Page 48 of In Spades

I clinked my martini glass against Hannah Jane’s old fashioned and took a sip.

Sweet heavenly alcohols that was good.

“Well?” Luca asked, wearing a shit-eating grin.

I cocked an eyebrow and gave it a stern look. “It’s acceptable.”

Luca threw his head back and let loose a howl of laughter. “Come on, Kris! When are you gonna finally admit that I can make a damn good cocktail?”

I smiled and downed a healthy gulp. It was sweet and sour but still had a little bite. I could barely taste the alcohol, which seemed dangerous. “Can you make this by the gallon?”

Luca beamed. “I knew you liked it, smart ass.”

I plucked the maraschino cherry from the glass and popped it in my mouth. “Might be my favorite one yet.” If he knew I wanted to bathe in this stuff, the custom drinks might stop coming.

“How are things going with Will?” Hannah Jane asked, draining the last drops of her old fashioned.

Without missing a beat, Isaac took her empty glass and slid a fresh drink into her hand. He then promptly retreated to the other side of the man cave, where the boys watched preseason football.

“Things with Will aren’t going at all,” I said, eyeing her over my cocktail. “He’s just a guest at the inn. Not to mention, he’ll be checking out in a few days.”

My stomach turned over at the thought. Sure, I’d grown fond of guests and families staying at the inn—like the Johnsons and their two little ones from two summers ago. But I never got attached. Not like this anyway. I didn’t usually miss guests when they left.

And I had missed Will all weekend. He wasn’t at the inn on Saturday when I cleaned his room. On Sunday, I was so busy with checkouts that I had to breeze through his room instead of spending extra time with him.

Hannah smirked. “Girl. I work there too, and I’m not blind. Will looks at you the way I look at shoes.”

Heat flooded my cheeks.

“Aww!” Mel cooed. “She’s blushing!”

I downed the rest of my drink and prayed Luca would be willing to make me another.

“See,” Hannah said, pointing at me. “This is why Isaac and I snuck around as long as we could.”

I snorted. “You sucked at being sneaky.”

“And you suck at pretending you’re not completely into Will.”

I pushed away from the couch and snagged a bottle of water from the fridge behind the bar. “He’s way too old for me.”

“Oh, please,” Maddie said, rolling her eyes. “Age is just a number.”

“Yeah,” I snapped with more force than I intended. “And there are a bunch of numbers between our ages.”

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Bridget slipping out of the double doors that led to Maddie and Luca’s own personal beachfront.

A moment later, Chase got up from his seat in front of the television and tossed his paper plate in the trash. Without a word, he slipped between the French doors and followed Bridget outside.

No one else seemed to notice, so I kept my mouth shut. Chase and Bridget needed to talk things out. The tension between them was starting to spill over to the rest of us. Everyone walked around on eggshells. It needed to be resolved.

Bridget had begun wearing her engagement ring. I didn’t know whether it was because everyone finally knew or because Kyle caught her not wearing it.

I saw the kind of reactions girls had when it came to wedding things. Hell, all of Hannah’s brides seemed like they couldn’t wait to run down the aisle.

Bridget seemed unaffected. Indifferent. Almost disappointed.

Chase had been seeing a girl for a few months. According to him, things were casual. Layla would occasionally come around the bar with him but hadn’t been seen since the engagement ring incident.

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