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My hands shook as I did both of these things. Laurel Pennington had the audacity to insist that we expand the menu without going through the tasting procedures, and now she’d decided to shove herself into my favorite Laurel-free spot in town. Was there nothing this woman didn’t want to ruin?
I took a deep breath.
The bar was one of the only places open this late at night to get away and have fun, and I didn’t want her encroaching on a place where I already had history. And sticking around after the set? It’s like she wanted to make sure I noticed her in my space.
“Luke? Are you alright?”
The voice of our lead singer, Gunner Greene, echoed in the break room. I took a deep breath as I nodded. If nothing else, I didn’t want Gunner to feel that I was unfit to play next week.
“You walked out on that family rather abruptly,” Gunner continued. “I’ve only seen you do that a few times. Do you need anything?”
“Just some time to collect myself, Gunner,” I finally said. “I’ll be alright. I was just… caught off-guard by something tonight, and it shook me more than it should have.”
I turned to face him. Gunner’s face had creases of worry, and I realized he’d been frowning at me. Without another word, he simply nodded and walked out of the room.
I balled my fists up once I was sure that I was alone in the room.
I couldn’t get her eyes out of my head. Usually, I ran into her when she was wearing an apron, sometimes even a hair net or cap, but tonight she looked great.
Shaking my head, I tried to ignore the thought.
Pretty, even.
My face flushed again as the vulnerable lyrics of our final song replayed in my head.
I’d basically laid out my whole previous heartbreak in the song. It wasn’t something I wanted her to know about. I wanted to keep things simple. I didn’t want to mix work life and the band.
I wanted things to be simple.
Like the menu.
My brain latched onto my conflict with Laurel to distract me from how happy and lovely she’d looked in the bar.
As beautiful as she was, she had far too many ideas that were too lofty for the lodge. She didn’t understand that simplistic didn’t mean a lot of choices that would satisfy the palette, but instead only a few options. Like sandwiches with a variety of toppings instead of a whole rotating menu of pastas, salads, dips, and desserts.
There was a reason I had a few rooms that now had kitchens. These were rooms that were recommended in case a guest had allergies or something and wanted to be able to cook their own meals. Aside from that, I was making it my duty to be sure that every room – regardless of whether they had a full kitchenette – had a minifridge somewhere in their layout.
I didn’t need Laurel to solve the lodge’s “food problem.”
After calming myself down, I went back out to do some more meet and greets with the rest of the people in the bar. However, there weren’t that many left. By the time I was able to walk over to the rest of the band, the line was gone.
“You good?” The drummer looked over at me. “Haven’t seen you walk off like that since Fourth of July when the surprise fireworks spooked you.”
“I’ll be fine,” I barked.
This startled everyone. I bit my tongue to keep from snapping at them again. Instead, I just hoisted my guitar’s case onto my back.
“I’ll see you for the next practice.”
With that, I walked out to my car. After situating everything, I decided to check my phone. The only thing of any note was a text from Rick, asking why Laurel had returned to the lodge in a huff and was now ‘angrily making cookies’ as he put it.
I raised an eyebrow. Angrily making cookies… that was certainly a phrase, but I supposed it was because of the same reason I had walked away from the meet and greets at the bar: we were both frustrated that our one outlet to get away from each other was ruined.
As beautiful as she was, I didn’t think I could handle such a fiery, stubborn woman on my own.
I ignored the text and returned to the lodge. Rick greeted me in the lobby.
“She’s in the kitchen if you want to talk to her. You can hear that mixer of hers from in here!” Rick frowned deeply. “Are you going to let her quit on us too, Luke?”
