The Best Goodbye

“God, I hope he’s smarter than that,” Natalie muttered.

“Oh, he’ll fuck her. His kind always takes the hot, easy fucks. They just don’t commit. That’s part of the sexy bad-boy thing that makes us all crazy,” Kyle said.

“That’s a shame,” Natalie whispered, sounding as let down as I felt.

Captain lowered his head and responded to Hillary, while she kept a flirty, pleased smile on her face. What were they doing? Making plans for later? My gut twisted, and I hated it. I hated it so bad.

“You’re dating Brad, aren’t you?” Daniel asked. I looked at him and hoped the inner turmoil I was experiencing wasn’t showing on my face.

“No, not really. We’re friends is all,” I corrected him. Brad flirted, but he didn’t do more than that. He didn’t call me or text me. We only talked at work, and he was a great guy, but I didn’t want more from him. I liked the easy friendship we had fallen into.

“Ah, he just looks at you a lot, so I figured there was something more there,” Daniel explained.

I didn’t say anything to that. I was unaware that Brad looked at me a lot. I rarely looked in his direction unless we were talking.

Captain cleared his throat to get the room’s attention. “OK, everyone. We’re all here, so it’s time to introduce you to your soon-to-be manager. Jamieson Tynes has been sent by Arthur Stout to take over in the next few weeks. While he’s here, you’re to make yourselves available for any questions. I’ll start taking off a few nights a week and letting Jamieson take over, so the decisions and orders will be coming from him. Jamieson, I’m going to let you take it from here. This is your serving staff. Get to know them.”

I looked at Jamieson, wondering if this bunch would eat him alive. He looked really young and naive.

“Oh, shit, here he comes,” Kyle whispered. I looked up and saw the group of servers part like the Red Sea.

Captain.

“He’s so determined. Sexy.” Kyle made a strange pleased sound under his breath.

I couldn’t look away this time. I watched wide-eyed as Captain came for me. There was a gleam in his eyes that excited me, but I wasn’t sure what it meant.

“Rose, come with me,” he said, loudly enough for the others to hear, although it was a soft demand.

I just nodded and followed him to his office. I was afraid to look at anyone else, but I could feel their eyes glued on us. Waiting to see what was going on.

I followed him obediently, because honestly, I wasn’t sure anyone had ever told that man no. When had he learned to pack so much power into just one intent gaze and a few words?

When his office door opened, I went in right behind him, wondering if it was a mistake. He was in a strange mood, and I didn’t know how I was connected to it. When I stepped inside, he closed the door, and I jumped a little at the loud click.

“You wouldn’t look at me,” he said in a tight, thick voice.

I had looked at him. Did he miss that? We were looking right at each other before Hillary came into the room. “I don’t know what you mean,” I said, slightly breathless from the intense atmosphere in the room.

“No, you were looking at me, and then you stopped and wouldn’t look at me again.”

How was he making the oxygen in the room so thin? I tried to take a deep breath. “I looked away when you did,” I said in a whisper.

Captain took a step toward me, and the rest of the oxygen in the room evaporated. I needed to hold on to something. This wasn’t a mood I’d seen him in before. I had no idea how to deal with it. “I don’t want her. She offered. I sent her away. But you wouldn’t look at me,” he said, his voice so deep and raspy that I couldn’t keep my chest from rising and falling with each short intake of air.

“Oh,” I choked out, watching the storm in his eyes. The green had darkened to hazel, and the hard line of his mouth eased into something more . . . seductive. My legs felt weak.

“Yeah. Oh,” he repeated. “Why didn’t you look at me?”

Because I didn’t like it. I had no reason not to like it, but I didn’t. “I don’t know,” I lied.

The sharp upturn of the corners of his mouth told me he didn’t believe me. But the fullness of those lips was fascinating. I could watch them up close like this all day and never get bored. Had they been that full all those years ago? Or had I been too young to appreciate the beauty of his mouth?

“Addy.” His voice had gone even deeper, and I shivered at the sound of my name coming from those lips. He growled a curse that snapped my attention off his lips.

Looking at his eyes wasn’t easier. They were dark now, his pupils big with the intensity of his stare. “Don’t lie to me. Why didn’t you look at me?”

I blinked, trying to break this spell he was putting me under, but it didn’t help. I was going to need to grab his arms to keep myself upright if he kept this up. That, or find a seat to sink into. “You stopped looking at me.”

I forced myself to take a step back, hoping to get hold of myself, but Captain’s move mirrored mine as he took a step with me. I felt like I was being caged in, and as much as that should have terrified me, it didn’t. My head knew this was River. I couldn’t be scared of him. We had too much between us.

“For a moment. I had to make myself clear to the girl. My eyes went right back where I wanted them, but . . .” He paused, and his hand moved to brush his knuckles along the outside of my arm so softly it was like a whisper. “You wouldn’t look at me. I couldn’t concentrate. I’m not even sure what all I said to the staff. I just wanted your eyes on me. I didn’t like seeing you look at the floor. I wanted you to look at me.”