Body Shot (Last Shot)(69)
“Who’s your chef? Not an award winner, I assume.” She flashed a smile.
“Nope. Not even sure you can call him a chef. He buys our salsa in big jugs from some distributor.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “I guess that’s the difference. These are obviously freshly made. Even the chips, I think. And this green sauce is amazing.”
“Yeah. Dammit.” He frowned.
“Now you look mad. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult your food.”
“No, you didn’t. Like I said, it’s true. We’ve been seeing our food sales decline even though liquor sales are growing and the bar seems to be busy all the time. It’s an issue we have to deal with. It’s been hard to get together with Danny, our manager, to discuss it.”
“I’m sure hiring an award-winning chef is expensive.”
“Oh yeah. I mean, I have no idea how expensive, but yeah.”
She took in the faint notch that stayed between his dark eyebrows. Apparently, this was a source of concern for him. “I don’t know much about bars or restaurants, but if you want to talk about it, I’m a good listener. And I’m a good customer.”
He smiled, although it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I don’t need to bother you with my problems.”
“Why not? You helped me with mine.” At his questioning look, she said, “My aunt and uncle, that night she fell.”
“I didn’t do anything except go with you.”
“You did help. And I appreciated your support.”
The slight frown reappeared. Apparently she wasn’t saying the right things today. Time to change the subject! “I love how they got the name of that cave,” she said, and the conversation turned back to their experience earlier that afternoon as the sun lowered in the sky over the ocean.
—
Hayden asked Carrie to come to the tequila tasting with her that night, and it didn’t require much convincing. Carrie was eager to hear about Hayden’s earlier adventure at the cave. As they entered the bar, Hayden couldn’t help reflecting back in time.
“Remember that first night we came here?” she said to Carrie as they walked in. “Wow, we had no idea what was going to happen.”
“No idea you were going to end up getting nailed in the back office.”
Hayden choked on a laugh.
“And that you’d end up with a hot boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“What is he, then?”
“I don’t know.” Hayden made a face and they strolled toward the bar, where Marco was again checking guests in. “Um, lover?”
“Okay. I guess I can accept that.”
“Hello, ladies.” Marco flashed his sexy grin at them. Well, it was sexy, but it didn’t turn Hayden’s knees to jelly like Beck’s smile did. But no matter, because Marco was giving Carrie all his attention. “Carrie Garner, right?”
“Right.” She lifted one brow.
“Glad you could join us again.”
“And me, right, Marco?” Hayden spoke up, tongue in cheek.
He barely glanced at her. “Of course. Where would you ladies like to sit? How about right here at the end of the bar?”
“I think I’d like to sit more in the middle,” Carrie said, turning her back on him.
Hayden blinked and followed her friend toward a couple of empty bar stools farther away. They climbed up and Hayden looked around for Beck. She didn’t see him anywhere, but he had to be there.
They were served chips and salsa again. She stared at the red salsa and flavorless chips. “Ugh.”
“What’s wrong?”
“This food is awful compared to what we had earlier.” She told Carrie about their early dinner and her discussion with Beck about the food. “I think I pissed him off by insulting Conquistadors’ food.”
“Oops.” Carrie took a chip and crunched it. “Eh. It’s okay, I guess.”
“You can buy those at the grocery store. Same with the salsa. They need to serve better stuff. But I guess that’s none of my business.” She’d been thinking about how Beck had closed down after that. Or maybe “closed down” wasn’t correct—he’d been flirty and fun, which was great. But even though he was trying to make her life more fun, life wasn’t all flirty games, and sometimes it was good to have someone to share your worries with.
Except that wasn’t what their relationship was about. It was about fun. It was about sex and keeping things light, and anytime things got serious, Beck made a joke or threw off a cocky, carefree attitude.
Did she want more than that? She’d been so determined she had no room in her life for a relationship. So why was she even thinking about it? She gave her head a shake and picked up a bland chip to dunk it in insipid salsa.