Page 43 of Challenged by the Single Dad

It was almost as if Mother Nature had given them one final day of temperate weather yesterday so the kids could get out trick or treating, because the moment she stepped foot into the parking lot at the pub, she was damn near frozen to the bone from the icy wind whipping off the water. Add in the rain that came at her sideways, hitting her face like little bullets, and she ducked her head and ran the rest of the way to the back door of the pub.

Winter was on its way now and there was no escaping it.

She entered through the kitchen like she always did, saying hi to all the kitchen staff. Burke was off for the day, so it was Wyatt on the hot side. He flashed her a big grin as he plunked a delicious-looking burger and the pub’s famous Beer Garlic Fries up into the food window.

She burst through the swinging door into the pub, only to hear athunkand a, “Fuck! Ow!” on the other side.

Oh no!

She recognized that irritated voice.

“Oh my god!” Chloe scrambled behind the door to see Dom holding his palm to his forehead and giving her an evil glare out of one eye. “I am so sorry.”

“Jesus,” he groaned.

“Dom …” Resting a hand on his shoulder she tried to peer around his palm to see if there was any blood. “Let me go get you some ice.”

“I’m fine,” he grumbled.

“No. Hang on.” Then she disappeared back through the door into the kitchen where she filled up a Ziploc bag with ice from the ice machine and put it into a tea towel. Then she ran back out, once again shoving her hand into the door.

Thunk!

“Fucking hell!”

NO!

“Oh my god!”

“Did you just smoke him in the headagain?” Quinton asked with a chuckle as he came to get his customers’ orders from the food window. “Brutal.”

Chloe raced behind the door again to find Dom once again holding his head. He glared at her with one eye. “Why are you shoving the door open so hard?”

She bit her lip. “I … I don’t know. I’m so sorry.” She held out the ice. “Here.”

With a slight growl that did all kinds of things to those butterflies in her belly, he accepted the ice. “Thank you.” He wandered back behind the bar.

She practically scampered after him, hating herself more than she did the first time she bashed the door into his face. “I am so sorry, Dom.”

She’d been a bundle of nerves since she got in her car to drive to work, and those nerves were just on overdrive now, which meant she wasn’t thinking clearly.

After their chat and time on the beach, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Dom. The prospect of seeing him made her brain stop working, which then caused her to throw open the door.

Dear god. How embarrassing.

“Can I take a look?” she asked, stowing her jacket and purse under the bar and tying the apron around her waist.

“It’s fine,” he grunted as an order popped up. They both reached for it, an electric zap yet again making them jerk their fingers away.

Their eyes locked.

“I’ve got it,” he said slowly, ripping it off the till.

She swallowed. “Please let me take a look. Are you bleeding?”

Rolling his eyes as he scooped ice into a lowball glass and filled it with rum and coke, he pulled the ice away.

She gasped. There was not only an enormous, blue goose egg on the right side of his forehead, but a split that was bleeding too. “You are bleeding.”

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