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Celia nodded. “For the past two years, ever since we retired in fact.”
“Well I hope you folks enjoy Carson Creek as much as I have over the years.” He was on, in celebrity mode, and I just watched in awe. He was so smooth, so easy with complete strangers. Unlike the boy who had panic attacks before every performance. “Pippa?”
I nodded and followed Ryan down the hall, ignoring the way his well-worn jeans hugged his ass and gripped his thighs, because he was my boss. Only my boss. I stepped inside the office behind him, keeping the desk and then some between us.
“What can I do for you Mr. Gregory?”
He let out a loud, full-throated laugh and shook his head. “Mr. Gregory? Pippa I’ve known you since you were knee high to a grasshopper, I know what you taste like, you’re going to Mister Gregory me?”
I nodded defiantly. “Yes. You are my boss, and that’s the appropriate way to address you,” I informed him in my haughtiest tone, the one I used with unruly customers who tried to get free food by lying about being unsatisfied or worse, having hair in their food. “We knew each other, way back in the day. We haven’t known each other for more than twenty years and I think it’s best if we keep it professional.”
“I don’t think that’s best at all, Pippa.”
I sighed and tried to push down my annoyance. It wouldn’t do any good to get fired on opening night. I needed this job as much as I wanted it, even if it meant dealing with Ryan.
“You said you had some questions for me?”
“I do. Are you married?”
Seriously? “No.”
His smile was tight. “Ever been married?”
“Is this really what you interrupted me to ask, Ryan, Mr. Gregory?”
He smirked as if that slip was some kind of victory. “Maybe I’m just trying to break the ice so we can have a civil conversation. Have you ever been married?”
I could keep arguing and let his scent, leather and pine and sandalwood, invade my senses, or I could just answer his absurd questions. “Once for about sixteen months.” It wasn’t a bad marriage, we just weren’t compatible.
“Me too,” Ryan sighed. Was that relief? I couldn’t be sure, and I didn’t dare ask. “Mine lasted a little more than two years, probably because I was on the road for much of that time.”
I stared at Ryan, my expression blank even as my heart drummed against my chest bone at the thought that he’d met someone else, fallen for her and loved her enough to marry her. To give her his name, while he’d been happy to walk away from me.
“Kids?”
“Nope.”
“Me neither.” His spoke the words easily enough, but that bittersweet look on his face told me he regretted that fact. I hated that I could still read him so well. “Are we going to be friends Pippa?”
“No Ryan, we aren’t.” I shook my head and stood a little taller, reaching for all the confidence I could muster in the face of his too-serious stare. “You own this restaurant and I manage it. You’re my boss and I think that’s plenty.” I thought it was too much actually, but I liked this job and it allowed me to re-settle in my hometown. I would play as nice as I could.
“Right, but we’re also neighbors. Avoiding one another isn’t really an option.”
Wanna bet? “We’re neighbors, for now. This place and this town isn’t your full-time reality, Mr. Gregory.”
“I’ll be home for the next three months, possibly six. I haven’t even starting writing our next album yet, so I’ll be around for…a while.”
Dang it! “My job is stationary, so unless I need to start job hunting again, I’m not going anywhere.”
He flashed a victorious grin as if he had anything to do with my answer and then Ryan stood a little taller. “Then we have time to get to know each other again. To become friends once again.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
His brows dipped into a frown that I used to know well. “And why the hell not?” His rangy muscular arms folded across his chest, his stare expectant. “Well?”
“You really want to know?”
“I’m asking, aren’t I?” He wasn’t just asking, though. He was also demanding an answer. Demanding the truth.
“Because I don’t spend time with people I don’t trust, and I don’t trust you.” I’m sure there was a kinder way to say that, but I hadn’t planned on saying anything at all until he pressed the issue.
His expression turned dark as if he was the offended party. “I never lied to you.”
“Maybe not, but you led me to believe a lie which is pretty much the same thing. So let’s just keep our relationship strictly professional.”
“I’m sorry, Pippa. I can’t do that.”
Thankfully someone knocked on the door, and I turned around in a flash, a wide grin pasted on my face as one of the waitresses appeared, trying hard to look as if she hadn’t heard at least some of our conversation. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but Pippa, I just need a quick refresher on that IPA. It just tastes like soap to me and I don’t think that’s a selling point.”
