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“You can help us knock down walls at Will and Mandy’s house,” Ben says.
I look at the other man.
Then I look at the other people at the table, my eyes meeting April’s last.
They’re going to remodel Will and Mandy’s house so that April and Elliot can move in there. Across the street from the brother of the last town cop. Because April doesn’t want to leave this town. This crazy bar. Or this quirky group.
Bloody hell.
I’ve been knocking down metaphorical walls for a long time. Now, those walls in Will’s house might be the only ones I get to knock down.
I sigh.
Fine.
Honestly, slamming a sledgehammer into something doesn’t sound too bad right now.
Chapter 12
Ruby
“Is there a group like this that comes in at night too?”
Henry has been over in the corner working on the jigsaw puzzle with Charles. I don’t know what they’ve been talking about, but they’ve both smiled and laughed and gotten a good chunk of the puzzle done.
The meeting with everyone didn’t go according to Henry’s plan, I know, but he did seem a little excited about sitting down with the puzzle. Not quite as excited as he was about the LEGOs with Elliot last night, but he wasn’t over there just to entertain Charles.
He also volunteered to help at lunchtime with the kids and I couldn’t help but peek in on that as well.
Ugh. It was so cute. I wanted to climb in his lap and eat banana pudding with him too.
It’s not like I’m under any delusion that I’m not crazy about the guy.
His swooping in and saving the day—or even just wanting to so much that he’s annoyed when he can’t—is so sexy.
He’s leaning on the bar now watching me wash glasses.
“No, the night shift is not like this,” I tell him with a little laugh. “It’s a pretty typical bar at night. I guess that’s also a reason that you might’ve missed some of this ambiance when you’ve been here before.”
Henry’s only been here during the hours I’ve worked. The earliest he’s ever showed up at Dick’s was when he and Cian came to town after he told Cian that he’d found Scarlett. That had been early afternoon and I had been filling in for April. Luckily we’d been past the breakfast and lunch craziness and Dan had been here to cover me when I needed to leave.
But Henry had definitely been singularly focused when he’d been here. I doubt he’d done more than scan the room to take in the number of people. I’m sure he hadn’t cataloged details like their ages or the fact that they were drinking water and soda instead of liquor.
“That’s the fourth time you’ve yawned in the past fifteen minutes,” he comments as I cover my mouth, dragging in air with a big yawn.
“You’ve been counting my yawns?”
“I’ve been paying attention to…a lot of things.”
I’m not surprised he’s noticed. Whenever we’re in the same vicinity, at least a portion of his attention is on me.
I love that.
It makes me feel like a silly high school girl with a crush—something I never felt when I was a high school girl—but I can’t help it.
“I didn’t sleep very well last night,” I tell him.
He meets my gaze directly, a little heat in his. “Me either.”