Take a Chance (Chance, #1; Rosemary Beach #7)(50)

I was horrified with myself.

Adam ended his session and he waited until the lady he was working with walked out of the gate before following her out. He came over to me.

“You’re late,” he said with a smile I didn’t deserve.

“I slept in late. I’m sorry. Long day yesterday. I had to see my dad about family stuff.”

“It’s okay. Life happens. I hope everything is okay.”

I nodded. It wasn’t, but telling him the truth wasn’t going to happen. “Everything is fine. I just wanted to make sure you knew why I wasn’t here. I didn’t want you to think I was just blowing this off and had no thought to your time.”

He grinned. “How do you expect anyone to get frustrated with you? Has anyone ever? I’d find it hard to believe.”

I thought of Nan. He had no idea.

“It happens,” I assured him.

“Send them my way and I’ll correct that.”

Adam really was nice, and so less complicated than Grant. But the excitement and bone-melting passion weren’t there.

“I was about to grab some lunch. Want to eat with me? Make it up to me that you stood me up?” he said.

I was hungry, and company during lunch sounded nice.

“Yes. I’d love to,” I replied.

“Good. The restaurant here okay with you?”

I had never actually dined in the restaurant here. “Sure,” I told him. I just needed food. I wasn’t picky.

He held out his arm for me to take it. So nice. I slipped my hand over his arm and he led me up the stairs and toward the doors to the club.

The hostess obviously liked Adam. She couldn’t keep from smiling at him. I was worried she was going to trip walking us to a table.

“Your server will be with you in a moment,” she told Adam. As far as she was concerned, I didn’t exist.

When she walked away, I picked up the menu and tried to hide my grin.

“You find that amusing, don’t you?” Adam said, smiling over at me.

I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing and nodded.

“She’s cute and we went out once, but she isn’t really my type.”

No wonder she’d ignored me. I just nodded again and went back to looking at my menu.

“The boss is on his throne,” Adam whispered, and I glanced up. What was he talking about? He tilted his head slightly to the left. “You see the dark-headed guy up there in that round booth talking to Rush Finlay?”

I didn’t want to look. Especially if Rush was up there. He would see me staring. I gave it a few moments, then quickly glanced over my shoulder. Rush wasn’t paying attention to us. He was talking with the dark-headed man. I had seen him before. “Yes,” I replied.

“That’s the boss, Woods Kerrington. He owns the whole damn place. Nice guy if you don’t piss him off.”

He was young. I wanted to look back again just to make sure I had seen him correctly, but I didn’t. “Is he young? He looks really young.”

Adam took a drink of his water and nodded. “Yeah. Like twenty-five or something. His dad owned the place and died of a heart attack a while back. Now the place belongs to Woods. Finlay is a good friend of his and is on the board of directors. Rumor is so is Dean Finlay. When that got out it was really good for business. Everyone wants a glimpse of the famous drummer.”

I didn’t know all that. Interesting.

“Good afternoon. My name is Jimmy and I will be your server today. Can I get you mineral water or sparkling?”

I looked up at the tall, attractive blond who was smiling at me. “I would love mineral, please,” I replied.

“I’m good with this,” Adam replied. “What is the special today, Jimmy?”

“A cold crab bisque with raspberry salad and seaweed-wrapped grouper, fresh off the boat.”

Adam frowned and I decided I was sticking with a sandwich.

“I’ll let the two of you look over things and I’ll be back with your mineral water,” he said, then quietly walked away.

“You into seaweed?” he asked me with an amused smirk.

I laughed and shook my head. He must have been thinking the same thing. I had eaten some strange things while living in L.A., but seaweed was not one of them.

“I think I’m going with the chicken pecan salad on a croissant,” I told him.

“I may have moved to pecan country but I still don’t eat them,” he replied.

I closed my menu and glanced up just as Grant walked into the dining room. His eyes were focused on someone else and it gave me a moment to prepare myself. Would he say anything to me? Or had I made him mad? Did he decide my drama wasn’t worth it? I watched him as he walked over and sat down beside Rush at Woods Kerrington’s booth. Woods said something to Grant and he forced a smile that didn’t meet his eyes.

I had started to look away when his head turned and his eyes met mine. We both froze. I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but why did it feel as if I was? His eyes flickered to Adam, then back to me, and a hard edge transformed his face. He wasn’t happy. Well, crap.

I quickly looked back at my menu and counted to ten. My heart was beating fast, which was ridiculous. I shouldn’t be nervous. We hadn’t left things in a good place this morning, thanks to me. So me sitting here, having lunch with Adam, was no big deal. Right?