Playing with Fire (9 page)

The crowd had thinned out considerably about an hour ago. It was just after midnight and they would most likely have one more rush on drinks between now and last call.

“What are you talking about?” Macey asked.

“I don’t know, but it sounds worth hearing.” Lauren was one of the new employees, a Texas A&M student who was spending the summer on San Amaro Island before her senior year. She’d just come out of the back room.

“He’s been in a decent mood all day. I just wondered if you’re the reason,” Andie stated.

“I told you, we went on a dolphin cruise this morning,” Macey said emphatically to both of them. “That’s all.”

“Right.” Andie shook a drink she was mixing for a rail-thin woman who sat playing solitaire at the outer counter.

“Derek and I aren’t… That wouldn’t happen.”

“You’re getting flustered,” Andie taunted.

“Your face is turning red,” Lauren added, and Macey wondered why she’d hired females. A guy would never notice any of this.

“It’s hot in here. Lauren, weren’t you supposed to leave a few minutes ago?”

The student checked her watch and swore. “I’m outta here. See you Wednesday afternoon.”

“See you,” Macey said, and went to the back room to get a sleeve of plastic cups.

When she returned, Andie was handing change to her customer at the counter. “So?” she said when the woman walked away.

Macey had been hoping Andie would drop the subject. “You don’t know what happened to him before he came here, do you?” she asked, deciding now was the time to tell some of Derek’s past, if only to convince Andie they were not involved beyond friendship.

“He doesn’t tell me and I don’t ask.”

“His girlfriend was killed in a fire.” She made sure to say it quietly so no one else would overhear.

“Holy shit.” Andie filled her cup with lemonade and added a shot of cherry syrup. “How long ago?”

“January.”

Andie was quiet and Macey straightened the shelf of liquor bottles.

“She died?” Andie asked, after taking a gulp.

Macey nodded.

“And he was a firefighter?”

“He worked the fire that killed her. Another firefighter died trying to save her. The entire building collapsed on them.”

Andie didn’t say anything, just shook her head.

“What’s up with the hen fest?” Derek asked as he walked behind the bar.

Uncharacteristically, Andie hurried to the kitchen without a word. Normally she wouldn’t take the hen comment sitting down.

“What’s with her?” Derek asked, still sounding much more cheerful than Macey had heard him since she’d been on San Amaro.

She shrugged. “My guess is she’s just ready to go home.”

“She was supposed to leave at twelve, wasn’t she? Go home, Andie!” he hollered back.

She appeared in the doorway. “Bite me. I’m leaving.”

Macey laughed as she continued to organize the liquor bottles and clean the shelves under them.

All her tidying was for naught, because two hours later, when they finally kicked the last customer out to the patio so they could close up, the area behind the counter was a complete shambles.

“That little rush helped the day’s sales,” Macey said, staring at the war zone otherwise known as the back counter.

“Little rush? Word must’ve gone out that this was the last chance for alcohol this decade, the way they crowded in here.” Derek totaled out the registers and Macey glanced over his shoulder to see the numbers. “At this rate I’ll be able to retire in a week.”

“Dream on,” Macey told him. “We’re low on every thing. But that should very nicely cover all the supplies we need. We’re getting a big delivery in the morning.”

Derek stared at her. “I bow down. You are the goddess of all things business.”

Macey felt herself blushing but loved the compliment. “No big deal,” she said.

“No big deal? I don’t bow down to just anyone. I couldn’t do this without you.”

His seriousness made her squirm.

“Derek?”

He pulled out the cash bag without looking at her. “Yeah.”

“You’d do fine without me, so shut up.” With that, she took the built-in line for soda water, aimed it at him and shot him in the side of the face, soaking his hair and getting soda water in his ear. She tried to keep her laughter to herself, and crossed her fingers that he was in a good enough mood not to explode, because, wow, she’d gotten him much wetter than she’d meant to.

He set the cash bag in the drawer and stood still, dripping. “You should
not
have done that.” His voice was low and she couldn’t tell if he was mad. “Start regretting it now, honey, because you’re going down.”

Macey ran to the back room, howling with laughter. Stupid move, as the back door was already padlocked. Derek cornered her and threw one arm around her middle, dragging her back to the front. Before she could figure out his intentions, he took the whipped cream spigot and squirted her. It was hooked up to a large tank, so he wouldn’t run out anytime soon. As he coated her face, Macey closed her eyes, laughing so hard she couldn’t get enough air to tell him to stop.

Finally he did stop, but not before she must’ve looked like a cream pie. She wiped her face off and flung the cream at him, nailing him in the head. They both stood there, cracking up and wiping the mess off themselves. Macey’s sides hurt and she couldn’t stand up straight.

“Missed some,” Derek said when they’d calmed down a couple degrees. He wiped a splotch of whipped cream off her temple, smiling broadly. “I think white’s your color.”

She looked up into his eyes, which had more life in them than she’d seen since she got here. His smile slowly disappeared as he moved closer to her, and Macey’s heart leaped to her throat. This wasn’t really happening, was it? Was she reading him wrong?

Oh my, no, she wasn’t.

Derek leaned in closer still and she could feel his breath on her lips. She didn’t dare move. She shouldn’t let this happen, but she had wanted it for so many years….

The touch of his lips was like cool seawater on a hot day. Something she needed, something she’d longed for for so long she didn’t remember when she hadn’t. The softness of his mouth was such a contrast to the hard body pressed up against her, his gentleness so unexpected from a man who’d always lived life hard. Her insides pooled and her legs threatened to give out.

She wrapped her arms around him, as much for support as to draw him even nearer. He pressed her backside into the counter with his aroused body, which helped her stay upright but sent her pulse into overdrive. Derek’s tongue swirled inside her mouth and she met it with her own, exploring him, thrilling to the feel of him. He smelled like a mixture of whipped cream and man, and she would likely never forget it.

Derek broke the contact abruptly. She opened her eyes in silent question and he held her gaze for a long second before stepping back and turning away.

“What was that?” she said, trying to keep the tone light, trying to hide that he had just sent her world spinning off-kilter.

“That—” he walked across the room “—was a mistake.”

Her heart plummeted. She felt as if someone had actually punched her in the middle.

“I’m sorry, Macey. I was totally out of line.”

She wanted to argue.

She wanted to tell him it was the best hundred and twenty seconds of her life, better than anything she’d dreamed about over the past ten years. She wanted to say it was okay.

But it wasn’t.

It so wasn’t okay.

How had she let that happen? She was the stronger one here, the one who wasn’t hurting, who wasn’t in a weakened, grieving state. She’d come here knowing this could never happen, that it would never work out between them, and yet she’d let him kiss her. And she’d kissed him back like some desperate, needy idiot who would take whatever she could get, regardless of the consequences.

She nodded. “A mistake. On both our parts.” She actually managed to sound strong. “Let’s pretend it never happened.” Even as she said it, she knew that kiss would be branded in her mind forever.

Well, so be it, but he didn’t have to know that. As far as he knew, she regretted it as much as he did.

“Never happened,” Derek repeated. “Good idea. Let’s get this place cleaned up.”

Just like that, he was over it. Macey was still shaking, still trying to wrap her brain around the fact that Derek had kissed her.
Her
Derek, after all these years, had kissed her and been turned on and totally into it, if only for a short moment. And now he was back to counting out the cash.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” she said, still managing to sound normal instead of inside out. She focused on the exit and only breathed when the cool middle-of-the-night breeze whispered over her on her way to the restroom on the other side of the patio.

Once inside, she closed herself in a stall and leaned against the wooden wall, wondering how she would ever pretend that kiss had never happened.

As he drove his truck home, the cab seemed to be devoid of oxygen, and by the time he pulled into his parking spot, sweat soaked his skin. He couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

He let himself into the dark condo and didn’t bother turning on any lights until he reached the spare bedroom, where he kept the weight machine. Ripping his shirt over his head, he started the most punishing workout he could devise, adding weight and reps to every damn exercise he could think of. Pain. He needed the pain. Deserved it.

Somehow the pain was easier than the guilt.

Unfortunately, she’d cut back on her bar hours—she was working mostly eight-hour shifts instead of open to close—since she’d managed to hire five people now. While it was good for her to be away from Derek, that gave her free time. Thinking time. Time for her mind to wander. She was beginning to understand why he preferred to work day and night—not that her problem was anything compared to losing a loved one. But there was solace in being too busy to think.

Business at The Shell Shack was booming. The new hires had been trained, and Macey, Derek, Andie and Kevin were able to split supervisory duties so they could each work closer to forty hours. Not all of her work hours, thank goodness, were with Derek, but this evening they were closing together. To think, she’d begged him to hire her so she could be near him….

Macey was taking advantage of a lull to stock cups and napkins when someone spoke to her from a stool at the counter.

“It’s our hero—
heroine
—in bartending clothes.”

Evan’s voice, becoming familiar now, made her smile. She turned to see him and Clay leaning on the counter.

“The usual?” she asked as she moved down the bar to them. They’d been in only twice before, but both times they’d gotten the same thing.

“I like that. Personalized service,” Evan stated.

“Not bad. But I’ll take a Coke instead of a beer,” Clay said. “We start a twenty-four in the morning.”

“One beer isn’t going to hurt anything,” Evan said. “The usual, please.”

Macey noticed the way his eyes followed her. She was flattered by his attention. It wasn’t every day a man who looked like
him
showed interest in her.

“You guys want anything to eat?” she asked as she set down a bottle of Bud and a Coke.

They both ordered burgers and cheese fries, and Macey went to give the order to Lauren.

As she was heading back in, Derek appeared in the doorway and blocked her way.

“Excuse me, Dare.”

He just stared at her and didn’t move.

“What is your problem?” she asked. They were busy enough that neither one of them had time to stand around, let alone both.

“You need to watch out for yourself,” Derek said.

“What?”

He gestured with his head to the men behind him. “One of them is after you.”

“After me?” Macey couldn’t help laughing. “Do you think he’ll turn into a stalker?”

“I think he’s going to ask you out.”

“Already did.” With that, she removed Derek’s arm from the door frame and walked past him, trying to stifle another laugh at his stunned expression. She hadn’t planned on telling him, because it wasn’t a big deal, but he’d asked for it.

The next ten minutes she avoided him by rushing from one customer to the next, and Derek was kept busy, as well. When she had to take another order to the back, he followed her.

“What did you say?” he demanded.

“Huh?”

“What did you tell him?”

“What did I tell who?” The order she’d just taken was from a woman.

“What did you tell the firefighter when he asked you out?”

Ahhh. He was still on that. A pointless little shiver of excitement coursed through her. “I told him no.”

“Good.” Derek scowled as he returned to his work.

Something about the set of his jaw irritated Macey. Who was he to butt in on her business? What if she had said yes to Evan?

Come to think of it, why hadn’t she?

The obvious reason, futile though it was, stood right in front of her, mixing a tequila sunrise.

It didn’t escape her that she was right back where she’d been during her last year of college. In love with Derek and turning down opportunities because of it.

She didn’t feel a spark with Evan, but they could still have a good time on a date. As she’d pointed out to Derek numerous times, she was capable of taking care of herself, and she wasn’t afraid to go out with Evan. At least then she could tell herself she wasn’t waiting around for Derek and what would never be.

Macey decided before the night was over she would tell Evan she wanted to change her answer to a yes. Then she would officially be moving forward.