“For now,” I repeated, knowing it was only a matter of time until my brother and Wes brought up an embarrassing story from our childhood. I reached for the four empty beer glasses just as Leo pushed them toward me, my fingers grazing over his. The touch was minimal, but heat coursed through my veins, nonetheless. My hands lingered until I finally grabbed theempty glasses from him and stacked them with the others that needed to go in the dishwasher.
“It’s good to see you.” Leo’s voice was low, which wasn’t even on purpose. He had one of those voices where he could be reading a grocery list and it would sound sexy.
“Uh, yeah, good to see you, too.” If there was one thing I was, it was stubborn, and I didn’t want him to see the effect he had on me. An effect he really shouldn’t have, given he was my ex’s older brother—and my new coworker. “Are you looking forward to the new job? I’m surprised you accepted it, actually.”
From what Leo had told me, I thought his goal had been to be head chef of a fine dining restaurant—not a small town bar—which was why when I had given Leo’s number to Wes, I didn’t think it would go anywhere.
Leo took a beat before responding, drumming his fingers against the bar top. “The opportunity came at a good time.”
His vague words hung between us, but I didn’t press. I didn’t need to know why he was here or what he was doing. I needed to mind my own business. Simple enough.
“Well, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, so prepare to be sick of me,” I said. “I bartend in the evenings, and then we also live in the same apartment building. I’m right across the hall from you.”
“Lily’s old apartment, right? She mentioned it when I picked up the keys,” he said. “I’ll have to ask her for some stories about you, too, next time I see her.”
My jaw dropped, and I let out a laugh. “Okay, see, I knew you’d end up collecting blackmail on me.That’swhy you’re here.”
“Damn. Has my cover already been blown? I haven’t even started my job yet.”
I side-eyed him but couldn’thelp the smile on my lips. “You met Gabe tonight, right? Him and Lily are dating. And Wes is dating my other friend Jules.”
Leo parted his lips to say something when a voice cut in.
“Hey, Eliza, I’m going to get going,” Andy said.
Shit. I’d completely forgotten he was there.
“Wait, but—” I started.
“I’m just in town for the night. I don’t want to get in the middle of anything,” he said with a polite smile, looking between me and Leo.
“There’s nothing going on between us,” we both said quickly. Maybe a little too quickly. Why did we sound…guilty?
“Um, right…” Andy’s polite smile turned into an awkward laugh. “Anyways, it was nice meeting you, Eliza.” He grabbed his coat and beelined toward the door.
“Uh, yeah, it was nice meeting you, too,” I muttered in return, even though Andy was already gone. I shook my head at the interaction. “That was weird.” I tore my gaze away from the door. “Well, his loss,” I said with a shrug, more to myself than to Leo.
“Definitely his loss,” Leo agreed, and heat unexpectedly coursed up my neck to my cheeks.
While I’d been excited to wrap up my shift and go back to where Andy was staying, I couldn’t say I was disappointed that it wasn’t happening.
I felt more standing here talking to Leo than I likely would’ve in bed with Andy, and that…wasn’t a great realization.
“This damn curse,” I muttered, grabbing three clean beer glasses and filling them with what Gabe and Wes preferred. When Cooper was out, he typically stuck to one beer, so I figured he wouldn’t want another. I left Leo’s for last.
“Curse?” Leo asked with furrowed brows, and I was about to tell him but stopped myself. Talking to Leo about my sex life wasthe last thing I should have been doing. Boundaries. We needed boundaries. “What do you mean?”
“Um, nothing,” I said quickly before asking what beer he wanted.
“She thinks her sex life is cursed,” a voice cut in, and I let out a groan as I set the glass down.
“Gran,” I scolded. “You can’t go around telling people that.”
“What? Maybe the person who will break it is in this very room,” she said innocently, sitting on a stool and setting her bag—with colorful yarn and knitting needles sticking out—on her lap. “You never know.”
“Your sex life is cursed, and you thought that guy was going to be the one to break it?” Leo looked absolutely dumbfounded as he hooked his thumb over his shoulder.
“It was possible,” I argued. “But now we’ll never know.”
