Coming Home- Rock Bay 1 (3 page)

“
Y
OU
did
what
?” Amy’s face was incredulous and halfway between laughter and horror. She was perched on one of the leather barstools near the counter in Lex’s shop. He’d tried to butter her up with a raspberry jelly donut so she wouldn’t freak out. Should’ve known it was useless.

“I hired Tallis Carrington to work at my shop?” It came out more like a question than a statement.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought I heard. I hoped I’d been hallucinating.”
“I need the help, Ames. I haven’t exactly had applicants pounding on the door.”
“So that’s what it is? It’s about the shop and not at all about you and your past with him?”
“What past? I was some kid that he harassed in high school. He doesn’t even know who I am.”
Amy nearly spit her coffee out. “What are you talking about? You were that asshole’s personal punching bag! He was awful to you for like three quarters of freshman year—well, until he left, anyway. How could anyone forget that?”
“I sure as hell haven’t. That’s not what I mean, though. He thought I was a newcomer. He said ‘forget what you’ve
been told
about me and my father.’ The guy doesn’t have a clue why I know him.”
“Are you going to tell him?”
Lex reacted immediately. “Hell no!”
“You’re just going to relive your ancient masochistic crush on him every day.”
Lex almost told Amy he’d never had a crush on Carrington, but he figured she’d know he was lying. He still hated himself for that.
“Give me some credit for growing up, huh? Besides. Maybe I’ll make him do all the crappy jobs like taking out the trash and stuff. It would be kind of fun paying him back for all the times he slammed my face against the lockers.”
Amy chuckled. “As long as you’re clear about what’s really going on here.”
“All clear. I promise it’s just about work. I’ll ignore the bastard otherwise, okay?”
“Okay.” It was obvious she didn’t believe it for a second. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt, hon. You know that.”
Lex laughed out loud at that one. “Jesus, Amy. I hired the guy to make coffee. I didn’t ask him to be my date for the homecoming dance. Besides, he’s straight, remember? Last time I checked that meant no touching.”
Amy raised her eyebrows. “So you admit that you want to touch him.”
“Well, sure, he’s still hot, but I—” Lex stopped when he realized there was no way in hell he could say anything without her taking it to mean that he still had that ridiculous, no,
masochistic
, crush he’d tried to hide all those years back. “I’m not saying another word. I know how you operate. You’ll twist everything that comes out of my mouth into some lascivious double entendre.”
“Argh. Nice word choice. English minor rears its ugly head. Anyway, you know I gotta practice if I want to be one of the churchyard newscasters once my hair starts turning gray.”
Lex rolled his eyes.
She’d have to go to church for once first.
“You’ll be a natural.”
“Hey, I should head out, but I’ll stop by the shop on my way to the hospital tomorrow.” Amy was an ER nurse at Columbia Memorial Hospital across the river in Astoria. She usually left her house early so she’d have time to hang out with Lex and drink a coffee before driving the twenty minutes or so to work.
“Ames, I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”
“Why not?”
He sighed. “I know you. Can I at least get him trained before you butt your well-meaning head in?”
“I’m not going to
do
anything to him. I’m just curious.”
Lex grunted skeptically. “Let’s just say that things have a tendency to come flying out of your mouth before you’ve thought them over. I need to figure him out on my own before I have you in here poking around, okay?”
“Okay. You know, there
is
a lovely Starbucks down the road from the hospital. I could always stop there and get a nice, big, expensive latte—and maybe I’ll buy treats for all the other nurses too.”
Lex winced. “Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I
T WAS
pitch black outside when Lex’s alarm started blaring the next morning. Except in the height of summer, it usually was. He reached over groggily with a slow-moving hand and slapped ineffectually at the snooze button on his alarm until the god-awful thing was finally silenced. Groaning, he flipped his legs over the side of the bed until his feet were resting on the small Persian replica he had there for chilly mornings just like that one. Sometimes, Lex wondered what on earth had made him choose a business that required him to be up
before
the crack of dawn. He’d never been a huge fan of early mornings, and most of the time when he got up, it still felt like night.
Too late to rethink that now.

Too late to rethink hiring Tallis Carrington as well. Lex halfway thought that perhaps Amy was right. Maybe it was a bad idea to hire his old nemesis and misguided crush. He shrugged it off and stepped into the shower, hoping that the steam would wake him up. He really
had
needed the help. It didn’t mean he had to like the person who was helping him.

His back hurt like hell from the heavy box of new cups he’d put down the wrong way the day before.
Damn, I’m getting old.
He could almost feel his mother smacking him on the arm with a rolled up newspaper and saying “If you’re old, what on earth does that make me?” Lex grinned to himself. Twenty-eight wasn’t so bad, anyway. It would be nicer if he wasn’t alone, he imagined, but there was no way he was going to give Amy the satisfaction of knowing that thought had even crossed his mind.

Lex got out of the shower and ran a towel cursorily over his skin, missing a few drops here and there but in too much of a rush to care. As usual, he’d lain in bed till the last possible moment, and there was so much to do in the mornings before he could open. He pulled a pair of jeans from his dresser and shoved his legs into them before grabbing a shirt from the closet.

Dressed and as awake as he could possibly be, Lex closed and locked the door to his upstairs apartment and walked down the staircase that ended in the hallway behind the coffee shop where his office and the storage room were. Some days he wished his home were more removed from work, but usually in the morning, when he could barely drag himself out of bed, he loved the fact that he was already where he needed to go.

He was almost surprised to see Tallis waiting for him outside the glass door of the shop. Almost. There had been a desperation in Carrington’s eyes the day before that Lex definitely didn’t remember. It seemed that things hadn’t been so easy for him after… well, everything that had happened. So perhaps life had changed Tallis Carrington just a touch. Didn’t mean Lex could trust him.

“Carrington. You’re on time,” he said as he opened the door. Snapped was more like it. He was annoyed with himself for thinking that the guy looked amazing in his well-worn designer jeans. “You need some new jeans. Work on that.”
God, why did I say that? What a jerk.

Lex grunted noncommittally as he took the stack of papers with a less than gentle swipe.
“Um, Lex?”
“Yeah?”
“Could you please not call me Carrington? I’m not a huge fan of my last name anymore. Tally is fine.”
“Yeah. Whatever.”
“And I’ll get some new jeans after a paycheck or two. It hasn’t been an easy few months.”
Lex wanted to tell Tally not to worry about it, but he stopped himself.
This guy isn’t unassuming Tally. He’s still Tallis Carrington, no matter how far he’s fallen. Give him one rung to pull himself up on and he’ll squash you on his way back to the top.
Instead, Lex opened a bottom shelf and got out an extra apron.
“Here. Put this on. Today is little stuff: cleaning, garbage, we’ll see how it goes from there.”

Cleaning? Garbage? I’m not fifteen.
Tally bit his lip. Gorgeous Lex’s expression couldn’t have said asshole any more clearly than it did. Too bad, because it kind of ruined that perfect face. Tally plastered a smile on his own face, ready to take whatever was dealt out. He needed the job too much to be picky. He started by Windexing the counters and the glass in front of the display shelves. He could only imagine that’s what Lex Luthor had in mind when he’d thrust the cleaner and a towel into his hands with a taciturn grunt. Tally had to stop himself from chuckling at the spontaneous nickname. Lex Luthor it was. Gorgeous and a dick—but his employer just the same.

“Hey, I’m done with counters and the glass. Hit all of the tables too. What’s next?”
He watched his boss look around the nearly pristine shop. There was nothing left to clean, and they both knew it. Tally could almost see the mental wheels spinning.
“The store’s going to open in about fifteen minutes. You know how to work a cash register?”
What happened to cleaning and garbage?
If nothing else, maybe cash register experience would save him from a day of busboy duties.
“Yeah, I’ve been using them for years.”
“And I’m assuming you are pretty good with taking orders down, restaurant history and all.”
Tally flinched. Somehow, Lex had made the words “restaurant history” sound like “rap sheet.”
“Yes. I’m good at taking orders down.”
“Good. Here’s the menu. The food’s pretty self-explanatory as far as pricing, but the coffee is a bit more involved. The prices listed here are for one flavor twelve, sixteen, and twenty-four ounce drinks. It’s another fifty cents per flavor and another dollar on top of that for anything special like
breve
or specialty milks like soy or rice. If they want the powdered white chocolate flavor, it’s seventy-five cents extra because it’s more expensive than the syrup to buy. Oh, and our special this week is the butter pecan. That’s two dollars flat if it’s a sixteen, regular price for any other size. Every week it’ll be a different flavor, but the same rules apply.”
Is he fucking kidding?
Tally knew what Lex was doing could only be new-employee homicide. Tally wanted to call him on it, but he was fairly sure that Lex knew exactly what he was up to and would never even consider doing it to anyone else.
The jerk wants me to quit. Screw that.
The little surge of his old competitive spirit felt better than anything had in years. He used to hate losing, but he’d spent so long doing nothing but losing that it’d become second nature. Not this time. He was sure this whole town would delight in seeing him fail, new guy obviously included. Hell if he’d give them the pleasure.
“You got a pen and a blank piece of paper? I’ll need to have a cheat sheet for a few days until I get the coffee pricing down.”
“I said I didn’t want to tell you anything twice.”
Tally took a deep breath. “I’m not asking you to tell me again, I just want to write it down. Is that okay?”
Patience. You need this job.
Lex seemed to relax a little, like he’d caught himself being a prick and didn’t know quite how to get out of it. “Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll get you a sheet out of my printer.”
It was going to be a trial by fire for sure. More like a trial by hot steaming espresso… and a possible tarring and feathering by his old fellow townspeople. Honestly, that worried Tally a whole hell of a lot more than any complicated price list. Lex wordlessly handed him a blank sheet of printer paper. Writing the pricing rules helped him to start memorizing them. It also helped him to relax a little, in what he supposed was the calm before the coming tempest. Lex waited, in an unexpected show of patience, for him to finish writing his list before speaking again.
“So you take orders, call the drinks and sandwiches to me, and ring them through. If you have extra time, you can also bag any pastries that are ordered. You think you can handle that?” Lex’s face said that he assumed the answer was no.
“I think so,” Tally answered. He didn’t want to be too cocky, but he wanted to show confidence, despite the general non-existence of any form of training. It was a balancing act, trying not to piss the new boss off.
Lex only nodded, then walked to the front of the shop to unlock the front door.
“It’s showtime.”
Jesus, what is my effing problem?
Lex couldn’t believe how much of a dick he was being. He hadn’t come down the stairs that morning with any intention of acting like the biggest asshole in the western hemisphere, but for some reason, every time he opened his mouth it just got worse.
Guess I’m still angrier with him than I thought I was.
He’d honestly thought he’d let go of his old humiliations years before. But apparently, the name calling, toilet dunking, pantsing, egging, and the shit bomb in his locker….
“
Awww, poor Butters. Don’t cry, little baby. Mom’s not here now, is she?”
Lex wanted to cry, but he blinked the tears from his eyes. Why had he told his mother? Shit. She’d promised him she wouldn’t go to the principal. Clearly, she’d decided to anyway.
“Leave me alone, Carrington. I haven’t done anything to you.”
Tallis grinned gleefully and smashed Lex’s face against the bathroom stall. “But it’s so much fun to mess with you.” His friends laughed and gave each other high fives.
Lex was desperate. “You left me alone last week when we were in—”
His face was wiped down the stall until he was kissing the toilet. Tallis
had
left him alone the week before when it had just been them in the room. Clearly he didn’t want his friends to know about it.
“Ready, Butters?”
“No!”
Carrington didn’t listen. He dunked Lex’s head in the toilet and flushed, laughing the whole time. Then the pressure holding Lex down was gone, and he was alone in the restroom, accompanied only by the slam of the metal door.
Yeah, the hurt was obviously still lurking and ready to lash out and bite him in the ass. The last thing Lex needed was to freak out on his new employee—the one he was still trying to decide what his motivation was for hiring. He honestly needed the guy to stay. It was probably a little too late for first impressions, though. If looking either nuts or like a huge jerk was what he wanted, then he was off to a bang of a start.
It’s all about the business. Try to remember that….