Page 34 of Wild Rush
Chapter Eleven
Reena walked into the kitchen with a full tray in her hands and kept her head down. She didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone. She was positive they’d be able to tell what she’d spent the last two days doing with Rush. A fresh wave of heat crashed over her. Skin tingling, muscles clenching, and a throb hard and insistent between her legs.
Stumbling forward, the tray in her hand tilted, plates and glasses sliding—
“Wow. Easy there.”
She looked up to find Mrs. Wallace steadying her and the tray. “Sorry. Must have slipped,” Reena muttered, doing her best to avoid meeting her boss’s eyes.
“Oh, yes. I’m sure that’s it. There’s no way it has anything to do with the young man at the corner table who can’t keep his eyes off you.” Mrs. Wallace winked at her when Reena glanced up. “He’s a fine one. Pop likes him.”
“Ah, yes. Um…”
“Look at you, all stammering and turning a pretty shade of pink. Reena, I’m so happy for you.”
Before Reena could process Mrs. Wallace’s words, the tray was taken out of her hands and she was engulfed in a warm hug.
They rocked back and forth for a minute before Mrs. Wallace gripped her arms and held her away, the older woman’s gaze catching Reena’s in a steely grip. “I’m giving you the rest of the day off. Go have lunch with your new man. I’ve got Yvonne making you both today’s special.”
“But—”
A hand covered her mouth. “Not a word. Go.”
Reena found herself turned around and pushed out of the kitchen.
Protesting always seemed impossible with a Collins. Caitlyn’s mom might have changed her name when she married but there was no mistaking the Collins stubbornness. Reena thought it had to be the first thing stamped into their DNA. It boggled the mind to think anything got done around here with so many stubborn people working together.
Then again, when all that determination got aimed at the same goal, they were a force of nature. Good thing they didn’t have designs on world domination.
Peeking over her shoulder, Reena found Mrs. Wallace, arms crossed, one brow arched, staring at her. Okay, she really wasn’t going to convince the woman she didn’t need to finish work early. With a sigh, she turned down the hall that led to the small room the staff used to store their things.
She pushed open the door and almost smacked Slade, one of the barmen, in the head with it. Jumping back—and unintentionally taking a second shot at his head—she gasped, “Oh, sorry.”
“No problem.” He straightened from tying his shoe. Grinned at her. “You missed.”
Reena smiled. She didn’t know Slade all that well but what she did know, she liked. He was friendly and funny and the customers loved him. “Even if I was aiming at you, I’d have missed. I’m not very athletic.”
Slade chuckled. “Don’t think you need to be if you want to bean someone with a door.”
Laughing, Reena stepped into the room. “True, true.” She pulled off her apron.
“You done already?”
“Yeah. Mrs. Wallace gave me the rest of the day off.”
“Lucky you.”
“I’m not sure about that.” Reena frowned. She’d been all but ordered to eat lunch at Sunday’s with Rush. No doubt they’d have lots of eyes on them.
“Make the most of your time off. I’ll see you later. I need to get behind the bar before Tris comes looking for me. I’d be getting the boot, not the afternoon off.” Slade waved before he disappeared out the door.
Reena grabbed her bag and checked her phone. There were several missed messages. All from Rush. She smiled as she opened them up. He’d sent a ton of emojis. Kisses, hearts, flowers, a moon and stars and sun, and something that looked like… “Oh my god!”
He’d sent her a penis. Thank god it wasn’t a picture of his actual penis.
Laughing, she switched her phone off, dropped it in her bag and headed out of the staffroom. The man was incorrigible. He knew how to make her laugh, how to help her relax and enjoy herself in a world she hadn’t felt a part of for so long. He made her happy.
And he was going home in three days.
