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“No, she was great, but…”
“But?” he prompted when she resumed chopping the onion and didn’t continue.
“She’s an outsider. Is Declan okay with that?”
James's spine straightened, and his eyes narrowed on Addy’s face. “I wasn’t aware Declan made the hiring decisions around here. What else should we be calling him about?”
Addy’s head snapped up, the knife falling to the cutting board at his sharp tone. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just that you’ve never hired someone from outside the syndicate before.”
“So you don’t trust my judgment.”
Addy winced, but her voice was firm, and he could tell she was annoyed with his temper. “I didn’t say that either.”
He pitched the half-eaten apple into the trash with more force than he meant to, watching the empty can wobble before settling back on the floor. He didn’t like that Addy had voiced the concerns he’d had only moments ago himself.
“I do generally seem to know what I’m doing. It’ll be fine,” he said, more to convince himself than Addy. “As long as everyone can keep their mouths shut and not discuss syndicate business in the walk-in.”
“We’ll do our best, boss,” Addy said, the usual cheerful note in her voice returning. “But sometimes the gossip is so juicy. Surely even Delaney can indulge in innocent gossip.”
James chuckled. “There’s nothing innocent about you or Clara, or Mike, for that matter—especially when you’re gossiping.”
“You’re just jealous because you don’t know Molly Maguire is engaged to Kyle Murphy but pregnant with some unknown man’s baby.”
James halted in his retreat to his office. Damn. He’d known Molly Maguire since diapers. He’d never have suspected her of doing something like that.
“She’s what? How could you possibly know that?”
“My cousin Sarah heard it from her sister-in-law Elena, who heard it fromhersister Mary Kate, who’s married to Kyle’s sister Hannah. You went to Mary Kate and Hannah’s wedding two summers ago.”
James rubbed at his temple. Syndicate gossip could be as exhausting as it was scintillating. “Addy. That sounds more like a game of telephone than reliable information.”
“I didn’t say it was reliable. I said it was gossip. I’m notThe New York Timesover here. I leave the fact-checking to the professionals. All I know is what Sarah heard from Elena, who—”
“Heard it from Mary Kate, who’s married to Hannah,” he finished for her. “I know. Just, yeah, keep that kind of shit to a minimum around Delaney too. God forbid she pick up any of your bad habits. Like that terrible music you make me listen to.”
Addy pointed the knife at him and grinned. “Secretly you love it. I keep you on your toes.”
He shook his head with a chuckle. “I’ll be in my office. Try not to make my ears bleed.”
James had barely closed the door when the music began blasting over the speaker again. At least the wood and glass kept it muffled to a low thrum, and he couldn’t hear the incessant screaming Addy swore passed as music.
He took himself through the rote of his normal routine. Reconcile the receipts from the night before, reset the amount of cash and change in the till, check alcohol inventory and adjust the purchase order he’d put in on Monday as needed.
Tomorrow Addy would slip him a list of things she needed for the kitchen, and he’d use that to make a purchase order from their restaurant supplier on Tuesday. Serving food alongside alcohol had been Maura’s idea, and it had done well for them since opening a year ago. Thanks in no small part to Addy’s genius in front of a stove. Her kitchen creations were magic disguised as pub fare. Save for that fish thing.
Once the usual was done, he shifted to pulling together the documents he’d need to bring Delaney on as an employee, though part of him wondered if she might appreciate an offer to work for cash under the table instead. She seemed like a runner, someone trying to live under the radar.
He’d watched her last night; he hadn’t been able to help it. His eyes followed her around as if they were independent of the rest of his body. Her constant vigilance had struck something in him.
The way she stood with her back to a solid surface whenever possible, the way her eyes roved over the room every few minutes, the way she yelped when he’d come up behind her. She’d lied about being scared, as if the admission of fear would have somehow gotten her in trouble.
In that moment, he’d had the sudden, overwhelming urge to know everything about her, what she loved, what she hated, what made her afraid, but he’d shoved it down. It didn’t matter how appealing she was or the ridiculous and unexpected way she pulled at him. She was off limits. Both because he was bringing her on as an employee and he had a very strict personal rule not to mix business with pleasure and because she wasn’t in the syndicate.
Addy was right. Not about needing Declan’s permission—that still rubbed—but about it being a potential risk to have her here on a permanent basis. It would be even more of a risk to get involved.
Except he shouldn’t even be thinking about getting involved after spending next to no time with her. He needed to chill the fuck out. Maybe get laid so he’d stop having these ridiculous thoughts about a woman he’d just met.
James scrubbed a hand over his face and shoved the last of the paperwork he needed her to fill out this afternoon into a folder. Whatever her past, Delaney was good at her job, and after the hell Maizy had been putting him through for months, James needed someone reliable.
