Page 9 of Challenged by the Single Dad

Wyatt patted Dom on the back. “We’re brothers. There are five of us that own the property and businesses. And Dom is just a control freak. He has a hard time handing over the bar to anybody.”

“Even me,” Jagger added. “And I own just as much of the place as he does.”

“Can’t pour beer for shit though,” Dom muttered.

“I have Clint’s proxy and Jagger has Bennett’s,” Wyatt added. “They’re our other two brothers, but they’re with all our kids right now. So it’s really a four to one vote.” He glanced sideways at Dom. “Are you voting ‘no’ on hiring Ms. Voss? The most qualified applicant we’ve had so far.”

Dom’s gaze shifted between his brothers.

How did she miss the resemblance between the three of them until now? Sure, Wyatt and Dom had the same eyes. But all three of them had similar noses, cheekbones, smiles—not that she’s seen Dom smile since that fist time before he knew she was there for the interview—of course they were related. Were the other two brothers just as handsome? That was a family with some good genes.

Finally, Dom exhaled. “We do a three-day trial period. Then a three-month probationary period. But your references have to be glowing.”

Chloe beamed at all of them. “They will be. I assure you.” She had to keep herself from bouncing on her toes she was so excited.

Jagger grabbed the Caesar from Wyatt again and drained it. “Do you think before you go, you could make me another one of these though, please? And maybe write down your recipe?”

Did Dom just growl?

But Chloe was too excited to care. She nodded. “Absolutely. Coming right up.” The lightbulb in her brain flicked on. “Oh! I almost forgot. My calendar is completely open except for Halloween night.” She glanced between the three of them. “I really need that night off.”

“Oh! Do you have kids? In the … hostel?” Wyatt asked. She could see that he was immediately reconsidering her job offer if she’d gone and left a child alone in the hostel.

Swallowing past the pain that instantly hit her whenever anybody asked if she had children, she shook her head. “Uh … no. I just really need that evening off.”

Dom shook his head. “No. I need that night off to take Silas to the Halloween party at the school and trick or treating. If you can’t work it then this isn’t going to work.”

Wyatt and Jagger glared at their brother.

“What?” he asked. “She doesn’t have kids. Why the hell does she need Halloween off? The whole reason we’re hiring another bartender is so that I can spend more time with Silas. So I can be there for the important shit.”

Jagger rolled his blue eyes and shook his head, then focused on Chloe and smiled. “Ignore him. We will make it work. But you absolutely get Halloween night off if that is what you need.”

The inflated mood from her securing the job was rapidly losing air the longer Dom glared at her. But she did her best to ignore it and went to work preparing Jagger’s Caesar.

She should have known that the universe wasn’t going to throw her a bone without some hidden caveats. Like sure, she was going to get the job, right on the ocean like she always dreamed. But she was also going to have a boss that hated her.

Her mom’s voice rung in her ear again. “It takes more muscles to frown than smile. Just grin through the pain, and soon enough, your smiles will become real.”

So that’s what she would do. She would smile until the pain was numb—or maybe one day gone—and maybe in time, her handsome boss with the man bun and scowl wouldn’t hate her.

Or maybe he always would.

Oh well.

He could never hate her as much as Chloe hated herself, because she was childless, and alone and it was all her fault.

CHAPTER THREE

“Well,yourreferenceshadnothing but amazing things to say about you,” Jagger said as he welcomed Chloe back to the bar the next afternoon. “I was on the phone with Clyde McGregor for nearly an hour. Man’s a talker.”

She chuckled. “Oh yes. He has a million stories.”

He held the back door open for her so they could enter through the kitchen. “I’m guessing I heard only one percent of them.”

“He’s got a heart of gold though.”

“So he really paid you to run the front desk for him at his campsite in Montana so he could attend his nephew’s wedding in Arizona?”

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