Rebecca woke him up about an hour later, her voice soft and her touch gentle. She pushed his hair out of his face and let her fingertips linger on his face. "Ted, I've got to head out," she whispered.

He blinked awake and looked at her. Dang, she seemed to glow golden like an angel. "Thanks for lettin' me know. You headin' to the bar?"

"Pub," she corrected. "And I've got to go home first to change my clothes."

It might have been his jetlag or just being groggy from sleep but he didn't quite know why she would need to change. She looked real nice how she was. And he didn't think she had a uniform or anything.

"I didn't want to interrupt your rest, but I didn't want you to wake up alone," she explained.

"I appreciate that. You still okay if I come see you?" he asked. It wasn't as though he had anything else to do tonight. And being alone was probably the worst thing for him.

Rebecca smiled softly. "If you want to. I'd like to see you," she confessed.

"Alrighty then. I'll see you later. Might take another shower to wake myself up before I head over."

"Take your time. My shift starts at five."

Ted watched as she went to lean in but stopped herself short, paused, and pulled back. He almost felt like she might have wanted to kiss him. That was a surprise. Even more of a surprise was that he kinda wanted her to.

It was a relief when Rebecca left after that. Ted got out of bed and went over to where she'd left his book. His bookmark was still in place, and it looked like she was just over halfway done with it. Further than he was, actually. Maybe they could talk about it tonight if she wasn't too busy at the bar.

He took a quick shower and got dressed in some clean clothes and felt a million times better. And he found himself looking forward to seeing Rebecca again and having another nice meal in that pub of hers. Even if it wasn't hers. Felt like hers. Felt like she should be in charge of that place and, really, any other place she was.

The weather outside was a little chilly for June, but not too bad. They'd lucked out with weather today, in Ted's opinion. Light breeze, sunshine, no rain. England had a reputation for being gray and wet, but he was liking it so far. His walk to the pub was quick and pleasant.

Inside, Rebecca was already behind the bar and moving around with the same efficient elegance he'd noticed last night. He'd spent a lot of time watching her. Partly because he didn't have anything else to do and partly because he just liked looking at her. He noticed, too, that she'd changed from her blue sweater to a low-cut black top. She looked incredible.

When she caught sight of him, she immediately smiled. Ted felt like the wind got knocked out of him at that. She had a bright, magical smile that lit up her whole face.

He had to shake himself. This wasn't the right kind of thoughts to be having about her or any woman other than Michelle. He could appreciate a beautiful woman, but it was Michelle he was in love with.

Except…Michelle didn't love him. Michelle broke up with him today. There wasn't anything wrong in being interested in Rebecca now, was there? He felt guilty about it, knowing he should still be thinking about Michelle. Knowing he wanted to win Michelle back. But also…well…Rebecca was right here. And she really did take his breath away.

"Welcome back! What can I get for you, Ted Lasso?" she offered when he sat down at the bar.

"Whatever beer you gave me last night was pretty good. I'll have one of those for now and maybe some food a little later," Ted answered.

"Coming right up!"

Rebecca went over to the taps and poured him a beer.

"Oi, wanker, what're you doing here?"

Ted turned to his left to find an old, grumpy man glowering at him. "Hi, I'm Ted Lasso," he greeted politely. He didn't know what a wanker was, but the man couldn't have been talking to anyone, staring at Ted as intently as he was.

"American," the man growled.

"Yep. I'm from Kansas. It's right there in the heartland in the good ol' U.S. of A." Ted wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to say. As with most things, he hoped being friendly was the right way to go. The only way to go, as far as Ted was concerned.

"Jim, bugger off!" Rebecca barked.

Ted turned to her. "Oh we're fine, Rebecca." He turned back to the man at the bar. "Jim, is it? It's mighty nice to meet you, Jim. You a friend of Rebecca's?"

"She works for me. You leave her alone," Jim said with another growl.

Rebecca put the beer on a coaster in front of Ted. "You better not let Mae catch you saying that. And if I want him to leave me alone, I'll make him leave me alone. Right now, I want you to leave him alone." She turned her attention to Ted. "You want something to eat?"

"Oh, um, sure. I had fish and chips last night. That was good. But maybe somethin' different? Whatta ya think?"

"Do like steak and gravy and pastry?" Rebecca asked.

Those all sounded good to Ted. "Sure."

She gave a curt nod and turned back to Jim. "He wants a steak and kidney pie. So you'd best get back to the kitchen."

Jim lumbered off, still growling.

Rebecca let out a sigh, her shoulders sagging in relief. "Sorry about that. Jim is our cook and he runs with pub with his wife, Mae. But Mae owns the place, not Jim. She'll be in at some point. She's rough, but she's nicer than Jim."

"He seemed a little protective of you."

"He is," she confirmed with a small smile. "Much more than my own father, actually. But he can be a wanker himself, and I don't like him saying you are."

Ted asked curiously, "What's a wanker?"

"Oh…um…"

A much smaller and much older woman came around the bar beside Rebecca. "Your American back again?"

"Yes, Mae," Rebecca answered. "Jim called him a wanker. Ted doesn't know what that means."

Mae made a gesture of male masturbation.

"Oh okay. Thank you. I'm a visual learner, so that's very helpful," Ted said. "By the way, I'm Ted Lasso."

"You were here last night. Bothering Rebecca," Mae said knowingly.

Ted felt his whole countenance sink. "I…oh…" The last thing he ever wanted was to bother anyone. Especially Rebecca.

"He wasn't bothering me then or now. We spent all day together. I'm glad he's here. So you and Jim both can leave him alone," Rebecca said angrily.

She'd mentioned earlier that the Brits are emotionless unless it came to anger and Ted was seeing her prove that right time and again.

Mae just shrugged and went through the back door. Rebecca waited till she was gone to turn back to Ted. "I really am sorry about all this."

"It's good you got people who care about you."

"Sometimes it feels like Mae and Jim are the only ones who do," she confided.

That made Ted feel quite sad. "You got family? Friends?"

"I'm not close with my parents. My best friend from school, Flo, is off in graduate school to become a child psychologist. And I'm stuck here tending bar."

The resentment seethed in her voice. "What else do you want to do?" Ted asked. He was curious about her. What her hopes and dreams were, what she wanted for her life. He wanted to know more about her, especially after the way she'd been so kind to him today.

Rebecca shrugged. "I want a lot of things that will never happen. It doesn't do much good to waste time talking about it."

Well, that answer wasn't really gonna work for Ted. But if she didn't want to talk about it now, maybe another time.

Dang, he really hoped there would be another time.