Holiday for HIre(20)

In the kitchen, while making a pot of coffee to mix with amaretto, Jane took a moment alone to take a deep breath. It was, perhaps, the first one she’d taken in two hours. A door opened and closed, but she ignored it. Ian had shown his background a bit, but she felt certain it was something she could salvage .

A few well-placed words in Susan’s ear, perhaps about the sick father, and he’d be forgiven everything. Perhaps they could even invent a summer home upstate that could account for his general demeanor of folksiness. It was a good thing he’d slipped up now so they could work on these details before the wedding next week .

The door sounded again, and suddenly cold hands wrapped around her waist .

“I think it’s going wicked good, huh?” Ian asked. In his regular dialect .

“Ssh!” She looked around to be sure no one had heard him and was relieved to find they were definitely alone. “It’s going okay, yes. Here, do you want to grab a couple mugs for me?” Her body belied her words as she leaned back into him, relishing his sandalwood scent and feel of his arms. Yes, he was a dangerous distraction, indeed .

“I actually came in to find out where you keep your shot glasses,” he said .

Confusion flooded Jane’s face at his words. She turned to face him. “My—I’m sorry, I thought you said shot glasses .”

“I did.” He reached into his coat and pulled out a bottle of Jose Cuervo. “The girls and I decided it was time to kick this shindig up a notch. Oh, here, we can just use these teacups .”

And with that, he headed back out to the living room to serve her upper-crust ladies who lunch…cheap tequila shots . The horror !

So much for salvaging his errors. Jane was never going to live this down .





8





“S he said she liked tequila! You were right there !” Ian yelled .

The last guest had left only half an hour before. Jane had immediately launched into her evaluation of Ian’s performance that night, as one does with an employee. Apparently, the man wasn’t good with criticism .

“And I like Cheetos, but it doesn’t mean I whip out a bag at the country club! There’s a time and a place, Ian, and this was neither one,” Jane said. Hissed was maybe more accurate. It was uncouth to yell. What would the neighbors think ?

Well. That was if they’d had any nice thoughts about her left in their heads after this December. First, Mr. Jacobson had watched her roll around in the snow like a common streetwalker. And then the entire street saw Tinsley Winterbottom exposing her bottom when the tequila shots had turned into a game of Truth or Dare .

“Care to enlighten me on when the time and place is, then? Because at a party is generally exactly right on both counts .”

“Will you quiet down?” Jane asked. “There is a difference between a frat party and a dinner party. Not that I expect you would know . “

This was possibly her fault. She hadn’t covered that in any of their talks. To be fair, it never seemed like the sort of thing that would be necessary to cover .

This was such a preposterous fight to be having. She was merely trying to explain to him the myriad of reasons he had disappointed her at dinner. And he was behaving so defensively. As if he wasn’t even in the wrong .

Wrong . He was .

“Oh, right, because Southie boys never go to dinner parties, huh? That’s—that’s—that’s literally all Thanksgiving is , lady. A freaking dinner party! Where we eat off the good china and we drink wine with our meal, and then football comes on, and we deploy to the living room for laughs and drinks .”

“That’s different, and you know it.” Completely different .

“No, it’s exactly the same.” He stared her down, but she wasn’t blinking .

“Thanksgiving is for family , not for people you are trying to make a good impression on.” Now her voice was rising a little bit, and she made a concerted effort to take a deep breath. Osbornes did not lose their cool. Ever .

“Right. Family. Tell me, ice princess—were they the ones who taught you to act like this?” He was glaring at her, and the disgust on his face hurt more than she wanted to admit to herself .

“My family taught me manners and class, yes,” she said icily .

“So then you’d probably be trying to impress them too. When do you go off the clock? When the hell do you ever stop worrying about what everyone else is thinking?” He slammed his hand down on the counter in frustration .

“When they’re thinking the right thing!” Jane slammed her hand down too, equally frustrated. It felt kind of good, even .

“And who dictates the right thing? You? Because I can tell you what those women were thinking. They were thinking tonight’s dinner was an obligation, and nothing at all memorable, just like every single year. They were thinking it was a nice change to do something fun for once .”

“And who dictates fun, Ian? Getting hammered and embarrassing yourself and your host is fun ?” She shook her head, calming herself. “This is ridiculous. This is just completely ridiculous. I hired you to do a job, and you failed to complete your duties in a satisfactory manner. You have no reason to be upset. I do. You just listen and learn .”

Her voice was now perfectly modulated, and there was no possible way Ian couldn’t recognize the sense behind her words .