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“Thank you, Mr. Horton,” Arthur said delicately as he hauled a crate in and set it on the counter. He caught Zoe’s gaze, and she huffed out a breath.
Bryce’s dad was the mayor. The town gave Harvest Home a bunch of money and support every year. She would do well to remember it.
But wasn’t that just how a jerk like Bryce got so… jerk-y? Everyone giving him a free pass because his father was a powerful guy?
She glanced at Devin. How did he do it? Constantly keeping a lid on himself when the guy kept asking to get punched in the face?
Before she could suss it out, a few more of the Meyer Construction volunteers came in with the last of the supper service cleanup.
Bryce gawked at the towering piles of dishes. “How are we supposed to get all this done? Some of us have places to be tonight.” Winking, he elbowed one of the other guys, who subtly moved to put more distance between them. Not that Bryce noticed. With a leering smirk and a waggle of his phone, he added, “If you know what I mean.”
Devin exhaled roughly. He threw his shoulders back. Instead of answering Bryce, he looked around and held his hands out expansively. “With a crew like this? We all pitch in and we’ll have it done in no time.”
“Uh-huh.” Bryce kept scrolling on his phone.
“What do you say we put a little wager on it?” Devin’s smile rippled with challenge. “We get out of here within the hour, and the first round at the bar is on me.”
Chapter Five
This was going to cost Devin a small fortune.
It was worth it, though. At the hour mark, pretty nearly on the dot, his team had put the last clean pan on its shelf. The fact that Arthur, Sherry, Tania, and Zoe had thrown their backs into it, too, had helped a ton. Heck, even Bryce had cleaned a few tables. Free drinks were some powerful motivation.
Powerful, expensive motivation.
As the last guy put in his order, Clay whistled, punching in the numbers on the register.
“This sure seems like a nightmare for the bookkeeping,” Devin tried in vain. “You should probably just give them to me for free.”
“Nice try.” Clay printed off the bill and handed it to Devin. “You wanna settle up now or start a tab?”
“Settle up now.” Passing over his debit card, Devin eyed Bryce, who was standing by the pool table in the corner. Devin had promised the first round, and he was going to see it through, but he wasn’t going to make it easy for anyone to try to turn it into two.
“Good choice.”
He signed the slip, then joined the rest of his crew. He tried to pay attention to what they were saying, but his gaze kept drifting to the table in the corner where Zoe sat with Arthur, Sherry, and Tania. All four of them had been only too happy to take him up on the free drink offer, too, and he was happy to have them.
Probably too happy.
Working side by side with Zoe tonight had been an eye-opening experience. While her sexy waitress outfit had bowled him over the other day, this afternoon it had been her maturity—the way she’d known how to handle every situation that arose as they’d cooked and served. Even now, while he and his buddies from work stood around, shooting pool and playing darts and talking about yesterday’s game, she was engaged in what looked like a deep conversation with Arthur, Sherry, and Tania. They regarded her with all the respect she deserved. Which he was starting to realize was a heck of a lot.
She’d really rolled up her sleeves tonight. She knew Harvest Home as well as he did, and despite mostly working in the front office, she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. Her eyes went all soft when she talked about the place, too. She might be the only person besides him and Arthur who understood it for the miracle it was.
She was funny and smart and beautiful and…
He cut off his train of thought before it could pull any farther out of the station. Jerking his gaze away from her mouth as she laughed at something Tania was saying, he took a big gulp of his beer.
Han wasn’t here tonight, but the two of them had been friends for so long that the guy lived rent-free in his head. If anybody else was staring at Zoe the way Devin had been just now, Han would’ve been ready to deck him. Devin wasn’t some dirtbag trying to get a peek up her skirt, but he needed to do a better job keeping his eyes to himself.
Before too long, Bryce gave one of the other guys a noogie before sauntering Devin’s way. Devin crossed his arms over his chest, but his body language wasn’t enough to keep Bryce from coming over and slapping him on the biceps.
“See you tomorrow,boss.” He said it like an insult, but Devin wasn’t going to take it that way.
“Bright and early.”
The instant Bryce was gone, it was like someone had undone one of the knots in Devin’s back. A few others filtered out not long after, and he thanked them each for coming out and giving a part of their day to volunteer.
Eventually, he and what was left of his crew drifted toward the pool table. They played a couple of rounds, but it was tough to focus. Every time he lined up a shot, he either had to face Zoe or put his back to her, and he had to get this under control. Being this aware of her wasn’t right.
