I glared at him. “Stop calling the customers idiots. And don’t forget we have wait staff interviews at noon.”
He frowned. “Shouldn’t we wait until we make money before we hire people?”
I flipped the pancake and shot him another glare. “We have five hundred RSVPs for Saturday night, Ashton. You gonna serve all those drinks yourself?”
He crossed his arms, making his muscles pop. “Those free drinks? Yes, Princess. Yes, I am. If I’m giving booze away, they can wait in line.”
I growled and Ashton glared at me. Julie watched us both with fascination and then raised her hand. “I can help out Saturday. My plane doesn’t leave until Sunday morning anyway.”
Ashton clapped his hands together. “There we have it! Thank you, Julie!” And he turned and left before I could explain further.
Ugh. Arrogant ass. I was still going to interview them, because if my plan went as well as I hoped, then we were going to need fulltime help from now on.
“Wow, girl.” Julie chuckled.
“What?” I looked back at my best friend.
“You guys are … explosive. The sex must have been amazing.”
I grinned. “It was.”
And then reality hit and I was back to having to deal with his winning personality.
The day dragged on, and when the interviewees came Ashton walked behind all the good-looking girls, giving me the thumbs-up like a total douchebag.
Finally, I got a strapping young male model-looking dude who was in a band and wanted to do this to make some extra cash.
“Oh you’d be great,” I told him as I wrapped the interview up. He had great references and previous experience and he was nice to look at. He said he could even set up and tear down for the house band we chose.
Suddenly I felt a presence at my back. “Yeah, we’ll call you and let you know,” Ashton said. The tone in his voice was akin to a growl.
I turned behind me and glared up at him before facing the young guy and extending my hand. I smiled. “Thanks, Cole. Really great to meet you.”
He smiled back. “I look forward to hearing from you.”
When he left, Ashton scoffed behind me. “We are not hiring him.”
I stood, looking over at him, noticing that he didn’t reek of smoke as usual. “You didn’t interview anyone, so you have no say. Next time, maybe you’ll put in the work if you want to be included in the decision making.” I walked off and felt him stomp after me. We’d closed the bar from 1-3 p.m. for the interviews, and Julie had gone up to help set up my apartment and make it more livable.
“I’m not hiring that dude just so you can flirt with him all day!” Ashton snapped.
I froze, spinning on my heel and faced Ashton’s piercing blue eyes. “Ashton Knight, you’re jealous.”
He crossed his arms. “Please, I’m just saying, no one comes to a bar for a male cocktail waitress. Ain’t happening, honey.”
He was jealous … you could see it in his eyes. Things had been strained since his grandma sold me the bar, and with Julie here, Ashton and I weren’t able to talk about anything or clear the air. I didn’t know what we were, just that we’d had the best sex of my life and then he’d turned back into the asshole I’d first met.
“He’s getting hired.” I shrugged. “And it’s a male waiter, not waitress.” Then I started to walk around him.
Ashton sidestepped me and I ran right into his chest. His arms came around me and he grabbed my ass, pulling me flush against him and sending a burst of heat between my legs. “Woman, you drive me crazy. That punk was drooling all over you. Hire him and I’ll make his life a living hell.”
Holy shit, jealous Ashton was hot.
“You like me.” I grinned. “You’re not capable of just being my business partner, are you?”
He was silent, glaring at me behind those fucking gorgeous blue eyes, hands still on my ass. “No. I’m not,” he answered, and reached under my butt, pulling me up onto him so that I could straddle his waist as our lips crashed together. My lips parted immediately and his tongue searched for mine with a hunger that I matched. All I could think about was our night together and the amazing sex we’d had—how close to him I’d felt, how needed I’d felt and how good he was with his tongue.
It hit me then, in this moment, I’d moved on. Somewhere between moving into that apartment upstairs, fighting with this crazy asshole, and going to his gran’s farm, I’d moved on. Colin was … my past. That very thought panged my heart, but it also set me free in a way. I couldn’t deny that I finally felt alive. Old Millie was back, and for the first time since Colin died, I had a purpose, a future. And it was with Ashton.
I’d want you to move on, to be happy. Colin would want this for me, because he was that kind of guy. He wanted it for me before I’d wanted it for myself.
Ashton walked us back toward the bar and I envisioned the crazy counter sex we were about to have, vowing to bleach it after and keep it up to code.
Ashton pulled away and looked up at me as my hair fell in a curtain around us. “I want to know everything about you.” Leaning in, he kissed my neck. “I can’t get enough of you.”
His words were so sweet that it made guilt gnaw at my gut. Know everything about me? If he knew that, then he wouldn’t be kissing me right now. When I had first gotten here, all I could think about was the fact that this man had Colin’s heart. But as the days stretched on and I
