“Yeah, but you hate working nights and leaving Jonah.”
“That’s what I’ve got Carly for.”
Normally that wasn’t much of a problem, but with July Fourth in a few days, a lot of the young vacationers come in during the day to eat, get out of the heat, maybe pick someone up. Pulse had been named in a few travel blogs as the place to bein the Capital Region, so in the summer, they took advantage of it and he needed as many staff on as he could.
He went to his office and went through whatever paperwork was sitting on his desk for the day. Then he walked into the kitchen and saw Marcus having another fit. The dude needed to get a grip.
He’d found running a business from a technical part was fine. It was the personalities that got the best of him.
Which was why he had so much trouble with women. And maybe why he put his foot in his mouth with Molly.
Again, his mind went back to her.
Hours later, he looked up when he felt eyes on him at the bar. He hoped it was Molly but it was his sister.
“Oh, you managed to make your way here?”
She sat at the bar. “Can I have a wine? I got an Uber. I don’t suppose you can bring me home?”
“It’s four o’clock. I’m here until eight. Are you going to stay here at the bar until then? Maybe you should go in the kitchen and see how it’s run,” he said as an afterthought.
“I think I will,” she said. “Did you do this on purpose?”
“Do what?”
“I thought the name of the bar was ironic considering?—”
“Not here,” he said, narrowing his eyes. Figures Willow would do this. It’s not like she’d ever stepped foot here before.
It was probably a good thing his family looked down on his business, then he wouldn’t have had to explain that no one knew he owned the place and didn’t just manage it.
He liked having that privacy.
“Why?”
He leaned closer, whispering, “No one knows I own the place. They think I manage it, which I do. Try not to give away who I am or you have to leave. You can say you’re my sister, but keep in mind, I only manage the place.”
“Oh,” Willow said. “Whatever. Anyway.” She stopped and leaned closer. “The decor in here is the best. It’s almost like everything you’d see in a hospital. Charts, equipment, lab coats. Where did you get it all?”
“You can get anything online.”
“Isn’t that Grandpa’s...?”
“Yes,” he said, laughing. “There’s the old man’s little device to help stop or repair cardiac arrest. No one knows what it is exactly, just like a lot of other things.”
“Okay, Dean. You’re funnier than I thought you were.”
He supposed that was about one of the best compliments he could get from her.
15
NOT LEAVING
One week later, Molly had finally moved on. There was no way that Dean was going to contact her again.
She’d done what she never thought she’d do. She’d put out on the first date and now she was all by her lonesome once again.
Her tears were dried up. Her sexy clothes and new persona she’d tried to be were locked away and she was done beating herself up over the stupid experiment. Guess there was a reason it took her so long to come out of her shell.
