The Bachelor Takes a Bride

“I was looking for you.”

“Well, now you’ve found me.”

His smile was quick. “Can I keep you?”

“You wouldn’t want to,” she told him. “I’m very high maintenance.”

“In my experience, most high-maintenance women don’t realize they’re high maintenance.”

“See—I’m challenging your perceptions already.”

“About more than you probably realize,” he acknowledged.

“How did you find out where I worked?”

“You don’t believe it’s a coincidence that I decided to stop in here for a beer?”

“No.”

He grinned at the blunt response. “My sister, Renata, told me I’d probably find you here.”

“Renata and Craig,” she realized. “He’s the firefighter who plays third base for the Brew Crew.”

He nodded.

“Small world.”

“And strange that our paths never crossed until recently.”

“Or maybe not so strange considering that we probably work similarly unusual hours,” she countered.

The blonde waitress who was taking care of the tables sidled up to the bar. “I need two pints of Guinness, a glass of white and a G&T, extra lime.”

“Excuse me,” Jordyn said to Marco, and busied herself filling the order.

“It’s hard to have a conversation when you keep moving away or we keep getting interrupted,” he commented when the waitress had gone.

“I’m working,” she reminded him.

“I know,” he acknowledged. “And if you give me your number, I’ll gladly relinquish this stool to another customer.”

“I can’t do that.”

“I won’t tell Bobby,” he promised.

“I’m not worried about Bobby.”

“Then what are you worried about?”

“I’m not worried. It’s just that...” Her explanation trailed off and she shook her head. “I don’t know.”

He feigned surprise. “You don’t know your number?”

The hint of another smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “I don’t want you to know my number.”

“Why not?”

“Because then you’ll call and ask me to go out with you, and I’ll either feel really bad for saying no or I’ll say yes and afterward wish that I’d said no.”

“There is a third option,” he told her. “You could say yes, have a fabulous time, fall head over heels in love with me, and want to spend the rest of your life as my wife and the mother of my babies.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Because I work fifty hours a week serving beer to mostly male customers in a pub. Trust me, there isn’t a pickup line I haven’t heard.”

“That’s probably true,” he acknowledged. “But I would hope you’d learned to distinguish between the guys who just want a quick roll between the sheets and the ones who are sincerely interested in getting to know you better.”

“And then I’d recognize you as one of the sincere ones?” she asked doubtfully.

“You would,” he confirmed.

“I’m flattered by your interest,” she told him. “But I’m not going to go out with you.”

“You don’t believe I’m sincere,” he realized.

“Even if you are, I’m not looking to fall head over heels in love, get married and have babies.”

“My grandmother says that love often sneaks up when we least expect it.”

“I’m sure she’s a wise woman,” Jordyn said. “But she doesn’t know me.”

“Not yet.”

She huffed out a breath. “You’re relentless—I’ll give you that.”

“Persistent,” he decided.

“I really don’t date customers.”

“Is that your boss’s rule or a personal philosophy?”

“A personal philosophy,” she admitted. “Although the statement would be equally true without the ‘customers’ part.”

“You don’t date?”

“Aside from one recent and ill-advised setup, no,” she confirmed.