Page 22 of Her Irish Boss

“Between Katie and I, we'll be fine. Don't worry about it.”

Rian came in the front door, already wearing his chef's shirt and ugly, required shoes. “I'm here to report to duty.”

Brogan smirked. “Do you wear that outfit underneath your regular clothes, hoping for some type of culinary emergency?”

Selena giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. “Sorry.” Her light eyes held a smile. “But that was funny.”

“The short answer is yes, I do.” He grinned. “Are you here to help with the epidemic?”

Selena nodded, looking a little more relaxed than before.

Brogan straightened his shoulders. He'd done that. Made her laugh. Helped her relax from the tense woman a few moments ago.

“Absolutely,” she said. “And they just seated my table. I need to get going.”

She locked eyes with Brogan a quick second before her shoulder brushed his as she passed by him. Out of instinct, he grasped her wrist lightly in his hand and kept their hands low and concealed. She stopped, her head snapping up.

“Cathal will be behind the bar. If you need help with those men and can't find me, tell him.” He skimmed his thumb along her inner wrist, enjoying the way her mouth parted with her exhale. “He'd probably enjoy tossing a pompous ass or two out of the restaurant.”

She nodded her head once, and he dropped her wrist, immediately missing the contact of their skin.

Rian's eyebrows were close to his hairline.

“Don't even start.”

“I don't even know where to start.” He patted Brogan on the back. “But I know this has to be tearing you up, so you have my sympathy. Glad you took our advice.”

“It was horrible advice that ended in an awkward situation that I didn't know how to handle.”

“I'd say you handled it fairly well judging by the way that pretty woman just looked at you.”

“She doesn't think I have a sense of humor.”

Rian contorted his face into an exaggerated frown. “I can't imagine why that is.”

“Shut up and get to work.” He didn't even know what got into him when it came to Selena. His brothers, putting all sorts of ideas into his head, hadn't helped. He could compartmentalize her. She belonged in a neat box marked with an X. He needed to remember both their places.

He was the boss.

She was the employee.

Everything in his life functioned like clockwork except for Selena. With one last glance up at Simmons' party, he walked to the front of the business, again, looking for something to do that kept his mind off the pretty waitress he could never be with.

“Five of theguys slipped me their telephone numbers.” Katie snarled. “Dirty old men. Most of them are old enough to be my dad. And I told two of them that exact thing, but they just smiled and told me I could call them daddy.”

“Do you think they just hit on anything moving hoping something will bite?” Selena threw away two pieces of paper with telephone numbers. The same two men as before passed them to her as she'd set down their appetizers.

Katie giggled. “So now we're fish trying to dodge the hook.”

“A hook with crappy bait.” Selena made her friend laugh, and she tried to feel just as lighthearted. But she couldn't. God, Brogan confused the hell out of her. Touching her one second and pushing her away the next. Acting as if he cared. Trying to make a damn joke of all things.

All she'd done is tell herself he wouldn't cross that line because of his own rules. But what if it was more? What if it was because of her social standing? She'd faced that once before. Her ex-boyfriend, Jacob, had claimed to love her and then hidden her away when he realized she could never become the social queen he wanted. Was Brogan the same? Had she read all the signals right, but he kept remembering that she wasn’t in the same league as he was?

“Excuse me,” a deep voice called from the table.

Katie rolled her eyes. “Ugh.”

“I'll take it. You take the water pitcher around and do a refill. Try not to dump it over someone's head.”

---