“Trip?” I had to laugh. The man I lived with hardly spoke to me. The idea of guys tripping over themselves to get to me was as far from my real life as it could possibly get. “No, Joe. I lived with a guy for years who barely said a word to me the past few months. No one trips; trust me.”
“Maybe you aren’t looking hard enough.” His voice dipped into a gravelly whisper, leaving me breathless at the sudden shift of energy between us. “Your ex was an asshole. We only just met, but a woman like you is pretty tough to ignore.”
Ignored, dismissed, sadly dependable. That’s how I’d describe myself until now. Catching the attention of a sexy stranger gave me a high I wasn’t expecting.
“Good night, Joe,” an older man called out to Joe before pushing the front door to leave.
“I guess we’re the only ones here.” Joe motioned behind him to the now empty restaurant. “Still hungry?”
I bit into my final mozzarella stick with a sheepish nod. “But I’ll go, I don’t want you to go to any more trouble.” I reached for my purse and dug for my wallet when Joe grabbed my wrist.
“I’m hungry, too. I’ll make you something else and sit with you if that’s okay.” My heart squeezed at the shy smile pulling at his lips.
I set down my purse and replied with a slow nod. “Sure, that sounds great. Thanks.”
I glanced at the clock over the bar, it was midnight. Joe popped up and headed into the kitchen, leaving me alone with an odd twisting in my stomach. I wanted to stay but was uneasy. Although I harbored a ton of bad feelings at how we split, Trent and I were very much over, so it wasn’t an unfaithful guilt nagging at me.
I may have been in my thirties, but I was much shorter on life experience than others my age due to a sheltered upbringing and overactive conscience. Sure, I had a senior level position at work and had a few long-term relationships before my last disaster. But the prospect of taking a chance on anything often left me in a cold sweat, even when I’d been a kid and was supposed to do crazy and stupid things. Letting down my guard and throwing caution to the wind never came this easily to me, and I worried my rash decisions wouldn’t end with my impulsive drive here. Spying Joe though the pass-through window to the kitchen, I had the strong suspicion they were only beginning.
3
Joe
“Tell me about you,”I said to Caterina. “Any brothers or sisters?” I asked while trying to cover how flustered I was. Flustered overher. When I’d come over to take her order, I’d never expected to be entranced by some kind of spell. She’d peered up at me with those sad, chocolate eyes, and all I’d wanted to do was make her feel better. Once we’d begun talking, I hadn’t wanted to stop. Her lush, pink lips had stretched into a smile, and I’d lost all sense of logic. The only thought that had been rumbling around in my head was if her mouth was as pillow soft as it looked. And don’t get me started on her throaty laugh. I’d planted myself across the booth from her, and, other than the three times I’d reopened the kitchen—also a first for me—something about her pinned me to the seat.
“I’m an only child,” she said after swallowing a mouthful of nachos. “I may not have the competition complex you have, but a lot of pressure, nonetheless. I’m my mother’s only hope.”
We shared a laugh before I shook my head.
“It’s not that Bella and I are in a competition. My sister is beautiful and brilliant, so thereisno competition when it comes to her. And I’m not saying my parents aren’t proud, but I doubt I’ll ever get the look of awe they give her. Of the two of us, she’s more like my dad. He’s a VP, and I expect her to be one any day now. Me, they probably hoped I’d get a steady job and get by.” I shrugged—part of my act to cover how my family made me feel. They never showed me anything but love, but I still felt less than in their eyes. Opening my own restaurant was my dream, but it was a risk they never seemed to fully understand. Under this gorgeous woman’s gaze, my mask was cracking—another thing I didn’t get.
“Maybeyoushouldn’t underestimate yourself. It takes guts to open up your own place. I don’t think I could do it.”
I looked around with a wistful glance. We’d come a long way in two years, and I was nothing but proud. Keeping it moving in the right direction was the struggle that cost me sleep most nights. “It’s nice to have something that’s mine. Not having to answer to anyone, doing things my way. I’m not an asshole who won’t take advice, but there’s something freeing about doing it all yourself. My brother-in-law gave me a loan to buy this place. Though, he keeps calling himself a silent partner and won’t let me pay him back. But he’s also cool enough to never hold it over my head.”
When I’d first bought this place—then an old dive bar called the Red Oak—I’d had big plans and dreams, with a limited budget. Owen had been a brother to me ever since I was eight years old, and my sister brought him home from college one weekend. Not to say my father wouldn’t have helped me, but after I’d put all I had into my business, the very last thing I needed to hear were his doubts on whether it was a good idea or not. When I’d asked Owen for a loan, he hadn’t hesitated a second before opening his checkbook.
“This is an odd place to want to open a business, though. I know it’s getting popular now, but wouldn’t the main shore towns have been a safer bet?”
“My parents asked me the same question.” I laughed, remembering how many times they actually did ask that very question after I’d told them my intentions.
Her gaze fell on my chest but quickly darted away. When I met her eyes, her olive skin reddened with a blush. I held in a laugh, not wanting to call her on checking me out.
“My dad took us here when we were kids. We’d rent a house, and it felt like we were in the country, far away from all the noise and the chaos. Although, now, the area is much more popular, so the chaos is finding me again, which leads to profit. So, it’s not all bad. You know it’s a hot spot when the college kids find you. Fake IDs have gotten a lot more creative since my day.”
That was a big reason I didn’t get involved with tourists. But Caterina wasn’t an underage college girl flirting with me in the hopes that I’d forget how to do math when I glanced at her birthdate on her ID. She was a woman. A gorgeous woman I couldn’t peel my eyes off of. I checkedherout all night, too, but didn’t waste energy on hiding it.
“Ah, yes.” She nodded. “There were a group of what looked like college kids in the pool when I checked in.”
“See? That means the place is gold.” I raised my beer bottle before taking a long pull, noting her heated stare in my periphery. The air thinned between us at each pause in conversation.
“Enough about me, what do you do? Besides plan last-minute vacations.”
She pursed her lips before leaning her elbows on the table. She hadn’t stood yet, but the glimpses I’d gotten of her body were enough to make me squirm in my seat. Her full breasts stretched the thin fabric of her tank top, and I willed my eyes upward. There was a difference between checking her out and outright leering at her, and the more time I spent in her presence, the more I was teetering over that line.
“I’m an advertising account manager. We plan digital campaigns for clients. I work a lot of long hours. Coming here on a whim was a first.” She dropped her gaze to the table, her eyes vacant and sad before she took another sip of beer.
“Hey,” I whispered before giving her foot a gentle kick under the table. “Where’d you go?”
