“And they don’t do Ladies’ night specials there,” Britt points out. “Their drinks are expensive,” she whispers for my ears only.
“There’s that,” I say with a smile as the tension in my body eases.
Britt shoulders her way between two guys drinking drafts at the bar. “Jimmy, you’d better be in the mood to make mojitos. We have Miami here and they don’t drink anything else down there.”
Jimmy shoots a glance in the direction of Britt’s thumb and gives me the two-second inspection. “That’s Raiden’s intern?”
Jeez Louise. I either stand out like a pimple or the grapevine is in top form here. I look away but it doesn’t stop me hearing the rest of their exchange.
“Yep. George,” Britt says.
“I don’t wanna know how Raiden got an intern like that for a construction site,” Jimmy chuckles back in that deprecating tone which I’ve come to associate with a man doubting a woman’s skills.
But they both smirk. There’s a joke on someone, but it’s on Raiden and not on me. For some reason, this puts my back up so much that I let the underlying doubt as to my skill roll off my back. Clearly, none of them have ever worked with Raiden before.
Rachel tugs me away and into a corner booth where the diners have just left. I slide in, trying not to be grossed out by the sticky red vinyl that glues to my thighs.
“How was your day?” Rachel asks as we settle.
“We got the subfloor finished, so that’s something.”
“I’ve ordered some snacks to share,” Britt says as she scoots into the booth. “How’s working with Raiden?”
The grapevine might be in top form, but I’m not feeding it. Britt is fishing for details, but right now, I’m keeping them all to myself, especially after that dialogue between Britt and the bartender.
“Busy. Eventful.” I fill them in on the TV crew and how everything went great. The last thing they need to know is that I had a massive fallout with Raiden and that Hunter booted my grit-less ass right back to the barn.
“Raiden is being a good boy? Behaving and all that?” Rachel teases.
“Behaving isn’t his strength. You should be warned,” Britt fills me in.
This level of familiarity from strangers is new to me, and I’m not sure if this question relates to work or something else. Even if I had been warned, nothing would have stopped me from coming north. “Everything is fine.” Bar the handful of glitches, but they don’t need to hear about those.
The other women exchange a glance and Britt shrugs as she realizes I’m not going into more detail. “In my opinion, Hunter is really the Logan catch.”
Uh-huh. I bet there are lines out for that guy left, right and center. Like his brother, he’s a looker. Hunter seems to have his act together. It strikes me that Britt might see me as competition for Hunter’s interest. I should set her poor heart at ease. “Luckily I’m not fishing,” I say with a smile.
“No? You have a boyfriend back home?” Rachel asks.
I shrug, not wanting to commit to a clear-cut answer, but also wanting to let them know I’m not in for a fling while I’m in Ashleigh Lake. I’m here to do the one thing I’ll never get to do with Wess & Rover and I’m going to do it perfectly.
Britt leans in and whispers, “You wouldn’t know it, and Hunter would never admit it, but his company already has a net worth of around seven million dollars.”
My eyes widen. That’s a substantial amount of money for a small business in small-town Vermont. I didn’t expect that from what I’ve seen of Ashleigh Lake Dairy and Ice Cream. I hope Britt doesn’t plan to cross the line here by sharing company secrets. Best if I lead the conversation somewhere I want it to go.
“You’re cousins, right?” I ask, directing my question at Rachel.
“Yes, I grew up with four Logan cousins,” Rachel says. “There’s Hunter and Raiden, who you know, and then the twins, Liam and Ethan.”
“Liam is studying medicine in New York,” Britt says as our drinks arrive. “I doubt he’ll ever come back to Ashleigh Lake once he’s done there.”
The waitress puts our drinks down one after the other, and as mojitos go, they look as delicious as the ones served back home. I bet Jimmy added extra shots of rum because they were ordered by locals.
“As for Ethan,” Rachel says on a sigh, “he’s on his third deployment and we can only hope he comes back to Ashleigh Lake.”
The last thought is sobering, even for someone who doesn’t know Ethan Logan.
I want to get the low-down on Raiden, but I’m too shy to ask. The few hints he’s dropped only piqued my interest and from what I’ve seen at work today, he’s as complicated as a ball of knotted yarn and about as difficult to unravel. “Raiden mentioned he normally lives in Boston?”