Tempted

Bailey remains silent, seemingly overwhelmed with everything I just threw at her. I need her to speak. I want to know if this makes her happy. I’m not sure why I care so much, but I do. For some reason, I want to make this woman smile.

You’re in over your head, Lawson.

“Bailey, say something,” I command. “Does this work for you?”

She nods, eyes still as wide as saucers. She clears her throat before finally speaking.

“I’m . . . overwhelmed.”

I figured as much, but I can’t help but grin as a smile spreads across her face and a single tear falls from her eye. She swipes it away, shaking her head.

“I won’t let you down.” Her voice is quiet and reserved, and that lack of confidence turns my own smile to a frown.

“You’re going to have to believe the words you say in order to carry out that promise,” I chide, hoping to break through her lack of belief in herself. At this moment, she reminds me too much of Alexa, and it makes my stomach turn.

“Do you have any ideas for your new hires?” I ask, trying to get my mind back to the present.

She blows out a breath before chewing on her lip in contemplation. Then her eyes light up, and that smile graces her beautiful face once again.

“I’ll need to post an ad for my assistant, but I do have at least one person in mind for the muscle.”

I quirk a brow. “Muscle?”

She nods once. “Yes. I think Carter would be the perfect person to oversee the sites. He’d be an amazing manager one day.”

My nose scrunches, not in disgust but in disagreement. Carter is an amazing bartender, but his extracurricular activities—ones I’ve overlooked, despite my rules—won’t fly in management of any of my restaurants.

Yes, I’m not ignorant. I know drugs are readily available anywhere, but my team needs to be better than that.

Bailey’s face falls before I can even voice my concerns. “You don’t think he’d do a good job?”

“It’s not that I don’t think he could do it. I know he could. It’s just . . . Carter has some habits that I’m not on board with.”

She stiffens in her seat, eyes flying around the room, looking anywhere but at me. She’s probably thinking about her own background. The difference is, she’s rehabilitated. She’s sober. Her past won’t prevent me from offering her this job.

When she looks back at me, there is a resolve in the depths of her blue eyes. “What if those habits went away?”

I internally groan. She doesn’t know Carter like I do. He is so far gone, it would take a costly intervention to bring him around, and even then, his friendships and lifestyle would lead him right back to using. I’ve watched the cycle with him. He’s been much better, but you have to want to quit, and I’m not sure that Carter does.

“We need someone ready to go, Bailey. I don’t think Carter’s our guy.”

She places her hands on the top of the table. “Then I’m not either.”

My head jerks back, caught off guard that she’d put one hundred thousand dollars on the line for someone she barely knows. She’s either the most loyal person I’ve ever met or the dumbest.

“I believe that people deserve second chances, Drew. Carter is good people, and he needs this. Desperately.” The sheer fierceness of her tone has me compelled to hear more.

“Go on,” I urge.

She goes from determined to flustered in two seconds flat. I clearly have her confused, based on the way her eyes are narrowed, brows pinched together.

“It-it’s just,” she stammers, and I purse my lips to bring out the fight in her.

It works like a charm. Steel replaces uncertainty in that lovely face, and she forges on.

“These habits have been formed by feelings of inadequacy. He needs a purpose.”

“He has one. He manages the club,” I cut in, and in exchange, I receive a scowl, followed by a very pointed eye roll.

“A club. Do you think that’s going to help his situation?”

I damn near flinch at the way she’s lecturing me. It’s been a very long time since someone chewed me out, and that’s exactly what I feel is happening now. If I’m honest, I’m truly loving her bite.

“What do you propose, Bailey?”

“Give him something to stay . . . habit-free for.”

I consider her words. Isn’t that exactly what I’m doing for her? I know there is a greater chance that the stress from the position she’s wanting to place him in could cause the adverse effect. He could start using more.

“Bailey, addicts turn to drugs to escape the hardships of life. His role of managing New York laborers would be rough. Don’t you think we’d be throwing him to the wolves?”

“I don’t need you to tell me how addicts work, Drew.”