Page 32 of Baby, Be Mine

I resisted the urge to say no. Instead I sat back in my chair, the squeak of the springs reminding me that I needed to hit it with WD-40. “Sure.”

She closed the door and sat on the edge of the desk. “Look, I know you’re still looking to fill that spot for the MJ2.”

I laced my fingers over my middle. “Yeah. I’m still interviewing.”

“Until you find someone, why don’t you let me try it?”

“We went over this, Gillian.”

“I know.” She folded her arms, making sure to shift them under her tight black top, showing off her chest.

I pushed back a little more and gritted my teeth when she inched closer. I nodded to the chair across from my desk. “Sit down.”

She sighed and slid off the desk, then she sat in the chair with a pout.

“I need you running the front.”

“How about I do it in addition to my shifts?”

I was still smarting from having her come in during the insanity last week. She’d terrorized Esther into working for her Friday so she could have that date she’d tried to make me jealous about. “Since when do you want to work extra?”

She rolled her eyes. “Since it’s something exciting.”

“You know it’s the planning and work of setting up these events, not actually going to the parties, right?”

“Going is the perk. Seriously, Mason. The fact that you want to do all these events this summer is the first exciting thing the Cove has done since the firefighters had a car wash.”

“That was last summer.”

“Exactly.” She slumped down in the small U-shaped chair. “Nothing happens in this town except people getting knocked up.”

I arched a brow.

“C’mon, you know it’s true. And you know what? Even beyond the baby lore of this stupid town, it’s pure fact because there’s nothing else to do but bang like freaking bunnies.”

“Gillian.”

“Don’t be a prude. I’ve been with you since this place was a shack, Mase. You used to party just as hard as the rest of us after a shift.” She sighed. “Back when you were fun.”

“Running this place takes more than slinging drinks and fried food these days.” And I was proud of that fact.

In a few years, I’d expanded from a small indoor/outdoor dining area to three floors and a double deck. I’d hired on Henry Stone from nearby Syracuse and our cuisine went from decent surf and turf to elevated cuisine for date nights on the weekend with a family friendly menu during the week.

“Yes, I know. You know you don’t have to be all work and no play at all times.”

“When it’s important, you would be the same.”

She sat up in her chair, eyes flashing. “Oh, and I don’t find my job important?”

“I didn’t say that.”

She gripped the sides of the chair. “Pretty sure you did.”

“You know what I mean.” I was tired of dancing around her intimations about being open to dating me. She never crossed the line, but it was getting blurrier every day. “My dating life isn’t anyone’s business anyway.”

“Lack of dating life, you mean.”

“I don’t date employees, period.”

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