Be Mine(45)

He shrugged. “It was just my mom and me growing up and she had to work, so after school I’d walk to the library and hang out there until she picked me up. After my homework was done I’d pull a random book off the nonfiction shelves and start reading. The almanacs were my favorites because there was a ton of information in little bite-size pieces.”

“You should go on Jeopardy.”

That made him laugh. “I don’t think so. Not a fan of being in front of an audience, and trust me, under pressure I forget every bit of useless knowledge I’ve ever picked up.”

“What happened to your dad?” As soon as she asked the question, Darcy’s cheeks flamed and she waved her had. “Never mind. I take that back. Not my business.”

“No, it’s fine.” He liked that she wanted to know more about him. “He took off when I was young enough not to remember him. I was in high school before my mom got married again, and he’s a good guy. They’re in Vermont, where my stepdad teaches, and I try to visit them a couple times a year. My mom and I have always been pretty close.”

She smiled and warmth rippled through him. Damn, she had a great smile. “My parents live in a small town about forty minutes from Concord. I wanted a little more excitement, or at least the ability to see a movie in an actual theater, so I moved to the city after school. I see them at least once or twice a month.”

“What do they think of you being up here for a month?”

“They’re excited for me. Proud that Kevin thought enough of me to ask me to do it. They weren’t quite as thrilled about me living with a stranger. I should probably warn you I have pepper spray.”

He laughed and scribbled on his pad of paper. “Making a note of that.”

“They like Kevin, so they decided to trust his judgment and not lock me in my old bedroom.”

“Do you think they’ll come up for the opening?”

“Oh. I don’t know. Maybe?”

“You should invite them to the big Valentine’s Day shindig.”

She pointed the pen at him. “I’ve heard you call it a shebang and a shindig and a thing. What, exactly, are you planning for the Valentine’s Day opening?”

“It’s a secret.”

“So, in other words, you have no idea.”

“You don’t think I have a plan?”

She smirked, which wasn’t quite as attractive as her smile, but was still cute. “Is it as good as your plan to serve up burned frozen pizza so I’ll take over the cooking?”

Busted. “I’m pleading the Fifth.”

“And I’m pleading exhaustion. We can work on the menus more tomorrow and we also need to talk about placing an ad. I think it might be good to get one or two really experienced servers in here before opening, and I think we’re going to be buried in applications.”

“I’ll be wrapped up most of the day with Peterson and the fire inspector and a few other things. I’ll try to sneak in some menu planning so we can talk about it over dinner. Which, by the way, is your turn tomorrow.”

“Whatever. Just throw the silverware in the sink and I’ll wash the dishes in the morning.”

While she was in the bathroom, he tossed the paper plates and dropped anything washable into the sink. As long as the day had been, he wasn’t ready to turn in yet, so he flipped on the television and tried to get comfortable on the couch. Thirty seconds later he turned the TV back off and made a mental note to call the cable company. Or a satellite dish company. Any company that could offer him a distraction.

“Good night,” Darcy said as she made the quick trip from the bathroom to her bedroom.

“Night.”

And then there was silence. It was late enough so there weren’t any cars driving by to make road noise that was just enough to drown out the slight creak of Darcy’s mattress as she climbed into bed. The rustle of covers. The small sigh as her head hit the pillow.

He knew she slept on her left side, with her arm tucked under her pillow, because he’d been lucky enough to wake up curled around her, and the memory was slowly killing him.

And it was only the second night.

* * *

DARCY AVOIDED JAKE AGAIN in the morning by staying in bed until he’d left the apartment. The idea of having their morning coffee together, all sleepy-eyed and messy-haired, seemed intimate to her and she wanted no part of that. It was hard enough keeping their arrangement focused on the business.

She’d just finished washing the few dishes they’d dirtied when the phone rang. Kevin had arranged for a landline to be put in before Jake had even arrived, from what he’d said, because cell coverage was so spotty. Spotty being practically nonexistent, of course.

After drying her hands, she picked it up on the third ring. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Kevin.” She was hoping to be a little more settled in—both literally and emotionally—before reporting in to the boss. “How are things going?”

“Good.” That was the truth, more or less. The number of hours she spent tossing and turning, trying not to think about having sex with his business-partner-slash-old-friend Jake, weren’t really Kevin’s business. “We’ve made a lot of notes on the front end and we’re working on the menu.”

“You’ve got the Jasper Burger, right?”

“Number one on the list. Number two being Jasper’s Big-Ass Steak.”

A couple of seconds and then he laughed in her ear. “That’ll sell out every weekend.”

“That’s pretty much what Jake said.”

“I guess I should have told you he prefers Jake.” That would have been nice, she thought. “Nobody but me calls him J.P. and he hates it.”

“So I heard.”

“Any problems? You guys getting along okay?”

“We’ve got a handle on it. Other than his genius plan to coerce me into cooking every night by feeding me burnt frozen pizza.”

“Not much for takeout up there.”

She snorted. “To say the least. The gas station was having a sale on microwave burritos, though, and just in time for my night to cook.”

“Ouch. Is he around, by any chance?”

“He left about an hour ago.”

“He was supposed to call me half an hour ago.”

“Must have slipped his mind.” Seemed to be a problem with Jake Holland.

“I’ll leave a message on his cell so if he passes through a signal, it’ll remind him. Let me know if you have any problems, okay?”

“Yeah. Tell Paulie I said hi.”

“She misses you. Says the new girl can only carry one plate at a time and doesn’t know scotch from chocolate milk.”

Darcy laughed. “It’s nice to be missed.”

They hung up and she debated on whether or not to go downstairs. The menu was her top priority because they needed to have ingredients on hand before they started hiring cooks. Once they’d narrowed the list down to a few choices, she intended to put them through their paces in the kitchen. They had to be able to master the Jasper Burger recipe, and they couldn’t hire anybody who couldn’t cook a perfect big-ass steak.

She worked on it for several hours, playing with and discarding meal ideas. Playing with the pricing. It was tough to balance the two demographics—hungry sledders with a little money to throw around versus families looking for an affordable night out—without a big disparity on the menu. And, as Jake had pointed out, they didn’t want to be overstocked on a wide variety of ingredients right off the bat.

After a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, she set aside the pub’s menu and started a grocery list. They needed real food in the apartment, even if she had to cook it herself, because being limited to things available at the gas station’s convenience store was not only killing her appetite, but wasn’t going to do her waistband any favors, either.

The trip to the grocery store took up most of the afternoon since it wasn’t a short drive, and she was happy to see Jake walking down the apartment stairs as she parked her car. She’d been so focused on stocking their kitchen so she wouldn’t have to make the drive again any time soon that she forgot she had to carry all the groceries up the stairs.

She was barely out of the car before he was looming over her. “Where have you been?”

“Not being a huge fan of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I went to the store and did some shopping. Actually, I like a PBJ sandwich now and then, but not with grape jelly. I like strawberry preserves.”

“It didn’t occur to you to maybe leave a note?”

“No, actually it didn’t.” Maybe she should have, just as a courtesy, but he needed to back off. “Are you going to help me carry these bags up?”

“Dammit, I was worried about you!”