4. Jaime
It had been incredibly busy for a weeknight. My staff and I had run our asses off trying to keep up with the event in The Lounge.
The guests were extra demanding, and I even caught a few of the servers tearing up after some particularly cruel comments. But whoever was in charge of the event was apparently quite nice and promised them a generous tip, so the staff soldiered on and I kept encouraging them we would get through this.
I would soon learn it was some corporate event host by the resort and I couldn”t help but wonder if Emma ever went to those things.
Who was I kidding? Of course she did. I knew she had to rub elbows with these kinds of pricks all the time, and she probably did so with ease.
That was just her way. She could always talk to anybody. I wished for that ability with some of my servers after the night we had, but the best I could give them was to say, ”we”ll get through this.”
As I saw the guests file out of the lounge at a faster pace, I breathed a sigh of relief. The wait staff would be busy cleaning up The Lounge, while the rest of the bar staff would finally have time to restock. Despite their entitled nature, the guests tonight made us a lot of money, so I guess I couldn”t complain too much.
I spent the last half hour in my office tallying the evening”s totals and closing out the books, while the bar staff wiped down tables and restocked. Once they were finished, I sent them over to The Lounge to help the other waitstaff clean up after the party. No one wanted to be here any longer than necessary.
I leaned back in my chair to peek out my office door and spotted a sexy redhead.
”Get a hold of yourself,” I scolded myself. ”It’s probably the same woman as before.”
After the last redheaded spotting, when I embarrassed myself in front of Charlie, I vowed to not let Emma Carter mess with my head any longer.
But then I saw all the staff was gone, and no one was behind the bar to help the guest. So I jumped up and made my way behind the bar. As I opened my mouth to speak, everything stood still for one heart-stopping moment.
A beautiful, heart-shaped face turned towards me and her red-painted bow mouth dropped into an ”o” shape before it breathed out one syllable, ”Jaime?”
Well, I”ll be damned. After nearly giving myself whiplash, turning to glimpse every redhead that crossed my path, hoping it might be Emma, she finally appeared like some heavenly angel dropped in the middle of my bar.
”Emma?” I said, my voice sounding rusty.
I cleared it and started again. ”You’re here. I mean, of course you’re here. It’s your resort. What I meant was, what brings you back?” I asked.
She gave me a gracious smile. ”The resort was hosting an event for investors at The Lounge tonight,” she said, pointing unnecessarily over her shoulder.
”I should”ve guessed you would have something to do with that.”
She laughed. ”I can understand why you would be surprised considered I haven”t been back to Silverpine since…” she trailed off, looking away, and then turned to face me again. ”Since my mom died.”
I was struck by how much she resembled the Emma I knew, and yet she’d grown into this beautiful, successful woman I knew nothing about—it was a strange feeling.
She”d filled out since the last time I saw her, and her womanly curves made my cock stir behind my zipper. But there was something darker in her eyes, sadder than I remember.
”I heard about Lydia. I’m so sorry, Emma. I know how close you two were.”
She swallowed hard. ”Thank you, Jaime,” and then asked, ”So you”re working here now?”
I nodded. ”Yeah, I know it”s crazy, but it”s the best paying gig in town.”
She shook her head. ”I knew they”d hired a new mixologist, but I had no idea…” she said, trailing off again.
”Is that a problem for you?” I couldn”t help but ask, although I immediately regretted it.
”Oh, no,” she rushed to say, laughing, embarrassed.
”I”m just surprised. It”s been such a long time.” She glanced away again before she pressed forward, and I could see the determined set to her shoulders. This was the Emma I remembered. She would never let a situation stay awkward for too long.
”I wanted to talk to the head mixologist to compliment him.”
I grinned stupidly at her. Goddamn, I felt like a kid talking to her, not a grown man having a conversation with another adult.
Except this wasn”t just any adult. This was the woman who turned my world upside down, who had been haunting my every move for over a decade.
”I asked the server, Joey, for a drink to help me get through the evening and you delivered. Were you the one who made the Gin Fizz?”
I nodded, remembering that specific request from Joey. ”Yep, that was me,” I said proudly.
She beamed at me. ”It was perfect. I mean it, I don”t know why it’s such a hard one for bartenders to get, but it was just perfect, and exactly what I needed at that moment.”
I nodded in understanding. ”Rough crowd tonight?”
She laughed, shaking her head. ”Hardly rough but… I don”t know, I just wasn”t in the right headspace to deal with them tonight, so I needed a little extra liquid courage, I guess. And your staff was wonderful. I know those folks aren”t always the easiest to deal with, and they were so professional and good to them.”
”Good, I will pass it on to my team tomorrow. I know they”ll appreciate the compliments.”
I couldn’t believe this was happening. Emma Carter was standing right in front of me. I could literally reach out and touch her—and there was absolutely nothing I wanted to do more.
There was another strained silence before she finally cleared her throat and asked point blank, ”What are you doing back in Silverpine? I mean, I got the impression you didn”t want to come back here ever again the last time I saw you,” she said hastily.
”Your impression would be correct,” I said, chuckling. ”I”m back because of Mom. She”s been battling dementia for a while now and over the last few months, it’s gotten worse. We have in-home care for her now.”
”Oh, Jaime, I am so sorry to hear that.”
I nodded and thanked her. ”It”s been rough. It”s hard to watch her slowly disappear. She was such a force.”
”I can understand that. Imagining Esmeralda as anything other than the fierce mama bear I knew has to be challenging. How are the girls handling it?” She asked, referring to my sisters, Sofia and Maria.
”It”s been difficult for everyone. Sofia keeps her distance. Her and Mom had a falling out, so it”s been awkward, but she tries to help in her own way, just quietly and behind the scenes. Maria practically lives there, but that will have to chance when the baby arrives.”
Emma”s eyebrows shot up. ”Maria is having a baby?”
I nodded. ”Yeah, I know it”s hard for me to wrap my head around, too. When she told me I had to resist the urge to knock her husband”s teeth out, he”s a good guy though and they”re happy.”
“I guess a lot has changed since the last time I saw you,” she whispered, and there was that sadness again.
I smiled at her. “It’s been twelve years, Emma,” I reminded her.
“Yeah,” she breathed, sadness overtaking her once more.
All I wanted to do was jump over the bar and pull her into my arms—to comfort her and take her sadness away. But that wouldn’t be appropriate considering the circumstances, and I’m not even sure she’d welcome the gesture.
I teared my eyes away from her, and busied my hands wiping down an already immaculate bar with my towel.
“So how does it feel to be back? I’m guessing you stayed away because of her?” I probably shouldn’t have asked that question, but I never had much of a filter, and that was something Emma used to love about me—I hoped that hadn’t changed.
She gave a small smile and nodded, swallowing hard before saying, “Yeah, everything here reminds me of her. Which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s just…”
“Tough.”
“Yeah,” she breathed. “But the show must go on, as my dad likes to say,” she remarked, and I had to reign in my response at the mention of her father.
“Hmm, and how is dear old dad these days?” I asked, hoping to God that my tone was casual enough and didn’t give away the vitriol and distaste I still felt for that man.
If it did, Emma was too polite to acknowledge it because she just smiled, seemingly grateful for a topic other than her late mother, and said, “he’s the same old cantankerous man. Hasn’t slowed down a bit. If anything, he’s more determined than ever to conquer the world.”
I couldn’t help but notice the tinge of worry in Emma’s voice when she described her father. Though it didn’t surprise me one bit that John Carter had only grown more determined in his goal of world domination than before. Mrs. Carter always seemed to keep him in line, but with her gone, I doubted anyone could get through to him now, not even Emma.
Emma sighed and refocused her gaze on me. “No more dwelling on the sad stuff. I want to hear about you. Where have you been since you left Silverpine? Tell me everything.”
Though I couldn’t blame her for changing the subject, it made me sad. The old Emma didn’t feel uncomfortable in raw moments. She sat with her feelings and dealt with them head-on, but I couldn’t fault her for protecting herself, not after everything she’d gone through. I just never thought she would put up a shield with me.
I tried not to let that fact dishearten me as I regaled her with stories of all the places I’d been and where I’d worked over the last decade. I didn’t take the easiest path in life, but it allowed me to explore much of the country and meet a lot of interesting people.
I told her about my years in Texas, serving fancy drinks to high-rollers at the rodeos and at the end of the shows, I’d go out to the barns with a bottle of whisky for the bull riders, because if anybody needed a drink, it was guys who’d just risked their lives. I told her about my time up in the Pacific Northwest, where I spent most of my time in cities like Portland and Seattle, making funky concoctions for the Gen X crowd and giving them goofy names like “Tastes Like Teen Spirits” or the “Ice, Ice Baby” followed by a “No Scrubs” chaser.
It was heaven on earth hearing her laugh again. A part of me was convinced I would never hear it again, even as the rest of me hoped that wouldn’t be true.
She sat across from me, entertained by my stories as she sipped on another Gin Fizz I’d prepared for her. Those emerald eyes were focused on me like I was the only person in the room, and it all came rushing back. How she had a talent for making anyone feel special just by focusing all her attention on them. But this didn’t feel like a business maneuver. This was just Emma. Sweet, thoughtful… seductive Emma. She had no idea how crazy she still made me by just sitting perched on that stool, leaning forward, and smiling warmly at me—while the low neckline of her shimmery dress revealed soft cleavage that taunted me. I’d fantasized about those curves a lot over the years, more than I’d care to admit.
Still, it was as if someone plugged me in as I leaned across the bar all relaxed, and delighted her with story after story of my adventures. Of course, I left out the part where I missed her and wished I could have shared every one of them with her. How everything reminded me of her and at the end of each day, I ached to tell her about everything that had happened. How sometimes I did anyway, alone in the dark, whispering to the walls like I was talking to her.
It was the echo of those conversations that always made me feel the loneliest. But not tonight. Tonight, Emma Carter was sitting mere inches away from me, laughing, smiling and asking questions about what life without her has been like. Of course, she didn’t word it that way. She asked me what I’d been up to, all the places I’d seen and the things I’d learned. She didn’t need to know that everything I’d done in the last twelve years was filed under the banner of ‘Life Without Emma.’
I wasn’t about to share that, especially since she made her choice a long time ago. There was no point in making her feel guilty about it now… even though I still had so many questions.
She was laughing at another story I was telling when Joey hesitantly tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to him in surprise. I’d forgotten there was anybody else here, but then I glanced out into the dining room and saw all the guests had gone. “Sorry to interrupt, boss, but it’s closing time,” Joey said.
“Oh my goodness, I hadn’t realized it had gotten so late,” Emma said. “I should let you get to work and out of your hair.”
“No,” I said a little too forcefully. I laughed it off, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joey eying me strangely before melting back into the background. “I mean, you weren’t in my hair… it’s been really good to see you Emma, you can crash my shift anytime,” I said wondering if I was laying it on too thick but my worry was extinguished when she smiled up at me.
“It’s been good to see you too, Jaime. I was really dreading coming back to Pine Crest—but now I’m thinking it might not be so bad,” she said with a mischievous glint in her eye.
I bit my lip, trying to hold back my grin and failing. “You never told me how long you’re back for.”
She let out a long sigh. “I don’t know for sure. My dad has me here to broker some deal that he’s been quite ambiguous about, so a few days? A week tops? Maybe you and I could steal some time away later and catch up properly?” she asked, and it might have been my imagination, but there was a suggestion of something more in her voice.
“Yeah, that would be great,” I answered much too quickly, but noticed she didn’t mind my eagerness. My God, it felt like nothing had changed. She was just as receptive to me now as she was back then. We were kids then. Could we just pick up where we”d left off?
“Good,” she smiled. “I have some business to tend to tomorrow night, but maybe afterward I can swing by and we can make plans?”
“I’ll be here,” I answered.
She slipped from the stool and grabbed her clutch, holding my eyes the whole time. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, reaching out and touching my hand. The touch was brief and light, but I felt a surge of electricity rush through my body.
She must have felt it too because her eyes immediately found mine as she pulled her hand away and even in the dim light of the bar, I could see the deep blush creeping up her beautiful pale skin.
Clearing her throat and taking a step back, “Goodnight Jaime,” she said barely above a whisper.
There was a tightness in my chest I hadn’t felt in far too long. “Goodnight Emma,” I answered gruffly. I was fairly certain there wasn’t a drop of blood actually making it to my brain, and every bit had rushed to my dick. I’d never been so grateful to have a bar in between us, otherwise I would have thoroughly embarrassed myself.
She smiled and turned to leave. As she walked towards the exit, the light from the lobby silhouetted her figure, and I couldn’t decide if it made her look like an angel or vixen.
But when she turned one last time, making eye contact with me over her shoulder, giving me a small wave before she stepped out of sight, I decided she was definitely more vixen.
And just like that, Emma Carter was back, and I knew with certainty I was in serious trouble… and I couldn’t wait to enjoy every minute.