Page 3 of Challenged by the Single Dad

“You ladies are definitely burning the midnight oil tonight.” He punched in Jolene’s teas, salad, and fries into his POS, adding it all to her tab.

“Well, as I’m sure you’ve heard, Ellie—who works at the spa—is pregnant.”

Dom frowned and shook his head. “I hadn’t heard.”

Jolene’s gray eyes went wide and she nodded. “Well, she is. And in her forties. Can you imagine? A high-risk pregnancy indeed.” She blew out a breath. “No, thank you. I’m glad I had my kids in my early twenties. No complications whatsoever.”

“We’re not all as lucky as you, Jolene.”

She ignored his sarcasm, or it completely went over her head, and she continued to chat. “Anyway, we’re all sewing her a quilt for the baby. And on our knitting and crocheting days, we’re making clothes. A single mother can use all the help she can get.”

“How do you know Ellie is a single mother?” Why was he feeding the beast and asking questions? Did he even care about Ellie from the spa? No. But he also needed to keep the customers happy, and that meant engaging them in conversation. Even if it was conversation he’d rather drink turpentine than engage in.

Wyatt entered the restaurant, walking behind the bar to fill up a water glass with ice, then club soda and a splash of cranberry juice from the beverage gun. He paused to listen in.

Jolene clucked her tongue. “Well, I don’t know of her being married or seeing anybody. Do you?” She leaned forward, resting a bony hand on the bar, waiting for more gossip.

Jolene Dandy was known as the “Island Mouth.” She was the biggest gossip. If you wanted your secret to remain a secret, you steered yourself as far away from Jolene as possible.

“Just because you don’t know of a partner, doesn’t mean she doesn’t have one,” Wyatt chimed in. “Maybe she’s seeing someone on the mainland? Or maybe she decided that she wanted a child bad enough to do it on her own? Or maybe she’s in a relationship with a woman?”

Jolene’s eyes went even wider. “Is that what you’ve heard? That Ellie is in a relationship with a woman?”

Oh shit. Now Wyatt had gone and done it. And Dom’s brother instantly realized his folly by the way his mouth dropped open and his eyes went wide. “No. No. No. That’s not that I’m saying. Jolene, listen to me, I am not saying Ellie is seeing a woman. I don’t know. And neither do you. Don’t go telling people anything. I am merely speculating. You were saying she’s a single mom, but you don’t know that for sure.” He glanced at Dom. “Back me up here.”

Dom snickered. “My brother is right, Jolene. We don’t know Ellie’s situation. But what I do know is that it’s very kind of you and the Sewing Circle to be making her a baby blanket and baby clothes. Regardless of Ellie’s situation, she’s very fortunate to have such thoughtful people in her world.”

Jolene beamed; her silver-streaked blonde hair shiny under the warm recessed lighting of the pub. “You boys have a nice night, and we’ll see you tomorrow.”

Dom exhaled and nodded. “Drive safe, Jolene.”

“Shit,” Wyatt murmured. “What was I thinking?”

“Don’t fucking know,” Dom whispered as the rest of the women from the Sewing Circle approached the bar to either settle their bills or have Dom put their orders on their tabs.

Wyatt squeezed his shoulder. “Should we make a bet to see how long it takes for the rumor mill to be running rampant with speculation that Ellie has a lesbian lover on the mainland?”

“Don’t even fucking joke about that,” Dom said, giving his brother a dirty look. “You need to text Ellie and give her a head’s up.”

Wyatt at least managed to look a little sheepish and nodded, pulling out his phone from his pocket as he retreated to the kitchen. He was probably going to ask Vica or one of the other women if they had her number. That’s what Dom would do anyway.

Dom flashed the rest of the Sewing Circle ladies a big smile. “Hello, lovely ladies. Are we settling up or putting it on the tab?”

Several of the women who were in their seventies and eighties blushed. Even the younger forty, fifty, and sixty-year-olds went a little pink in the cheeks.

Most of the women had him add their bills to their tabs, but two—Sakura Reilly, whose husband was the local crab fisherman, and Kitty Barrington, who owned the local apiary with her husband Grimm—settled their bills like they always did.

Even though the kitchen closed at ten and Dom sent all his waitstaff home by nine-thirty, he still had a lot of cleaning and turning down to do which meant he wasn’t making the climb up the hill to his house until quarter to eleven.

This was exactly the kind of shit he was trying tonotdo anymore. He wanted to be there for his kid in the evenings. He wanted to have dinner with Silas and put him to bed. Read him a story, and relax in the evenings. But it was hard handing over control of your business—your baby—to someone else.

He’d always been a control freak, but the incident with Nadine and Ginny that summer just made things so much worse.

He didn’t trust anybody anymore.

Nobody knew how to run his bar better than he did.

Which meant he was burnt out, but also too stubborn to hire anybody long enough to fix it.

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