Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
“You should really just move down here,” Claire says, smiling at Sutton as we sit at the bar. “Then you wouldn’t have to do the back and forth nonstop just to see your favorite sister in the whole wide world.”
“Uh uh uh!” Sutton says, eyes going wide and shaking a finger at her sister. “No. No way, don’t you say that.”
“What? I am your favorite sister. We all know that, Sutton. It’s okay to admit it,” she says, reaching over to pat her sister’s hand.
“You can’t make me choose. If Sloane found out, I’d be screwed.” Sloane is the oldest of the Donovan sisters and definitely the most intimidating.
“Oh, she would totally kill you in your sleep for the mere disrespect,” Claire says, a happy smile on her lips, completely unfazed. “But she just moved to the middle of nowhere, so really, she can’t even blame you for wanting to live at the beach instead of the woods.”
“I am very much not a middle-of-nowhere kind of girl,” Sutton agrees reluctantly with a nod. “I need Wawas and coffee shops and a variety of grocery store options within ten miles.”
“And that’s why moving to be close to your favorite sister is the right choice. I can name four grocery stores that take ten minutes or less to drive to.”
Sutton glares, but instead of arguing, she smiles and turns to me.
Well, that can’t be good.
“Let’s stop talking about this and instead talk about how when I came into the office today,” she starts, and my stomach drops.
I thought it was strange Sutton didn’t ask me about Graham when we had lunch together, considering she is a Donovan and thus inherently nosy, but I should have known she was saving it.
“June was clinging to her hot boss, and it looked like I had interrupted something.”
The blissful calm before the storm lasts a mere moment before Claire breaks it with a shriek.
“What?!” Her eyes go wide as she turns to me, then to her sister, aghast. “Why am I only hearing this now? I spent all afternoon with you!” Lainey stands behind the bar, an eyebrow lifted as she dries a glass, quiet but fully entertained.
“Because I wanted to get the full experience of watching all of your reactions,” Sutton says as if it’s the obvious answer. “And with the panicked look on June’s face, I know I made the right choice.”
“You were clinging to your boss?” Lainey asks, the edges of her lips tipping up.
“I knew this was going to happen! I told you that you had a crush on him! I told you there was no way you could separate things!” Claire says, slapping her hands on the bar top.
She doesn’t look accusatory, more gleeful than anything. I nervously glance around the bar. It isn’t terribly quiet. Miles and Grant are in the corner chatting, and I do not need my brother hearing this.
“Everyone has a crush on Graham. Have you seen him?” Sutton asks, and a bolt of something far too close to jealousy cracks through me. I stuff that down, deciding to dissect it later. Or, even better, never.
“I wasn’t clinging to him,” I say. Sutton raises an eyebrow, and I roll my eyes. “Not in the way Sutton is implying. I had just gotten the notification for my first sale, and he was the only person around, so I was excited and hugged him.” The excuse feels hollow, though I stick to it.
“And then you two just gazed longingly into each other’s eyes?” Sutton asks, her perfectly shaped eyebrow lifting with challenge.
“No!” I say, shaking my head. “That’s not what happened.”
“Sure, it wasn’t.” Sutton takes a sip of her drink, watching me over the rim of her glass with a smile in her eyes. I desperately fight the urge to rise to the bait. Maybe if I grey rock her, it will be less of an interesting topic and—
“You should fuck him again,” Claire says, sending that theory out the window.
“Totally,” Sutton agrees before I can argue, nodding. “He’s super-hot.”
“I desperately need to lay eyes on this man, the way you both keep talking about him,” Lainey says, and Claire nods emphatically.
“Somehow, June convinced him to come in so that he might be here tonight,” Sutton promises.
“Yes,” Lainey says, pumping her fist. When I glare at her, she slides a drink toward me, which I accept even though my lifelong best friend is clearly betraying me.
I’m going home with her tonight for a sleepover, and since she lives in the small apartment behind the bar, I’m okay to drink as much as I want.
“I highly doubt he’s actually going to come in,” I say after a moment.
“Oh, he’s going to. Trust me. I saw the way he looked at you,” Sutton says, and I glare at her.
“Be serious. The man can barely stand me. I’m working on getting him to accept that having friends is a required human experience.
He’s never even smiled. In fact, I’m not sure he even has the correct muscles to do so.
He’s the grumpiest person on earth. I don’t foresee him coming to a dive bar just because I gave him puppy dog eyes. ”
“You gave him puppy dog eyes?” Lainey asks, entertainment spreading across her face.
I roll my eyes.
“It's my signature move. I just wanted him to come out. He’s super stressed with the opening,” I say.
“What other signature moves of yours has he seen?” Claire says, and I shoot her a glare.
“All I’m saying is you guys are reading far too much into things.
Yes, we hooked up once before I formally worked for him.
That was all. We haven’t ever talked about it since, and he’s barely shown the tiniest interest in being coworkers, much less friends or anything beyond that,” I say, though if I’m being honest, that feels like a lie.
“Maybe he’s just grumpy because he’s totally, irrevocably in love with you, but it’s against the rules to date you, so he’s secretly angry that he has to watch you from afar, knowing he’s never going to get you.
” We all look at Lainey, who wears a dreamy face as she rubs a cloth over an already dry glass.
When she realizes no one is responding, she blinks, then shrugs as if that was a normal response. “What? It could happen.”
The silence lingers for a moment before Claire leans into me, still watching our friend.
“That was weird, right?” Claire says in a stage whisper.
“Definitely,” I say, narrowing my eyes at my childhood best friend.
“Oh, shut up,” Lainey says with a roll of her eyes. “Everyone knows forbidden romance is the hottest trope out there. I mean, I want her so badly, but I can’t have her, so now I’m going to be an asshole so I can keep my distance? Elite.”
I want to say something, to ask questions that I’m not sure if I want the answers to, especially not with my brother on the other side of the bar, glaring at her the way he always does, but before I can think of what to say, Sutton speaks.
“As…highly in-depth and definitely not at all from personal experience as that was,” she says, side-eyeing Lainey.
“That’s not the case here. Daydream doesn’t have a non-fraternization rule.
No one would be in trouble for starting something.
The hotel industry is inherently horny, and everyone is always hooking up, so if they were to enact that rule, it would be more of a headache than it’s worth. ”
With her words, thoughts I didn’t realize I had locked away came to the surface of my mind, taunting and teasing me with possibilities.
“Look at her.” Claire nudges Sutton and points at me. “She’s contemplating it. She’s so into him.”
“I’m not! He’s my boss!” I deny.
“You can keep telling yourself that. All I’m saying is if Graham Hawthorne looked at me the way he looked at you today, I would be all over that. Have you seen his forearms?” Sutton says.
I have, of course, seen those forearms, though I don’t need Sutton to know that. Or that I’ve daydreamed about them.
“Why don’t you fuck him if you’re so into him?” I ask, an edge I can’t hold back in my voice.
“Ooh, testy,” Sutton says, a smile in her tone.
“Unfortunately, Graham and I would be terribly incompatible. He’s too dominant for me.
We’d be in a stalemate nonstop. If he ever tried to tell me what to do in bed, it would be an immediate turn off.
” Unbidden, the memory of Graham telling me what to do in bed runs through my mind, and heat moves through me.
Oh, I am so fucked.
Reaching for my drink, I take a long gulp to cool myself down.
“Something tells me June didn’t have the same issues,” Claire says with a knowing look.
“Oh my god, please drop it,” I groan, dropping my head onto the bar, and the girls all laugh at my misery.
“Hey, ladies,” Decker asks, eyes on Sutton.
Her face screws up in irritation, but he just smiles wider, something I file away for later inspection.
“What’s so funny over here?” Panic moves through me because while we’re all friendly with him, he’s also friends with the guys and works with my brother, and I don’t think Deck could keep a secret if it would save his life.
“I just got my period today,” Sutton says deadpan.
“Got it, my condolences, I’ll be over there if you need me,” Decker says, lifting his hands and turning around to the guys as fast as he came over. I let out a little laugh, but Sutton groans.
“God, I thought he’d never leave,” she says, annoyed as she watches his retreat.
“He was there for a total of two seconds,” Claire says.
“Exactly,” Sutton says, and her sister lets out a loud laugh before shaking her head and turning to me, probably to continue this miserable conversation. I open my mouth to try and end it once and for all, but before I can, Claire speaks.
“Oh my god,” she whispers. I follow her gaze to the front door of the bar and see a familiar form filling the doorway, an apprehensive look on his face as he scans the room before him.
Graham.
Graham is here.
And for once, he’s not in completely formal work closed, instead swapping out his button-down and dress pants for a white tee and a pair of tan shorts.