Shiloh lifts an eyebrow and rolls his lips inward.
I lift my chin. “I’m not leaving. You can either pay me or keep seeing my face for the hell of it.”
It’s the first time I’ve stood my ground with this level of insistence. Ever looks past me—to the sink, the stacked glasses, the lemons now cut and ready. He doesn’t like me. I can feel that.
But he likes chaos even less. His mouth twitches—barely. It’s not amusement. More like…recognition. The reluctant kind.
Then, finally, he exhales like I’m the most aggravating creature he’s ever had the displeasure of being pestered by.
“Fine.”
My heart skips a beat, tripping over itself at the sound of it. “Thank?—”
“But if you fuck up, you’re done. No second chances.”
Shiloh straightens. “Boss is gonna love this.”
My gut clenches. It’s always something. “I thought you were the boss?”
There’s a world of difference between Ever hiring me and some absentee boss I’ve never met and haven’t been able to charm into hiring me.
Ever passes a drink across the bar without looking at me. “You don’t need to worry about that.”
“That’s not an answer.”
His gaze drops—briefly—to the knife on the cutting board. Then back to my face. As though he’s cataloging exactly what kind of trouble I’m going to be.
“You want the job or not?” he says.
“Yes.” I hold out a hand for him to shake. “I want the job.”
He doesn’t take my hand, just rolls his eyes and nods once, sharp. Final.
Shiloh crosses his arms over his massive chest. “Good. Glad that’s settled. You’re a fucking pain in my ass, Yank.”
I arch a brow. “My work here is done, then.”
His look is heated. “You need a keeper.”
“Are you volunteering? Because you couldn’t wait to shove me out the door yesterday?—”
“If you two are going to sit around and bicker back and forth, I’m changing my mind.”
I snap my mouth shut while Shiloh, asshole, laughs softly and moves back to his stool.
Ever finishes with the last of the chaos—sets something straight, barks a quiet instruction to someone I haven’t met, then moves through the door to the storage space.
Leaving me alone with Shiloh and the heat living between us.
The rush apparently over for the time being, I sit beside him and swivel toward him, my knees finding a place between his and locking us together like puzzle pieces.
“It’s funny how willing you were to help a stranger with car trouble,” I murmur, “but once you fucked me, you couldn’t even help me secure a job here.”
The easy slips off his face for half a second. If I hadn’t been watching, I’d have missed it.
“I saw you could handle yourself,” he says. “And I figured if you were coming into my place of business with a lie on your tongue, then I just wasn’t willing to play that kind of game.”
He winks to soften the words.
