Say no. Say no.He caught Annika gaping at him, and it sent a thrill through him. “Sure.” Daniel shrugged.
“I didn’t catch your name, young man.” Phil turned his gruff voice toward Daniel with new interest.
“Oh.” Daniel extended his hand to Phil. “It’s Daniel, sir. Daniel Bliant.”
“All right, then, son, you’re hired.” Phil clapped him on the back.
“I can give you an estimate, so you’ll know what to expect.”
“Why? You planning on cheating me?”
“Uh, no, sir.”
“Then we’re fine.” Phil was firm. Daniel opened his mouth to protest, but Phil cut him off. He held out his hand to Daniel. “We’ll shake on it like men, and that’ll be it.”
Daniel grinned and shook it. Clearly, there was no arguing with Phil. “Deal. I’ll give you a fair price.” How much was his peace of mind worth? Because he would have none working here, side by side with Annika.
“Damn straight you will.” Phil winked at him. He looked over at Annika and Bobby. “Who’s taking care of the customers?”
Annika and Bobby looked at each other and scrambled out to the front, but not before Annika turned and caught Daniel’s eye. Her small smile lit up her face and zinged through his body. He caught himself staring, and smiled back. She nodded and took off before Phil could say any more.
Daniel assessed the damage and started picking up the debris.
“So what’s your other job? I mean besides the helicopter?” Annika had returned.
“Uh...” He hesitated. If she found out he was a nurse practitioner in the ER, she might wonder what he knew. “I work at Hopkins.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You’re a doctor? How do you have time for—”
“I’m a nurse practitioner.” He gave in. “Working. That’s my vice. Not the alcohol.”
Satisfied, she started to leave. She came back again. “Why are you doing all this? I mean, you don’t know any of us.”
Because he’d thought of nothing else but her for the past five months. Not to mention that he apparently enjoyed torturing himself.
Daniel shrugged. “I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Besides, I’m pretty good with my hands.” He cringed. Did he just flirt with her?
She flushed, but did not break eye contact. “Well, I guess we’ll have to see about that.” She smirked and returned to her customers.
Oh, damn.
CHAPTER EIGHT
ANNIKA
AFTERSCHOOL, ANNIKAapproached the bar for her shift, trying not to speed up her pace. Every day for the past three weeks, she’d found herself walking a bit faster to the bar in anticipation of seeing Daniel. At this rate, she’d be running there within the week.
Daniel had not been in last night since he’d been on the chopper, so he was probably there tonight.Why did she even know his schedule?The door jingled to announce her arrival in the quiet bar, and sure enough, a familiar and quite muscular back was sitting in her section at the end of the bar. Daniel turned on his bar stool.
Annika swallowed hard. He really was magnificent. His green-gray T-shirt fit tight across his broad shoulders and muscular chest. Biceps bulged from the shirtsleeves, leading to strong forearms and hands. He held his bourbon and raised it to her, a smile playing at his ever-so-full and kissable lips. Even from where she stood frozen and taking in his beauty, she saw the amusement in those knee-melting green eyes.Kissable?Where did that come from?
She forced her feet to move at a normal, casual pace, convinced that if she walked as fast as she really wanted to, he’d see her attraction to him. Because of course the silly grin on her face revealed nothing. If Naya were here, she’d roll her eyes.
Danger. Danger.A voice that sounded like her mother—complete with Indian accent—came from the back of her head. Though, truth be told, it was hard to hear that voice over the hammering of her heart. Honestly, it was like she was in high school. It had been getting worse over the past few weeks since Daniel was at the bar most days, helping Phil get the kitchen back in order.
“How was class today?” Daniel called out to her as she passed him on her way to the back. She grinned, strangely comforted by the fact that he asked that question every day without fail. His lips would tighten almost imperceptibly, and he didn’t quite make eye contact, betraying to her that it cost him something to ask it. While she was sure it made him sad, she had no idea why. Today, his eyelid twitched as he asked, “Has Mitch found his voice yet?”
Annika shook her head. Mitch was a young five, having just made the age cutoff date for the class. But he didn’t speak. He managed to interact with the other children without needing to be verbal, but his mother was concerned he wasn’t socializing well. While Mitch’s father chose not to speak to Annika at all in the rare instance he did pickup or drop-off, his mother did speak to her, possibly only for Mitch’s sake.
