Boss Daddy: A Secret Baby Romance by Black, L. (good books for high schoolers .TXT) 📕

hearing them talk about Jordan. I tried to look away so neither of them would notice, but Ava caught my eye and smiled.

“Look at that blush,” she said. “You know, Hannah, Jordan has the same kind of reaction when he talks about you.”

Amanda grinned and nodded. “He does. I noticed that at dinner at mom’s house last night. As soon as he started talking about the new hire here, he started getting all smiley. When he mentioned your name, he smiled even more. I don’t think he blushed, but Jordan isn’t exactly the blushing kind.”

I couldn’t help but think through all of my reactions with Jordan and how he made me feel. Now knowing he was reacting to me in the same way I was reacting to him kind of scared me. I needed to get away from the conversation.

Looking across the bar, I noticed a few of the tables had started to fill up. It was the perfect opportunity to slip away.

“I have to get to work,” I said. “It was really nice to meet you.”

Without waiting for Amanda to respond, I hurried over to the first table and greeted the customers. I recognized them as regulars, and that put me more at ease. For the next couple of hours, I kept my head down and focused on doing my job. It helped me keep my thoughts and fears under control.

During a lull in the night, Ava managed to corner me. I knew she had been trying to get my attention throughout the night, but I had managed to elude her by staying busy. Now I had a few seconds, and she was able to hold me off to the side.

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable earlier, Hannah,” she said. “I really didn’t mean to. I’ve just never seen Jordan react to anyone the way he does to you. It makes me happy to see. And I thought that maybe if you were reacting the same way…”

I shook my head to stop her. I didn’t even want to hear what she might be thinking after that.

“It’s okay. I just got out of a pretty bad relationship right before I moved here. He was really controlling and could be pretty mean. It wasn’t a good situation. I’m just not comfortable with the idea of getting into anything right at the moment.”

Ava reached out and pulled me into a hug. “I had no idea. I’m sorry you went through that. If you ever need to talk, ever, I’m here for you. I want you to know that. And I’m being totally serious. This isn’t just me saying it to sound nice. If you ever just need to vent or have a shoulder to cry on, you can always come to me.”

I smiled. “Thank you. That means a lot to me. I am so glad I moved here.”

“I am, too,” Ava said. She glanced behind me to the bar, then looked at me again. “You know what? It’s gotten pretty quiet out there. Why don’t we grab something to eat and sit down for a bit? There’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about.”

I nodded, and we went to the kitchen to put in orders for our own burgers. They served them up to us, and Ava and I carried the plates piled high with golden French fries and the juicy burgers to a table in the back of the restaurant. It was one we usually kept reserved for members of the staff because it was out of the way.

“This looks absolutely delicious,” I said. “I got to taste some of the elements of it, but I’m excited to try the whole thing.”

We each took a bite, and it was as incredible as I expected it to be. After a few bites and nibbling down some of the fries, Ava took a sip of her drink and swallowed resolutely.

“Okay, so I wanted to see if you could give me some input. We need something really dynamic for the next theme night. The customer expectations are getting higher, and I want to do something that will really blow them out of the water. There are a lot of the themes that they love and are happy to do more than once, like the classic car night, but I don’t want to get complacent. I want to make sure we’re always surprising them and offering them something that keeps them interested. I usually come up with the themes, but I was hoping some new perspective might come up with something fresh,” she said.

I was thrilled she would even consider asking me for my opinion and ideas. The theme nights were a huge part of the appeal of The Hollow. They had become their trademark, and that came with a lot of responsibility. As much attention and draw as a good theme night could have, a bad one could be disastrous. It was flattering she would trust me even so much as to ask for ideas.

We went back and forth for a few minutes talking about the types of nights they’d had before I started working at the bar and some of the ideas she had been tossing around.

“You know what I absolutely loved in high school?” I asked after giving a couple of suggestions. “Gatsby. We read the book in high school, and I just got totally swept up in it. Then when I was in college, there was a homecoming dance that was themed to that era. Not necessarily the book, but the whole general idea. It wasn’t particularly well done, but I remember thinking it could be amazing if it was done the right way.”

Ava’s eyes widened. “That is such an incredible idea. We’ve never done anything even close to like that. It would be totally unexpected and something brand-new for us to try. I think people would think it was amazing. I’m going to start looking into that and we’ll get planning it.”

I couldn’t help but smile and