By The Sea Read Free

day was lapsing into night. The dull lights were on, illuminating the chipped lettering of our sign. I swung around to the employee entrance.
    Jenna leaned against the wall, puffing away at her cigarette. I waved, the slight jitters seeping away until I rounded the corner and realized someone else stood there, too. A tall, well-muscled someone who made me flush like a teenager. Mason.
    He looked up and, once those ash blue eyes fixed on me, he burst into a radiant smile that lit his whole face. Yep, wasn’t getting out of this one sans-blush. I tucked a couple strands of hair behind my ear and looked down at my feet.
    “Hey guys, how’s it going?” I grabbed for the door.
    “You’re always so early,” Jenna complained. “It makes the rest of us look bad.”
    “Sorry, sorry. Next time I’ll make sure to show up late.” I tried to slip in without having to babble at Mason more. Even though I’d gotten used to him the other night, every time I saw him fresh, I could only see Niall.
    “Wait.” His hand brushed against mine as he grabbed the door. “I’m heading in, too.”
    Lovely. So I’d have to push through this awkward embarrassment. “You feel up to handling your own tables tonight?” I asked, trying to distract myself from his scent, intoxicating like the sea.
    “Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with you and Jenna.” He shrugged and strode past her. I shook my head. This guy was not Niall. The boy I’d played with was a figment of my imagination. As Doctor Harrison had called it: a delusion of a lonely child.
    “Flirt with the old ladies and you’ll be fine,” I muttered, shoving my stuff into the cubby.
    He hung his green hoodie on the hooks right beside me. “Is that how you get by?”
    “Doesn’t work on the old ladies for me, but the old men on the other hand?” I paused and glanced at my nails. “Yeah, doesn’t work on them either.”
    That elicited a laugh from him, a rich sound that brought a blush to my cheeks. Time to stop acting like a moron and do my job. I wandered over to the host stand to scope out our diners before the early rush.
    Jerome and his wife were already seated at a booth even though our open hours hadn’t begun yet. The slick layers of gel in Jerome’s hair distracted me from the extra wide smile he was throwing my way. His wife, disinterested in their excursion, stared down at the menu, her lips pinched into a frown. Without another glance to Mason, I headed over to get their drinks and appetizer orders.
    After a couple rounds to check on my customers, our place had managed a sizeable crowd for a weeknight, about twelve or so tables full. Jenna rushed through, cigarette smoke clinging to her like a cloud of gloom. Not that the girl didn’t have her good side, but the reason she got crap tips was because, on top of her perpetual sour frown, the lack of a filter when she talked to customers tended to offend.
    Mason, on the other hand, stepped up to a booth with Geneva Rhodes and her four children, charming the pants off them in a matter of seconds. In fact, I caught Geneva staring after him multiple times when he made his passes and by the way she licked her lips, her thoughts weren’t parading through innocent territory. After he waited on a couple of other groups where the women stared him down with the same predatory gaze, I began to worry he’d taken my advice too well.
    I swung by the bar to get another Guinness for old man Casey, who’d brought his pipe and paper for company.
    Mason sidled up beside me. “So, working here you pretty much see most of the people in this town, right?”
    “Since we’re a small-fry coastal town, yeah. Why do you ask?” I thanked Janice as she passed me the beer. “You looking for someone?”
    “Kind of like that.” He slipped away as fast as he’d approached. And the mysteries continued. Why was he here and who was he looking for?
    I brought the Guinness over to Mr. Casey and hopped back to Jerome and his wife. Mason