Zach (Hell's Handlers MC 1)

“Wanna talk about it?” Shell asked.

“No.”

“Okay. But you should know, he looks pissed.”

Toni’s eyes popped open. Visible in the side mirror, Zach stood, legs spread and hands on his hips near the entrance to the bar. The scowl on his face would have scared paint off the wall.

Pissed may have been too tame a word. Irate was more like it.

This wasn’t over. He wanted her. He wouldn’t just let it die.

She could feel it in her bones.

She just wasn’t sure what to do about it.

Chapter Thirteen

“So, you aren’t able to start until the middle of September?” Toni asked the woman sitting on the opposite side of her desk. Jazmine Walker was her name. She came with restaurant management experience, a sunny personality, and claimed to fall in love with Toni’s diner on the spot.

“That’s right. I’m locked into something until just after Labor Day. Then I’ll be moving here from Arizona.”

Toni’s heart sank. She needed someone to begin August twentieth. School resumed the Tuesday after Labor Day and she planned to return to Chicago before the end of August so she had time to get back into guidance counselor mode. That meant her replacement would have to be trained starting around mid-August.

Not possible for Jazmine, who happened to be the best of the six people she’d interviewed that week. Still no manager and no buyer for the diner. Her commercial realtor had brought a developer by who was interested in the diner, only to inform Toni he planned to gut the building and turn it into a Starbucks.

Over Toni’s dead body.

She realized she may have been having some inflated separation anxiety when it came to the restaurant. It shouldn’t matter what the new owners planned to do. Once Toni left, she wouldn’t be coming back. There wouldn’t be anything left for her in Townsend. But with each passing day, she admittedly grew a little more attached to the diner, her staff, the mountains, and the townspeople.

But not to a sexy biker. No, she refused to allow herself to grow attached to him.

With a heavy sigh, she closed the notebook she’d written the answers to her questions in. “I’ll be honest with you, Jazmine.” She propped her elbows on the desk and rested her chin on her folded hands. “I want you to manage the diner. I think you’d be absolutely perfect for the position. But I need someone to start earlier, and I’m not sure how permanent the position even is, since I’m selling it.”

Jazmine wrung her hands in her lap and nodded. “The second part is fine. I’m kind of going into nomad mode and just plan to stay as long as I’m needed. But unfortunately, my start date is not flexible, so while I’m sad to lose the opportunity, I completely understand if you have to pass me by.”

Maybe Shell would be willing to run things for a few weeks. Just until Jazmine could get there. Shell didn’t want the job for the long term—Toni had actually offered it to her before interviewing anyone—but maybe she’d be willing for a short time.

“I’d like to think about it for a bit, see if I can figure a few things out. Would that work for you?”

Jazmine’s face lit up. She was a few years older than Toni, closing in on thirty, and had dark brown hair in the cutest pixie cut. “That would definitely work for me.” She rose and extended her hand. “Thank you so much for your time, Toni. I look forward to hearing from you.”

Toni shook her hand and started to stand.

“Don’t get up. I can show myself out.”

“Sounds good. Have a safe trip back to Arizona.”

After the door to her office closed behind Jazmine, Toni slouched in her chair and sighed. The diner would be closing in the next hour, and it would be safe for her to leave the office she’d admittedly been hiding in for the past three days.

Hiding like the chicken shit she was.

Hiding because Zach had eaten at the diner each of those days.

And Toni was avoiding him with a capital A. Still a mess of mixed emotions, embarrassment, desire, anger, shame, she’d done everything in her power to escape a run in with Zach. Peeking out her windows before she left the house to make sure he wasn’t outside. Skipping her nightly sunset. Cowering in her office from the moment he entered the diner until she was sure the coast was clear.

What the hell was wrong with her?

She wasn’t a coward.

She was a grown woman. A business owner and home owner. A responsible and respected member of the community. Why the hell was she hiding? Because she regretted one kiss? Because it brought her back to a time she’d rather never think about again?

Pathetic.

Her past was just that, her past. It was a part of her and, somehow, she had to be able to think about it without freaking out again.