When Life Throws Curves (Mason Brothers Book #3)

Chapter 12

DAMON

I pull into the bar at about 11:30 and quickly wash up and throw my apron on to get ready for work. I step out into the bar and I see that two of our regulars are in for lunch, but it doesn’t look like they’ve ordered yet. I catch Jolie’s eyes as she fills their drinks and she waves and goes back to serving them.

I go ahead and go back into the kitchen and wait for the ticket to come through, about five minutes later it does. Two BLT sandwiches with fries, simple enough. Adam closed last night and he’s just as meticulous as I am when it comes to prepping everything the night before.

I finish the meals and put them in the window just as Jolie walks by. She grabs the orders and then right away puts in orders for a few other lunches. When we finally get caught up with the five people in the bar, I take a break and head out to check if she needs anything.

“Hey Jolie, everything good?”

“Yep!” She says with her ever-present smile. “I’m just trying to take notes of everything we might need to order. Oh! I almost forgot we’re running low on limes, did you do a grocery order yet?”

“No I was going to do it tonight, I’ll put those on for you.” I pull out my phone and make a quick note to add limes and slip it back into my pocket. “Sorry again for being late. I don’t think I’ve been in almost ten years.”

She waves her hand in the air, “Not a problem at all. Just Ned and Arlene were here and I was prepared to make their food if needed.” She tucked her tiny notebook into her back pocket and grinned,  “So how was your night?”

“My night? It was great, I was here with you.”

“Uh-huh.” She turns to walk away, but I grab her elbow gently and spin her back around.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well,” she singsongs, “Toni text me early this morning to see if I could help take Eve her car to the resort.”

Eve and I had just talked about that before she left. I was in such a hurry that I didn’t even notice if her car was still in the parking lot or not. “Ahh, well she did a bit of drinking last night so I drove her back to the resort after dropping Toni off.”

“Uh-huh, that makes sense. You’re always a good guy, making sure we all get home safe.” I nod my head, hoping that is the end of the conversation, but I’m not that lucky. “It is just weird that when I pulled out of the parking lot to head back to work, I noticed a very familiar car also pulling out of the resort parking lot. Can you guess whose car that was?”

Jolie raises her eyebrows at me and I groan and scratch my beard with my hand. “Listen, Jolie…”

She puts her hand up to stop me. “Ah..stop. I am not about to lecture you about who you should or shouldn’t spend the night with and I’m certainly not going to mention anything to Toni. I’m just going to remind you that the relationship between Toni and Eve is brand new and I’d hate to see anybody need to pick sides in anything.”

“You don’t have to worry about anything,” I reassure her. ‘We were both just needing a bit of good time and that’s what we had. Two consenting adults enjoying each other’s company.”

“Okay, like I said, I’m not going to lecture you.”

“I know, but I’m not trying to start anything with Eve. Hell, we didn’t even exchange numbers. So whatever happened between us was just a one-time thing.”

“Alright,” she drops it quickly, “I need to finish taking stock in the back.”

“You sure Toni doesn’t know?”