Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Chance
W hat a fucking day.
By the time my meeting at Henry’s Restaurant with Seth Henry and Kennedy Clayborne, the woman who handled the restaurant’s social media, was over, it was going on six p.m., and Rowan had left the brewery for the day.
Rowan. Our newest employee.
What were the chances the one hookup I’d had in more than two years turned out to be Rusty Anchor’s new hire? She was one of only eight people who worked here, including myself. There’d be no avoiding frequent, close contact with Rowan Andrews.
Compounding the problem was that, when she’d walked into my office this morning, I’d been just as attracted to her then as when I’d laid eyes on her New Year’s Eve. I could deny it all I wanted, but our night together hadn’t cooled the fire or gotten a damn thing out of my system.
I’d been shocked when she’d suddenly been standing in my office, and then what had I done?
Acted like I’d never seen her before.
Talk about a douchebag move.
It hadn’t been a conscious decision so much as a reaction. A guilty reaction, probably, though what did I have to feel guilty about? Our night together—okay, our few hours together—had been mutual, consensual, and pretty fucking amazing.
Sure, and then I ran away when I thought Sam was causing trouble.
Which was legit, but in hindsight, it probably hadn’t won me any points with Rowan.
Now that we were coworkers, I’d prefer if she didn’t have a bad opinion of me.
I made my way from Henry’s to the brewery to shut down for the day and grab my coat. The weather had turned nasty over the past few hours, with a freezing rain coming down. That wasn’t enough to prevent me from heading out to the Honeysuckle Inn. I owed Rowan an apology.
Back in my office, I slid my laptop into my bag, put my coat on, and headed out, saluting Kemp in the brewhouse as I went by.
Before taking off toward the inn, I checked my daughter’s location yet again. On the one hand, I didn’t like monitoring her so closely. On the other, more times than not, I discovered her not where she was supposed to be.
This time she was still in the right place, at our house. I had no way of knowing whether she was breaking any of our rules by having friends over when I wasn’t home, but for now I had to give her the benefit of the doubt. There was a fine line between micromanaging a teenager and developing a mutual trust that could still somehow keep her safe. I had yet to master where the fuck that line was, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
Only when I’d parked in the inn’s lot did I stop to wonder how a surprise visit to Rowan would go over. I didn’t have other options though. I’d had every intention to get her alone for a few minutes at work, but she’d been shadowing Chloe every time I’d seen her in between my meetings and phone calls.
I didn’t have her phone number, so I didn’t know any other way to initiate a private conversation.
Without further waffling, I got out of my SUV, put my head down against the driving wind and sleet, and headed inside. I spared the guy at the front desk a quick glance and a friendly smile, relieved it wasn’t Ava or Anna, both of whom I knew well. They’d want to know what I was doing here. I preferred to keep my ties to Rowan private. It was nobody’s business but ours.
Outside her door, I paused, preparing myself to see her again. Then I knocked.
There was a peephole, and I could hear her using it, so when she opened the door, I was momentarily relieved.
“Hi,” I said. I offered a smile, part conciliatory and part an involuntary reaction to seeing her again.
“Chance,” she greeted, not smiling. “What are you doing here?”
“I didn’t know how else to contact you. I wanted to clear some things up. Can I come in?”
She glanced both ways, as if she too had thoughts of keeping our connection private. There was no one else in the hall.
Rowan opened the door farther and let me in. I took in the room for the first time with the lights on. It was a pretty average hotel room with an armchair, a desk, a TV on a long cabinet with drawers and a minifridge, and the bed. Just a glance at the bed had my memories flaring and my body going hot.
I did my best to shove those thoughts aside.
It appeared she’d been sitting on top of the made bed, reading a book, and eating a sandwich.
“Sorry to interrupt your dinner,” I said.
She shrugged and looked a little embarrassed. “It’s just PB and J.”
She stood at the foot of the bed, watching me expectantly. She’d changed from what she’d worn to work today into flared yoga pants with a purple-and-lavender-swirled design and an oversized gray hoodie. Her hair was thrown up on her head in a devil-may-care way. She looked comfortable, a little rumpled, and still sexy as hell.
I opened my mouth to speak, but I hadn’t planned out what to say, so I closed it again.
“I interviewed with Chloe on Friday,” she said. “I swear I had no idea you worked there until today.”
“I didn’t even know she was looking for an assistant.”
“I’m not sure she was.” She bit her lower lip, eyes averted, then met my gaze. “Do you want to sit?” She gestured to the armchair.
Without speaking, I sat on the edge of it.
“I didn’t think I’d see you again after New Year’s Eve,” she said as she lowered herself to the bed, facing my chair. “We didn’t exactly tell each other our life stories.”
I couldn’t help a smile. “We had other things on our minds.”
She made eye contact again, and there was a flash of heat in hers. “We did. And then you were gone.”
“Yeah, sorry to sneak out. I’d had every intention of staying longer but…”
Hell. This was suddenly awkward. She had no idea I was a dad. A dad of a rule-breaking teenager who didn’t seem to like me, no less. Good thing I wasn’t trying to impress her or get in her bed again, because my situation was sure to put any single woman off. Particularly a younger one like Rowan.
“It’s okay,” she said before I could explain more. “It was a one-night thing. I never had any ideas other than that.”
“It was.” Whether we’d said as much in words was beside the point. As far as I’d known, she was just in town for a few days. “I have a fourteen-year-old daughter.”
Her attention shot to my face, her brows dipping. “Are you married?”
“No. My wife died when Sam was six.”
Her demeanor shifted to sympathy. “I’m sorry, Chance.”
“My daughter… She’s had a hard time since we moved here. Well, since before that, but she’s still trying to fit in…” I shook my head. She didn’t need to know all the details. “Anyway, she was staying at a friend’s house New Year’s Eve. I made sure the girl’s mother was home. Everything should’ve been fine. I figured it was one night I could relax and have a good time, but I happened to check her phone location when you fell asleep, and she was back at our house.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “That’s…not good? It was, like, after one in the morning.”
“Right.” I shook my head, hurting once again for my little girl who wasn’t so little anymore. “When I got home, I found out her friend deserted her for a boy, so she came home. Physically safe but totally upset.”
“Understandable. I’m glad you were there for her.”
“Yeah. She wasn’t, unfortunately. Glad I was there, I mean.” These days it seemed like she hated me more often than not. “So…that’s the story of why I left abruptly.”
“It’s okay. You owed me nothing. In a way you did us both a favor because we avoided an awkward morning after.”
“Until today, huh? Delayed awkward moment.”
“I was shocked, but then you made it awkward,” she said.
“I’m sorry. I fucked up. I don’t know why I pretended we’d never met other than I was stunned to see you in my office. It was a knee-jerk decision, and it was the wrong one.”
“Apology accepted. I’m fine with being a shameful secret from your recent past.” Her lips hinted at a grin.
“Not shameful at all, but I hope we can keep it in the past and handle being just coworkers. I’ve got a lot going on with my kid and no room for entanglements.”
Rowan smiled a little fuller, but it was tinged with melancholy. “Believe me, I’m not in any mental space where I’m up for entanglements either.”
“Your grandmother,” I said, nodding. “You said you were getting away. I thought you meant for a week or something.”
Rowan pulled her legs up to sit crisscross, her eyes on her lap. “I lived with her in a rental house for the past few years. I moved in because she couldn’t live alone safely, couldn’t afford caretakers, and adamantly refused to move into a facility.”
“She had Alzheimer’s, right?”
She nodded. “When I moved in, I realized she was a lot worse than I thought. She did her best to hide it from me, but being there every day, it became evident. One day when I was at work, she left the house on foot and wandered off.”
She closed her eyes and swallowed, and I could tell she was fighting to keep her composure.
“When I came home from work, I couldn’t find her. The police put out a silver alert. They found her nearly two miles away a few hours later, sitting on a bench outside of a Dairy Queen, upset because she couldn’t find her purse to pay for some ice cream.”
“That’s heartbreaking.”
She nodded, swallowed again. “After that, I installed special dementia alarms on the doors. I hired aides to stay with her while I was gone, but she hated it. She was afraid of them and tried to get away from them. Even though some of the aides were incredibly caring and patient, she felt threatened by them and didn’t understand what they were going to do to her. They were there to help her and keep her safe, but no matter how many times I reminded her of that, she forgot. When she bit one of them and drew blood, I knew I had to make changes for everyone’s sake.”
“So you quit your job?”
“I quit my job and took care of her.”
“That’s… Jesus, that must’ve been a lot.”
She let out a sad laugh. “I didn’t feel like I had a lot of options.” She swiped under her eyes. “Sorry. Still raw, I guess. I just…loved her so much.”
I couldn’t imagine doing what she’d done. “She was incredibly lucky to have you.”
“I was lucky to have her. She and my grandfather raised me from the time my parents were killed in an accident.”
“How old were you when that happened?”
“Seven. They didn’t blink, just moved me in and loved me.” She pressed her lips together. “I couldn’t let her go to a memory care facility. I’m sure there are decent ones out there, but the thought of her sitting alone in her room, not knowing where she was, being surrounded by eternal strangers because she couldn’t remember meeting them from one day to the next…”
Rowan went silent, thoughtful, and I tried to figure out what to say. There were no words for what she’d been through, what she’d sacrificed. She’d obviously loved her grandmother fiercely.
She popped up off the bed and let out a self-conscious half laugh. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I told you all that. Talk about awkward.”
“You’re fine. You’ve been through hell.” I had an overpowering urge to hug her, but we’d just agreed we were nothing more than coworkers going forward.
“My whole point is, when she died, I couldn’t afford to keep renting the house, so I sold everything in it. A friend of mine connected me with Chloe, and here I am. She agreed to take me on, whether she was ready to hire an assistant or not.”
“But you’re planning to go back to teaching?”
“I’m hoping to take a position for the fall. I love teaching, but it takes a lot of energy, and I just don’t have it in me right now.”
“You’ll get it back,” I said. “I hope Dragonfly Lake helps you heal.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you planning to get an apartment?”
“I’ll get more serious about that once I get a paycheck.”
I stood, reminding myself Rowan’s living situation wasn’t my business. “I should let you get back to your PB and J. Thank you for telling me more about your grandmother,” I said, making a point of keeping distance between us. “I’m glad Chloe was able to offer you a job.”
“Me too. Someday I hope I can pay her and Presley back.” She looked pensive for a moment.
“I imagine having an assistant will be payback enough for Chloe. She handles a lot.”
“I’ve got a steep learning curve. But the brewing process? Chemistry 101. I’ve got that part down after my tour.”
“I bet you do. I hadn’t thought of it that way before.” I chuckled. “If not for the fact we were making alcohol, tours would be a great opportunity for high school chemistry classes.”
“If not for that fact,” she repeated, grinning.
I walked to the door, and she followed me.
“I’m glad we talked,” I said.
“Me too. Going forward, strictly coworkers.”
Facing her, my hand on the knob, I peered down at her and got caught up in her expressive brown eyes. I had to fight not to glance at her lips, not to let myself think about kissing her.
“I’ll see you at work tomorrow, coworker.” I opened the door and got the hell out of there before I did something dumb.
As I went out into the crappy weather, I forced my thoughts to my daughter and pulled out my phone to make dinner plans with the only female I had room for in my life.