He shuddered, then took the napkin back and tossed it into the basket Paulie kept next to the register for that purpose. The guys would like that one.
“You should keep her number,” Paulie said. “She might come in handy if the sink gets clogged again.”
She was still laughing when she walked by, balancing a tray of drinks, and he slapped her on the ass as she went.
Paulie Reed was his assistant manager-slash-bartender-slash-waitress and she brought in the big bucks. Flaming red hair, breasts that mounded into cleavage so spectacular a man could suffocate in there. Slim waist, legs that went on forever and she knew the ERA for every pitcher to take the mound at Fenway. She was a walking, talking, stats-spouting wet dream for a sports bar-frequenting kind of guy, but if you laid a hand on her, chances were you wouldn’t be able to hold a fork for a while.
She’d come with the bar when he bought it a couple years back and it had taken him all of about five minutes to realize she was worth every penny Jasper had paid her. It had taken another few days and one misguided, mutually disappointing kiss in the kitchen pantry to realize she might be one of the hottest women he knew, but they had zero sexual chemistry.
And speaking of sexual chemistry, he looked up just in time to see Beth walk through the front door and the memory of their chemistry had an immediate effect on his anatomy.
She was either on her way to or from work, but even in a stiff white blouse and black pants, she would have turned his head. But, unfortunately, she’d already turned his head and then turned him upside down with her little Cinderella act. Before he even opened his eyes the morning after Joe’s wedding, he’d been looking forward to taking Beth out for breakfast. And maybe breakfast the following morning, too.
Instead, she’d been gone. No note. No phone number jotted down on the notepad next to the phone. Nothing. The people she worked for wouldn’t give him a damn thing. It had crossed his mind a few times to give Officer Jones a call. If her info was on the police report from her boss’s arrest, maybe Jonesy would trade it on the sly for another pair of Celtics tickets.
Pride kept him from picking up the phone, though. If she had wanted to see him again, she would have given him a way to contact her. But now, almost a month later, here she was.
“Hey, stranger,” he said, maybe too pointedly, when she’d hoisted herself onto a barstool.
“Hi. Sorry I didn’t leave a note on my pillow. I didn’t think there was much of a point since it wasn’t going anywhere.”
It might have gone somewhere if she hadn’t dumped him like a bad blind date. “I’d hoped it would at least go as far as breakfast.”
She gave a short, barking laugh. “If you wanted me to stay for breakfast, you shouldn’t have told me to lock the door behind me when I left.”
He said what? “I don’t remember that.”
“You couldn’t even be bothered to wake up all the way. You kind of mumbled it at me and capped it off with a snore.”
He would have slapped himself in the forehead if she wasn’t standing there, watching him. “Listen, I was asleep. I swear, my plan was to take you out to breakfast. Get to know each other better and find out how soon I could see you again.”
She didn’t believe him. He could see it on her face. “I’m supposed to be happy you didn’t mean to send me on the walk of shame?”
It was a trap. Not an obvious one, but her tone and her body language suggested he had one foot hovering over a spear-lined pit. “I don’t know if it will make you happy to hear it, but I wanted you to stay.”
“Uh-huh. Makes me very happy to know I slept with a man who sends so many women on the walk of shame, he gives the exit line in his sleep by habit.”
“Beth, come on. I’m a single guy. I own a sports bar. I live right upstairs. You knew I wasn’t a virgin.”
“No, but I didn’t know you were a—” She stopped and raised an eyebrow at him. “Never mind.”
Never mind what? He didn’t want to never mind. He wanted to know what he’d done to deserve her low opinion of him. Unfortunately, Paulie chose that moment to appear at his elbow, obviously angling for an introduction. He never should have told her about that night.
“This is Paulie,” he said obediently. “She’s my assistant manager. Paulie, Beth. She’s…well, you remember her. I broke her boss’s nose a couple weeks back.”
What was he supposed to say? This is the woman I told you about. The one I thought maybe was special, but she obviously didn’t feel the same. And no, I won’t say she broke my heart but, yeah, it hurt a little.
He watched the two women shake hands, each giving the other a speculative look, and gave a sigh of relief when Paulie walked away after mutual nice-to-meet-yous were exchanged.
“I guess I deserved that,” Beth muttered.
“What did I do?”
“You couldn’t just introduce me as a friend? Or an acquaintance, at least?”