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“Yeah, you’re probably right.” I start toward the door and nearly trip over Sebastian when he darts between my legs.
“What’s with that cat?”
“Maybe he thinks if he keeps following you around, you’ll fall in love with him,” Jack says.
I arch a brow. “Still flirting with me?”
“Maybe.” He pauses, and his eyes are serious when they meet mine again. “Is that okay?”
I have a feeling that if I said I wasn’t okay with it, he’d really never do it again. And the idea of that is... depressing. “It’s okay,” I say, busying myself with the buttons of my coat so he won’t see me fighting off a grin.
“Good. Because it’s loads of fun.”
“Do you flirt with all the girls who wander in here? Or just the ones who are having bad days?”
“Only if they’re cute and interesting to talk to,” he says.
“How often do you offerjobsto girls having bad days who are cute and interesting to talk to?”
He halts just before we reach the door, and the alarm on his face surprises me. “None? Well, one. Just you. But the job offer... it isn’t part of the flirting. Or because I think you’re attractive. I guess it’s partly because you’re interesting to talk to. But I didn’t offer you a job because of all those things. I really do think you’ll be great for the pub. You don’t even have to work for me. Ollie can be your boss. Think of me as a coworker. No... wait. That’s still....” He tips his head to the ceiling. “Shite, I’m making this weirder than it already is.”
I stifle a laugh. “I don’t think it’s weird. I did say you could flirt with me.”
“Yes, but I offered to flirt with you, and then I offered you a job. That’s exactly something a creep would do.”
“At least you didn’t offer me your allegedly big bed.”
He shakes his head. “If you take this job, I resolve to no longer flirt with you.”
“You’re doing a terrible job convincing me to work here.”
He sighs. “I would love to continue flirting with you. And I would love for you to work here. But I don’t think I can have both. And you not taking the job means you leave, which would give me a very limited window of time to flirt with you anyway. That, and I really need you to revamp this fecking pub. So starting as soon as we step outside, I will be the most professional future coworker you’ve ever had.”
I groan. “Sounds boring.”
“Listen, you, I am trying to be an upstanding citizen. Don’t make it any harder than it already is.”
“Oh, all right,” I say, and step through the door when he pushes it open for me.
“There you are,” Nina says once we’re outside. “I thought you might’ve gotten lost in there.”
The three of us set off down the street. I feel strange with my arms empty and no weight on my back as we trudge uphill.
Jack nods to a gray building as we pass a street that leads to the harbor. “There’s the library. It’s got a great view of the water.” He turns to me. “Do you like to read?”
“Sometimes. Mostly audiobooks, though. That probably doesn’t count.”
“Why wouldn’t it count?”
“Well, it’s a lot easier, isn’t it?”
“Why’s that mean it doesn’t count? Say you go to a book club and everyone read the paperback, and you listened to the audiobook. You could discuss it as good as anyone else, right? If you didn’t say you’d listened to it, no one would know. Who cares if it’s easier? Just because something’s hard doesn’t mean it’s better.”
“That’s what she said.”
As soon as I realize I’ve said it, I contemplate fleeing down some side street and disappearing into the night, never to be seen again. I’m emotionally exhausted, and a little buzzed, and the modicum of impulse control I sometimes have has fled the scene of the crime.
“Oh my God,” I say.
