Chapter 10
10
MASON
“Here comes your girl,” Parker quipped.
Unfortunately, inviting Pia tonight had given the guys some ideas about us. Namely, that I liked her. Which wasn’t altogether untrue. Maybe it was the grief, having a distraction for my mind as I lay awake at night thinking of all the things I’d never say to my father. The questions I never asked him or the life events of mine he’d miss. In the midst of those thoughts, Pia’s face often appeared. Usually smiling, sometimes laughing, always using her hands to convey a story.
I’d think of a hell of a lot more too, but since I didn’t exactly need her to walk in just as I acquired a hard-on, I pushed those thoughts aside.
“She’s not my girl,” I said.
“Right. Because she’s mine.” Beck gave Cole another Scotch. Apparently he was going to tie one on tonight despite the fact that he’d be driving back tomorrow. Should make for a fun night.
“Not from what I’ve seen.” Cole took the glass and pushed his empty hand across the bar.
“Zip it,” I said, not wanting Pia to hear them talking about her that way. She might have said she was totally fine with Beck’s advances, but they were annoying. And I was not fine with them. Trouble was, Beck didn’t listen very well. Or at all. He’d make a shit Ranger.
“Damn, she’s looking hot tonight.” Parker gave Pia a look that I liked even less than Beck’s advances. At least I knew she wasn’t interested in Beck, but Parker was a big unknown.
He was also right. She did look hot.
It wasn’t her understated outfit—jeans, a white button-down shirt and black boots—or the red lipstick, something I’d not seen her wear yet, which was sexy as hell. It was the way Pia walked into the bar, as if the world were her oyster.
“Hey, guys,” she said, heading toward the empty seat next to me. “Guess this one’s for me?”
She peered at the alcohol behind the bar as Beck came up to her. “Do you have limoncello, by chance?”
“No, ma’am. But I’ll get it for you. Will you go out with me then?”
She laughed. “Nope. Will you still get it?”
Beck rolled his eyes. “Obviously. What are you planning to do with it?”
“Um, drink it,” she quipped back.
“Straight-up shot? Or do I also need to get you some Prosecco?”
Pia seemed impressed. “How very astute of you. Yeah, I was thinking more of a limoncello spritz. I guess an Irish pub doesn’t stock Prosecco either.”
“Not yet, but it will.”
As she and Beck went back and forth, coming up with a new drink for her, I unsuccessfully attempted to tamp down an annoyance that had no business rearing its ugly head. There was a friendly banter between them that seemed easier and more natural than ours. So what?
“Perfect,” she said as they settled on a vodka soda drink for her.
“No red wine tonight?”
“I’m a mood drinker,” she said.
“That tracks.”
“How?” Pia asked, waving hello to the other guys.
“I dunno. It just seems like… you.”
“Because I have big moods?”
As if I would answer that one.
“It’s not an insult to me. I do have big moods. If I’m happy, I’m really happy. If I’m upset, there’s no hiding it.”
“In that case, yes.”
True to her word, Pia didn’t take offense. “Which I’ve noticed is the complete opposite of you.” She cocked her head to the side. “Is that your Army Ranger training, to be all stoic and mysterious? I looked it up online. Seems pretty intense. And competitive.”
Understatement.
“I guess that has something to do with it. But it’s my personality too. Dad was a much better candidate for innkeeper than me.”
Beck re-joined us. “Here you go, senorita bonita .”
“Beck, get the hell out of here,” I said in response to his dramatics.
He bowed, making Pia laugh. I refused to care that he seemed to do that so easily. All three of my best friends were good-looking guys, and there’d been plenty of times we eyed up the same girl. But not once had any of us stepped on each other’s toes, and I certainly wouldn’t get worked up about a woman I couldn’t date anyway.
“So, Pia.” Cole leaned forward. He had enough Scotch in him to make this interesting. “What do you think of Cedar Falls so far?”
She’d just taken a sip of her drink, her tongue sticking out to retrieve the straw, making me wish I was a straw.
“It’s not all that different from where I grew up, just smaller than my hometown and no ocean nearby. But I like it.”
“You’re from Oregon, correct?”
“Yep. Newport.”
“My parents took me to Newport, Rhode Island a few times as a kid, but never Newport, Oregon.”
“I haven’t been to Rhode Island. Or a lot of places out east, really.”
“You should definitely check it out. It’s a great place, known for its Gilded Age mansions and yacht-filled harbor. They hosted the America’s Cup for years.”
“Sounds idyllic.”
As she and Cole talked, I imagined myself strolling the docks of Newport with her. This time of year would be chilly, so we’d duck inside for clam chowder and a drink.
Where the fuck had that come from?
Also, I was tired of my friends monopolizing her.
“Do you like to dance?”
The live bands on weekends were a definite benefit of coming to O’Malley’s. This one was pretty good too.
“I do.”
“Good. Come on.”
Without giving her a chance to say no, I headed to the dance floor. To say Pia looked surprised when she joined me was an understatement.
“You… dance?”
“I do.”
There wasn’t much of a dance floor but tables had been cleared out to make one. Though it was too loud to talk, we danced two songs before Pia made a drinking motion. I wasn’t ready to get back to the boys, so when we stepped off the dance floor, I said, “I’ll grab our drinks,” as Pia leaned against a narrow counter against the wall to listen to the band.
“Oh, look who’s back.”
Ignoring Parker, I grabbed our drinks and headed back to Pia. There was a 100 percent chance I’d catch major hell for this later. But that was one of the benefits to seeing some of the things I had, both on the streets of New York City and during my deployments… very little truly fazed me.
“Here you go,” I said, handing Pia her vodka soda. “You seemed to be enjoying the band.”
Not that she couldn’t enjoy it from the bar. O’Malley’s wasn’t that big of a place. But still.
“Thanks. They’re really good. Do they play here a lot?”
“Pretty regularly,” I said, taking a long swig of beer just as the band took a break. O’Malley’s had crap whiskey, so beer it was.
“So,” I said. “Who’s Richard Sterling?”
Pia startled. “Oh, my mother’s call,” she said, recalling how I knew the name. “He’s my old boss.”
I wouldn’t mention that I thought he might be an old boyfriend. There seemed to be a lot of me caring about things I shouldn’t going around tonight.
“I assume your new one is better?” I asked.
“Mmm, he started out a bit rough,” she said, turning fully toward me.
“I won’t argue with you on that one.”
“As if you could. But yes, much better. Richard was the owner of a luxury resort where I’d worked my way up to Assistant Director of Guest Experience. Despite glowing reviews from my team, and even one from Richard that said, and I quote, ‘Pia has developed a reputation for attention to detail and creativity with the ability to create memorable experiences for guests,’ I was passed up for the director position.”
“You memorized his review?”
“Word for word.”
“Why do you think you got passed up?”
“Easy. There was another guy below me who smoked the same kind of cigars and played golf with Richard. Didn’t seem to matter that he had multiple complaints filed against him by guests or that he was wholly unqualified for the position.”
“Well, at least you’re not bitter about it,” I teased.
“Not even a little. And I certainly didn’t take this job just to turn Heritage Hill around as a challenge to myself. I have nothing to prove.”
“Obviously.”
“Right. Glad we’re on the same page.”
Pia was more upset than she let on. I could read facial expressions and body language well, and had been trained to do both. I had a mind to invite Richard Sterling to the inn just to punch the fucker in the face. He was the kind of dickhead that gave men a bad name.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” I said, noticing she was empty. “Another drink?”
“Sure. Should we go back to the bar?”
“No.” I said it much too quickly. “We should stay here,” I amended, “so I can get you back on the dance floor. You’re pretty good.”
“You are too. I have to say I’m surprised.”
“We’ll talk about your low expectations of me when I get back.”
For the second time, I headed to the bar without Pia. Ignoring both Cole and Parker’s ribbing, I asked Beck for two more drinks.
“We don’t bite, you know,” he said, handing me a beer and making Pia’s vodka soda.
“That’s not actually true,” I said.
“The last time I saw you dance like that,” Parker began.
I shut him down with a look.
He smartly didn’t continue.
“You know where to find us,” Cole said dryly as I walked back toward Pia.
“Thanks,” she said, putting her old drink on the counter and taking a sip of the new one. “So, you asked a question. Is it my turn?”
If I didn’t know better, I’d think that sounded almost flirty. “Shoot.”
“In my office today, we were talking about Beck asking me out.”
“Aw shit, what did he do now?”
Pia’s laugh crept into my very soul. “Nothing, I swear. But I could totally tell you were going to say something more about it.”
Yep, she was flirting. There was no way Pia would bring up this particular topic unless she already suspected the answer. And this was where I should shut it down. Stop this very dangerous dance.
“You said, ‘You think?’” I quoted her.
“Of course, I was teasing. I know he would.” She laughed. It was a nervous laughter, and Pia seemed to regret having brought up this discussion. She wouldn’t look me in the eyes.
I waited until she finally did. And responded. “I was going to say something more.”
Pia waited.
I hesitated.
It would be the shot across the proverbial bow. Saying this might have repercussions. But she blinked at me in a way that tempted me to continue.
So I did.
“I was going to say, I know so because any guy in his right mind would want to go out with you.”
Yet Pia already knew that. Or at least suspected.
“Ah, well… that’s nice of you to say.”
I let her play it off as a casual compliment to cap a casual conversation. But it was anything but, and I was pretty sure she knew it.
What did it really matter? There was very little chance Pia couldn’t feel my attraction to her anyway. But that didn’t change the fact that she was my employee.
“See?” I teased instead. “Your new boss is much nicer than the old one.”
Pia smiled, and before I got lost in that smile, I reluctantly added, “Band’s starting up. Another dance or should we head back to the boys?”
I could sense she wanted to stay. Maybe dance. But thankfully Pia’s foray into the forbidden forest of topics seemed to be at an end. “Let’s head back to the boys. Cole is leaving tomorrow.”
Cole could eat a sack of rocks for all I cared at that moment. But it was as good an idea as any given the current state of affairs. Every muscle in my body was tense and fine-tuned as if ready for action.
Of which there would be none, tonight or any night. At least not with Pia.
“Sounds good,” I said as we headed back. And it would have been all well and good until Pia glanced back at me on our way to the table, and those blue eyes of hers beckoned.