Page 9 of Off the Mark
Then she grabbed her things and reached for her car keys. “Whoever this guy is, he must be different. The Charlie Maddox I know doesn’t suffer fools lightly.”
I fixed another fake smile on my face. “You’ll love him when you meet him. Everyone does.”
It was the most honest part of this bizarre, deceitful conversation. Everyonedidlove Rowan. He was an insufferable flirt who—back when I was still tending bar at Jolene’s—I watched take home a different woman more nights than not.
The fact that I’d been blushing earlier while talking about him wasn’t an issue. That was an ordinary, physical response to the memory of what Rowan looked like.
Which was…very hot.
Almost annoyingly hot.
Blushing was simply inconvenient. Theproblemwas that my old friend Rowan O’Callaghan didn’tknowthat he was my boyfriend.
My only option was to go tell him.
4
ROWAN
It turns out that the learning curve when stepping in as interim executive director is really fucking steep.
Two days after I’d shrugged off Luciana’s concern, I was sitting behind Elaine’s desk, dreaming of the days when I was only responsible foronepart of the complex machine that was the South Philly Rec Center.
Elaine was—thank god—getting better every day, though when I spoke with Mattie, she reiterated what Luciana had said: her prognosis was great. Didn’t mean that returning here was an option though.
I kicked my feet up onto the desk, balancing them on a stack of grant reports I’d just discovered were due this week. I was still on the phone, pleading with the same plumber half the block used, because the sink in our kitchen was leaking again and we werethis closeto a flood.
“I told you. I’m slammed, brother,” Joey grumbled. “That rain last night flooded everyone’s basement on Federal, and I ain’t got enough extra hands to send over to you.”
I glued my eyes to the ceiling but kept my voice cheerful. “Yo, I get it. I was up early this morning bailing out my grandmother’s basement, and Alice wasn’t happy about it. She missed her morning coffee with Midge and Maria and some hot gossip about a cousin’s baby shower.”
He coughed out a laugh. “You know Alice can call the experts.”
“We’re trying, but you’re tellin’ me you’re too busy,” I pointed out.
“Yeah,okay,you don’t gotta bust my balls about it. I know it’s bad, and you don’t want sink water all over the ground when you’ve got kids running through. Can’t Dean fix it?”
“He’s not our handyman guy anymore. He’s my program coordinator guy and he’s busy.”
An alarm on Elaine’s computer buzzed, indicating my next meeting was in twenty minutes. How the hell did she get anythingdoneduring the day?
“Joey, I have to run. If you get any openings, take pity on us?”
“Put some towels down, and we’ll do our best, okay?”
We hung up just as Dean ambled into the office with my favoritePhilly Underdogsmug. He placed it—steaming, full of fresh coffee—on the only spot on the desk not covered in paperwork.
I grabbed it with grateful hands. “People don’t call you a hero enough. But that’s what you are to me.”
He sank into the chair by the desk, shrugging one shoulder. “What if I also told you I already called an old boxing buddy about our plumbing emergency? He’s got a spot on the other side of Snyder and he said he’ll be here in an hour.”
“You’re joking.”
Dean grinned. “It helps that the last time I stepped in the ring with him, he knocked me the fuck out. Think he still feels bad.”
I raised my mug in his direction. “This gives new meaning totaking one for the team, dude. Thank you. When I got here this morning and saw the water spraying across the floor, I almost put my fist through the wall. But I was too tired from crying over Elaine’s inbox. I’m not lying”—I turned the screen towards Dean— “she has like nine hundred unanswered messages.”
“Things are that bad?”
