“What do you think about me moving back?” Her eyes finally stopped on me. I saw the curiosity.
“What happened to them?” She asked and I knew exactly who she meant.
“Nothing. They are perfectly fine with or without me. I just didn’t understand it for a long, long time.”
“So you are not on the run from the mobsters?”
“You already asked me that, remember?”
“Why did you leave then?”
“I wanted to.”
“And why did you come here?”
“I wanted to.”
“And this?” she waved her hand around.
“It’s mine. You are invited to the opening.”
She lifted her chin up and stared me down through narrowed eyes.
“Is there a basement downstairs?”
“Nope,” I didn’t laugh, because I knew it wasn’t actually a joke. It was her way of showing me she wasn’t down for being lied to. “No basements anymore.”
“Good for you,” she looked around again. “I hope you won’t make the waitresses work naked.”
I tilted my head and shrugged nonchalantly. “You know I don’t need to resort to those types of power moves just to see a woman naked.” I deliberately ran my gaze up and down her body, making it perfectly clear she was the only woman I wanted to see naked. She shook her head and walked over to the door.
“Nice chat. See you around, Hartley.”
“Hannah, wait.” She stopped with her hand on the door knob. “I want your opinion on something.” She whirled around waiting for me to explain. “The coasters arrived yesterday. Would you take a look?”
“You want me to look at your coasters?”
“Yes. In that box over there. Next to the wall.”
She blinked fast a few times, then stepped back in. She motioned to the box, squatted down and opened it. She froze for what seemed like an eternity.
“I wanted to get my shit together first. That was the reason I didn’t come crawling the second I landed,” I took a few steps closer to her. “I wanted to give you a chance to see that I could do it. That I could help the people I care about. That I love my niece. That I am putting down roots here. That I haven’t just hopped on a plane on a whim. I wanted you to have a glimpse of that before I started to grovel.”
She took one coaster out of the box and examined it closely.
Clem grilled me about what it meant. The flower. The name written across it. She knew it had something to do with Hannah, because I was using the keychain that her best friends had carried around for years. At some point I finally admitted it was the same keychain and that I named the bar Poppy’s because I was desperately in love with Hannah Spencer.
“What do you think?” I asked. Hannah stood up with the coaster in her hand and walked over to the door again.
“I’m taking one with me. You can start to grovel now.” She walked out without a glance at me.
Two months passed quite fast, but I was nowhere near sealing the deal with Hannah. I visited her office almost every day. Just to say hi, or leave her a cup of coffee. And because I wasn’t above shameless manipulation; I did it with Daphne. But I had a lot going on with the opening and Liam and Chloe’s visit, so I hadn’t really made any serious move.
The fact that Hannah hadn’t cut my balls off that day I showed her the bar and explained I was here for the long run made me calm enough not to rush things. Until one afternoon when she practically tried to push me off the door of her office. I let loose my most charming smile.
“Why are you trying to get rid of me so fast? Are you having a hot date or something?” I teased, but her face went blank for a moment, then she cleared her throat without saying anything. And she didn’t have to. It was obvious. “You do have a date, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said with a steady voice.
“Another I-have-a-stick-up-my-ass doctor maybe?”
Silence. Again.
“You’re kidding.”
“Why wouldn’t I go out on a date with him? It’s not like anyone else had asked me out,” she yelled in my face, then apologized to Daphne for yelling in hers, because the latter had her back currently pressed to my chest. “Why don’t you leave her in the stroller? She’s too young to be carried like that, just so you know.”
“She has a great neck support, and she loves it. Just so you know.”
I dropped Daphne home and went to the bar. I stayed in my office now. I didn’t play the charming bartender role I used to play back in Boston. It was my bar and I had to think about it like a business and not like it was a place to have fun at. An hour later someone knocked on my door.
“Come in,” I shouted and looked up the moment Hannah waltzed in. “Shit. Did he bring you here for your date?” I snorted. “I wouldn’t expect a ring from that one.”
“I canceled,” she strolled over to my desk and sat at the chair across from me. “Can I ask you out on a date?”
“What?”
“You are obviously not going to do it. So I am asking you out.”
We stared at each other. Her smiling, me still irritated she agreed to go out with someone else. I closed my eyes and rubbed my cheek.
“When?”
“I’m free now.”
I stood up, rounded the desk and extended a hand to her. She took it and I pulled her up, lacing our fingers together. I barely resisted the urge to kiss the hell out of her.
“And where are we going?” I asked, rubbing the back of her hand with my thumb.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” I asked and she nodded. “Don’t you have a plan?”
“Where would be the fun in that?”
Epilogue
Hannah
“I’m not sure I can do this,” Clem whispered in my ear.
“Of course you can. Everything will be fine. You will be forty minutes away from us. Lucas drives longer than that to get to work every day.”
“What if she needs me? It’s not like she could say something.”
That was true. I looked over my shoulder to Daphne. She snuggled between Tyler’s arms, drooling all over his shirt, not even glancing at her parents.
“Hate to break it to you, but it seems like you’re not her favorite person in the world,” Clem and I shared a smile. “Besides it’s your first anniversary. Not to mention you will be back in about twenty-four hours.”
“You know I am going to call a lot, right?”
“I know.”
When Lucas finally managed to get Clem inside the car, I turned to Daphne.
“Young lady, you can’t drool all over boys, no matter how cute they are. You have to keep them on their toes.”
“Don’t take advice from her, Daff, she has been drooling all over me for years,” Tyler kissed the crown of his niece’s head. “I can tell you everything you need to know about boys.” He tickled her belly, and she squealed in delight.
We spent the day playing with Daphne. Well, Tyler played with Daphne, because she started crying every time he stepped away from her. I was their support system. They relied on me for food, clean clothes, and not much else, but they looked so happy in their bubble I didn’t hold it against them.