she felt, and just because we had sex a couple of times now, it didn’t mean anything. Especially if we were both riding the wave of bad breakups. Rebound sex was a thing.
“Why did you change your tune about Kendra?” I leaned back in my chair and asked.
“Dude,” David said, having the audacity to look hurt. I rolled my eyes.
“You’re a forty-four-year-old man. Saying ‘dude’ is way too creepy to hear,” I said.
“Says the forty-four-year-old who’s screwing—” My sharp gaze had him swallowing the rest of his words.
“Fine. I’ll knock it off.” David lifted his hands in surrender, then relaxed. “You are right about Kendra. She’s a shark. I never denied that, but she had a good sense for business. But the taxes thing?” His brow rose. “That was all to fuck you over. I knew she was rough around the edges, but since she’d done it for three years?” He shook his head. “It was like she was gearing up to drive the knife in.”
“Yeah,” I said, playing with my glass. I swished it around and watched the amber color glint in the light. “I just want to know when it’s going to be over. I paid the IRS, got that situated. I don’t even think I want to go after her for her half of the money at this point. I’m just ready to eat it because I’m so tired of her games, and mentally, I just don’t think it would be worth it.”
“I don’t, man. That’s a lot of money to just toss away.” David’s eyes rolled to the ceiling. “Of course, she did fuck you out of the teachers’ party.” He wiped a hand down his face and looked at me. “She’s going to the holiday party at the restaurant, right?”
“Yeah. You should talk her out of it,” I said, not in the mood to talk to or see Kendra ever again. Especially when something might really be happening with Julia.
David sighed. “The staff still like her, Nick. They want her there. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you tell them what she did.”
I shook my head. “I’ll just come off looking like an asshole if I do that.”
“Well…”
“For fuck’s sake, David. Just act normal,” I snapped.
“I have more bad news.”
“No shit. You have a terrible poker face.”
“I don’t. I take your money all the time.”
“That’s just what I want you to think because I feel bad for you.”
David chuckled. “You wouldn't just give your money away. Especially when you were with Kendra. She wanted all of it.”
“That’s the truth,” I huffed. “Just tell me so we can get back to planning this menu.” I waved the notebook at him.
“Finnley’s is also doing a rebranding now,” he said.
“The corner bar?” I screwed my eyes closed. “That place is spending money to rebrand?” They hadn’t so much as updated the blood stains on the wall from their first bar fight in 1970. “Why would they be doing it now?”
I wondered if Julia took on another client? It wouldn’t be wrong of her to do it, but it would be weird if she went to them. Maybe they… One look at David told me it wasn’t Julia.
David lifted his glass to me. “I’ll give you one guess.”
“I’m going to hold it over your head for the rest of your life how much you sided with Kendra on everything for a really long time.”
“Still excited to have her come to The Bridge for the holiday party?” he asked, and I wanted to knock the cocky grin right off his face.
“No one is excited to have her come to the party,” I said dryly. My mind started to drift to Julia. I was agitated and wanted to talk to her. I wondered if she could make sense out of this for me since she was outside the cluster fuck. “And it’s not going to be called ‘The Bridge’ anymore. It’s Gray’s.”
“That’s big. The town is gonna have lots of opinions on that.”
“That’s what we’re hoping for.” I looked at the paper and skimmed the menu to see if there was anything else I was missing or didn’t think of. I tossed it to David. “Here, something’s missing. What?” I asked him. He always helped me with my menu planning, even though he was an insurance guy. He had a good eye for food and could have been a chef. But he always said he wanted to make money more than he wanted to make food.
I couldn’t blame him there.
He perused the notebook and muttered to himself.
I took a minute to process what Kendra was doing. “Maybe I should tell her off?” I said.
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to do it at the party,” David responded absentmindedly as his eyes raked over the menu. “You can do another appetizer,” he finished. “This is all the new food?” he asked.
“Yeah, we’re going to test it out on the staff so they can start getting used to the new menu, even if it’s not changing for a little while. It’ll give us time to pick out the issues and pin the positives.”
“That sounds like something your twenty-eight-year-old girlfriend told you.” David chuckled. I started to defend her, but he didn’t really say anything terrible. I went to tell him she wasn't my girlfriend. Not only did that sound weird because I was forty-four, but we hadn't even spoken about that. “She’s… I don’t know what she is,” I answered.
And that was the truth.
“What do you think about this?” I gave Julia a new spoon to try. She took it with a smile and put it into her mouth. She was here for some taste testing of my menu—her idea, not mine. She closed her eyes and hummed. When she blinked her eyes open, they shone. That was the thing about food. You could always tell when someone enjoyed it.
“That was really good.” She stepped over to me. “What sauce is that for?”
“It’s for the new fish dish I’ll be making. People in this town love fish on Fridays.” She took a step closer. Whatever perfume she was wearing made her smell like a flower.
No one was in the kitchen today. We were open long hours, six days a week. Mondays were the day for everyone to rest. “You know what I realized?” I said, pulling her in closer to me. She looked up and smiled softly. I leaned over and kissed her, supporting the back of her head with my hand.
Her hair swung over the back of my palm, tickling the skin and sending a vibration of heat down my arm. Her mouth opened to me gently, and she hummed around the kiss, letting me know she liked my tongue just as much as she liked my food.
She backed away, and I placed my forehead onto hers. “That isn’t a realization,” she whispered.
“No, but it was fun,” I said and leaned in for one last brush of her lips. I turned to stir the sauce again and moved to flip over the burger. “I haven’t taken you on a proper date yet.”
“Oh.” Julia stepped back and crossed her arms.
Well, that’s not good. Maybe I misread everything. I waited for her to continue because I hadn't the foggiest idea what to do.
“Well, it’s just…” I checked her over. She didn't look like she was going to tell me she didn't want to see me anymore. She chewed on her lip. “My last boyfriend, the bad breakup?”
“Yes?” I faced her fully now.
“Well, he was kind of…” Her eyes swung down, and she fiddled with her fingers. “He was also one of my clients.”
“Hmm...” I nodded, still not sure where she was going.
“We were together for about a year and a half, and I just don’t want to…” She fidgeted more. “I don’t want you to think I only date clients. And I don’t want to think I only date clients.”
“Do you think you only date clients?” I walked over to a stool and sat so I could be on her level.
“No.” She rocked back and forth. “But Mia?—”
“There she is again, protecting you.” I smiled. Although it was annoying, having a friend like that would have probably helped me stay away from Kendra. That being said, I knew what it was like to be in love, and I might not have listened to them, either.
“Yes, she is a good friend. But we moved here because he totally trashed everything. My reputation, my career…” She looked down at her fingers. “A lot of things. Moving to Heart’s Creek was supposed to be a fresh start for us, and then I meet you and it just…” She bit her lip, and her eyes flicked over my face. “I’m just not sure what I want yet.”
“And going on a date, a real one, with me would do what harm?” I smiled at her and held back from going to hug her. I wanted to, but it was obvious she was uncomfortable. I didn’t want to make it seem like I wasn’t listening to her.
Her eyes roamed around the kitchen as she thought about going on a date together. “We could just keep having sex if you’d like,” I said to break through the silence.
Julia’s eyes snapped to mine, and I let her see the joke in my expression. A sad smile fell over her face and she relaxed a little. She stepped closer to me and dropped her arms to her sides.
“What would you want to do on the date?” she asked.
“Are you saying yes, then?” I looked at my stove. My steak was burning. “Shit." I rushed over to it and turned the burner off. When I looked up, Julia was gone.
“Dammit.” I didn’t know what I said to scare her off, but I’d have to ask so I didn’t do it again. I liked having her around me, and if I had to control myself so she’d stay, it was something I was willing to do.