Page 97 of Drunk on Love

She turned to him, a horrified look on her face.

“It’sTuesday,” she said. And they both burst out laughing.

He and Margot left her place at the same time that morning. Usually, he left much earlier than she did, but today she’d wanted to get to the winery early, he guessed because she’d taken the day off before.

He got to the inn, said hi to Beth, and checked if any reservations or emails had come in overnight. Then he went into the office; he was trying to take this opportunity to update all of his mom’s software and get all of her systems working right, which he’d longed to do for years.

A few hours into the morning, Beth poked her head into the office.

“Is it okay if I take my break now?” she asked. “I was going to go on a coffee run.”

He stood up.

“Sure, no problem. I’ll take over the front desk.”

A few minutes after Beth left, the chimes dinged over the front door.

“Welcome to the Punchdown Inn, I’m Luke. How can I help you?” he said as he glanced up at the couple who walked in.

“Yeah, we’re checking in, last name Jordan—wait a minute. Luke Williams?”

He looked at the guy and sighed inwardly. He used to work with this guy. Grant Jordan. Perfectly fine coworker, but kind of a jackass.

“That’s me. Hey, Grant, how’ve you been?”

“You’re workingherenow?” Grant stared at him for a moment and shook his head. “How didthathappen?”

Luke kept a smile on his face.

“My mom owns this place. Just helping her out while she’s recovering from an injury.” He took Grant’s driver’s license and credit card.

“Oh, that makes a little more sense, but... but still. Wild.” His eyes widened. “I knew you left, but to do this? How the mighty have fallen, huh?”

Luke gritted his teeth and ran Grant’s card through the machine.

“Oh, hey—did you hear that Brian is leaving?” Grant asked.

Luke looked up. Brian, his old, loathed boss.

“Really? No, I had no idea. I’ve been in touch with Craig, but he hasn’t mentioned it.”

Grant smirked.

“Yeah, guess he wouldn’t.”

Luke kept his face blank and gave Grant his room keys.

“Glad to have you here at the inn,” he lied. “Room Five, it’s right off the pool. Let me know if you need anything.”

He didn’t mean that. If Grant asked him for help with his luggage, he’d just want to kick it down the stairs.

“Sure, yeah. Thanks, man.”

Grant walked off with the blond woman next to him. Just as they got down the hall, Luke heard him say in a low—but not that low—voice, “Wonder what the real story is there. I heard some rumors that guy got fired, but I was sure they were all wrong. Guess he just couldn’t hack it.”

Luke felt a flash of rage, the kind of rage he hadn’t felt in months. There were rumors that he’d been fired? Who had started them, he wondered? Brian, who hadn’t liked him, but had also been pissed when he’d quit? Or that dude who’d never liked him, ever since that time he’d corrected him in a meeting and his boss’s boss had praised Luke? Or...

The inn phone rang, and he turned to answer it.

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