Bob and Glen cackled like the two movie critics fromThe Muppets. “Tell Eddie that we can’t do it either.”
“Let me at least get your drinks. Or I could just give you this back.” He held up the fifty.
GJ held up her hand. “Bob paid for our drinks, and that money is yours. Buy Evie a drink. My granddaughter learned to ski today thanks to you.”
My grandmother gave me a hug and squeezed Nick’s arm. “I know that you’ll get her home safely.” Then she left the two of us standing in the crowded bar.
“You heard the woman,” Bob grumbled.
Nick rubbed the back of his neck. “Can I buy you a drink?”
“Dammit, new guy.” Bob turned. “These young guys don’tknow a thing.” He waved to Mary. “Evie would like a Kölsch, and the big guy…what are you drinking?” He didn’t look back at Nick.
“Kölsch.”
“Then it’s settled,” Bob said. “Mary, get these two a pitcher of that crappy Kölsch. If we leave it up to them, they’ll still be standing here tomorrow.”
Mary poured a pitcher of the beer and handed us two glasses.
“This one is on me.” Bob shook his head. “Now, you two get out of here and have some fun.”
Nick’s brow crinkled as he accepted the jug of beer. I took the glasses and followed him to an empty table. “Was that guy the biggest grouch in town, or was that just me?” Nick asked.
“I’m pretty sure that Glen is just as grumpy. GJ seems to keep them in line.”
I was starting to wonder if Grandma Janie had another agenda. Had she left the grumpy old duo instructions to make sure that Nick and I sat and had a drink together? I didn’t want to bring it up to Nick, but I also wondered if she had arranged the ski lesson for both of us todayandarranged for Clementine to bail. Was GJ the town matchmaker and was her mission to get me and Nick together?
Nick poured us each a glass of beer. I held up mine. “To the fastest fifty-dollar stripper in town.”
“Is it stripping if I still had my pants on, or just really bad dancing?” He smiled. It was subtle, but I caught his eyes tracking up and down my body.
“What are you looking at?” I said.
“I wasn’t going to say anything, but what’s with the clothes?”
I looked down. I was wearing a black turtleneck and black jeans with chunky gold earrings. It was my favorite outfit. I felt like a minimalistic Parisian woman when I woremy all-black ensemble. “What do you mean?” I double-checked to make sure that I hadn’t spilled beer down my front.
He grinned. “Nothing is flashing or dinging, and there’s no reflective material. I almost didn’t recognize you tonight.”
Our encounters flashed in my mind. Nick had seen me in my grandmother’s book club outfit, the inn’s milkmaid uniform, and a vintage snowsuit from the eighties. Did he think that I was wearing all of those clothes…unironically?
I must have taken too long to reply. Nick stammered. “I mean, you look beautiful tonight.” He flinched as the words came out. “I mean, you could wear a garbage bag and look beautiful…Oh God. I’m fucking this up, aren’t I?”
Instead of giving him a hard time, I rested my hand on his. “Those were all GJ’s clothes. I was dressed up for her book club, the uniform is, well, a uniform, and today, that wasn’t my snowsuit. I can’t believe you thought that those were my actual clothes.” I could hardly get out the last sentence, tears were streaming down my face from laughing, but then I realized something.
Nick Tinsel thought that I was pretty. He thought that I was beautiful when I was wearing a light up brooch and a granny sweater. Nick didn’t care what I was wearing, he saw…me.
“You made that sweater look good.” He pumped his eyebrows.
“You just wait and see what I can do with a lace shawl.”
It was flirting, there was no doubt about it. I had no idea what I’d do with a lace shawl. But, instead of a quip back, he stared into the last of his beer. “I should get home. It’s game one tomorrow. Coalman will murder me if he finds out I was out drinking the night before an opener.”
“Nick. Haven’t you figured it out yet?”
His brow knitted. “Figured what out?” He finished his beer and pushed the glass to the middle of the table.
“It’s Chance Rapids. Coalman already knows.”
