Read Playing with Fire for Free Online Page B

on the counter in front of him.
    “They wouldn’t take you even if it wasn’t just for old farts.”
    “They’d see I have the same last name as you and lock the doors, I reckon.”
    “So the amazing Macey is going to save your butt, it appears.” Gus took a good-size swig.
    “It appears.” Derek kept his tone bored, unwilling to show his relief.
    He’d never had a head for business. Never needed to. In school, he’d studied exercise science and avoided any thing business related. The thought of budgets and suits and ties had always made his eyes glaze over, and when he’d agreed to take the bar from Gus, he hadn’t been in his right mind. Hadn’t thought about much beyond pouring a drink here and there.
    Andie came out of the back room, crunching on a tortilla chip.
    “You want to go home for a couple hours?” Derek asked.
    “Doesn’t matter to me. If you can pay me for working straight through, I’m game.”
    “I can pay you. Do you do anything besides work and sleep?”
    “You should talk.”
    “Do you?”
    “Since when are you concerned about what I do when I leave here?” Her tone was light, but he sensed she wasn’t going to answer his question straight. Andie had been tight-lipped when he’d hired her, explaining only that she didn’t stay anywhere for long, but that she’d be a reliable employee while she was here. Maybe not his first choice in people to hire, but back in April, there hadn’t been anyone else falling into his lap, so to speak, and he hadn’t been able to face hunting for employees, regardless of Gus’s nagging.
    “Just trying to be friendly,” Derek said.
    “I didn’t recognize it. You snarl so much better.”
    Gus cackled from his chair, reminding Derek he was there and had pretty good hearing for an old dude.
    “I could fire you, you know,” Derek told Andie. “I have another employee now. Maybe even two if Macey works her magic.”
    Andie grinned. “Fire away, baby.”
    “Nah. No one flips burgers quite like you do.”
    “Keeping this one in line will take both you girls,” Gus interjected.
    Andie acknowledged Gus’s comment with a nod and returned to the back room just as another group of people stepped up to the counter. She preferred to work behind the scenes whenever there was a choice, though she could serve drinks just fine.
    Derek was still taking orders and making drinks when Macey returned a few minutes later. She set some papers in the kitchen, under her purse. Derek watched the guy she’d been talking to walk off, and wondered if he was old enough to work in a bar.
    “Well?” Derek said, delivering the last of an order as she came back into the bar area.
    “Done deal. Starts tomorrow.”
    “Has he hit puberty yet?”
    “He’s twenty-three. Needs money.”
    “Shouldn’t I have met him before you hired him?”
    Macey set her drink under the counter. “Derek. You told me I could hire people. I just hired one.”
    He stared at the back of her head as she greeted a guy at the counter and took his order.
    Gus tipped his head, drawing Derek over. “I thought you trusted her.”
    “I do.” No hesitation on that.
    “Then get over it. Go make a drink.”
    “I’m over it.”
    “I’d take a refill.” Gus pushed his empty cup toward Derek.
    “In your dreams.” Derek tossed the cup in the trash.
    “How ’bout some nachos?”
    “If this place doesn’t make a profit, you’re entirely to blame.”
    “I can live with that,” Gus said. “Long as I get my nachos.”
    Andie was standing in the doorway to the back room. “Gotcha covered.”
    Derek shook his head at her uncharacteristic willingness to please, then turned back to Gus. “What is it with you and women? They act like your groupies.”
    “I’m handsome,” Gus said.
    Derek choked as he took a drink.
    “I smile at ’em. You should smile more. Then they’ll pay attention to you.”
    “You assume I want their attention. Things are much easier without it.”
    “Maybe. But