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I consider stopping at the Steaming Mug for a cup, but the sight of Parker’s black truck in the Tipsy Tavern lot makes me turn in. It’s hard to believe it, but more than coffee, I actually want to see Parker.
Maybe he’s becoming an addiction, too.
Thoughts of him fill my mind as I head for the bar’s front doors.
Chapter19
Gemma
A ‘closed’ sign hangs on the front of the Tipsy Tavern, but I suspect Parker’s inside so I push the door open.
“Hello?” Slightly-sour fumes of last-nights beer spills greet my nostrils.
Delilah’s head pops up from behind the bar. “We’re closed,” she says, before recognition flashes on her face. “Oh, you. Parker’s girl. He’s in the back.”
She has a cardboard box in her hands. She pulls a few beer cans out of it and sets them on top of the bar, then goes about breaking down the box.
She’s acting like I should just let myself in through the swinging double doors I saw her and Parker go through last night, but I hesitate by the flap in the bar anyway. “Okay if I…”
“Come on back. Make yourself at home.”
I lift the section of polished wood. “Hey, question for you, if you have a sec.” The thick, rubber mat under my sneakers is slightly sticky. It smells like Pine-Sol back here, and soap.
Delilah arches a brow. “Yeah?”
“I thought Parker was just helping out around here. So, why is it that he was the one to go get the cash last night? And why is he in the back right now, anyway? And why does he know all about the next beer delivery?”
“That’s three questions.”
“I know, but… please?”
She grabs another cardboard box, peels back the top, and starts unpacking more beer cans. “He handles the cash because it’s his cash. He’s in the back making next week’s schedule. He knows about beer deliveries because he sets them up. He owns this place. He’s the boss.”
My jaw drops.
I’m entirely too caffeine deprived to bother lifting it back up.
She shakes her head. “You really didn’t know that?”
I can’t answer her. I want to, but my type-A self is too busy getting hot and bothered about the fact that Parker’s currently writing a schedule.
I love schedules.
“Ah… great,” I manage at last. “Okay. Thanks for filling me in. Anything else I should know? Does he have an ex-wife and kids I don’t know about, or a prison record?”
She snorts. “Man, you’re hard on him.”
“I’m best friends with his little sister. Thanks to sibling rivalry, I get heavily biased reports on what he’s up to, here in Pines Peaks.”
“I have an older brother, so I get it,” she says with a grin. “You’re in luck, though. I’ve known Parker for years. No ex-wife, no kids, no jail record. You know about the animal shelter, right?”
I narrow my eyes into little slits. “What, now?”
“He started one. It’s over on second street. I volunteer there once a week. You should check the place out. Plus, he’s got two apartment buildings on the east end of town. Low income housing, for the working class. There was a real housing crisis before he came to town, but he basically fixed it. I rent from him, too.”
Holy cow.
If Carly only knew.
