“Hockey is trendy.”
“Pool is classic.”
“We can do both. Open that customer-interest window wider.” He met her gaze and something intense flared in his when his knee grazed hers under the table.
Not unlike the way he’d looked at her the night it had happened. She swallowed and forced herself to look at the computer screen. She pointed to the opposite corner.
“What’s this?”
“We took some of the dining space for live music and dancing. On the weekends people want to de-stress.”
“You mean relax.”
“I mean let off steam. Loud music. Singing. Maybe karaoke. Watching games and yelling at their team or booing the opponent. Dancing. Contests. Promotions.”
He was so enthusiastic but she was looking at the end of an era and it made her sad. “Did my grandfather know about any of this?”
“I talked to him a little bit. Brainstormed as ideas popped into my head.”
“What did he say?”
“Pretty much what you are,” he admitted. “But he didn’t shoot anything down. He knew status quo wasn’t working.”
That was honest. He could have lied. Pat Morrow was gone and she’d never know what he thought. She couldn’t dispute that the current situation was less than successful, but she wasn’t ready to concede the point yet.
“Would you like some coffee?” It was a delaying tactic, giving her more time to think.
“Yeah. If it’s not too much trouble.”
“There’s a pot right here.” She needed to put some distance between them and was willing to risk the smell.
She went behind the bar and put water and grounds into the drip coffee maker, then hit the on switch. When there was nothing left to do but wait, she walked back to the table, careful to stand far enough away so that she couldn’t be distracted by his body heat and manly smell.
As if there’d been no pause, Leo started talking. “We need to put in TVs around the room to show football, baseball, hockey games. Make this the designated place to watch my former team.”
“Lend your celebrity name to bring in customers?” She meant women but kept that to herself.
“Yes. Anything that will get the word out there so people will give us a try.”
“I don’t know about this, Leo.” She frowned. Apparently he’d forgotten what she’d said about turning her grandfather’s legacy into a sports freak show.
“Look, Tess, I’m aware that this is an emotional time for you—”
“Hold the phone. Don’t make my hesitation about me being pregnant. I have a business degree with a minor in marketing.”
“That’s not what I meant. Your grandfather just died and this pub was his baby. He put everything he had into every corner. But he knew that change isn’t a bad thing. We can make it fresh and still keep his heart and soul. You just have to trust me.”
And there was the problem. He was too much like the guy who had broken her heart, which made trust in his judgment hard to come by. But that was personal. This was business and his lawyer had assured her he was good at it. Plus her grandfather had chosen him to invest.
While they’d debated, coffee brewed and the smell of it was everywhere. Or maybe it was her supersensitive nose due to pregnancy. Didn’t matter why, but the stronger the smell, the worse she felt. She fought back as long as possible but it was a losing battle.
“I’m—oh, God—I’m going to be sick.”
She put her hand over her mouth and raced upstairs for the privacy of her own bathroom. She made it—barely—and lost her breakfast. No way the perfect Leo Wallace was going to see her toss her cookies.
“Tess?”
Dear God, no. He followed her! “Go away.”
The next thing she knew, he was beside her, scooping her hair back from her face as she bent over the toilet. She’d be furious if she didn’t feel hot, sweaty and humiliated. He held her hair with one hand and rubbed her back with the other.
No, no, no. “Go away. Please,” she mumbled.
“Not happening.”
Her stomach was empty but she waited a few moments to make sure it was over. With a shaking hand, she pressed the handle to flush and then straightened up. After closing the lid, she stood and sat down on it, refusing to meet his gaze.
“I’m okay now. Really. You can go. I’ll meet you downstairs in a minute.”
Her eyes drifted shut, but she heard the sound of running water in the sink. A moment later he pressed a cool washcloth to her forehead and rubbed it across her neck. It felt so good she could cry. That might be about gratitude, or hormones, or both.
“Stay here. I’ll be back in a second.”
Before she could pull together the energy to say “don’t tell me what to do,” he was gone. Several moments later he was back with the box of crackers. He opened it and one of the four individual packs inside, then handed her a salty square.
“This will help.” He crouched in front of her so they were eye to eye. His were full of sweetness and sympathy.
“The last thing I want to do is eat,” she said weakly.
“I know, but you have to. This will settle your stomach.”
If she didn’t feel so crappy, she would have asked how he could be so sure. Instead she gave him a skeptical look. “If you’re wrong and I lose it again, will you promise to go away?”
“Cross my heart.”
“Do you have one?” She took a small bite of cracker, chewed and swallowed.
“There’s the snark I know and love. You must be feeling a little better.”
When there was no adverse reaction to the single nibble, she took another and waited. It went down easily. Even more surprising, she was suddenly hungry. “Can I have another one?”
He handed her the package. “Knock yourself out.”
She took small bites and chewed slowly. “You know, when I took the pregnancy test and it was positive, I couldn’t believe it was true. There was nothing tangible to prove I was going to have a baby. Then bam. I feel like roadkill, proof that there are changes going on.”
“Nature is pretty amazing.”
She nibbled two more crackers and began to feel more like herself. She knew that because her defenses against him were going back up.
“You’re being awfully nice to me for a man who doesn’t believe this baby is his.”
He looked down for a second, then back at her. There was a glint of humor in his blue eyes. “About that... I asked around, to see if you’d slept with anyone else.”
“You didn’t!”
“Everyone said no. But you might have said it never happened.”
“Okay. Now you’re being a jerk so all is right with the world.” But was it? Her heart seemed to swell a couple of sizes. “Make no mistake. If it gets out how sweet you’re being to me, there will be hell to pay.”
“Oh?”
“More women will throw their panties at you.”
“More than zero?” He arched an eyebrow. “No one does that now.”
“Like I believe that,” she scoffed.
But she couldn’t shrug