Page 5 of Stolen Hearts (WaterColor Romance #7)

Quinn pulled on her best pair of jeans and her nicest black shirt.

One day her bar would open and take over her life, until that day she needed a part-time job.

There were no casinos in WaterColor, but there were plenty of restaurants.

If there was one thing, she knew how to do it was be a server.

So today, she started her brand-new job working at Mallie’s.

Mallie’s was a small cafe located downtown.

It was close to Maddison’s home, and close to the bar.

As an added bonus Brynn, the owner, had started up multiple businesses in WaterColor.

The two of them had connected immediately.

Quinn knew that Brynn’s knowledge of starting a business in the area would be invaluable.

Quinn loved that she’d be able to walk to work.

Something about the warm ocean breeze gave her a pep in her step.

Her manager, Mel, was a bit more buttoned up than Brynn.

But Mel had proven to be sweet and was genuinely grateful for Quinn to be working with them.

She stepped inside Mallie’s and listened to the bell above the door chime.

Mel came around the counter to greet her and hand her an apron.

“Been a long time since I’ve worn one of these,” Quinn chuckled.

“She’d worked at a diner in Vegas for about a year and some change. They’d insisted on servers wearing aprons that were almost identical.

“A blast from the past?” Mel asked.

“Something like that.”

Quinn thought back, she’d met her ex working in that diner. In fact, if it weren’t for Gray’s Diner she and her ex probably wouldn’t have met or dated. She pushed the memories out of her mind. Sentimentality wasn’t going to get her where she wanted to be.

Mel showed her around the diner. The ins and outs of Mallie’s seemed to be relatively simple. Quinn had worked in half a dozen restaurants throughout her life. Once you knew what you were doing it was fairly easy to put it to work anywhere. After the fairly short tour Mel put Quinn to work.

Quinn had always enjoyed staying busy. It wasn’t natural for her to lounge around all day.

She enjoyed the morning rush at Mallie’s.

There were some people who were clearly regulars.

They asked if this was her first day and were generally very friendly.

After the breakfast crowd things died for a couple of hours.

Quinn busied herself with cleaning and trying to be useful.

“You are a very useful person to have around,” Mel laughed.

“I try to be,” Quinn smiled.

“Keep this up and you’ll get promoted to… well, I’m sure Brynn would think of something.”

“Head server?” Quinn teased.

“I’m pretty sure you already are. But yes, head server.”

Mel laughed and shook her head. Other than the kitchen staff, the two of them were the only ones working.

“Brynn told me you want to open up a bar on the beach. That’s really cool. What’s the vibe going to be?”

“I’m still working on the vibe. But it’s going to be a lesbian bar. I want it to be somewhere between classy chic and casual.”

Mel’s eyes widened.

“A lesbian bar?”

“That’s right.” Quinn shifted uncomfortably.

Brynn had mentioned having a bar, so Quinn had assumed that Mel would at least be cool with such things. Had she been wrong? Was Mel surprised or upset?

“My friends are going to be beyond excited to hear about this,” Mel squealed.

Quinn breathed out a tiny sigh of relief, grateful she hadn’t weirdly misstepped.

“Oh yeah?”

“My friends should be coming in for lunch. Oh, and you’ll get to meet my girlfriend. Well, I mean, we’re engaged. Her name is Willow.”

Quinn’s heart swelled. She was about to meet her target market. This was wonderful news.

“Oh, I’d love to meet your friends. Maybe they can give me some fun ideas for the bar.”

“I’m sure you’d get three thousand different ideas,” Mel laughed.

“Perfect. They can join the three thousand ideas in my head.”

Quinn was glad when the lunch rush started. She was already killing it when it came to tips. Quinn was so busy taking care of her tables that she didn’t even see Mel’s friends come in. It wasn’t until her largest table left that Mel pulled Quinn aside.

“Come meet my friends. They just sat down.”

Quinn’s smile broadened as she followed Mel over to the table. Her eyes scanned the faces until they landed on one that was familiar. A beautiful face framed by blonde hair.

“Autumn?” Quinn asked.

Autumn startled; she didn’t seem to recognize her at first.

“Oh, goodness. Hi there.” Autumn smiled widely.

“I didn’t know you were working here,” Autumn continued.

“It’s my first day. I wanted to get something part-time while I finish setting the bar up.”

“I didn’t realize the two of you would know one another.” Mel was clearly confused.

“Autumn is doing the mockups for my bar’s design project. Hopefully, she’ll be intrigued enough that I’ll be able to convince her to stay on and see the project through to completion.”

Quinn could be wrong, but she thought she could see a faint red blush touching Autumn’s cheeks. The look was beyond adorable.

“I’d say your luck is pretty good. I’m already having a great time designing the mockups.”

“Good news for me then.” Quinn met Autumn’s blue eyes and felt like she was diving into the ocean.

Mel was glancing between the two of them. As if Quinn and Autumn were a puzzle she wanted to solve.

“Let me introduce you to everyone,” Mel finally announced.

Quinn pulled her eyes from Autumn’s and forced herself to look away.

“This is my partner, Willow. And these are my friends, Brianna, River, Piper, and Autumn who you seem to know.”

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Quinn smiled.

“Quinn, it’s kind of dead right now. Why don’t you sit here with everyone and take your break. I’ll get us all some lunch.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Quinn smiled.

Quinn pulled up a chair and sat down. She fought against her desire to let her gaze rest on Autumn.

“When do you think your bar will be ready to open?” River asked.

“Well, I’ve done all the structural things. I’m waiting on licensing. But that should come through in the next couple of weeks. I’ve done the big structural things like plumbing and electrical work. Most of what I have left is gutting the inside and rebuilding it to match Autumn’s ideas.”

“You don’t even know if you’ll like my ideas,” Autumn laughed.

“I guess not. But I have a good feeling about it.”

Her eyes met Autumn’s again, and Quinn felt a jolt as the earth shifted beneath her chair. Autumn’s blue eyes seemed to be an even deeper blue than before. From the glances around the table, Autumn’s friends had noted the tension as well.

It was all Quinn could do not to ask Autumn out on the spot.

But she knew she wasn’t ready. Quinn wasn’t ready to date again.

She certainly wasn’t ready to date a woman as classy as Autumn was.

Besides, she needed someone to design her bar.

Historically speaking nothing had the potential to fuck up a business relationship quite like getting involved romantically.

Autumn broke eye contact suddenly, and the spell ended. There were a series of knowing glances between the friends. Quinn tried not to chuckle. A little sexual tension wasn’t unheard of when you got a group of queer women together.

Mercifully, Mel made it back quickly with the food.

Quinn was happy for the distraction. She liked Mel and her friends, even if Autumn was beyond distracting.

Quinn could handle working closely with an attractive queer woman.

Even if said woman had a habit of looking at her like she was a meal to devour.

She spent the rest of lunch trying not to meet Autumn’s eyes.

She could feel the tension between them.

They each wanted to look at the other, but, so far, they’d both refused to give into temptation.

Quinn thought about the meeting she had set up with Autumn in two days and felt a knot in her stomach.

As long as she made finishing the bar her priority Quinn knew everything would work out just fine.