Chapter Eight
Zadie
Working at The Summit wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened to me. Today it sure felt like it, though.
Like the rest of Copper Ridge Resort, the bar was more upscale than I’d expected for a small town. It was all polished wood and ambient lighting, craft cocktails and tourists who tipped well when they remembered.
It was a massive upgrade from the dive bars I’d worked in Calgary and Montreal. But it still meant eight hours on my feet, dodging grabby hands and smiling until my face ached.
Just over three weeks in and I was still learning the regulars, still memorizing the cocktail list, still figuring out which coworkers I could trust and which ones I needed to keep at arm’s length.
Jeremy fell squarely into the second category.
“Hey, Zadie.” He appeared at my side with his usual creepy, self-satisfied grin. “You’re looking a little rough tonight. Everything okay?”
Coming from anyone else, I might have appreciated the concern. Coming from a guy who’d been finding excuses to touch my lower back since my first shift, it made my skin crawl.
“I’m fine. Just a bit tired.”
“You’re always tired.” He leaned against the counter, close enough that I could smell his cologne. Not that it was difficult. “You know, if you need a break, I can cover for you. Manager’s prerogative.”
He was only a shift manager, but God, he loved the title. Dropped it into every conversation like it came with a plaque in a corner office. Zane, who held the same position, never once felt the need to remind anyone. Hell, his family owned the entire resort, but you’d never know it.
“I’m good, Jeremy. Thanks.”
“You sure? Because Larissa said—”
“Larissa said too much.” I shot a glare down the bar to where my coworker was serving a couple their drinks with her signature too-bright smile. She caught my look and responded with an exaggerated shrug of innocence.
We’d known each other less than three weeks, but Larissa and I had fallen into the kind of fast friendship where she already felt comfortable meddling in my life. I hadn’t decided yet if that was endearing or dangerous.
Probably both.
“I’m just having a rough day. Nothing I can’t handle.” It wasn’t exactly true, but it wasn’t a complete lie either.
I was pregnant, exhausted, emotionally wrecked, and spending most of my energy pretending to be none of those things.
My best friend was hiding something from me.
My ex was a conversation I kept putting off.
And every time I closed my eyes, I saw a blue-eyed, too handsome man I had no business thinking about.
But Jeremy didn’t need that version of the truth. Jeremy needed to go check the ice machine or count bottles or do literally anything that wasn’t hovering over me.
“Honestly, I don’t know how you do it,” Larissa said, sliding over once Jeremy had finally drifted toward the other end of the bar. “School and this place? When do you sleep?”
“I slept in class this afternoon.” The shame was still fresh. There was nothing more embarrassing than getting called out by a professor because your snoring was interrupting the lecture. “Drool puddle and everything.”
“Oh, no.” Her hand flew to her mouth, but I could see the humor behind it.
“Go ahead. Laugh. I deserve it.”
“I’m not laughing.” She absolutely was. “But seriously, are you okay? You’ve seemed off the last few days.”
Off. That was a generous way to describe the free fall I’d been in since a pink plus sign had rearranged my entire future.
“I think I’m coming down with something,” I lied. “Maybe a stomach bug.”
“Ugh, there’s always something going around.” Her nose crinkled. “My sister had that flu thing last month. Got so dehydrated she ended up in the hospital.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing that serious. I’m just running on empty.”
“Well, it hasn’t stopped Jeremy from staring at your ass.” She gave me a sly look, shifting her eyes toward the other end of the bar.
My stomach turned. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“I wish I could. He’s been at it all night. Hell, he’s doing it right now.”
Shit, that was just what I needed. A supervisor with a crush on me and zero ability to read a room. He’d asked me out twice already in three weeks, and both times I’d shut him down. But Jeremy had the kind of ego that heard no and translated it to try harder.
“Maybe he’s looking at you.” At least, I could hope.
“Get real. He couldn’t handle me.” Larissa’s eyes widened suddenly. “Incoming.”
Of course he was. We’d basically summoned him by talking about him.
“What are we discussing over here?” Jeremy appeared between us, his arm finding its way across my shoulders like it belonged there.
“Zadie’s not feeling great,” Larissa volunteered. Because apparently, our friendship wasn’t strong enough for loyalty yet.
“Yeah? You need to sit down?” His hand squeezed my shoulder, and I had to stop myself from shrugging it off.
I still had to work with the guy, and burning bridges with a shift manager in my first month wasn’t part of my fresh-start plan. “I’m fine. Really.”
“You.” He pointed at Larissa. “Cover her tables. You.” He squeezed my shoulder again. “Come take a break.”
“Jeremy, I don’t need—”
“Don’t be so stubborn.” He steered me toward the back room with the confidence of a man who thought he was charming.
The break room also served as the supply closet.
Based on the questionable stains on the couch, it was a place where staff had done things I didn’t want to know about.
But my legs were screaming and my stomach was doing backflips, and even a disgusting couch sounded better than another hour on my feet.
I sank into its lumpy depths and tried not to think about what I was sitting on.
Jeremy sat down beside me. Right beside me.
“So.” He stretched an arm along the back of the couch behind my head. “Heard I missed a hell of a party at Zane’s a few weeks back.”
“Did you?”
“Everyone’s been talking about it. I heard you were there…with a guy. It was his birthday or something?” He was fishing. And it was ridiculous. “Larissa mentioned you two looked cozy.”
Larissa was moving higher and higher up my shit list.
“We talked. That’s it.”
“Talked.” His eyebrow lifted. “That’s not what I heard.”
My jaw tightened. “Regardless of what you heard, why would it be any of your business, Jeremy?”
“Hey, relax.” He held up his hands in mock surrender. “It’s a small town. People talk. I’m just making conversation.”
Small town. People talk. I’d heard some version of that practically every day since I’d moved here. Copper Ridge was beautiful, quiet, and completely incapable of minding its own business.
“Well, there’s nothing to talk about. He’s Zane’s cousin. We hung out at a party. End of story.”
“Zane’s cousin.” He nodded and backed away a little, the family connection making him squirm. “The young one, right?”
The young one. The words hit a nerve I wished they hadn’t. Because yes, he was young. Too young, probably. Definitely too young for the things I’d been dreaming about.
“I guess…I don’t really know him that well.” The lie tasted bitter.
I knew the sound of his laugh. The feel of his mouth on mine. That he understood the weight of other people’s pity. And the way he’d looked at me like I was the most important person in the room.
I knew him better after one night than I’d known Sean after months.
“Okay, okay, I’ll drop it.” Jeremy raised his hands again. “You just seem distracted lately, that’s all. Figured it was guy trouble.”
“It’s not guy trouble.” I leaned back and closed my eyes, hoping he’d take the hint. “I’m taking classes, working full time, and trying to fit into a small town after moving for the third time in three years. It’s exhaustion.”
He was quiet for a moment, and I almost thought he’d leave. Then his hand landed on my knee. “You know, if you ever need someone to talk to—”
“Jeremy.” My eyes shot open and I glared at him. Hard. “Move your hand.”
To his credit, he did. But his ego-filled grin didn’t falter, which meant the message hadn’t fully landed. It never did with guys like him. They just shifted and tried a different angle.
“I should get back to work,” I said, even though every cell in my body wanted to crash.
“You should rest. I wasn’t kidding about that. Take another twenty minutes.” He stood, straightening his shirt like he was about to meet the Prime Minister instead of walking back to a half-empty bar. “Boss’s orders.”
“You’re a shift manager. Not the boss.”
His smile pulled to a thin, tight line. He didn’t like that. Jeremy liked feeling important and reminding him of his actual role here was the fastest way to deflate him.
“Right. Well. Shift manager’s orders, then.” He turned and walked out, leaving me alone on the world’s most disgusting couch.
Finally.
I flopped down on my side, too tired to even lift my feet off the floor. The break room was quiet, the muffled music from the bar a distant hum through the walls.
I should have been thinking about school. About the assignment I’d missed. About the text I still hadn’t sent to Sean. About whatever Chantel was hiding from me, and why the distance between us was growing wider by the day even though we were living under the same roof.
Instead, I thought about Caleb.
Dark, wavy hair. Sharp blue eyes. That wicked, confident smile that shouldn’t have worked on me but absolutely did. The way he’d listened to me ramble about my shitty life like every word mattered.
The way he’d kissed me like I was the air he needed to keep breathing.
Three weeks, and I still replayed that kiss. Still imagined what would’ve happened if I’d been sober. If he’d stayed the next day. If I hadn’t bolted across the hall like a coward.
Chantel said he’d gone back to Toronto, to school and his life. A world where I was probably nothing more than a funny story about a drunk woman at a party.
The thought sat in my chest like a stone. I needed to put him out of my mind.
I closed my eyes, letting the exhaustion take over. But the second I did, he was there again, waiting like he always was when I let my guard down.