“Yeah. We divorced a little over two years ago.”
“What happened? Oh wait…none of my business. Sorry.”
That hurt. They were having a baby together. He’d think she’d want to get to know him a little better. “Before I bought Jasper’s Bar and Grille, I was cop. One of Boston’s finest.”
“You were a cop? Really?”
“Yup.”
She propped her chin on her hands. “I can’t picture you in a uniform, with a gun and everything.”
“I’ve got a picture. I can show it to you later.”
“I’d like to see it, but I think what you’re doing now really suits you.”
He smiled, looking her in the eye. “There’s a lot about my life now that suits me.”
“Charming.” She rolled her eyes. “So you were a cop…”
Damn, she was a tough sell. “Yeah, so I always got shitty shifts in the bad parts of town, but I didn’t think much of it. Then, one night, I went back to the house to pick up some paperwork I’d forgotten. I didn’t usually bring paperwork home because the time I had with Vicky, I thought I should spend with Vicky. Found my captain there, banging my wife. And I guess it’d been going on for a while.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I beat his ass until I couldn’t swing my arm anymore. Thank God the captain was married to some big-shot’s daughter so he had to avoid the bad press. He didn’t press charges, I dumped the wife and the job and came home. Bought Jasper’s and here we are.”
The way she looked at him told him he hadn’t quite succeeded in making it sound like no big deal. Bullshit, of course. Losing his marriage and his badge—everything he cared about—at the same time had been a pretty big fucking deal. Even the memory of his captain’s nose busting under his fist didn’t make the memory of seeing the asshole’s dick in his wife any easier to take.
“Did you have any children together?”
“No. That’s about the only good thing about it.” He helped himself to a sip of her soda, hoping to wash some of the bad taste out of his mouth. Didn’t really help. “That Jasper-burger-craving bun in your oven is my first.”
For a few seconds he thought she might dig deeper, but then she smiled. “If the baby’s craving Jasper burgers already, I’m going to weigh a ton by spring.”
“And you’ll still be the hottest woman in the bar.”
He wondered if she was even aware of the pink creeping into her face from under the collar of her white work blouse. “Sadly, I’m never going to kiss a napkin for you.”
“If you did, I’d not only keep it, I’d frame it and hang it right there, over the bar.”
“Never gonna happen.”
***
“Excuse me, but I asked for this well done.” Beth eyed the burger her customer was waving in her direction. It looked more like a hockey puck than ground beef. “See this fleck of pink here?”
No, she didn’t see a fleck of pink. “I’m sorry. I can have them make you another one.”
“No, I’ll eat it.”
Then what was the point of complaining, other than advance justification for the crappy tip he was probably going to leave her. She made nice for another moment, hoping to salvage something, and then moved on to the next table.
Her section was almost full and most nights she would have been happy about the potentially full tip cup. But she was tired and out of sorts.
And the problem with getting pregnant on their first date was that she couldn’t pinpoint the exact start date or cause of her irritability. Was it the baby…or the baby’s father?
“Miss, can I get some more coffee?”
She poured and fetched and carried for another hour before it was time for her break. After filling a coffee mug three quarters full of decaf for the baby and a splash of the real stuff for herself, she made her way to the small table shoved into the back corner of the noisy kitchen.
The granola bar tucked into her apron pocket would get her through to the end of her shift and, if she took small bites and chewed slowly, she could almost convince herself it was satisfying. She’d only lived over the bar a few days and the Jasper burgers were already going to her waist.
Julia joined her when she was chewing the last bite. Rumor had it the salt-and-pepper-haired woman had been waiting tables there since the restaurant opened in 1976. Beth didn’t know if that was true, but it was remarkable if it was because Julia was a bit cantankerous for the business.
“What’s wrong with you this week?” Julia asked by way of a greeting.
“Just a little tired. I moved and you know how it is trying to sleep in a new place.”
“When’s the baby due?”
It was a good thing Beth was done with her granola bar or she would have choked on it.