Hayden swallowed, still staring at him with big eyes.
He let out a short breath, expelling some of the tension from his body. “Okay, I’m not sure what jealousy feels like,” he admitted. “You might be right.”
She sighed. “If you want the truth, you don’t need to be jealous. Will’s a nice guy, but…”
“But what?” His gaze moved over her face.
“It’s not…easy with him. And it’s not…”
What? It wasn’t what? He waited for her to continue.
“It’s not hot.”
Ah. More tension eased out of his muscles, replaced with a different tension as blood moved south. He edged closer, bumping her pelvis with his. “Not like with me?”
“Yes.” She sighed again and dropped her eyes to his chest. “Not like with you.”
He tipped her chin up with firm fingers so she had to look at him again. “I don’t want you to be with him.” Fuck, why was he saying things like this? He never said things like this.
“We don’t even know each other,” she whispered. “You can’t tell me things like that.”
“I just did. Fuck, it sounds crazy to me too, Hayden. Get rid of that guy.”
“I can’t get rid of him. He picked me up and brought me here.”
“I’ll get rid of him.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Sure I can. It’s my bar.”
“Beck!”
“Okay, okay, being a dick again.” He rubbed his face. “Okay, let him take you home. I’ll come over. Oh wait, I can’t. I’m working. Goddammit!”
She smiled and went up on her toes to kiss his bearded cheek. “Calm down. Nothing’s going to happen with Will and me. I already knew that.” Her smile went crooked. “But I didn’t think anything was going to happen with you and me either.” She studied him. “I really don’t have time for dating.”
“Then why are you out with him?”
She sucked briefly on her bottom lip. “I don’t know. It was nice that he liked me enough to call me, so I thought I should give it a shot. Carrie and my family keep telling me I should get out more.”
“Well, then, you’ll get out more. But it’ll be with me.”
“I thought you don’t date either.”
“I date. I just don’t get serious.” He tried to relax his shoulders. “This doesn’t have to be serious.” All week he’d told himself he wasn’t going to call her or see her again. But when she’d walked into the bar, on a fucking date with some other guy, the unreasonable anger that had flared up inside him made him realize he was bullshitting himself.
He wanted more of her.
“Your family is right,” he announced.
Her forehead creased.
“You should get out more. You work too hard.”
Her lips lifted at the corners. “You say that after knowing me a total of, um, five days?”
“Yes. You were going to work all day Sunday last weekend. Oh hey, how did your presentation go?” Something else he’d been wondering all week, but tried to put out of his mind.
“It went well.”
“Did you get the funding?”
“We won’t know for a while. It’s a lengthy process.”
“Huh. Well, I’m sure you will. Anyway, you need more fun in your life. And I’m the perfect guy to have fun with.” Her smile was so goddamn gorgeous he stopped breathing.
“You are, huh?”
“I am. Tomorrow night we’ll go out and do something fun.”
She bit her lip. He knew she was hesitating so he gave her his most charming smile, topping that off with a soft kiss on her lips.
“Okay,” she said on a sigh.
He wanted to do a fist pump but restrained himself. “Great. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Then he frowned, remembering she was with another dude tonight. “Sure you don’t want me to get rid of Will?”
She shook her head, eyes dancing. “It’s fine, Beck.”
His insides were still in knots and his groin heavy as they left the office. She stopped in the ladies’ room and he continued back to the bar to quickly look after some impatient customers. Alex, another bartender, was working too, but some of the table orders were getting backed up. He threw himself into action, keeping an eye on Hayden and Will to make sure Will wasn’t trying anything. If he looked over there and found Hayden on Will’s lap, he was going to be launching tequila bottles across the bar.
Man, he had to dial this down.
What was he going to do with her tomorrow night? More importantly, how was he going to get a Friday night off? This had never been an issue before. Running a bar was fun, like going to a party every night instead of work. Okay, that wasn’t totally true, as they’d quickly discovered. There was a lot of work that had to be done to keep a business running. But still, he’d never wanted to take a night off to go out on a…date.