My Life as a Holiday Album (My Life as an Album #5) - L.J. Evans Page 0,83
have my stomach turn to jelly when a guy glanced my way. I was the one who rolled their eyes at anything as lame as instant attraction.
I turned back around and took off for the bar where one of the regular bartenders was working. I felt Cole following me with his eyes on my butt once more. It seriously made me want to check my panty line again, but I refused to give in to the impulse.
“Hey, Ted, Phil around?” I asked when I got there.
Ted smiled at me as he filled up a pint at the tap. He hooked his head in the direction of the hallway to the back. “In his office.”
“Is that Guinness? On tap?” Cole asked, shock in his voice.
“Yeah?” Ted said with a So what? to his tone.
“I think I just fell in love with this place,” Cole said with admiration.
“Why don’t you sit down and have one while I talk to Phil? You deserve a refreshment after tagging along with me.” I made the suggestion, just to put some time and space between him and me. Time to get a hold of the emotions that were raging through me, beating an unfamiliar pattern.
“Nah, I came to help,” he said, shuffling toward me again.
I had a million retorts on the tip of my tongue, but when he moved next to me so that our arms brushed, every word slipped away. I barely repressed a shiver as we made our way down the tiny hallway lined with wood and deep-green paint toward Phil’s office. The walls were packed with pictures of Ireland. A place I’d always wanted to visit. We had Irish in us from our daddy’s side, and I’d wanted to discover everything about them after I’d read Amy Harmon’s What the Wind Knows and read about her own journey through her family’s history.
I knocked on Phil’s door. He called out, “Enter,” and we went inside. Phil’s grandparents had come from Ireland, and he’d taken over the bar when they’d passed away. He didn’t have a hint of the charm or the Irish brogue they’d had. No, Phil was something else entirely.
“Ginny Waters, what brings ya into my office?” he asked, leaning back in his chair, arms going up until his hands locked behind his head. He was twice my age, but he seemed to flirt anyway. It was his thing. Like my cousin, Dalton. No harm, no foul, but tons of smiles and innuendos that would never be acted on.
“The Elks Lodge roof fell in,” I told him.
He chuckled. “No shit? What’s that got to do with you?”
“Edie had it rented out for New Year’s Eve. We’re having a surprise party for a bunch of the family that’s turning fifty this year,” I told him.
He sat up, bringing his hands to the desk. “I’m not sure how I can help.”
“I know you have a bash here every year, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask if we could rent out the bar.”
He chuckled again. “Darlin’, that’s one of my best grossin’ nights of the year. I know your family has the dough for it, but my clients would be awfully pissed if I closed down just for y’all.”
I felt Cole stiffen next to me as if he were taking offense at Phil’s easy banter. I risked a glance from the corner of my eye, and sure enough, he’d straightened to his full height, towering over me like a giant compared to my leprechaun status. He crossed his hands over his chest in a stance I recognized from my brother and male cousins. All testosterone-filled dominance.
“I figured,” I said. It had been worth asking just so I could tell Edie we hadn’t left a stone unturned. “Thanks, anyway.”
I turned to go, but Phil’s words stopped me as he rose from his chair. “I might have something that would work, though.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Yeah, but it isn’t pretty,” he said, looking down into my face as he joined Cole and me by the door. “You still wanna take a look?”
I nodded, hope filling me. All we needed was someplace dry, fairly warm, and big enough to hold the group. “Will it hold a hundred people?”
“I don’t see why not,” Phil said, heading out of the office.
I exchanged a glance with Cole, and then the two of us followed him. Phil opened the back door to the alley and led the way up metal stairs on the side of the building. He shuffled through a set of