Beth looked shell-shocked. “That’s not Thanksgiving dinner. That’s a marathon.”
“Yeah, but we don’t do it often. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and the Fourth of July, usually. That’s not too much to take. Although, once that little guy pops out, you’ll have a Kowalski twenty-four seven.”
He was still laughing when she shoved him out into the hall and slammed the door in his face.
***
Paulie was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and when she checked herself into the mental hospital she was putting the words Sam and Logan in the “why” box of the intake form.
He’d made a steady habit out of dropping in for at least a drink, if not dinner, after his work day was over. Unfortunately, his being there watching her made her jittery, so his presence and her reaction to it weren’t going unnoticed by her coworkers. Hard to fly under the radar when she turned into a totally self-conscious klutz whenever he was in the bar. She’d broken more glasses in the last few weeks than she had in the last five years.
He hadn’t asked her out on—or blackmailed her into—another date since their last one, but she knew he wasn’t done toying with her. He was just dragging it out, hoping to build the anticipation, and it was working, dammit. She was hyperaware of his staring at her ass while she walked and…his just staring in general. It made her aware of her movements and body language in a way that kept her in a constant state of sexual tension.
Even now he was watching her as she tried to work the bar with Kevin—who, judging by the looks he kept giving her and Sam—was more aware of what was going on than she would have liked. Not surprising, though. Her boss had seen her tired and cranky and pissed off and upbeat and happy, but he’d never seen her flustered by a man’s interest.
When Sam winked at her and she turned away too quickly, knocking an empty shot glass off the edge of the bar, she knew the jig was up. Kevin signaled for Randy to clean up the broken glass, took her by the elbow and very firmly guided her into his office. She sighed and sank into a chair while he closed the door and went to sit behind his desk.
“What’s the deal with Sam Logan?”
She knew her boss and best friend pretty well and she knew she didn’t have a chance in hell of putting him off this time, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try. “Old business. My business.”
“And now it’s my business.”
“Yeah, I broke a few glasses. Dock my pay.”
“Cut the shit, Paulie.”
Defeat slumped her shoulders and she let it out with a shuddering sigh. “Five years ago I changed my name—legally and for reasons that aren’t illegal. My real name is Paulette Atherton.”
His expression didn’t change. “So?”
“My father is Richard Atherton.”
She watched understanding dawn in his eyes. “The gazillionaire from Boston Richard Atherton?”
“Yup.”
“No shit.” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “No offense, doll, but what the hell are you doing tending bar?”
“Being myself. Being happy.”
She waited for him to accuse her of slumming for kicks. For taking a job from a person who actually needed the money. She waited for him to look at her differently. Any or all of the reactions she’d imagined over the weeks. But he didn’t.
“How does Sam Logan figure into this?”
“We were supposed to get married—be the darling power couple of the country club set. Wedding of the decade…until I got halfway up the aisle and bolted like a spooked horse.”
“No shit,” he said again. “I remember hearing something about that. Don’t usually read the society pages, but Terry and Lisa talked about it. You must have looked different.”
“I did. My hair was dyed because my natural red is unseemly, and always straightened because wild curls are unseemly. I was a lot more seemly then than I am now. Probably why nobody ever made the connection.”
“So you left him at the altar? Bet that didn’t go over well.”
“I don’t know. I went home long enough to grab some clothes, cash and the few things I cared about but, by the time my parents got home, I was on a bus out of Boston. Threw my cellphone in the lobby trashcan.”
“So you left with nothing?”
It was tempting to let him believe that, but now that she was confessing, she’d cough it all up. “I didn’t have a lot of cash when I left, but I have trust funds set up in such a way my father couldn’t cut them off. I choose to live week to week on my paychecks, but I have access to millions.”
“Damn.” He didn’t say anything for at least a minute and she started to sweat. “Paulie, you’re shaking.”
She was and she couldn’t seem to stop. But this man was her best friend in the world and she’d just told him everything he believed about her was a lie. She didn’t want to lose him or Jasper’s or the life she’d been living quite happily for five years. “I’m sorry.”