“I’ll take the bourbon while I wait.”
She made a face like he was crazy and rolled her eyes, but she went to get the drink.
She placed his glass down in front of him, making eye contact. “Don’t go all wild on me and take a sip.”
Her lips pursed and those brown eyes taunted, and it was all Daniel could do to not reach out and touch her. When was the last time he’d felt like touching a woman? Not that he hadn’ttoucheda woman in five years, but those women were forgotten before morning. Right now, he wanted to simply touch her face, see if her skin was as soft as it appeared.
Not that he would want to stop at that.
“Don’t you work? Or is it just the helicopter thing?”
He swiveled his glass around, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth at her tone. “I do. Just not right now.” Two could play this game.
Bobby sidled up behind Annika and leaned toward Daniel. “She’s only asking because she works two jobs.”
Annika shook her head at Bobby. “That’s not why. Just making conversation.”
Something inside Daniel flipped, excited that Annika wanted to make conversation with him. “Yeah? What’s the other job?”
“I’m a kindergarten teacher.” A gorgeous flush filled her cheeks. She was clearly proud of her vocation, but Daniel barely noticed. His head was spinning, and lead had filled his stomach. A small voice inside his head was screaming for him to leave this bar and never return to Annika Mehta. Painful images started their all-too-familiar slideshow in his head. He gripped his glass.
A crash from the kitchen jolted Daniel back to the present, and he released his hold on the glass. In an instant, Annika’s expression went from playful to worried, and she dashed to the back, Bobby at her heels. Daniel followed.
“Mrs. P., you okay?” Annika stopped midstep, and Daniel was forced to grab her arms to keep from falling into her.
“Sorry,” he mumbled as he quickly let go. Her skin was soft and warm—and as much as he might have thought he wanted to know how soft her skin was, he really did not need to know that.
Pots, pans and utensils were all over the floor. A few bowls still rolled and spun before finally clattering to a stop. Behind Mrs. P., a couple of old wooden shelves were still swinging as they held on to the wall by only a nail or two.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Mrs. P. stepped away from the chaos, lifting a shaky hand to her mouth. One of the shelves gave up the fight and fell to the floor with a thud. “But these shelves have seen better days.”
Annika went to the older woman and wrapped her arms around her. Daniel tapped Annika’s shoulder. “Mind if I take a look?”
Annika nodded and stepped back.
“I’m fine!” Mrs. P. insisted.
“Can you just let—” Annika looked at him.
“Daniel.”
“Danieltake a look? We don’t need our best cook injured.”
It was a grudging Mrs. P. that Daniel took a quick look at. “Did anything hit your head?” he asked as he checked her eye movements and reflexes. She shook her head. “No pain?”
“I’m fine, young man.”
Daniel nodded at her. “Let me know if that changes.”
He glanced behind Mrs. P. to find Phil checking out the damage. “Well, this is the last thing we need.”
Daniel walked past Annika to inspect the shelves.
Phil scratched his head. “Gonna have to call someone to fix up these shelves. Too much for me.”
“I can do it.” What was he saying? He shouldn’t be anywhere near Annika. Not two minutes ago, he had been on his way to bolting out the door. Daniel pulled the old shelves out of the wall with ease. “Well, my brother-in-law can. I’ll help him make up some simple shelves, and I can install them. We could probably do cabinets, there and there.” He nodded toward some cabinets that had seen better days, as well. It was like he was programmed to hurt himself and couldn’t stop talking.
“Seriously? You can do that?” Phil raised his eyebrows.
