Who's the Boss? - Erin McCarthy Page 0,57
bit my ankles a dozen times when I would walk him for the owner. She was like ninety-five years old and couldn’t take him out much. She was much nicer than her dog.”
“Did you have a dog?”
“No. My mother wasn’t on board with the messes pets make. You?”
Isla shook her head. “No. My mother was allergic. Where are we going?”
“Since I’m your dirty little secret I thought we could get out of the city for a few hours. My parents have a house in Saugerties, upstate. I want to show you something.” I was only half-kidding about the dirty little secret part. I didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable or spend our time together worried about getting busted.
“Something to show me? I can take a guess as to what that might be.” She glanced down at my junk.
“Get your mind out of the gutter, woman. It’s a surprise.” It was the building I’d bought to be my own twenty seat restaurant one day. It was right in the town’s quaint downtown.
“Your mother warned me against you at the baby shower, you know. She wasn’t exactly charming about it, either. She acted like I’m a simpleton who would fall for your lies.”
“My mother gives me far too much credit.”
“I have a confession to make.” She cleared her throat. “That has nothing to do with your mother.”
Confessions are never good. No one confessed awesome news, just shit that’s going to hurt. I didn’t like the sound of that so I teased her to avoid whatever she was about to say. “You’re wildly in love with me? You secretly have six kids? Wait. I know. You still like boy bands.”
“I do still like boy bands and I refuse to call it a guilty pleasure because I don’t feel guilty. You’ve seen my apartment. I’m not hiding secret babies. No, my confession is that Courtney asked me straight out if we’re dating and I denied it. Really vehemently. Like I may have overreacted.”
Okay, that was nothing like I was imagining. Relief flooded through me. Since I was driving in Brooklyn traffic, which demanded I keep my eyes on the road, I couldn’t see her face, but I thought it was interesting she didn’t deny being in love with me. There was no way she was, obviously, but it was still curious she didn’t vehemently deny it.
“Overreacted how?” I could care less, honestly.
“I panicked. I just totally choked. I didn’t know what to say and I knew she wouldn’t believe me if I totally denied it unless I said I can’t stand you. I’m sorry, that was a crappy thing to do. I would be mad if you said that about me.”
“You told her you can’t stand me?” I was a little offended but I knew Isla and I knew how important it was to her to feel in control and to keep our relationship a secret. I reached out and squeezed her knee. “I’m not sure how believable that is anymore, but I will roll with it if that’s what you want.”
Isla made a sound of frustration. “I don’t know what I want.”
I didn’t really love the sound of that. “I’m not sure it’s any better for a work environment to have two people hate each other than it is if they’re dating. Personally, I don’t think it's anyone’s business in either case.”
“I guess not.” She didn’t sound totally convinced though.
We’d been seeing each other for three weeks, spending every free minute we could together. Isla had jokingly called me her lover. I wasn’t sure how much longer we could pretend this was nothing.
“By the way, I’m not going to walk around sharing that we’re seeing each other, but if someone in my personal life asks me if something is going on between us, I’m going to say we’re dating. If anyone at work directly asks, I’m not sure what I’ll say.” I wasn’t. I wasn’t sure I could stand there and deny a relationship that was really starting to mean a hell of a lot to me. “But I’ll probably be honest if I’m really pressed.”
Isla sighed, but she didn’t say anything. I glanced over at her but I couldn’t read her expression.
“I don’t know. I just don’t want it to be a big deal. Speaking of work, I saw something I wanted to discuss with you. Their menu for the Best of Brooklyn cook-off was posted by Woodstock and it’s my menu. Martin and I were discussing it weeks ago, and he