While Eddie hurried off to do Dawn’s bidding, she turned to Rosie. “Both the mamas here? You two making an announcement tonight?”
Rosie’s heart stuttered to a standstill. “What? No! We’re just—”
“Don’t give me that ‘just friends’ bullshit.” Dawn snorted. “Must be something in the water here. First Charlie and River, now you two.”
“I swear, Dawn, there’s nothing going on between Eddie and me. Yesterday, my mom was telling me about how she loved coming here back in the day, and tonight she just showed up with her work friend.”
“Feels like I’m the captain of the freakin’ Love Boat.” She waved Rosie off. “Go on, get to your customers. Hopefully, they don’t want any gin.”
Biting her lip, she returned to her station, sending Charlie to take care of her mom’s table.
“They okay over there?” Rosie asked when Charlie returned to the server station.
Charlie flashed a wry grin. “Real chummy. Your mom didn’t know you were dating Eddie. Mrs. Volkov cleared that right up. Seems real fond of you but a little freaked out about your ink.”
“God help me.”
An hour later, the moms were still chatting and laughing, though Ms. Watson had left.
Lana passed, her tray filled with empties. “Where’s Eddie? These tables are a mess.”
Good question. He must be hiding out from his over-protective mom—not that she blamed him. She glanced around. No sign of him, but—oh crap. Dawn had joined the moms at their table. She waved her ball cap and hollered, “Rosie.”
Rosie gulped and made her way toward them, her mind racing from stupid explanation to pointless excuse. Her lies had come home to roost.
Dawn rose from her bar stool and thumped Rosie’s back. “Darlin’, get these fine ladies a plate of tots on the house.” She slung her arm around Rosie’s shoulders and towed her toward the bar. “Those two are getting pretty tiddly on gimlets. Some greasy carbs will stop the slide. And you better get your man over there and answer some questions. The longer you wait, the worse it’ll be.”
“Dawn, I swear—”
“Get your stories straight.”
Like a wide-eyed prairie dog, Eddie popped up from behind the bar, spotted the boss and Rosie whispering, and ducked back down.
Dawn clucked her tongue. “Eddie, get your skinny ass over here.”
Shoulders hunched, he shuffled toward them.
Dawn slung her other arm over his shoulders and drew the two of them into the hallway. “Listen, you two, you’re grown-ass adults and responsible for your own decisions. But I do not appreciate being lied to.” She drilled each of them with a stern glare. “You’re more than employees, you’re family. And while I don’t approve of coworkers dating, I’m not going to fire you for it. Unless it gets in the way of your work. When you’re here, minds on the customers. No drama. Got it?”
They both nodded.
“Now go sort things out with your mamas before they get so drunk they fall off their barstools.”
Eddie croaked, “But you just said—”
“Get the tots and go.” Dawn strode back to her office.
“Now what?” Eddie clutched his head as if trying to keep his skull from exploding.
“We tell them the truth?”
“What truth—that we spent one drunk night together?”
Her chili dog curdled in her stomach. “Well, that is the truth, I guess.”
He grasped her shoulders. “Rosie, my parents are old-fashioned. They won’t understand.” The plea in his chestnut eyes plucked hard at her guilt strings.
“So, what—we pretend to be dating? For how long?”
“I dunno. A few weeks? Long enough for me to think up a good reason for us to break up.”
“You mean, like how we’re as different as two people could possibly be?”
“Something like that.” He grasped her hands and wove his fingers between hers, filling her chest with happy, buzzing bumblebees—totally inappropriate, and not at all helpful. When would her body catch up with her brain and realize Eddie was not the guy for her?
“Come on, Rosie, my grandmother saw us together in my apartment. If we break up now, she’ll think I used you for a one-night stand. She’ll lose all respect for me. Please, just play along a little longer.”
She untangled her fingers from his and huffed, “Okay, okay. I helped caused this mess. I’ll help clean it up.”
Grinning, he pecked her cheek. “It’ll work out. Now, what’ll we tell them?”
After a moment of strategizing, they linked hands and made their way across the bar floor. As they passed the front door, Jojo snorted. “Just friends, huh?”
Rosie’s mom slapped the table when she caught sight of them. “Here they are, our sweet babies.”
Dawn wasn’t kidding—these women were well sauced. Empty glasses littered the table. She hadn’t seen her mom this plastered since the last presidential election.
“Shh, Ma. No need to yell.” She squeezed Eddie’s hand for good luck. “This is Eddie. We’re, uh, kind of—”
“In love!” Alina hooted. She lifted her glass, hooked her heels on the rungs of her barstool, and rose, wobbling precariously. “A toast, to young love.”
“Mama, sit down!” Eddie hissed through clenched jaws.
Too late. All around them, customers raised glasses in a toast to their make-believe love affair.
Rosie groaned and dropped her head onto Eddie’s shoulder. “We are in deep shit,” she murmured.
“Leave it to me,” he whispered, then extended his hand. “Mrs. Chu, it’s an honor to meet you.”
She waved away his formality. “It’s Diana. And I go by Callas, much to the dismay of my in-laws.”
Alina nodded. “Why not? Nothing wrong with a woman using her own name. It’s the twenty-first century, right?”
Diana leaned an elbow onto the table. “What’s your family name, Alina?”
“Preobrazhensky.” She hiccupped, then giggled. “Volkov is easier. So, Miss Rosie, tell me about all these tattoos.”
“Oh, I, uh—”
Mom sighed. “I told her to keep them in places she could cover up, but did she listen?” Her speech had developed a distinct slur. “Baby girl, people are gonna get the wrong idea about you. They’ll think you’re some kind of—”
Rosie felt her jaw tighten. “Some kind of what, Ma? Criminal? Drug addict?”
Eddie wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “I think they’re
