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“At night, I’m just the manager. Someone else is handling the front. Also,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “if I know Boss, he’d rather I stay here and make sure you and Reid are okay. We’ve had enough incidents today.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Boss might not see it that way.” He blew out a breath.
I studied his face. The bushiness of his moustache contrasted the innocence in his eyes. With his tattoos, long dreads, and smooth brown skin, Rasheed could pass as a mature twenty-year-old or a young thirty-year-old. I couldn’t tell.
“What?”
“Does he… scare you too?” I wondered aloud.
“Boss?” Rasheed chuckled. “Not as much as you.”
“I’m not afraid of him,” I answered instantly.
“Of course.” The smile on his face said he didn’t believe me.
“Fine. I’ll admit,” I shrugged, “he was… intimidating when we first met. In a way, he still is. But when we were out there,” I pointed to the street, “he was the first one to push me to safety and run into danger to protect us, to protect me. He told me he has my back.”
Rasheed took a chair and dragged it over. “Sounds like you got his attention. I wonder what’s different about you.”
“Huh?”
“Boss has a… lot of admirers. Ladies run in here thinking they can snag him. I remember this one time, a customer wanted to buy out the entire store in exchange for his number.”
“That’s extreme, but I can believe it.”
“Are you two…?” Rasheed raised both eyebrows in silent inquiry.
“It’s nothing like that. He’s just grateful I saved his son from a golf cart.”
“Right.”
I smirked. “Sarcasm.”
“I’d like to think it’s a gift.”
“Trust me. I’m not interested in a relationship right now.”
“Might try letting Boss know that before you go any further.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing.”
I shifted, feeling exposed. This place didn’t have any cameras, did it? Rasheed didn’t know about what happened on that desk?
My eyes flew to the corners.
What if there were cameras here? What if Deacon was watching me now?
It didn’t feel so far off. Deacon’s presence was imprinted on everything around me, as if he was near.
Gathering my courage, I asked the burning question. “Is he even free to date? What about Reid’s mother?”
“I don’t know. Boss doesn’t talk about her. I assumed she was dead. If she’s alive, she hasn’t made any attempts to visit her son in the two years that I’ve known them.”
I frowned, my chest stirring with sorrow. Dead or abandoned, either option was a tragedy. “He’s very protective of Reid, isn’t he?”
