Chapter Four #2
Ginny pulled away with a wet pop and a coy smile. He hadn’t even closed his eyes! For Christ’s sake. Shepherd shielded his eyes with the flat of his hand and refused to look at her or at his shrieking daughter, who ran to the bar screaming about a pool. And winning it.
Oh, double Christ. She’d been in on the bet with his employees? And she’d forced the kiss to win money?
“Lex,” he ground out.
But she didn’t hear him, too busy slamming down dollar bills on the bar’s counter like a bank teller or a strip-club manager.
Ginny laughed. The restaurant had settled down around them, going back to eating and drinking or whatever they were doing. Was it even a restaurant anymore? Because it felt like a zoo, and he was the captured animal.
“Not so bad, huh?” She was keeping her voice low for the sake of her mother, who was too busy whispering with Mr. Martin to care.
Shepherd pressed his hand against the small of her back and guided her further away from the table anyway, closer to the bathrooms. Lest his scolding be overheard by anyone ever. “You used tongue.”
“Yes.”
“Your tongue was in my mouth, Ginny.”
“I know,” she said. “I put it there. Did you not like it?”
His cheeks warmed. “Now, I didn’t say that.”
She smiled. “So you liked it? You liked my tongue in your mouth?”
“Ginny!” He took a deep breath. “That is not the point. You know I’d bang you if you let me.”
“Bang?” she repeated, her nose wrinkling. “Ew.”
“What? You can put your tongue in my mouth, but you don’t want me to enjoy it?”
Ginny narrowed her eyes. “That’s not what I meant. ‘Bang’ is just such a gross way of putting it.” Her features softened, and she smiled at him again, her full lips turned up at the corners, her blue eyes sparkling. “I’m glad that you enjoy kissing me, Shepherd. I liked it, too.”
He had indigestion and heartburn. It ached in his chest and fried his throat. Shepherd rubbed his collar bone. “This is for your mother’s sake, and the sake of my dirty car. OK? That’s it. So, please, just. No more tongue without warning. And not in front of my kid.”
“Oh.” An endearing blush spread across Ginny’s pretty face. “I forget sometimes about Lex, and how things with your ex are still rough. I’m sorry. I won’t make out with you again in front of your daughter without warning.”
The fact that she specified she wouldn’t make out with him without warning, and didn’t just say it wouldn’t ever happen again, made his heartburn worse. Damn middle age. He needed some Tums, stat.
Lex was back at the table, talking to Mr. Martin and Deandra. Not a good combination if they were to maintain the cover of being an actual couple. Shepherd walked towards the crisis, and he was halfway there before he realized he was holding Ginny’s hand.
He didn’t know if he reached for her, or if she reached for him, or if he should even care about it. Except he felt the loss of it when they sat down at their chairs, no longer touching.
“Ginny, karaoke time starts now!” Lex shouted. “I need you to be my backup.”
“Of course! What are we singing?”
“‘The Trooper.’ Iron Maiden.”
Shepherd glared at his only child. “No.”
“Fine. ‘Enter Sandman.’ Metallica.”
“Also no.”
Lex growled. She shook her cup, half her beverage spilling on her shoes. “Dad! You’re being ridiculous! How about ‘War Pigs’? Black Sabbath.”
“Alexis. No.”
Ginny stood up. “‘Butter,’” she said, “BTS.”
Lex exhaled loudly through her nose. “My one weakness. Fine. But I get all the good parts.”
“Yep, I remember the karaoke rules.” Ginny winked at Shepherd. “Don’t worry, Daddy. I got it handled.”
His brain spasmed. He knocked his water all over the table, droplets raining on his lap. He stood up to raucous laughter and applause from Mr. Martin.
“See, what did I tell you?” Mr. Martin asked Deandra, a shit-eating grin reddening his cheeks. “They’re in love.”
Noah brought over a fistful of napkins. Shepherd wiped his pants dry with a glare at anyone who dared look his way. Ginny and Lex were singing some annoying pop song that Shepherd only understood every other word of.
Mr. Martin stood up. “Do you dance, Deandra?” He offered her his hand.
She raised a red eyebrow. “To this?”
Ginny and Lex were bumping hips as they sang.
She took his hand. Her lips twisted to one side. “I suppose I’ll try. I’m nothing if not a good sport.”
Customers started to stream in again, bringing in blasts of humid air every time, though Shepherd couldn’t hear the bell above the door with his fake girlfriend and his real daughter singing K-pop at an incredible decibel level.
Ginny was too much work. Too annoying. Too loud and too friendly and too pretty and too smart.
What was he thinking, agreeing to be her fake boyfriend?
They didn’t make sense as a real couple, much less as a fake one.
Sure, his employees made stuff up to get his goat.
Heart-eyes and so forth. And Mr. Martin, he was in on it with them, teasing him about feelings and things that weren’t there.
Shepherd didn’t have feelings, except for feeling upset or frustrated or anxious.
A lot of anxiety all the time, and where was that weird kid? With the snake?
Gonna put him in the kitchen. Let Max and Chris deal with him. Kids like making pizza anyway, right? Stick him in there where the customers won’t see him.
Shepherd tossed the damp napkins on the table and greeted the new customers with a “Take a seat anywhere. Signups for karaoke are over by the machine.”
He pointed at the machine just as Ginny hit a particularly high note.
He bit back a laugh. She was a good singer, even if she was doing it badly for the sake of his daughter.
She caught him staring and blew him a kiss.
He felt it. Somehow. Like a moron. Felt the kiss hit him upside his head.
Damn this and damn her. He was not in love with Ginny.
He didn’t love anyone but himself and Lex. His wife had known that about him, had left him because of it. He was too guarded, too self-aware.
Not scared, of course. Never scared. He didn’t get scared. He got anxious, and then he made plans, and then memorized the plans and the anxiety went away. That’s not something a scared guy did. That’s something a man did. A manly man. A man of action and … plans. A planly man.
Shepherd pinched his nose and furrowed his brow, exhausted with himself. First things first, find the boy child and stick him in the kitchen. Then he needed to get Deandra and Mr. Martin the hell out of his restaurant.
Things would go back to normal as soon as they were gone.