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I shook my head. A one-track mind, this one. “Fine,” I relented. “He’s attractive.”
“Knew it.”
I groaned. “I don’t know what I was thinking, but I invited them to the brewery.”
“So?”
“So, I feel like every time I talk to Nathan for more than two minutes, I put my foot in my mouth. Plus, I got the distinct impression he has zero desire to socialize with me.”
She brushed off my concern as she took the driver’s seat, and I settled into the passenger side of her station wagon.
“Then they won’t come,” she said.
“Thirty of your closest friends, huh?”I whipped around from the bar where I had placed my beer order to see Nathan hovering behind me. He gestured to the group of women taking up two long picnic tables. All were wearing the matching sweatshirts we handed out earlier. His brother appeared to have made himself cozy right in the center of the group. He was already seated and telling them some sort of story with grand hand gestures.
“Right,” I said.
He eyed the women again before moving his stare back to me. “Is it some kind of hiking group?”
I sighed and grabbed my beer before stepping aside to let him order.
“It’s a women’s group. We plan events—happy hours, networking sessions, and outdoor activities. You know, anything that might be hard to find a group to do things with on your own.”
“Youspecifically plan the events?” He grabbed the beer the worker slid to him.
“Lila and I do.”
“Lila from Love Linked,” he stated, looking up at her.
“Yes, she’s my best friend.”
“Interesting.” He made no move to join his brother and grabbed a seat at a table next to the group. He didn’t ask me to join but I followed him, sitting in the other empty seat.
“It doesn’t interfere with my work,” I said defensively. “It’s our side business.” A warmth spread across my cheeks from the lie, though being flushed from the hike masked it well enough that he probably wouldn’t notice.
“Of course not.” He took a long pull from his beer.
I gave him a tentative look. He didn’t seem like a sarcastic person, but I still didn’t have a clear read on him yet.
“I’m serious.”
He shrugged and looked at his beer. “I know, so am I. I’ve been there a week, and so far no one appears to be as good at their job as you. Obviously, nothing is interfering with your work.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise—both at the compliment and that he also seemed so calm about our second business.
“Wow, that’s some high praise coming from you.”
He smirked. “Well, someone recently told me that I should be more forthcoming with approval.”
I sipped my beer to hide my smile. Maybe I hadn’t messed things up as badly as I thought at that happy hour.
“So, you don’t care?” I asked.
“About this?” He tilted his head toward the large group. “Why would I care? Clearly, you can do both. I know what it’s like to juggle a few things at once. It feels good to multi-task.”
“Right,” I said, still uncertain. His being so understanding was not on my list of expected outcomes.
A fit of loud laughter came from the other table, and I glanced over to see Oliver putting on a show of some sort.
