Page 30 of Like A Daydream
Andrew is also holding two iced coffees in his hands, and any coffee she doesn’t have to make is a good cup of coffee.
“Is there a reason you’re here so early?” she asks, after she’s flipped the lock and opened the door for the day.
“Coffee?” he asks, extending the cup to her. “I wasn’t sure how you take it, but I have cream and sugar in my truck.”
“I also have an entire coffee bar,” she says, raising a brow.
“I’m allowed to be nice,” he replies with a shrug. He extends the coffee to her again, and his dog tilts his head at her.
She looks him up and down, eyes the coffee in his hand, waits another three seconds, and then takes the coffee from him. He releases a breath and she can see the nervous tension leave his shoulders.
“Am I allowed to come in?” he asks, gesturing inside the store. “Or are you going to make me leave?”
“I can’t turn a customer away unless they’re doing something illegal,” she says, stepping aside. “Are you looking for anything in particular? Newspaper? Magazine?... A book?”
“Thanks for saying that last one with hesitation,” Andrew says, rolling his eyes. He points to the sign on the door. “Heard you’re hiring, and, as luck would have it, I’m looking for a summer job.”
She almost drops the cup he’s just handed her.
“You?” she asks, eyes gone wide. “A summer job?You?”
“Can’t I do a job that doesn’t involve hockey skates?” he asks. “I’ll have you know that when I was in college I worked at the dining hall on campus in the off-season. How different can it be?”
“Now thatIwould pay to see,” she says, feeling a crack in the walls she’s built as she smiles. “What makes you want to apply for the job?”
“Well,” Andrew says, watching her as she moves behind the counter and adds two pumps of caramel and two pumps of vanilla to her coffee. “I haven’t had the easiest time, and Coach Landry told me to find what’s important in life. I think that getting back to simple might be helpful. And I could boost sales.”
He folds his arms over his chest, giving her a downrightsinfulview of his biceps, and she meets his eyes to avoid staring.
“How so?”
“Come on,” he says, “people in this town are already talking about the ‘hockey player staying at Jet’s’. I’d be a draw, and you know it.”
“Have any sales experience?”
“I figure if I’ve seen the worst of humanity – drunk college kids – I can learn sales,” he replies, earnestly. She dumps milk into her coffee and turns back towards him.
“Starting rate is fifteen dollars an hour,” she says, “before taxes. Is that alright with you?”
“Honestly, I would do it for free,” he replies.
She was expecting him to say something about the thirty-seven million dollars he’s slated to bring home by the end of next year. Erick had told her when he had showed up at her house this morning so he could do drop-off duty.
She had gotten out of there before he could bombard her with stats and a full player profile.
“That’s illegal.”
“Fifteen is fine,” he says quickly, then he looks at his dog. “Can I bring Roscoe? He’s kind of… an Emotional Support Animal. I can show you his papers and bring his harness, if you want.”
Her eyes widen slightly, that being the last thing that she thought he would say. She knew that ESAs were a thing, but she can’t imagine why someone with the world at their feet would need one.
There’s more to this man than meets the eye.
“The store is dog friendly,” she says with a shrug, “as long as he doesn’t bother customers, I don’t see why not.”
“Roscoe loves people so much, he’ll probably become the mascot before I leave,” Andrew says with a grin. “Can I start today?”
“Is that why you brought coffee?” she asks. “To bribe me into giving you a job?”
