She bit her lip as he turned her back around to face him. She thought about telling him who the sub was for, but at the end of the day it was still her decision to leave the shop.
“Sorry,” she told him. “It won’t happen again.”
“Not good enough, Sunny. If I can’t trust you with your own safety. . .” he trailed off.
What? Would he fire her?
Nausea bubbled in her stomach. She couldn’t lose her job.
“Sunny! Sunny! Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I. . .umm. . .are you firing me?”
He sighed and to her surprise, drew her into his chest for a cuddle. That was unexpected. Nice, though. In fact, it was just what she needed right then. His big hand cupped the side of her face.
“Jesus, your skin is freezing. Where the hell is your jacket?”
“Oh, um, I forgot it.”
He heaved out a sigh. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Hopefully not decide that I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”
He drew away from her, placing his hands on her shoulders as he stared down at her. “Sunny, you are definitely not more trouble than you’re worth. But you are in trouble. You broke a safety rule. That comes with punishment. Not being fired,” he added hastily, no doubt seeing the way her face crumbled. “When’s the next customer due in?”
“Um, about five minutes.” And Rory hadn’t had any dinner. Shit.
“All right. This was meant to be your dinner?”
“Ah, no. It wasn’t.”
He just stared down at her until she sighed. “It was Rory’s.”
His face tightened.
“But it was my decision to go out and get it so you shouldn’t blame him. I don’t think he knows that whole no going out at night rule.”
“He will soon,” he said ominously. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Rory. You’ve eaten?”
“Yeah.”
“What?”
“Oh, um, a salad.”
He shook his head and muttered something. “Clean this up. Then after the next customer is here, put the closed sign out. Then get your ass into my office. We’re going to discuss your misbehavior further.”
Yay. That sounded like fun.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later he was still sitting at his desk, wondering what he was doing. He’d torn into Rory and had fun doing it. Lazy fucker could get his own dinner from now on.
He shook his head. On the surface, hiring her made no sense. She was terrible when it came to anything to do with numbers and she couldn’t even follow the rules he’d given her.
And yet, he couldn’t imagine walking into the shop without seeing her smiling face. He actually enjoyed taking her to and from work most days. Liked that she didn’t try to fill the quiet with useless chatter. The greatest surprise was how much his clients liked her. From rough truckers to bikers to college students.
They all liked Sunny. She just had an innate sweetness that drew people to her. It could also make her a target for someone trying to take advantage of her. And Duke took protecting her seriously. He told himself it was just because she was his neighbor and employee.