I brace myself.
“Thank you for managing that.”
Decker’s hanging out at a window table, noise-canceling headphones over his ears, but I don’t miss the look he slides me.
It’s one hundred percentis the dude playing mind games with you?
Yes, I handled the food like I always do, but I added in a few extra treats for the crew, and I know it’s pushing the bottom line.
And I know he’s enough of a numbers guy to notice, and he probably knows I’m a good enough manager that I’ll make up the difference in the next two weeks.
If I care to.
“It’s what I do,” I say.
“I know. Thank you.” Grey sips his tea, closes his eyes briefly, and sighs, a slight smile tipping his lips, and then nods to me once more. “Also, let the staff know I’m changing the time off structure. You all work too hard and deserve more vacation time.”
I catch my jaw before it hits the floor.
“Does this mean you’re letting Bean & Nugget stay as it is?”
Blue eyes lift to mine.
My heart stops beating.
Just flails to a stop, like a fish that’s finally quit trying to get back in the stream.
We have an audience.
It’s not just Decker.
Three ladies from a local knitting group who come here every Thursday morning are watching. So is one of my mom’s closest friends.
“No, but good effort,” Grey says.
Motherfucker. “Nofor now. If you convert this building, I’ll quit.”
His brows slowly lift. “If you quit, you wouldn’t be my employee anymore.”
And there goes my belly dropping at the implication that we could explore this unwelcome attraction between us without the complication of Bean & Nugget as a massive boulder in the way. “I hold grudges.”
“Zen already paid my penance by eating that pineapple…cookie.”
I almost laugh.
Swear I almost do, despite the danger that my café is in, which is growing by the day.
Instead, though, I pinch my lips together, nod once, and then I swing my hips on my way back to the kitchen.
Decker texts that Grey was watching my ass the whole time.
I get zero crap from Grey for taking an unscheduled twenty-minute break to sit with a friend who’s nearly hyperventilating over a relationship problem and wants my advice.
When Marley drops in and asks where Jitter is, Grey tells her that the dog will be back tomorrow if he has anything to say about it.
Every day, he’s becoming so much more like the man I met in Hawaii that I corner Zen as the lunch rush is easing. “Did he find something on Chandler and he’s just waiting for me to figure it out?” I whisper.
They roll their eyes. “No.”
