Chapter 13 #2
I grab a pink plastic spoon and put it in the cup, then come around the counter and bend down to hand it to Dottie instead of just giving it to her dad. She examines the extra ice cream in the cup before lifting her wide eyes to mine, a big smile on her face. “Thank you, Miss Rachel!”
I give her a wink as I rise to full height and walk back around the counter, standing across from Wyatt once again. The appreciative gleam I see in his eyes has me standing taller.
“That was nice of you,” he murmurs.
“Nothing but top-notch service at Mitchell’s,” I tell him breezily. It’s not like I did that to impress him. More that I wanted to show his cute little daughter I gave her extra ice cream.
“Right.” He shakes his head once, like he needs to shake himself out of a trance. “Why are you still in town? Are you working here now?”
He sounds incredulous. Like he can’t even imagine that I’d work here.
“No, I’m just volunteering.” I roll my eyes, hoping I don’t sound as silly as I feel. He makes me nervous. Like, my hands are shaking, and that’s not from overuse of the ice cream scooper either. “Paige got me the job.”
“No shit?” He winces the moment the words leave his mouth, and Dottie holds her free hand out, palm up.
“Daddy, you owe me a dollar.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Give me a second.” He sends me a sheepish look as he reaches for his wallet and passes over his credit card to Tara, who takes it and starts ringing him up.
She stares at him with longing, and I can’t help but think I’m with her on that one. He is too attractive for his own good. Plus, I know what he sort of looks like naked. If you can call me fumbling around with the front of his jeans to get my fingers wrapped around his dick “seeing him naked.”
“I’m not allowed to curse in front of Dottie. Whenever I do, it costs me a dollar a bad word.”
“That could get expensive.” My tone is teasing. Flirtatious even? Yes, definitely flirtatious.
“Tell me about it.” He smiles, and my heart falters, skipping a beat.
He’s different today. Relaxed and windblown from coming off the water, with an ease about him that is infinitely appealing.
No wonder the girls get excited when he comes in here.
I thought he was attractive when he rescued me, even more so when he got a little drunk with me at the Snowline.
Oh, and the moment where we had actual sex in the back seat goes without saying. But now?
I sort of want to rest my hand against my chest and just . . . stare at him for a while. Savor the moment.
“I can’t believe you’re working here. That you’re still in town.” He chuckles as he takes the receipt from Tara and puts away his credit card. Is he laughing at me? Or just genuinely surprised? At least he doesn’t seem annoyed anymore. “It’s . . . unexpected.”
“Oh, I totally agree. But I’ve been put into a, uh, situation that forced me to find a temporary job.
Thank goodness Paige helped me out.” I rise up on my tiptoes so I can look down at his daughter, who’s already shoving her mouth full of ice cream with the pink plastic spoon. “Enjoy your ice cream, Dottie!”
“Thank you!” She waves her dripping spoon at me, her lips smeared with pink melted ice cream.
“Why such a hater of bubblegum flavor?” I ask her dad. Her daddy. Sheesh, he could be my daddy anytime.
My body flushes hot at my thoughts.
“Every time she eats it, I find chewed-up bubblegum all over the house. On the floor. In the carpet.” He ruffles her hair, but she ignores him, too intent on shoveling her treat into her mouth.
“I told her our house is not a trash can, and I’ve banned her from having gum.
She’ll just spit this gum out anyway because it loses its flavor so fast.”
“Ah, I see.” He’s so responsible. And he sounds like such a dad. But not like my dad. No, more like a sexy young dad who’s got his shit together and knows how to do things. I like that about him. He seems very . . . capable. He is capable.
In all the many ways a man should be.
We stare at each other for a second, everyone else forgotten—at least for me.
I want to ask him more questions. Like, they’re all sitting on the tip of my tongue, but then a man clears his throat, and I realize there’s a family waiting behind Wyatt, with three impatient-looking kids surrounding a harried set of parents.
Wyatt glances back at them and immediately steps out of their way.
“See you around?” He raises his brows at me, his hand reaching down to grab Dottie’s, and I nod, unable to speak for a moment because I am too deep in my sexy-dad thoughts. All the questions I might’ve had for him leave me, and I wave at him, but he’s already got his back to me.
“Bye!” I call out at the same exact time the door swings shut, and unfortunately, he didn’t hear me.
Ugh. I could beat myself up for not continuing our conversation. Like, what was he doing out here? Does he have a boat? Can he take me out on the boat sometime? Just the two of us? Though I suppose Dottie can come with us. She’s cute. Looks a lot like her dad.
We used to rent a patio boat when we’d come out here for the summer as a family, and I loved it.
My thoughts are pure fantasy, and the father clears his throat, most likely trying to catch my attention.
I snap back into focus when the mother starts rattling off everyone’s order, and Kelcey, Tara, and I work together to get it handled.
The moment the family is gone, though, the girls are on me, curious as ever, which, I suppose, is warranted.
I don’t think I was imagining all that sparkly hot tension brewing between me and Wyatt, was I?
“How do you know Captain McKinney, hmmm?” Kelcey asks, crossing her arms in front of her, a skeptical look on her face.
“Umm . . .”
“You called him Wyatt.” Tara’s eyes narrow as she contemplates me. “You said you weren’t from around here, yet you somehow know the hottest man in town?”
“You guys.” My tone turns admonishing. “I’m sure there are plenty of hot boys in this town—ones that are closer to your age, at least. He’s probably old enough to be your father.”
“No freaking way. He’s only like, what?” Tara looks at Kelcey for confirmation. “Eight years older than us?”
“Twelve, but who’s counting?” Kelcey shrugs, a shit-eating grin on her face. “We need all the deets, Rachel. Spill.”
I give them a brief summary of our encounters, never going into too much detail but enjoying the gossip sesh with these girls. Paige comes upon us chatting away, a serious scowl on her face when she catches us.
“Um, this isn’t break time,” Paige says, sounding like a proper manager.
“Sorry, boss.” I grin at her, and she wads a clean napkin into a ball, tossing it at my face. I bat it away at the last second, and we both laugh while the other girls scurry away and get to work, wiping down the counters. “Seriously, I am sorry.”
“No worries. I just like to keep everyone on their toes.” Paige takes a step closer, lowering her voice. “They haven’t been too tough on you, right?”
“No. They’ve actually been pretty great. Kelcey taught me a few tricks because I’ve been such an epic fail. But are we really surprised?”
“Look, it’s tough scooping ice cream at a fast pace.
The stuff is frozen freaking solid, and the customers get impatient.
I totally understand.” Paige rests her hands on her hips, looking around.
“We need to start cleaning up and preparing to close. We still have a couple of hours left, but I like to clean up as we go so that we’re not stuck here too long after we shut down. ”
“Sounds good.” I salute her, and she shakes her head.
“Smart-ass.” She’s smiling, though, and so am I.
Maybe this having-a-job thing won’t be so tough after all.