“You can’t do that,” Mila finally told him.
Maddox opened one eye. “Yes, I can.”
“It wasn’t their fault.” Mila took a breath. “It was mine. I put a laxative in your drink. And I may have put more than the label directed…” She folded her arms and looked away.
They stared at her. “Mila,” Parker hissed in warning.
“It’s true,” she told them flatly. She almost regretted it.
Almost.
Maddox stared at her in disbelief.
“You can fire me,” she said, “but leave the restaurant alone.”
After several seconds, Maddox’s face took on a gleam. “Oh, I’m not going to fire you.”
She didn’t like the look on his face, and she knew she had good reason to worry.
The next thing Mila knew, she was on her hands and knees scrubbing the toilet in Maddox’s bathroom in the office. She reasoned it could be worse. Though with her face all up in his toilet’s business, she couldn’t think how.
Parker showed up and started wiping the countertop.
“You don’t have to help,” she told him. “I’m doing this by choice.”
Parker snorted. “I doubt that. And I don’t mind. It’s been nice having someone else around.”
Mila half smiled. She looked up at him, blowing stray hairs out of her face. “It’s certainly made it more tolerable for me.”
Parker gazed down at her. He hesitated but then reached down and brushed her stray lock away and tucked it behind her ear. “Thank you,” she said quietly. It was a considerate thing to do since her gloved hands were all over the toilet, but…she didn’t want anything weird happening between them.
Parker smiled in his easy way and sprayed the sink, pretending like nothing had happened. That was a good sign. After all, he was a decent guy, and helping her like that didn’t have to mean anything. Even if she didn’t want this job, she still wanted to leave as unscathed as possible.