Page 8 of Don't You Want Me, Baby?

‘No,’ she replied a little too quickly, lifting the coffee cup. ‘I’m good, honestly. It was just a talk, and we’re done. No need to protect me, Ty. I’m a big girl. Thanks for checking on me, and for the coffee.’

He huffed in his usual gruff Tyler way before heading indoors. As she ticked the bitter barrels off, she could hear him muttering to himself all the way to the back door.

‘I can hear you, you know! I can read you like a book, Tyler Williams!’

He didn’t stop, didn’t look back. She didn’t miss the way his shoulders rose, though, the way his gait coiled a little. ‘If you could, Amber, we wouldn’t have just had that conversation. In fact, we wouldn’t be having a lot of the conversations we have.’

She was still trying to figure out what he meant when Ben arrived for his shift. When the deliveries were done, she’d opted for burying herself in filing in the office before opening time, enjoying the peace and the sit down before the rush started. For a little pub, they had a lot of foot fall and a sturdy set of regulars who felt more like family than customers. Sharon walked in, no doubt tipped off by Tyler that she was in a funny mood, and why. One look at her friend’s face, and she knew she was being checked on.

‘You’re early,’ Amber drawled.

‘And you’re observant. How was your night off?’

‘Boring, then pretty eventful. I tried to decapitate Brad with a loofah. He surprised me when I was showering. I thought he was a burglar.’

‘Nice!’ Sharon tittered. ‘Foreplay gets weirder and weirder these days. I take it you didn’t hear him come in.’

‘No, I was in the shower at the time. He used the lock-box key.’Hmm. Maybe Tyler didn’t spill the beans.

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Why did you change it then? I got your text.’

Amber shrugged. ‘We had a talk. I wasn’t expecting him to show up, so I kind of attacked him half naked.’

‘Promising,’ Sharon giggled.

‘Nope,’ Amber sighed. ‘It got worse from there. I spoke to him about how things have been lately.’

Sharon tutted. ‘I’m guessing from your mood that it didn’t go well. So did he come to talk too, or was it a pure booty call?’

‘Was what a booty call?’ Tyler asked, walking in brandishing some supplier invoices at the perfect wrong moment.

‘Nothing,’ the women said in unison. Tyler’s face darkened, and Amber looked away before she met his searching eyes. Kept her hands busy, taking the invoices from his grasp without meeting his eye. ‘Thanks for these. Kitchen ready?’

‘Yep.’ When she kept working, he turned his attention to Sharon. ‘When’s your next night off?’

‘Why?’ Sharon fake flirted, batting her lashes at him like a pantomime cow. ‘Going to take me out?’

‘Funny. We have that thing, remember? Details need to be finalised.’

‘I know,’ Sharon trilled. ‘I’ll text you.’

‘Okay, but we need to get on with it.’

Amber focused on the filing cabinet as if it was the most interesting thing in the room, but she could hear them whispering.

‘Get on with what?’ she asked eventually.

The pair of them threw her a shifty look.

‘You two can’t whisper to save your life.’

‘Pretty hard to do, with those big, flappy ears of yours,’ Tyler smirked back. His phone beeped in his pocket. ‘Oops, saved by the bell.’

When he’d sidled off back to his kitchen, Amber turned to Sharon.

‘Spill.’

‘We have the bar to set up.’

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