Page 35 of Grand Escape

I took a gulp of my water. The golf and the Bloody Marys had taken it out of me, and now this pretty young thing was taking me to task. But that was okay. I could handle it.

“Now that we have that covered, I’ll put in your order,” Teddi said matter-of-factly, not allowing me to respond.

I murmured, “Good,” before staring into my water.

On her way to the computer, Teddi turned and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Oh, Ry’s working in the restaurant today. Someone called off, and she volunteered to take their shift.”

“You know what,” I said quickly, stopping Teddi before she placed my order. “I was playing golf all morning, and I think I want to have lunch inside.”

After tossing a couple of twenties on the bar, I hightailed it out of there.

Rylan

“So he wanted to play golf and needed me to drive him,” Tony said, grousing. “The nerve.”

I was only half listening, mostly tuning out Tony’s lengthy and overly dramatized tale from the morning. He was obviously here to snoop, and I wasn’t in the mood.

Last night, I’d practically thrown myself at Adam, but he’d turned me down. Yeah, he tried to make it nice and be all gentle, but a girl knew when she wasn’t the first pick.

Giving Tony the party line, I said, “He’s here to have fun on vacation, so that’s what he should be doing.”

I took a long swallow of my coffee. I hadn’t slept well, and when the opportunity came up to work inside, out of the heat and away from Adam at the pool, I’d jumped at it.

“You off tomorrow?” Tony asked, changing gears while sneaking around the bar and helping himself to an iced tea and a fistful of packets of sugar.

“I am. They gave me two days off this week, so I promised Sam I’d swing by and taste a new roast after my run. By the way, I don’t understand where all that sugar goes.”

Tony poured another packet into his tea. “I have a high tolerance for it. Better to drink sugar than the hard stuff, you know?”

He didn’t mean anything by it. Tony had been dry for years and often joked about his lack of willpower with alcohol. That didn’t mean he took others’ addictions lightly. He was the most supportive member at AA meetings, taking time to meet with newcomers and never turning down someone’s call or text for support.

“We’re an odd pair, Smith,” I said, calling him by his last name. “The bartender and the guy in recovery.”

“It’s always worked. I used to be your main guy.”

I nodded as I grabbed my coffee. The restaurant was slow. It wasn’t quite noon, so I had a little while longer to revel in the quiet.

“Still are,” I told Tony, trying to reassure him.

“Not while lover-boy is a guest.”

“Tony—don’t.”

He leaned against the bar and held his hands in the air, surrendering.

“Enough,” I said to shut him up.

“So, about tomorrow. Want to run an errand with me?”

Smoothing my hand down the front of my black-and-white-striped apron, I raised an eyebrow. “What errand?”

Despite the fact I was dressed in my regular clothes, manning the indoor bar to avoid running into Adam, my mind wandered to what he’d be doing tomorrow. Against my better judgment, I’d looked to see when he was set to check out. Sunday, which meant we only had three days left. Spending one with Tony felt wrong.

Tony waggled his brows at me. “I think you might like this errand.”

“Oh yeah?” I refilled my coffee in preparation for whatever he wanted me to do. Last time Tony asked me to do an errand, we went out on a fishing boat, and I had to bait my own hooks. “One person’s errands are another person’s unwanted adventures.”

This got me a laugh from an otherwise brooding Tony.

---