I shrugged and shook my head. “I’m thinking about hiring someone, but that’s no big deal. I’m really just trying to keep my dad happy.”
Melody clasped her hands together and gasped. “You should!”
Beth nodded emphatically. She knew exactly how busy I was. “I agree,” she said in a near-yell. “You’ve barely had time to get everything done. I know there are a few less important jobs pending at the houses, too.”
Shit. I’d forgotten about those. One of her tenants tripped and knocked a small hole in the wall with her cane. I would’ve thought they were lying and had punched the wall—I’d seen that happen all too many times when tempers went up—but the woman was in her seventies. She was just lucky she didn’t break something.
“Even if you just hire an assistant,” Beth said. “You need someone. You could try to find a woman!”
I hadn’t thought about that, and I found myself enjoying the idea. “That would be cool. I could try to make it a company of women.”
Everyone agreed that I needed help, and they talked about knowing any women who might want the job. “But I don’t really have time to train anyone,” I mused. As much as I would’ve liked to, it wasn’t possible at the moment. I shelved the idea for now.
The drinks kept flowing and by the time we were interrupted, I was pretty tipsy. A bunch of men appeared at our table. “We’ve come to drive the beautiful ladies home,” Jury said as he beamed down at us. Abby jumped up and threw her arms around his neck. They pulled over a few more chairs until the table was overly crowded with everyone.
“Hey, now,” I said grumpily. “This is supposed to be girls’ night.”
“It still is.” The mysterious unnamed Kingston from the gym pulled up a chair beside me.
Melody leaned over me and stuck out her hand, stars in her eyes. “Hello, I’m Melody. Have you met Kara?”
Rico shook her hand as I tried to avoid looking at him. “Yes, Kara and I met at the gym earlier this week.”
“Last week,” I corrected him. We’d met at the gym Saturday of the week before. “Technically.”
He gave me a quizzical look, but I turned my head quickly. It occurred to me that that might’ve seemed impolite, but I wasn’t in the mood to become another of the Kingstons’ conquests. The Kingston invasion of girls’ night had soured my mood a bit.
Melody kept trying to initiate conversation with him, but he wasn’t biting. He wasn’t rude, exactly, but he gave concise, polite answers to any questions. I knew she thought he was hot and considered offering to trade seats with her, but I wasn’t sure if I trusted myself to stand just yet.
“Hey, Kara,” Beth said. “I may know a certain muscly man who is looking for a job.”
I smiled and straightened up, ready to have a conversation other than the one in the middle of Melody and Rico. “Cool. You’ll have to tell him to come by the office.”
At first, I’d run everything out of my rental house, but after a while I was overrun with parts and tools that I’d been accumulating over the last two years. When a small room had opened up in the short strip of shops beside the grocery store, I jumped on the chance. It would’ve been better to have been down by the hardware store, but in Black Claw, any space in town was a hot commodity.
I waited for Beth to say something else about the person she knew looking for a job, but Rico leaned forward. “You look nice,” he said awkwardly and a little too close to my ear. Beth gave me wide eyes and nodded her head slightly toward Rico.
My mood soured further. Fucking hell. I needed another drink.
A server walked by with a tray full of shots. “Oh!” I called. “Over here!”
After buying a round for all the girls and knocking one back as fast as I could, I turned to Rico and raised an incredulous eyebrow. “I look nice?”
He nodded almost hesitantly. “Yes, the only time I’ve seen you, you were in work clothes. I just wanted to compliment you.”
Why did men think all we wanted were compliments? Still, he was trying to make conversation and be nice. “Thank you,” I said and knocked back another shot.
“Sure. I mean, I almost didn’t recognize you,” he said with a chuckle. “Out of your work clothes, that is.”
“Oh?” Where was he going with this? I was trying not to get offended, but he’d seemed at least kind before. Was he going to end up being just like all the other assholes? So much for my optimism for the night.
Across from us, Beth was subtly trying to catch his eye to stop him, but his attention was pretty well focused on me.
“Yeah, you were cute before in that flannel and the belt, but now you look like a...” He seemed to stumble a bit as his words made me more and more uncomfortable, and the expression on his face made me think he only just realized where he’d been going with that. “Real nice. You look really nice,” he concluded lamely.
“You were about to say I look like a...? What?” I knew exactly what the fuck he’d been about to say. Beth and Melody both winced, already knowing what was coming.
“Nothing,” he exclaimed. The song blaring out of the jukebox went off and the word ended up sounding like a cross between a shout and a scream. We drew some looks from the bar, but I was past giving any shits.
I looked at him with my eyebrows raised, the two shots I’d taken beginning to loosen my tongue. This couldn’t be good. “I’m not my clothes, you know.” I’d lost all ability to control my tone of voice. I was trying not to be a total bitch but couldn’t
