Best Of My Love (Home to Green Valley Book 4) (2 page)

His brother had really won himself a keeper right there, he had. Like a golden statuette, full of kindness and grace Lilly was, too. Once she was settled in and the aroma of her delicacies penetrated the air, Riley knew it would only add to the feeling that here, in this state and in this small town, was exactly where he belonged.

“How’s business?”

“Going well,” Brady said.

“The girls missed you around here,” Sean joked.

“Yeah?” he said, wanting to ask if one girl in particular had missed him. But of course he didn’t, since he hadn’t told anyone about his growing feelings for Erica. He was about to stand, planning to head into the back office to check the schedule and see when Erica would be in, but before he could, the kitchen doors swung open, and out came a honey-blonde girl, head down, with a million excuses pouring from her mouth. “I’m sorry I’m late, stupid car broke down again, I need us to have a few really good nights so I can afford a down payment on a new car, unless any of you feel like giving me a raise or something, which I wouldn’t mind at all…”

He stared at her. Who was this? Was she a new hire?

Then she looked at him.

“Erica?” he asked.

She froze like a deer in headlights, in the middle of tying an apron around her slim waist. “Oh my goodness. Riley! Welcome back.”

He shook himself. “You changed your hair color. Why?” When he’d left, the hair that was now golden and been platinum blonde with a few pink streaks.

She glanced around at his brothers, who suddenly dispersed—Quinn back to the office, Brady to the kitchen, Sean to take the chairs off the tables in preparation for the evening crowd.

“Hmm? Oh. I don’t know. I got tired of the old look. Do you not like it?” She fingered her hair self-consciously.

“On the contrary. I think it suits you better.” He cocked his head to the side. “Is that your natural color?”

She opened her mouth then closed it. She blushed furiously. “I don’t remember.”

Riley couldn’t help but laugh, and she eventually joined him.

“It’s lovely,” he said, quite honestly, but she’d been lovely with her other hair color, too.

“How was Ireland?” she asked as she started counting out the drawer behind the bar. Her back was to him, and he sneaked a look at her ass. That was still the same, at least, looking firm and ripe.

“Huh? Oh, Ireland. Good. Nothing much has changed.”

“Did you settle whatever it was you were settling?”

“Aye. It’s all taken care of.”

“That’s good. I know the guys are glad to have you back.” She smiled at him in the mirror on the wall, behind the register. He smiled in return.

“How’s your life been?” he asked. “How’s school treating you?”

“Great. Really good. Everything’s looking up.” She smiled to herself, her face still reflected. Riley wondered what the smile was all about. She had the look of a girl hiding a secret of some sort.

“Yeah? Good. A pretty girl deserves the good things in life.” He watched as her cheeks turned faintly pink. She bit her lip, then turned in his direction.

“You think so? Maybe you can buy me a new car, then. That junker out back has gotta go.” She stacked glasses behind the bar, getting ready for a crowd.

“I could let you ride me—erm, I mean, ride with me.”

Her hands fumbled a glass, and she caught it just before it hit the floor.

“Good catch,” he noted, biting back a laugh at her confusion.

“Thanks,” she muttered, eyes on the floor.

That wasn’t anything new, the fact that she was avoiding his gaze. It’s how he’d first realized she was as attracted to him as he was to her. She’d get quiet on him at strange times. Sometimes he’d catch her looking at him, but she’d look away as soon as their eyes met. Or she’d get tongue-tied.

“Like I was saying, you should call me next time you have trouble. I’d be happy to drive you up and back.”

“Oh, you would, huh?” She leaned toward him, elbows on the bar. “What gives with you?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”

“Like what? I thought we were friends. Friends offer each other rides.”

“Right.” She narrowed her eyes, challenging him. She was a sharp one, no doubt. He was about to drop the game he was playing and get to the heart of the matter—admitting he fancied her and was hoping they could get together after work some night—when the door opened behind him, and Erica’s eyes lit up.

“Hey, there,” she beamed.

He watched in the mirror as a man roughly his own age walked in. Tall and beefy, he looked like a rugby player or some type of athlete.

Riley could’ve sworn he heard Sean snickering from a corner of the room. He slid from the stool and went to his brother, while Erica chatted with her friend.

“Who’s that?” Riley asked Sean, eyeing up the stranger.

“Oh, Rob?” Sean looked away, but Riley heard the smile in his voice. He walked into the kitchen, so Riley followed.

“Okay, his name is Rob. Who is he?”

Brady looked up from the prep station, where he was helping the cooks cut potatoes for frying. “Oh, you’ve met Rob?” he asked.

“Aye,” Sean jeered. “Right after he made a pass at our Erica out there.”

“You did?” Brady tsked. “I’d give you shit about flirting with an employee, something you know you shouldn’t be doing, but given the circumstances, no harm, no foul.”

“Why? What am I missing?” He hated that they were having fun with him.

“Erica and Rob have been seeing each other since right after you left for Ireland,” Brady said. “He’s in here every night of the week.”

Oh, shite.

“It’s better for you, buddy boy,” Quinn warned, having suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “You know our agreement. Hands off the staff.”

Riley rolled his eyes and nodded, then turned back toward the door. He peered through the small window at Erica and Rob, brow furrowed in thought.

Hands off the staff?

Fuck. He’d been wanting to get his hands on Erica for what felt like forever. And he’d been spending most of that time with his hand on his
own
staff as a result.

He couldn’t bear the thought that he’d fucked up.

That by waiting too long to make his move, he might have missed his chance at getting to know Erica better.

In bed and out.

Chapter Two

Erica smiled at Rob, but couldn’t help noticing Riley retreating to the kitchen. What had he been about to say when Rob walked in?

“Hello?” Rob asked, waving a hand in front of her face.

She smiled. “Sorry. My head’s in the clouds. It’s been a weird afternoon.”

“Weird? How?” He was so sweet, so caring. If he had looked at her that way, with his head tilted to the side and a kind, inquisitive smile a day earlier, even a half-day earlier, she would have melted down to nothing. They would have needed a mop to clean her off the floor. But now, with Riley back…

She made herself focus on Rob. He deserved that much. “Oh, my car wouldn’t start until, like, the tenth try. I know it won’t last much longer. I’m behind in studying for exams, and I can’t take a night off since I need the money for a new car. I just know that stupid piece of junk is going to leave me stranded one night.” She shuddered to think of being stranded while going home from work, at two or three in the morning.

“Ask to leave early, at least. You need the time to study. Besides,” he smiled, “if you ever need a ride, I can pick you up.”

There was something lacking in the offer, something she’d heard in Riley’s voice that was missing in Rob’s. His big, brown eyes were so sincere. That was nice, but there wasn’t that spark, that promise of something more than his words revealed. She didn’t feel the same head-to-toe flush she had when Riley looked at her with his pale green eyes and smoothly hinted she should ride him.

Dang it,
she thought. Why’d he have to come home and screw everything up?

“Thanks.” She leaned over the bar to give Rob a quick kiss, and parted from him just as quickly when the kitchen door swung open and the O’Neill boys strolled in.

“How’s it going, Rob?” Brady stepped behind the bar and shook his hand.

“Not bad. Yourself?”

“Life’s grand,” he said, and his brothers groaned but in a way that told Erica they were only doing it on principle. They couldn’t be happier that Brady was so head-over-heels in love.

“Is Anna coming by tonight?” Sean asked.

“I’m actually taking off early and going to meet her.”

“Whoa. This is becoming a habit. You boys taking off early to meet with your girlfriends,” Erica teased.

“If things go the way I’m planning, soon Lilly will be my fiancé, not my girlfriend,” Quinn said.

“Things will go well,” she said. “She’d be a fool to turn you down, Quinn, and she’s no fool.” She smiled at Riley, trying to bring him into the conversation, but he was having none of it. Was she imagining things, or was he sulking? What would he be sulking about? He’d only just gotten home.

Erica finished getting things ready behind the bar, checking the stock of bottled beer while reminding herself what an odd duck Riley could be. He had a mercurial personality—one minute he was Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky, the next he’d be quiet. It always sucked her in—the temptation to fix him when he was brooding and bring out his happier side.

How many girls did she know who wanted to fix their boyfriends? She’d never wanted to take on that role. When Rob had asked her out after spending the first few weeks of the semester flirting with her, she’d jumped at the chance. Riley had just gone away, and she’d wanted to forget him.

She hadn’t, evidently, seeing as how Rob faded to a shadow of himself whenever Riley was around. Rob was a cute guy—handsome, even, with a football player’s body and a business major’s brain—but next to Riley, he wasn’t anything special.

Unfortunately, despite his earlier flirting, Riley had made it equally clear
she
wasn’t anything special to
him
.

Erica pointedly turned away from Riley and back to Rob.

“So, how was your day?”

* * *

When she first took the job at
The Stylish Irish
, Erica had no idea what she was getting herself into. She was self-aware enough to worry about her complete lack of bar experience and the fact that she wasn’t much of a drinker herself. Not only did she not know how to mix drinks when she first took the job, she didn’t recognize the names of even the most popular cocktails.

Something about her had clearly appealed to the owners of the pub, though, because they’d hired her. What was it? She couldn’t imagine. She wasn’t overly pretty or flashy. She didn’t dress sexy, the way she saw other bartenders dress. Thankfully, that didn’t affect her tips. The pub attracted a higher-level clientele who knew the value of good service. She never had to worry.

Still, it had been real trial by fire, those first few weeks. She’d broken more glasses than she cared to remember. Riley had jokingly threatened to take the cost out of her paycheck. He never had.

His gorgeous face and smoking hot bod aside, it was his teasing sense of humor that had originally attracted her to him. The way he always seemed to be laughing, first at himself, then at life. He never took anything too seriously—at least, that was how he’d seemed to her at first. Over time she’d come to recognize the carefully constructed front he put on for the rest of the world. He didn’t want anybody getting too close to him, seeing too deeply into his heart. So he played Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky.

He was easily the most charming of his four brothers, and the other four had charm to spare, so that was saying something. He had a devilish grin which always seemed to melt her from the inside out. She’d known she shouldn’t let herself fall for him, but it had been inevitable. She’d been lost the first day they’d met, when he’d smiled and said hello.

They were definitely closer than just a boss and his employee. He’d asked her questions and really listened to the answers. She’d told him all about her business courses, and he’d told her about Ireland, and his worries about the business—mostly about the fear of coming off as a fraud in a town filled with established pubs and restaurants. He never would have let his doubts show to the rest of the world, though. She’d felt so special when he first opened up to her.

She’d quickly realized he saw her as a friend, or maybe a sister, nothing else. That in and of itself had been flattering, as the O’Neill brothers were so close. Knowing she’d earned even a little bit of their respect and admiration meant a tremendous lot. There were times when she really felt like a part of the family, like when they closed up together, laughing over the night’s antics, all of them tired and happy. Feeling proud, like they’d accomplished something.

She knew they’d defend her to their dying breath, too. Making the customer happy was always the first priority, but woe to he who thought he could put his hands on Erica. More than once they had thrown out a drunken, obnoxious creep without blinking an eye, all at her request. No questions asked, either. They trusted her judgment.