Page 66 of Since We're Here
For now, I have the new product innovation lead, Lola, starting Wednesday. We have an onboarding and brainstorming meeting all morning. I don’t feel prepared. I meant to put all of my plans into some kind of formal document, but it’s still only up in my head. Then again, that’s why I hired her, isn’t it? To put a plan together, think things through, make sure it all happens.
I’ve got my pitch almost ready for Wellington Pubs. The meeting is a week from tomorrow. Just have to finalize a few of the slides.
Sean’s listing all the potential problems with this brew, and I nod my head. I’m new to managing the brewery but I grew up around it, so I’m familiar with what can go wrong. I nod and tap a few notes in my mobile.
There’s something niggling at the corner of my mind. Something that tells me Maddie is distracting me too much. I’m ignoring O’Brien’s more than I want to, leaning too heavily on Maddie to run the place with the other managers, and even now, as I half listen to Sean, all I can think about is her. A woman who won’t even be here in a few weeks.
I don’t want to ever feel like I did after things ended with Cara. It’s interesting though, because the pain and regret I always feel when I see my ex wasn’t exactly the same on Saturday night. And it wasn’t just because Maddie kissed me. When she walked in with Liam and her boyfriend, I only felt empty. Annoyed. But then Maddie kissed me, and I felt something else. Something warm and sparking. The opposite of empty.
But if Maddie and I end badly, we’ll have to suffer through a twelve-day road trip together, and then Oliver and Reese’s wedding in Scotland. Disaster.
“Did you get that?” Sean says with a sharp edge to his voice.
Nope.
“Yes.” I lift my mobile, as if this proves I’ve been taking notes and not daydreaming. “Nice work. I’m going to do some paperwork in the office.”
I slip away from Sean and Cormac as they carry on with the list of brew day tasks.
Maddie sits nextto me at a back table in O’Brien’s, perched on one of the old wooden chairs, telling me an animated story about a pair of locals who came in this afternoon. I lean on my elbow and watch her, a finger reaching over to trace circles on her bare knee.
“They were absolutely trashed, Patrick. It was two o’clock in the afternoon.” She emphasizes each word.
“That’d be Conor and Colin. They’re old blokes—brothers. They’ve been coming in for decades.”
“I’ve had tons of regulars in my jobs, so I get it. But these guys were just so drunk. And so... happy? Like, I felt bad cutting them off, but they were super nice and just stumbled out. One smashed his shoulder on the door as he left, and I thought I was going to have to call an ambulance. But he didn’t even react.”
I chuckle. “Sounds about right.”
The pub is getting crowded. It’s a Monday night, and the Irish band is warming up. The town knows to come out.
Maddie’s wearing one of those short dresses again—this is the black one she wore last weekend, sleeveless and showing off her collarbone and shoulders—and those gray boots. She shifts toward me and watches my finger move on her skin.
“I’m not sure how you’re dressed in such little clothing in Dingle in March.”
“Would you rather I wear a hoodie and leggings?”
“Nope, this is completely appropriate.” I reach out and pull the leg of the chair to me in a swift motion, the stuttering of the wood on the floor causing a few heads to turn.
But I don’t give a feck, even though some of the locals let their eyes linger on me sitting so close to Maddie.
“Well, hello,” she whispers now that the chairs are touching. I move my hand up her inner thigh until it’s just at the edge of inappropriate, creeping up past the hem of her dress, and lift my face toward hers. At this angle, we’re only a beat apart, and my heart pounds in my chest. Maybe I can even hear hers.
“Hello.” I move my fingers a few centimeters up, between her warm thighs, and she breathes in quietly.
“It’s remarkable how much nicer you are to me now than when I first got here.” She leans in and her lips tickle my earlobe. “Is it because I’m sleeping with you?”
“Do you think I’m that easy to manipulate?”
She laughs, her hot breath on my neck. “Maybe.”
Christ, this woman. My cock hardens.
“Come with me. I want to show you something in the pub office.”
“Now?” Maddie pulls back and blinks at me, her brow furrowing.
“Now.” I stand and pull her behind me, and we dodge people standing around as the band begins their first song, starting with a fiddle and a violin.
