Chapter 12
12
MASON
“Thanks, Maggie,” I said as she sat us close enough to the small stage to hear the sax player but far enough away to still be able to talk.
“We should get down there again,” Parker said as we sat.
“New Orleans?”
“Yeah. Maybe when Cole gets his tenure.”
We ordered drinks, and I looked around the room. Seeing Paul Baker with his family, I waved. Paul returned it.
“Did he talk to you yet?” Parker asked.
“Since Dad passed? Nah, though I don’t doubt he will.”
“What’ll you tell him?” he asked as our drinks came.
“The truth. That I haven’t made any permanent decisions, but for now we’ll be moving forward with some renovations. After my leave is up, it’s anyone’s guess.”
“If you do end up selling, I wonder if you can negotiate Pia to stay. She seems like a great fit so far.”
I hated to admit it, after the first impression I made, but my father had really done Heritage Hill one last favor when he hired her. She was smart, a hard worker and efficient. With damn good ideas.
“I’ve thought of that already. He’d be crazy to lose her.” There was no other way to interpret the look Parker gave me. “Don’t start.”
“I’m just saying,” he started anyway, as if I hadn’t had plenty from all three of them, even drunk-off-his-ass Cole, last night when we left O’Malley’s. “I’ve seen the way the two of you look at each other.”
“What are you getting for dinner?” I asked, changing the subject.
“‘What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.’”
“ Cool Hand Luke ,” I said. Parker’s proclivity for movie quotes was a thing with him, though I only caught about 50 percent of his references.
“Yup.”
“There’s no need to communicate anything,” I insisted. “Pia and I are nothing more than employer and employee. Period. End of story.”
Parker’s smile was concerning.
“What?”
“It’s just… you should probably stop talking about her.” If possible, his smile grew. Parker looked as if he were about to burst out laughing.
“And why’s that?”
Parker cleared his throat and nodded. I turned in that direction.
Fuck. Me.
Her hair was back in a ponytail for the first time, making Pia look slightly different. An immediate vision of me grabbing ahold of that ponytail and using the leverage to kiss every bit of skin on her neck, and lower, proved Parker’s point.
“Hi, Mason.”
She stood next to me, having come from nowhere.
“Hey, Pia. You just get here?”
“No,” she said. “I’m here with a friend who noticed you come in. Hi, Parker.”
“Sup?” Parker stood. “Take my seat. I have to make a quick call.”
Before Pia could argue, Parker, like the good wingman he was, headed toward the front of the restaurant. Only problem was… I didn’t need a wingman. Pia was not a potential date.
“Mind if I do?” she asked, eyeing the empty seat.
“Not at all.”
If by “mind” she meant “are you going to find it hard to concentrate on dinner now?” the answer was yes.
“I guess you liked the place?” I asked, trying not to stare at her lips. They were glossier than usual, a perfect pale pink I’d dearly love to kiss off.
“I did, but Delaney actually suggested it.”
Her secret smile was easily interpretable. “She told you about Beck?”
“Yep. I guess it’s inevitable, running into exes in a town this small.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call them exes. They were honestly just kids. Where is she?”
Pia pointed to a table on the other side of the restaurant behind me. I turned and waved at Delaney, who was, indeed, watching us. She was all grown up, but as bubbly as I remembered. I turned back to Pia.
“So she’s back in town for good?”
“Pretty much. She got a job at a local pharmacy.”
“You mean, the pharmacy. We only have one.”
“The pharmacy,” she amended. “So whatcha getting?”
“Not sure yet. You?”
“Red beans and rice.”
“A sure bet.”
“Yeah, I tend to do that. Get the same thing at restaurants, if I know I like it.”
“So not a risk taker?”
Pia didn’t immediately answer. Was she suddenly thinking the same thing as me? By her expression, it seemed likely.
This wasn’t about red beans and rice.
“Not usually.”
There was an expression Rangers used when playing with fire: dancing with the dragon . That’s exactly what I was doing by pursuing this conversation.
“Never?”
“I wouldn’t say that. Maybe some things are worth taking a risk for.”
“Such as?”
Pia swallowed. “Nothing specific comes to mind.”
Liar. But I didn’t call her out since I wasn’t willing to dance with this dragon any longer.
“Jambalaya,” I said.
It took her a second to recalibrate.
“Sounds good. Well, I better get back to Delaney.”
“I’ll have to say hello to her before we leave.”
“If we go first, we’ll do the same,” she said. “But I can’t say I’m rushing out of here anytime soon.” Pia stood. “The sax player is amazing. So much good live music in a town of this size. O’Malley’s. Here. It’s awesome.”
“Cedar Falls is known for it. At one point, there was a push to make music a selling point of the town. Though it’s not quite Nashville, the sentiment sort of stuck.”
“I’ve heard that’s a great city.”
“Nashville?”
“Yeah. I’ve never been.”
“Do you like country music?” I asked as Parker rejoined us.
“I do.”
“Then you’d love it. Actually, they have music of all kinds, but for a country fan, there’s nowhere like it.”
“Mason loves country music,” Parker said, sitting.
“So we have at least one thing in common,” she teased me.
I didn’t correct her, but it was at least two.
“Maybe you should do a company retreat in Nashville,” Parker suggested.
I was going to fucking kill him.
“Company retreat,” she said, giggling. “With two people.” Pia never giggled. She was nervous. The tension between us that had been ignited last night had only been more inflamed by this conversation. Starting tomorrow, I was going to avoid any innuendos or flirting, no matter how innocuous it seemed.
“Good idea, Parker.” Then, to Pia, “Talk to you soon.”
“See ya,” she said, leaving.
I glared at my friend just as the music began.
“What?”
“I’ll give you ‘what.’ Are you trying to get me to break the pact?”
Parker eyed me carefully. “You only truly break it if you get engaged or married.”
Although there were “rules” to the pact, we’d agreed that if anyone got engaged, they would have to add $250 to the kitty. Marriage was $500. Not to mention the shame of backing out on a promise we’d made for one damn good reason.
Marriage didn’t work.
“Maybe you haven’t noticed, but Pia isn’t exactly a one-night stand kind of girl.”
“Ahhh, so he finally admits it.”
I was done with this conversion. “I admit nothing. Now pick something out before the waiter comes back. I’m hungry.”
Parker had a bad habit of being indecisive with his meals.
“And grumpy.”
I ignored that.
And also tried to ignore the fact that Pia was sitting in the same restaurant as us. The first was easy. The second, absolute fucking torture.