I shook my head. “No. Well, kinda. I’m actually going to be working on a design project for his new restaurant. Why?”
He smiled at me. “We had dinner at his restaurant for Jesse’s birthday, and when he greeted us, he held onto Jesse’s handshake a little too long for Dominick’s liking.”
I tried to keep the strange feelings that were trying to surface from showing on my face. “Hmm. Okay. Hadn’t heard that.” I paused. “When did all that happen?”
“In April. It wasn’t a big deal. I guess he just found my big brother attractive. He obviously didn’t know about Dominick. The guy wanted to comp our food for giving Jesse a hard time making the reservation, but Dom was having none of it,” he laughed. “Now it’s all water under the bridge.”
I nodded and smiled, still not quite sure how to feel about it.
“I’m only telling you this in case there’s weirdness if they’re ever in the same place. Like Callum said, Dom is over it. Callum helped him with that.”
I remembered when Declan got in some deep shit with Callum here at the bar when a girl hit on Dec.
“Thanks for the heads up.”
“No problem, man. Good luck with it. He seems like a nice guy.”
I smiled and nodded.
Thankfully, more customers came in, and Coop went back to his table. Evidently, Preston wasn’t as in to me at that time as he claimed, and for some stupid reason, that kinda hurt.
CHAPTER12
PRESTON
Nick was avoiding me.I’d called and texted him several times since I’d stopped in at the bar last Thursday evening. His replies were short and not sexy at all. He said he was busy with school and work, but I wanted more of our flirty banter and he wasn’t giving me that anymore.
I took my angst out on a defenseless onion in my kitchen Wednesday evening while making marinara sauce.
“You okay over there?”
I glanced up to see Stella looking at me with concern. Frowning down at the onion I’d minced, I put my knife down and sighed. “Yeah, I’m fine. Guess I better get another one.”
Turning to the pile of onions we kept in baskets on the shelf, I reached for another one.
“How about you let me do that?” she chuckled, taking the onion from me. “We can use that minced pile for…hmm. I’m not sure yet, but we’ll use it for something.”
I sighed and looked at my longtime friend. “Sorry.”
She put her hand on my arm and shook her head. “It’s okay, don’t worry about it. I’m just wondering what’s gotten under your skin for you to do that. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was ‘bartender troubles’.” She motioned toward my minced onion.
I chuckled at myself, then released a heavy sigh and went to rub my eyes.
“Oh, fuck! Don’t do that!” Stella yelled, stopping me from putting my onion-infused fingers in my eyes. Good thing she was looking after me.
“Preston,” she said, giving me her stern, no-nonsense voice. “What’s up with you? You’ve been stomping around here, grumbling under your breath and biting everyone’s head off. Spill it.”
I braced my hands on the stainless steel counter and looked down at them. “Yeah, you could say I’ve got abartender problem. Actually, no, not really a problem. Just a…situation.”
She released a heavy sigh. “Wow. Okay. I was joking, but lay it on me. What did you do?” She leaned her hip against the counter and folded her arms over her chest. She could be scary when she wanted to.
Looking around, we were set to open in half an hour, and we had more than enough marinara for tonight. It was just better when it had time to sit in the refrigerator overnight.
“Not here,” I grumbled. “My office.”
She nodded and turned to Marco, one of our cooks. “Keep an eye on things, hon. We’ll be right back.”
He nodded at her. “Yes, chef.”
