Jace kissed my cheek. “Please, Liv. I’ll shower so fast.”
I shook my head. “Drop me off and I’ll get ready and walk over. You can pick me up at Ackerson’s and drive me the rest of the way to the office.”
Jace grinned as I pressed the elevator call button. “You really are the best.”
“I know,” I said, pushing him into the elevator as soon as the doors opened. “And you’re right, you don’t deserve me.”
“I’m sorry if this morning made you uncomfortable,” Jace said, the elevator doors closing us in together. He turned to face me. “Kayden and I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I wasn’t uncomfortable,” I said quickly. “I’m glad you both feel relaxed enough around me to have made that choice.”
Jace lifted an eyebrow, looking at me curiously.
“Do not even attempt to have this conversation right now, Jace. I have no idea what I’m thinking, and we have no time.”
The elevator doors opened, and I grabbed Jace’s wrist, dragging him out after me.
“Today you get a pumpkin spice latte, not my thoughts on listening to the two of you get off with me in the next room.”
Jace squeezed my hand. “Okay, Liv. But it better be a large.”
I laughed and shook my head as we jogged to the car, which was still on the curb where I’d left it last night. “Pretty sure I’m the one who deserves the large coffee.”
After getting ready forwork, I checked in with my mom to see how Carl was doing. She told me he was feeling better and that they would be scheduling his follow-up appointment with Cardiology today. She promised to keep me posted if there were any changes and I hung up with her just as I got to Ackerson’s.
I pulled open the door of the coffee and wine bar, admiring Jace’s painting hanging in the entryway, before turning to see Adrian behind the counter. He didn’t work here often anymore, and I hadn’t seen him since I’d left Harrison’s, so I was excited to see him.
“Well, look who it is,” he said as he walked around the counter. “My favorite waitress. Are you here for a job? Because if you are, you’re hired.”
I met him in front of the bar and hugged him. “No job, just coffee for my new boss. I’m pretty sure he’s more addicted to the sugar than the caffeine.”
Adrian laughed and went behind the counter while I sat down on a barstool in front of him. “What size and flavor of liquid sugar should I make Jace today?”
“Large, pumpkin spice. I’ll take a small one, please.”
“You got it,” Adrian said, grabbing two paper cups and writing our names on them. “Tell me about your new job. Do you love it? Hate it?”
“It’s been one week.” I laughed. “At this point, I’d say working with Jace is great and I’ll be bored with managing his schedule in no time.”
Adrian nodded as he got the lattes brewing. “When you spend as much time in restaurants and bars as you have, and that’s what you enjoy, everything else seems under-stimulating.”
I leaned forward on the counter. “Did you ever feel ashamed of how much you like bartending? Like you should have had bigger dreams?”
Adrian turned around to face me, capping both coffees. “Other people made me think I should feel ashamed but why should anyone be ashamed of running their own business? Especially when every single person who would look down on you for working in a restaurantneedspeople like you and me to work in, and run, the places they want to dine in so badly.”
“You make a good point,” I said. I took the drinks from him and fiddled with the top of mine. I looked up to see his eyes still on me. “Though I guess you have the whole paramedic thing too.”
“Olivia, I think you’re making the right decision for your daughter right now and that takes commitment. Someday, when you’re ready to do what you want again, call me.”
I smiled sadly. “You’d really hire me again that easily, huh? Your other waitstaff must be terrible.”
He chuckled and leaned forward to whisper, “My other waitstaff don’t have what it takes to run one of my bars, let alone all three. You do. Don’t doubt the value of that skill.”
My breath caught in my throat.Adrian really thinks I can manage one of his bars or potentially all of them some day? There’s nothing at Acker Real Estate that will compare to that possibility.
“Thanks, Adrian,” I said as the door behind me opened.
“There’s my baby,” Jace said as he made a mad dash for his latte. “Oh, Liv, you’re here too.”
