Page 38 of That Kind of Guy

“You have a lot of staff,” he commented, reaching up and digging into his ear before wiping it on his cloth napkin. I suppressed a gag.

“It’s our busiest night,” I told him with a shrug. “All hands on deck.”

It was Thursday night, and I was standing behind the bar, doing what I could to help keep things moving along as the restaurant was bursting at the seams with customers. Thursdays were always our busiest nights from May until October. You’d think it would be Friday, but visitors from Vancouver, Victoria, and Seattle often swarmed Queen’s Cove for weekend vacations, so locals knew to avoid us on weekends. During these summer months, most locals worked weekends anyways. Summer tourism was how Queen’s Cove made money, either through the bars and restaurants, the outdoor activities like surfing or kayaking tours, or the kitschy gift shops with mugs, t-shirts, or fridge magnets with our town’s name on it. Thursday night was the locals’ weekend.

Chuck sent a wry glance at Max, who stepped up beside me to make drinks. “Heard you’re trying to buy the place.”

“Iambuying the place,” I corrected him.

He made a disapproving noise in the back of his throat and wrote something down. My shoulders tensed, and I shrugged it off. Whatever he was writing in his notebook—people to fire, dishes to remove from the menu, changes to the decor—none of it would come to fruition because the plan that Emmett and I had cooked up, it was going to work.

Keiko walked in the front door, and the hostess greeted her. I gave her a cheery wave. Chuck wrenched around in his seat to look at who I was waving at, and when he saw Keiko, he hopped up to go over and say hi to her.

His notebook lay open on the bar.

Read it, the devil inside me whispered.

I snorted. Emmett must have been rubbing off on me.

Before I could change my mind, I whirled around and left the bar area. I didn’t need to see whatever was in that book. I was better than Chuck. I was hardworking, treated my employees with respect, and I had enough business smarts to run this place. Keiko knew this, and I didn’t need to worry about whatever was written in that book.

I spotted Hannah and her father at a nearby table. Jeeze, everybody in town was here tonight.

“Hey, you two. Frank, so good to see you,” I said to her father, who I rarely saw around town. He was a shy, quiet man.

He gave me a quick wave and a warm smile. “Hello. Hannah convinced me to put the book down and go out for a nice meal tonight.”

“I’m thrilled that she did,” I told them. “Can I get you anything?”

Hannah smiled softly up at me and shook her head. She and her dad had the same smile. They were splitting our paella with a few glasses of white wine. “Everything is great. Thanks, Avery.”

Frank looked across the table at his daughter with affection. He gestured at the setting sun outside on the water, splashing oranges and pinks across the sky. “And what a view.”

Hannah smiled again and raised her eyebrows at me. There was a glint of…somethingin her eye that I hadn’t seen before. Mischievousness, maybe.

“What’s that look?” I asked her, frowning. “What do you know that I don’t?”

She shook her head and smiled into her napkin. “Nothing, nothing. It’s nice to be here.”

I clapped my hands together. “Alright, well, please let me know if you need anything else, and enjoy your dinner.” I noticed the empty bread basket on the table. “I’ll send over some more bread.”

I nearly bumped straight into Elizabeth Rhodes on my way back to the bar. She had just stepped in the door.

“Oh, Elizabeth.” I put my hand on her arm. “Nice to see you. Hi, Sam,” I said to her husband, Emmett’s dad. It suddenly struck me how he looked like an older version of Emmett, with his thick, short hair, strong nose, and light grey eyes. Behind him stood Wyatt and Holden. “It’s a whole gaggle of Rhodes tonight.” The whole Rhodes family was here except Finn. I could see various women throughout the restaurant sending glances their way. They were all over six feet, and all handsome in their own way. Emmett in his chiseled Ralph Lauren way, Holden in his beard scruff, plaid-clad, gruff but polite mountain man way, and Wyatt, with his sandy blond hair that was perpetually in need of a haircut, and lazy, overly confident smile.

I glanced around for the host, Rachel, but she was seating another group at their table.

Elizabeth beamed at me. “Emmett suggested we all go out for dinner here, isn’t that nice?”

Emmett appeared at my side and put his arm around my shoulder with a smile. “Avery, looking gorgeous as always.”

My face prickled, and I ignored the warmth and weight of his arm on my shoulder.

Wait—the entire Rhodes family was here?

“Rachel,” I said to her as she returned. “Can you please seat the Rhodes at Table One?” I smiled at Elizabeth. “Let’s give you a view, shall we?”

“Actually,” Emmett interjected, “we’d prefer a table in the main dining room. Right in the middle of the action.”

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