Read Online As Bad As Can Be by Kristin Hardy - Free Book Online Page B

you?”
    â€œIt’s part of our history, part of who we are as a family.” But the other part of it, what he only rarely admitted to himself, was that lately he’d been feeling suffocated. He’d lived for O’Connor’s since he’d turned sixteen. Lately he’d been itching for something more.
    â€œSo your great-grandfather started it, then your grandfather took over, then your father, then you?”
    â€œNot quite. My father was never a part of the chain.”
    â€œAh.” Her eyes brightened. “A black sheep? I have a soft spot for black sheep.”
    â€œSort of. He decided he wanted to be a lawyer instead of pull pints of stout. I took over from my grandfather when I was twenty. I’d been working for him for about four years by then, so I knew the business.”
    â€œYou’ve been running a seven-day-a-week business since you were twenty?”
    â€œMy grandfather consulted at first, but he was in his seventies by then, so it was definitely time.”
    â€œNo wonder you’re so sedate,” she murmured, propping her chin on one hand. “Did you ever have a chance to get wild at all?”
    â€œSome.” When he’d been able to get away, which hadn’t been all that often. “But we had a tradition to keep going and I was entrusted with it. That’s part of what Newport is about is history and tradition. You have to respect that.”
    â€œI do respect that. I just think there’s room for the new as well as the old.”
    â€œI agree. It’s just the type of new that we differ on.”
    She studied him. “So are you going to grow old and die running the family business before passing it on?”
    â€œI don’t know that that’s my dream.”
    â€œOh really?” She leaned forward. “And just what are your hopes and dreams, Shay?”
    â€œMusic,” Shay said, apparently deciding to take her question seriously. “Running a club for local music. We could also get some good alternative bands between gigs in Boston and New York.”
    She could see him doing it, she realized suddenly, and her picture of him changed. “But what about O’Connor’s?”
    â€œWhat about it? We’ve been hosting a live music night on Sundays for a couple of years now, so I’m used to booking bands. I’ve been looking around at local spaces, getting estimates on rebuilding. I tried to get the space you leased for Bad Reputation, only you beat me to it,” he finished with a wicked grin.
    She remembered bullying the real estate agent as he tried to stall her for some unfathomable reason. Now she knew why. “There are other places.”
    â€œSure. Location is the only glitch. It has to be close enough to O’Connor’s that I could bounce between the two, at least at first.”
    â€œWhen’s all this going to happen?”
    He sighed and tried not to be impatient. “When the time’s right. Right now I’m just doing the background work.”
    â€œWhat’s your family going to say? Or do they know about your idea?”
    â€œNot yet.”
    Mallory studied him and a mischievous light flickered in her eyes. “You know, if you’ve never had a chance to say what the hell growing up, maybe now’s the time. Maybe this is your chance for big bad Shay to come out in the open.” She leaned closer to him and suddenly her scent was all around. “Or maybe I can be your bad influence.”
    Just then, the waitress walked up to set their plates on the table. Shay watched in bemusement as Mallory slathered the various plates with ketchup, then salt indiscriminately. “Purely for purposes of menu research, you said?” he asked, watching Mallory bite into an onion ring and close her eyes in bliss, wondering if she looked the same way when she was making love.
    â€œGod that’s good. Now what were you saying?” She speared a fry