She laughed, but he wasn’t offended. “So what did you do?”
“I sat at a bar with a friend of mine who was in PR and told him all the reasons Northern Star Demolition was the best company for any job. He typed it all up into a bullet-point kind of list, which I read over and over again until I had it memorized and could say it with confidence. I also don’t have any patience for politics so, if there’s political squabbling over a demolition, Scott—my second in command—steps in and handles all of that while I focus on the job.” He tossed the paper towel and turned to face her. “Doesn’t make me weak or not good at what I do because I had to ask for help.”
“Point taken. And thank you for changing the light.”
In a couple of steps, he was standing so close to her he expected her to back up. “Men can be handy to have around.”
“While I appreciate the help, you didn’t do anything for me I couldn’t have done for myself.”
“But it’s not nearly as much fun.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are we still talking about fluorescent lights?”
He shook his head. “Fireworks, maybe.”
After rolling her eyes at him, she grabbed the old ballast and walked out of the men’s room. Since he didn’t know where the ladder went and it wasn’t very heavy, he left it where it was and kicked the door free of the bucket on his way out. Walking away from him wasn’t going to do her any good.
She’d promised him lunch.
*
She should have known she wouldn’t get rid of him that easily. After taking the ballast out back to be disposed of later, Paige went back for the stepladder and saw Mitch sit at the counter to wait for her. It annoyed her, even though she’d offered him a free lunch for helping her out.
Everything about him annoyed her at the present moment. The smile and the flirting while trying to convince her he was so humble he couldn’t even push his own company on people. The way he seemed so sure that if he just kept showing up and being a nice guy, she’d sleep with him. The fact she couldn’t sleep at night because she was too busy thinking about how much she wanted to sleep with him.
She should throw him out. Just point to the sign that reserved her the right to refuse service and then show him the door.
It was a nice visual, but she could never follow through on it, if for no other reason than not wanting to come up with an explanation for all her other customers as to why she’d tossed a Kowalski. Instead, she shoved the ladder back into the supply closet and, after washing her hands and giving herself a stern look in the mirror, went back to the dining room to find the counter empty. The disappointment she felt only made her more annoyed with him—until she heard his voice.
He’d moved to a booth, and Drew Miller was sitting across from him. The police chief looked tired, if not downright haggard, and Paige felt a pang of pity for him. No matter who was right or wrong—if there even was a right or wrong—their situation sucked.
After she brought a coffee for Mitch and a soda for Drew, she gave their lunch orders to Carl and turned her attention to the two women who walked in and took a booth near the door. Jean was a dental hygienist who worked for the town’s only dentist, who was rumored to be almost as old as the town charter. And Dana was a logger’s wife who stayed home with two rowdy sons. Both were a little older than Paige, brunettes, and interested in checking out Mitch without being obvious.
“Morning, ladies,” Paige said, giving each of them a menu and silverware wrapped in a napkin. “What can I get you to drink?”
They both wanted coffee, and she was almost back to the table with the mugs when the women giggled and she overheard part of the conversation. “There’s no way you had sex in a canoe.”
Paige slowed her steps, telling herself it would be rude to interrupt them, but really, who wouldn’t want to know who had sex in a canoe?
“We did!” It was Dana talking. “It was his dad’s and they weren’t supposed to take it, but Josh and Sean helped him carry it to the pond. Ryan would have told on him, I guess. But to make a long story short, the sex was amazing and we didn’t tip the canoe.”
Of course it was Mitch who had sex in the canoe. Who else would the women of Whitford talk about having sex with?
Since Dana chose that moment to notice her, Paige refrained from rolling her eyes and pasted on a smile as she set their coffees down. “Have you decided what you’d like?”
A few more people were wandering in for an early lunch, and Paige was grateful for the distraction. For one thing, being busy kept her from eavesdropping to see who else in the place might be reminiscing about sex with Mitch Kowalski. That in turn helped keep her from speculating, at least during work hours, on what it might be like for her to have sex with him.