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“That better be the truth,” Stanton growled. “You don’t want to see me angry.”
I don’t want to see you at all. Liam kept his bland smile in place. “Anything else?”
Stanton shook his head slowly. “Just keep it in mind. I’m watching you, Dempsey.”
“Right.” Liam nodded. “I need to get back to the bar. We’ve got customers.”
“That’s another thing. Stay the hell out of the kitchen. McCullough’s in charge there, not you.”
Leaving McCullough in charge of the kitchen was probably a recipe for disaster, but Liam would hold his peace for now. “Fine with me.”
“Get back to work. And tell the goddamn waitresses we only cook burgers one way—well done.”
Liam headed back to the bar, still gritting his teeth. The burgers might be well done, but they were the only thing at the Black Mountain Tavern that qualified. More and more, it was looking like he’d made the right decision to get out of the place before it hit bottom.
Chapter Twelve
When Thursday finally rolled around, Ruth had almost managed to get her nerves under control. It was just a date, after all. With an attractive man she liked. An attractive man she liked who already had intimate knowledge of her body and was about to have even more.
Well, maybe those nerves weren’t as under control as she’d thought.
She wasn’t sure why she was so jittery. Her life was going more smoothly than it had been for several weeks. Carol was off being coddled at Brett’s farm. She and Bec were turning out enough goat cheese to satisfy her commercial customers as well as her walkins. And she had Peaches Guidry in the kitchen. That was a definite stress-reliever.
Peaches had taken over the grocery shopping since taking over the cooking. They were using the end of the Palisade peach crop for kolaches and the first of the raspberry crop for scones. She was working on a cheesecake recipe using goat cheese, and when she had it perfected, they’d probably top it with whatever fruit was in season and sell it to the evening walkins—although Ruth thought the cheesecake was already as close to perfection as it could get.
The kitchen was clearly back on track, and she had standing-room-only during coffee-break time when they stocked and restocked the pastry case.
Life was good, and Ruth was terrified about her date.
She was trying hard not to think about that fact.
Now she was restocking the flavored cheese section of the deli case with the batch they’d made yesterday—tarragon and rosemary, mostly. She hadn’t had a chance to make the basil, although after talking to Bec she wasn’t sure she wanted to. It might sound like she was trying to mimic Liam or create a connection that wasn’t there.
It’s just sex, Ruth. No commitments here. Nothing to be afraid of. That was true. But it didn’t do much to quiet her nerves.
Liam hadn’t called or stopped by to tell her when and where to meet him. She could always ask him to pick her up at the house and then just let him stay.
Nothing like being obvious. But the thing was, they were already obvious. She was pretty sure they both knew what was going to happen that night. And it wasn’t like either of them had shown any reluctance.
By the time Liam called at four, she was close to a basket case. He, on the other hand, sounded perfectly normal. “Hey, are we still on for tonight?”
“Sure. Do you want me to meet you?”
“That would work. Or I could come to your place.”
All of a sudden she didn’t want him at the house. Having him find that she was by herself and waiting seemed way too obvious. She wanted at least a little surprise in the evening. “I can come to the tavern. What time do you get off?”
“Seven. Why don’t you come by at six thirty? Maybe I can get out of here early for a change.”
“Will do. See you then.” She’d tried for breezy, but she was afraid she sounded like an airhead.
Yet she wasn’t sure how else to sound. She wanted to keep it light, as if she went out and had sex with gorgeous men all the time. No biggie. Maybe Liam went out and had sex with gorgeous women all the time. He wouldn’t necessarily be impressed with her. Maybe she should pretend not to be impressed with him.
