Searching for Neverland (18 page)

“Interesting,” was all he said, so I looked back and him and crossed my eyes.

He laughed out loud and put his arm around me as we walked.

* * *

“What is up with Kimmy?” I asked unceremoniously when Josh returned to
the
couch with my second beer, a plate of jalapeño poppers, nachos, and chicken fingers.

We were late night snacking, and since we were finally alone after the bartenders, servers, and Brad had left a few minutes earlier, I was curled up on one end of the brown leather overstuffed couch in the back of the bar with my shoes off.

“What do you mean?” Josh asked warily, as he settled down at the opposite end of the couch and took a long sip of his beer.

I pointed at him with my bottle. “She called earlier this evening, and you got upset. Why was that?”

I grabbed a jalapeño popper and stuffed it in my mouth, resisting the urge to groan. Fried food when I was drunk always made me happy.

“That wasn’t her on the phone.”

“Who was it?” I asked once I’d swallowed what I’d been chewing.

“It was Caleb.”

“Really? What did he want?”

Caleb was Jeremy’s ten year-old son. He’d only been five when his father had died, so I knew he was close with Josh. I think Josh felt guilty that Caleb was growing up without a father, so he tried to be there for him as much as he could, even if it was only over the phone.

“He just wanted to talk. He got in trouble, and he was mad. Typical ten year-old stuff.” Josh shrugged.

“I think it’s really sweet that you’re
close with Jeremy’s kids
.”

Josh had a faraway look
in his eyes
. “Jeremy would have done the same for me, so it’s the least I can do. And Caleb’s a cool kid, and he does a lot to help out his mom and take care of his sister, Savannah. I’m actually thinking about going back to visit them at the end of the summer. It’s been about six months since I’ve seen them.”

“That’s cool.”

He grinned. “You want to come with me?”

“To Atlanta?”

“Sure. We could stay in a nice hotel, go to the Georgia Aquarium, hang out in Buckhead. It’ll be fun.”

I screwed up my face in question. “You want me to go away with you for the weekend?”

He grinned. “Just as friends. It’ll be payback for making me go to your bitchy cousin’s wedding.”

I threw my crumpled up napkin at him, and he just laughed. He was right, though. Marissa was a bitch, and part of the reason I wanted to bring Josh to her wedding was because he was so hot. I couldn’t show up with just anyone.

“Won’t Kimmy be upset?”

Josh sighed in a measured sort of way and then shook his head. “I don’t know. She was going out with an ex-boyfriend of hers tonight, so she doesn’t have a lot of room to talk,” he said, and my eyes got wide.

I knew they’d been fighting. He’d been too pensive when I’d asked about her for everything to be okay between them.

“Like on a date?”

He shook his head. “No, just as friends. They were going in a group, but she didn’t tell me at first and then panicked about lying, so she called to tell me. She beeped in while I was talking to Caleb.”

“Were you pissed?”

“There was some arguing, but there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about the situation, so it didn’t exactly benefit me to get upset.”

What a mature response. I’m not sure I would have seen things from that angle. But then again he was also asking me to take a trip with him as a way to get back at his girlfriend, and that didn’t seem too mature.
             

“Do you really like her, Josh?”

I kept wondering why on earth he stayed with her when it was so obvious he didn’t want a girlfriend. Was he torturing himself because he thought he needed to give this exclusivity thing a chanc
e? It didn’t seem like it was
working very well to me.

“Okay,” Josh said, clapping his hands together before he reached for a chicken finger. “New subject.”

“Fine,” I grumbled, knowing it would do no good to pry. He was like a clam when he didn’t want to talk about something.

“So, earlier you
said you wanted to be my HR consultant
,” he said, instead of answering my question.

“I did.” I stretched my feet ou
t, so they were resting on his
lap. “
I think it would be fun. Truthfully,
I didn’t th
ink you were serious
the
first
time you said something about a partnership
since y
ou were so drunk when you asked, and when you brought it up again, I thought you
were doing it to piss off Alex, but if you’re genuinely asking, I’m in.
”

He s
miled
. “
That’s awesome. But just so you know, I wasn’t trying to piss Alex off. I mean, as much as
I enjoy pissing assholes off,
it wasn’t my goal. You should also know that I say
a lot of things when I’m drunk that I mean. It’s
usually
when the truth comes out,
and that night I was being honest. I think it would be cool to go into business with you.
”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth,
I immediately thought of his proclamation of love and my heart started pounding, so much so that I completely ignored his barb aimed at Alex
or the fact that he
’d
asked me to go into business with him. My
mind
was one-tracked
.

Had what he’d said to me the night he’d kissed me been genuine? Unfortunately, he kept talking, so I couldn’t question him about it.

“See, here’s the thing. I’ve been thinking for a while now that I want to do something more than just bartend, and I knew Stu
has
been entertaining the idea of selling, so I talk to him a few weeks ago, and he offered to sell the bar to me.”

My eyes got wide. “Josh, that’s so awesome! Are you going to buy it?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I think so, but I’m not sure it’s something I can really do on my own – financially or otherwise. I mean, I have the money for the purchase, but there are a lot of other things I want to do like remodel a little and change the décor, and I know your financial situation is pretty good, so I thought you might want to go into business together.”

“Seriously?!
” Now I was listening. “
You want me to be your partner? Like, your actual partner?”

That
was so much cooler than
just being a consultant
.

He grinned. “Yeah, I’d like that a lot.”

I screwe
d my face up in question. “So
would
I
be like a silent partner?”

My father had been talking to me for a few years about investing my grandfather’s money, but I wasn’t sure a bar was what he had in mind. But then again, it was my money.

Josh shook head. “No, I’d really want you to be my partner,” he said, and it sort of hung out there for a few seconds as I considered what he was truly asking me.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he said earnestly. “Think about it. No more wearing business casual or getting up early or having a boss who doesn’t ever think you’re good enough. You’d be your own boss, Tay.” Yeah, that sounded really appealing. “Plus, drunk people are really fun clients.”

I raised my eyebrow at him. “I’ve seen you kick guys out of this very bar for being unruly,” I said, looking around and seeing the pub differently for the first time.

He grinned. “Yeah, and it was really fun.”

“You’re serious about this,” I said, and his expression changed.

“I am. I like your work ethic, you’re smart, and you have good business sense. Plus we get along, and that’s important to me in a partnership.”

“Wow, this is really unexpected,” I said, obviously bewildered by this sudden twist of events.

“Think it over and let me know,” he said, and I was glad he didn’t want an answer right then and there.

“I will,” I said, still slightly dumbfounded, but a little twinge of excitement had started to build in my stomach as I thought about how cool it would be to own a bar.

I’d certainly been frequenting them for years, and my background in HR would help, plus my MBA. Sure it was risky, but it wasn’t like I was going into the venture alone or without knowing if the concept would work. O’Donnell’s was busy almost every night and it was profitable as is. If Josh and I classed the place up a bit, we could make a lot of money. And I’d get to work with one of my best friends. It was sort of a no-brainer.

But Josh had asked me to think about it, so I’d pretend to do just that even though I’d pretty much already made up my mind, and it was starting to race with visions of enhancements we could make inside the bar and drinks we could add to the menu and how we could expand the outside space to create a place for bands to play. I was getting excited just thinking about the prospects.

Chapter 9

“Hey partner,” Josh said, grinning at me when I walked into O’Donnell’s at two in the afternoon the following Wednesday.

“I’m here for my lesson,” I said in a fake Irish accent. “I’m ready to be a bartender.”

“Tay, this is an Irish pub. Why are you speaking in a Scottish accent?”

I frowned. “I was speaking Irish.”

He laughed. “No, you weren’t, but that was cute.”

“Whatever. I’m here to learn, so teach me oh wise and sexy barman.”

Monday night I agreed to be Josh’s partner and go in on purchasing O’Donnell’s with him. It had been one of the easiest decisions I’d ever made, he’d been thrilled, and we’d stayed up half the night making plans. Then I realized I knew nothing about what went on in a bar besides the obvious ordering of drinks and food. So Josh was going to start training me on all the things I needed to know about owning and running a bar, and we were starting with the most important lesson – how to be a bartender – so I could be prepared when we actually took over.

Josh raised his eyebrow. “Wise and sexy barman?”

Shit.
Since Sunday night we’d inadvertently amped up the flirting we usually did, and it was to the point where we were just plain hitting on each other all the time. I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on with us. I knew that things between us had shifted in my room that night, before we’d gone out and before his phone call, and I couldn’t help but wondering what would have happened if Caleb hadn’t called him right at that moment. Would we have kissed? Would I have liked it?

I was pretty sure I knew the answers to both of those questions.

But I shook off the thoughts churning in my head, because that had also been before he’d asked me to be his partner and I’d accepted. Now flirting was just dangerous. I couldn’t make out with my business partner.

Shit, what was I saying? This was Josh we were talking about. I couldn’t kiss Josh, because, well, he was
Josh.
We were friends, and that was it. I needed to quit initiating flirtatious moments and make sure we stayed strictly platonic.

I shrugged. “It fits, and you know it,” I said as nonchalantly as I could, trying to downplay my advance. “Now let’s get mixing!”

“In a little bit. First we have a meeting.”

“With who?”

“With me, and what the hell are you wearing?”

I spun around to find my uncle appraising my outfit with disdain.

Uh yeah, when I’d gotten dressed for my afternoon of bartending, I wasn’t expecting to run into my uncle. Suffice it to say, I was not exactly as covered up as he’d want me to be.

“Uncle Stu!” I shouted, loud enough for the whole bar to hear, as I cross
ed
the space between us and flung my arms around his neck. “When did you get back?!”

He hugged me tight. “Just this morning. Maggie wanted to come, but she couldn’t get away from work.”

“So things are still good with her?”

He nodded. “We’re getting married.”

“That is so great! Did you tell Mom yet?”

Uncle Stu was my mother’s younger brother, and she’d always been so concerned that he’d end up alone. He’d been practically married to the Tampa Police Department for fifteen years, so he’d never really had time for a relationship. Then when he left the force, he’d focused solely on the bar. But six months earlier, he’d taken a trip to Ireland to look into our family’s heritage, and he’d met Maggie. She was the woman who worked at the records office in Dublin who’d helped him locate where our family was from, and she even visited the town with him, although I’m guessing that wasn’t in her job description.

My mom about had a conniption when Stu called and said he was staying in Ireland indefinitely. She thought he was nuts, but apparently he was in love. I wasn’t sure how she’d feel about him getting married and moving there permanently. But if he was happy, I didn’t think her opinion much mattered.