Page 8 of Hopeless Romantic
“Smart girl. She gets that from my side of the family.” The moment his words hit the air, Levi realized the steaming pile of shit he’d just swan-dived into. Eyes wide open and headfirst.
“We agree. To the first part, anyway.” Emmitt leaned over the bar to smack Levi on the shoulder—andboom!“So buckle up, Uncle Levi, you’re the lucky winner.”
“Oh no,” Levi said. “No way. I’m still trying to fill the day manager’s position as well as find someone to come on as a general manager.” He needed someone qualified to oversee Levi’s entire operation.
Plus, there was the task of finding an experienced harbor master. His current harbor master, who’d come with the marina when his dad had purchased it back in the seventies, was great at charming the guests and keeping the dockhands on their toes. But making sure the marina ran smoothly—and in the black—had become Levi’s second full-time job.
Levi’s captain’s chair would be hard to fill. But if he didn’t fix this mess soon, his trip down the coast would have to go on the back burner again. And this time, Levi was afraid his dream would catch fire and go up in a midlife puff of smoke.
“How does it feel to be the favorite for once?” Gray asked, then revved air-handlebars. “Vroom. Vroom.”
“Cock. Cock. Cock-a-doodle-doo,”Pecker squawked from his seat.
Levi loved spending time with Paisley. She was so much like her mom; it was like being with his niece and sister all at once. But Levi had lived through Michelle’s intro to driving; he didn’t think his heart could make it through Paisley’s. So yeah, he was about as excited to be a driver’s ed teacher as he was to have a chicken in his bar.
Cute women made him do stupid things.
“I’ll take her one day after school,” he said, secretly touched that Paisley had chosen him. And moved by the idea of his sister looking down on him and laughing her ass off. “As for you . . .”
Levi eyeballed Pecker, who was eyeballing him back. Then the chicken gave a couple of hostile clucks and flapped his wings, catching enough air to get him bar-bound.
Levi reached out, grabbing the little clucker right before his creepy looking talons touched the counter, cutting his high-pitched rant short so it came out more,“Cluck-cock!”
Pecker dropped a load on Levi’s floor.
“And you wonder why she left you behind,” Levi said, tucking the rooster under his arm like a football.
“You asking yourself the same question?” Gray said, shoving a fistful of fries in his mouth like he was at the fucking movies. “Because with skills like yours, it’s a wonder you ever got laid.”
“Seriously, the born-again virgin is judging me,” Levi snapped. It had been nearly a year since the car accident that left Gray a widower, and he hadn’t even looked at another woman. “Plus, I was just being friendly.”
Emmitt choked on his beer. “Is that what the kids are calling it these days? You’ve been chasing Dr. Dolittle ever since my engagement party.”
Curious? Yes. Chasing? Nope. His friend may have un-subscribed to the bachelors-till-the-end take on relationships, but not Levi. Between helping his mom after his dad’s passing, and helping his sister raise Paisley, Levi had done the whole “live together, raise a kid, honey-do lists” thing, and he was ready to get back to being that guy with the world at his fingertips and the wind at his back.
According to the giant countdown clock that hung above the bar, the alarm on his phone, and the screen saver on his laptop, Levi had exactly seventy-one days, five hours, and twenty-six minutes left until his life was his again. Which meant he also had seventy-one days, five hours, and twenty-six minutes to help his mom find closure with his sister’s death, get his niece college-ready, and renovate his dad’s old yacht so Levi could take the trip down the coast and around the southernmost tip of the Americas that he and his dad had always dreamed about.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t open to a little fun while he was docked in Rome. But the kind of fun he was looking for didn’t include a woman who couldn’t even commit to a single drink with a boring banker.
“Watch the bar for a minute,” he said, tossing a bar towel Emmitt’s way.
“You can’t help yourself, can you?” Emmitt laughed. “The redhead at the end of the counter wants to climb you like a tree. Her friend looks ready for you to sail your boat into her horizon, and you’re running after the only woman within a mile radius who doesn’t give two shits about where you drop your anchor.”
“I’m not running after anyone. I’m giving her back her damn rooster,” Levi said, ducking his head when Pecker started flapping his wings as if he were a matador and Levi was the bull.
“You just don’t like being upstaged by a cock in a raincoat,” Emmitt said, and the two dipshits shared a high-five.
“You little clucker!” Levi jerked his hand back and out of the way of Pecker’s beak, which was quickly making Swiss cheese out of Levi’s knuckles. Pecker went airborne, nothing more than a blurring flutter of white feathers and red yarn heading straight at Emmitt’s face.
Emmitt shot up out of his chair and took two defensive steps back, his hands covering his head. Levi and Gray both laughed. “Did you throw him at me?”
“No.” Levi smiled. “Looks to me as if he doesn’t like you much. Maybe the chicken’s got something up there after all.”
With a satisfied “Cluccccccck,”Pecker fluttered gracefully to the floor, working his wings as he did some kind of victory dance at Emmitt’s feet. Two complete circles around Emmitt and a couple of head bops later, Pecker nudged the handle of his leash, then looked up at Levi as if trying to say, “Come on, human, pick up my leash so we can go find my mistress.”
Rolling his eyes, Levi took the very pink and rhinestone-studded leash, not caring about the opinions voiced behind him, and ignored the click of Pecker’s talons as he toddled his feathered ass straight out the front door.
The sun had long since set, and Mother Nature was in a mood, blasting the East Coast with a March rainstorm.
