Tinsel (Lark Cove #4)(16)

Today had gone so differently than yesterday it was hard to believe.

After we’d eaten dinner last night, I’d left Sofia on her stool and gone back to clean up the kitchen. It had taken me less than ten minutes, but when I’d come back out, she’d been asleep on the bar with her face resting peacefully on her arms.

She was beautiful when she slept—angelic, delicate and fragile. I refused to think about the minutes I stood there watching her. Because that was fucking creepy.

I went about cleaning, wiping down tables and putting up the chairs. Then I closed out the till and finished handwashing a few straggling glasses before shaking her shoulder gently to wake her up.

She stayed in a sleepy haze as she pulled on her coat and followed me out the rear door to my truck in the alley. I helped her into the passenger side, barely closing the door before she was resting her head on the freezing glass window. She was asleep again not five hundred feet from the bar.

I didn’t even bother waking her up when I pulled into Thea and Logan’s driveway. I hustled out into the cold, found the spare key under the mat and unlocked the door. Then I collected Sofia and carried her inside, laying her on a couch and covering her with a blanket.

Her murmured good night echoed in my ears the entire drive home on the dark, snow-covered streets.

Normally, I would have crashed just as hard and fast once my head hit the pillow. Mom always said I could sleep through an earthquake. But for once, I tossed and turned throughout the night. Thoughts of Sofia kept popping in and out of my head, keeping me awake.

She was an enigma. A puzzle.

She was a woman who had everything in the world at her fingertips and yet seemed so . . . miserable and lonely. She seemed so lost.

I didn’t pity her. But I was intrigued. I ached to get closer and solve her riddle.

I ached for her.

The second the image of her long legs wrapped around my hips popped into my head, I knew there was only one way for me to fall asleep. So I took my cock in my hand and got off to the mental picture of her soft lips parting on a gasp as I slid deep inside her.

Sleep shouldn’t have been hard to find after that. But it was. Because I felt like a pervert for jacking off to thoughts of my boss’s sister-in-law, the woman I’d been entrusted to watch over.

Finally, I climbed out of bed and went to the gym I’d set up in my garage. After running five miles on my treadmill, I collapsed on my bed and passed out until my alarm blared through the room at ten the next morning.

Showered and dressed, I drove over to pick up Sofia.

I was certain she’d still be asleep, but when I pulled into the driveway, she was waiting just inside the door.

She seemed almost eager as she hopped into the truck. Maybe she was just a morning person. Maybe the shock of her situation had faded, and she’d found a better attitude.

I hadn’t asked. I’d just enjoyed the ride.

And praised the fucking heavens there hadn’t been any more tears.

Her excitement carried us through the lunch hour and into our bartending lessons. Sofia finished stirring her huckleberry mojito and added a lime wedge. Then she dunked a straw into the glass and handed it over.

I brought it to my lips and took a sip. “Tastes like a huckleberry mojito.”

She smiled. “Thank god.”

I pulled out my straw, putting a new one in its place, then handed over the glass. “Give it a try.”

As she took the drink from my hands, I looked away. I’d made the mistake earlier in the day of watching as she sipped from a straw, and I’d had to excuse myself so she wouldn’t notice the growing bulge behind my zipper.

“It’s really good. Sweeter than a regular mojito with the huckleberry.”

“They’ll be popular tomorrow night.” There were about ten ladies around Lark Cove who ordered one of my huckleberry mojitos every time they came in.

“What’s next?” Sofia dumped out the drink and rinsed the glass.

“What’s your favorite drink?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know if I have one.”

“Really?” Fancy women like her always seemed to have a signature drink.

“I don’t like beer,” she told me.

“Why am I not surprised?”

Sofia’s eyes twinkled as she giggled. “I like drinks with citrus tones. Or champagne.”

“Then tomorrow night you’ll be in charge of champagne.”

“What?” Her eyes widened. “You’re going to let me serve drinks?”

“Uh . . . yeah. That’s kind of why you’re here, isn’t it?”

“I-I don’t know. I didn’t think you’d actually give me important things to do.”

“Then what did you expect me to have you do?” Maybe she’d thought I’d just have her chasing down empties all night.

“I don’t know,” she muttered, toying with a spoon on the bar. “Maybe take out the garbage. Or clear dishes. Hand out peanuts. Stuff that doesn’t matter when I mess it up.”

I blinked twice as her words soaked in. Then I considered kicking my own ass. I’d been such a dick yesterday, criticizing her every move in an attempt to hide my attraction. But she wasn’t useless. And when I wasn’t harping on her, she picked things up quickly.

“You’re good at this,” I told her. “Not gonna lie and say it didn’t surprise me. But you’re a fast learner. I could use your help during the party.”