Free Worst Week Ever (A Long Road to Love) by Liza O'Connor

approval, but I never made the grade.”
    “I bet you
did, he just refused see it.” She met his eyes with great sincerity. “The first
time you threatened to fire me, I didn’t look for a new job because I realized
your heart wasn’t in the threat and I thought, and still believe, you have the
makings of a great boss. You just need to fire your dad.”
    Trent laughed.
“Good thing he’s dead.”
    He looked up
at heaven, then changed his mind and looked down at his feet. “Dad, you’re
fired. You never knew a damn thing about managing people…or your son for that
matter. You have no influence on the new Trent Lancaster.”
    When he looked
up, the young waiter stood beside him, his head tilted as if trying to see if
someone resided under the table.
    Carrie buried
her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook with laughter.
    He smiled up
at the waiter. “Tell us the menu.”
    The young man
went through his list of appetizers and entrees perfectly. His eyes sparkled
with accomplishment when he finished.
    “Well done!
I’ll have the calamari appetizer and the braised lamb.” He tugged Carrie’s arm.
“Want to come out of hiding and tell the young man what you wish to eat?”
    She uncovered
her face and looked up. “I’ll also have the calamari appetizer and the salmon.”
    The young man
wrote nothing down, only nodded and hurried off.
    “Did you scare
him senseless by talking to your foot?” She burst into laughter again and could
barely finish her point. “He didn’t even write down our orders.”
    Trent eyed her
wine glass, barely touched. “I’d tell you to lighten up on the wine, if you had
actually drunk any. After all the funny moments we’ve had tonight, I fail to
see how firing my dad set you off.”
    Covering her
mouth, she shook her head and held her hand palm out, which he interpreted as a
silent plea to stop talking.
    He remained
quiet until she’d calmed enough to remove her hand from her mouth.
    “Maybe I’ll
channel Tiny now. He’d be one scary manager, crawling out of people’s
wastebaskets and causing their porn and games to disappear from the computer.”
    Carrie
re-covered her mouth, her eyes sparkled with such joy as she nodded.
    Half the
diners side-glanced in their direction, being too well mannered to turn and
stare straight on. Yesterday, Trent would have scolded her out of her humor
just to stop them from staring, but being the sacrificial goat for Tall and
Tiny had taught him not to fear attention in itself. She laughed quietly,
nothing to annoy or disturb the others. If anything, Carrie’s laughter seemed
contagious. The diners at the tables closest by also smiled.
    The waiter
returned with a giant plate of lightly fried calamari resting in seasoned
tomato sauce. “Would you like more wine?”
    Trent shook
his head. “She’s still working on her first sip. In fact, the small amount
missing may just be due to evaporation.”
    The young man
brow furrowed slightly and he stared at the ceiling as if trying to figure out
how the sun could evaporate the wine inside a building. Carrie burst into more
mouth-covered laughing. Trent struggled not to join her.
    After the
fellow left, he bit into a calamari ring. “Stop laughing and taste this,” he
insisted as he fed her a ring.
    She sobered at
once and scooted closer to him and the giant plate. “Aren’t appetizers supposed
to tantalize appetite? This looks like a full blown meal!”
    “I think the
waiter has fallen in love with your laugh. The last time I came here, they gave
me a saucer with five rings on it.”
    She shook her
head. “No, this is your doing.”
    He raised his
eyebrows in challenge. “The waiter has fallen in love with my laugh?”
    She’d been
about to hand-feed him in return, but he made her laugh causing the delicious
morsel to wave about like a plane hitting turbulence. Trent captured her hand,
led it to his mouth—and crossed a line.
    The moment his
lips touched her fingertips in the sensuous act of