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“Don’t be ridiculous, you old fool,” Nancy chided. “You can work here as long as you want.”
“Fine,” he grumbled. “You’re not fired, but no more lifting, no more ladders…in fact, why don’t you just run the cash register?”
“Great idea,” Alec chimed in.
“Be quiet.” I smacked him in the chest with the back of my hand. “No one asked your opinion.”
“When are you due?” Nancy changed the subject.
“January twenty-seventh.”
“My birthday,” Alec added and my eyes flew to his.
“Seriously?”
He smiled and nodded.
“Quinny’s birthday is the twenty-seventh too,” Nancy added.
“Of January?” His grin widened.
I shook my head. “June.”
“When were you planning on telling me your birthday is in less than two weeks?”
“You never asked.” I shrugged. “There’s still so much we need to learn about one another. I don’t even know how old you are.”
“Thirty-two.”
“Damn. Maybe I should change your nickname from Hot Shot to Old Man.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
He raised his eyebrows, challenging me, but before I had a chance to open my mouth, he covered it with his, effectively silencing me. Nothing about the kiss was indecent, considering where we were, yet I felt it everywhere. From the top of my head to the tip of my toes, electricity pulsed with each and every beat of my heart. I’d never felt such all-consuming desire before in my life, like he was the air I needed to breathe.
“You two get outta here before the windows start steaming up,” Pete groused.
I broke our kiss only to face-plant in Alec’s chest as we both roared with laughter.
CHAPTER 8
Allesandro
I’D NEVER BEEN a fan of olives. Didn’t like them in drinks, unless they were garnishing a very spicy Bloody Mary, and I wouldn’t eat them on pizza. But as I stood in the grocery store, staring at jar after jar of the green and black fruit, I was utterly mesmerized. Quin was ten weeks along and according to the latest book I was reading; our baby was the size of—you guessed it—an olive.
“What the hell are you doing? The girls will kick our asses if we’re late.” Luc was strolling down the aisle with purpose, his cart filled with cases of water, soda, and juice.
When I learned her birthday was so close, I enlisted the girls’ help in orchestrating a surprise birthday party for Quin. Since her actual birthday was during the week and she refused to take the night off, I picked up her favorite meal from Bo’s—a mushroom cheeseburger—and we ate at the front counter of the hardware store.
Pete had not been joking when he said she would be their new cashier. To say Quin was pissed would be putting it mildly. She put on an award-worthy performance, spouting off about women’s rights, but through it all he stood with his feet shoulder-width apart, pointing to the high-back cushioned stool he’d bought just for her. In the end, she stomped away from him, muttering under her breath about crazy old men, before plopping her fine ass in the comfortable-looking seat.
“I got sidetracked,” I responded.
“By olives?” He shuddered. “Let’s go. We still have to pick up the cake and we only have an hour until your girl gets off work.”
Another change in Quin’s employment was the fact she no longer worked at Bliss, thank fuck. After the scene in the parking lot, I was able to convince her to quit. Okay, so I didn’t exactly convince her to quit so much as I may have accidentally—on purpose—let it slip about the incident in front of her girls. They went positively nuclear. I would have laughed out loud at the scolding she got if I hadn’t been in fear of losing my balls. River immediately gave her a raise, then proceeded to beg her to work at To A Tea full time.
Which led to why Luc and I were traipsing around the grocery store on a Saturday afternoon. Emory had kicked us out of my apartment with a list of last-minute items to pick up for the party while she decorated. The plan was for River to bring Quin over to my place after they closed the shop, under the guise we’d all be going out for a night on the town. Instead, we’d be celebrating my girl.
