Page 44

Jessica scoffs before letting her gaze float around the bar, her face hardening almost instantly. “What is she doing here?” she says turning toward him again, voice raising an octave.
I turn in my bar stool, look at Tess. She focused on Cari, not to pay attention to the fight that’s brewing a few yards away. Cari’s got her hand clamped around her wrist like she’s holding her in her seat. I whip around, mouth open but Declan shoots me a glare and pours me another Jameson. Instead of talking, I drink.
Declan sighs again. This time it’s the long-suffering sigh of someone who’s had this argument a thousand time and doesn’t want to have it even one more time. “She’s eating lunch in a public place, Jessica,” he snaps at her, jerking the towel off his shoulder again. “and we’ve known her since we were kids—”
I’m about five seconds away from picking her up and dumping her ass on the sidewalk. Instead, I reach across the bar and yank the soggy towel out of Declan’s hand. “Get the hell out of here,” I say before draining my glass. “And take your screech owl with you.” I slam my glass on the bar and stand.
Jessica’s eyes narrow again at the insult but she’s smart enough to let it go. “Let’s go,” she says, smiling now that she’s gotten her way.
Declan gives me a fuck no look. “You’ve been drinking.”
Jessica scoffs. “Shocker,” she mutters before turning and making a beeline for the table Cari and Tess are huddled around. I want to follow her and do what I can to shield Tess from the river of shit that’s about to be unleashed. Instead, I walk around the bar, ducking under the pass through.
“Get her out of here, Declan,” Standing beside him, I hold out my hand, gesturing for the apron he’s wearing but he’s not paying any attention to me. Instead he’s looking across the bar, zeroed in on whatever was going on between his fiancé and his brother’s best friend.
“Dec,” I say, nudging him in the arm. “I’m serious. Just give me the keys and get her the fuck out of here.”
Making up his mind, Declan looks at me and nods, reluctantly fishing the office key from the front pocket of his jeans. “Are you sure?” he says, finally reaching around to untie his apron.
No matter what Jessica thinks, he knows I’m not his brother and that other than occasional weekday shift, I have zero experience behind the bar. I am in no way ready for a Saturday night shift.
The fact that I’m sorta drunk is a secondary concern, and we both know it.
I just smile. “What are brothers for?”
Twenty-five
Cari
Tess is staring atme, her mouth open, while I quietly recount how I spent last night and this morning. “Patrick said that?” She leans across the table, placing the flat of her hands on its surface to push herself forward. “That he was going to… and that you were…” She leans back in her seat, looking genuinely confused. “We’re talking about Patrick Gilroy, right? The guy who spent forty-five minutes last Sunday, helping Mrs. McGintey wrangle that bastard dog of hers? The guy who coaches baseball and volunteers at the library? That Patrick?”
“That’s him,” I say, doing my best not to look over my shoulder. If I do, I’ll see Patrick sitting at the bar. Watching me. Thinking about him, the warn ache between my thighs starts to throb, making me irritable. Making me wish I’d defied Patrick’s orders and made myself come before I came down here and tried to interact with polite society. “And could you keep your voice down—we’re in enemy territory.”
“Sorry,” Tess says, taking it down a few notches while sitting back in her seat. “It’s just...” she shakes her head, shooting a quick glance over my shoulder. “That’s not what I expected.”
“Oh, yeah?” I say, flipping the menu open even though I’ve read it a thousand times. “What did you expect, exactly?” I can’t keep the hostile tone out of my voice. I know it’s not Tess’s fault things have gone so wrong between Patrick and me but blaming her is easier than blaming myself. This was all her stupid idea to begin with wasn’t it?
“I don’t know...” she says with a shrug, seemingly oblivious to my current mood. “But I didn’t expect Predictable Patrick to go all 50 Shades on you.” She falls silent and leans back. “What you’re describing isn’t anything like the sex Sara clued me in on.”
The second Tess says the name of Patrick’s ex-girlfriend, I nearly choke on my own tongue. “What?” I manage to croak out, too loud. I aim a quick look over my shoulder. Patrick is still sitting at the bar talking to Declan. “You asked Sara what he was like in bed?” I hissed at her. “Are you nuts?”
“Relax,” Tess sighs, rolling her eyes like I’m the crazy one. “I made it sound like I was interested in taking a run at him,” she laughed at the thought, shaking her head like Sara was an idiot for buying it. “She wasn’t too happy with the thought but she told me what I wanted to know.”
I held out for about two seconds before curiosity got the better of me. “And?”
Before she had a chance to spill, Lisa appears with our drinks.
“Here you go,” she says, syrupy sweet. Too sweet. “What can I get you girls to eat?”
I listen while Tess orders, a double bacon cheeseburger, chicken wings and a basket of onion rings. She’s five-foot-nothing, and wouldn’t weigh a hundred pounds after being fished out of the Mystic. Where she puts it, I don’t know.
Unfazed, Lisa scribbles on her pad before looking at me. I can’t be sure but her eyes seem to narrow just a bit. “Same,” I say, smiling while I hand her my menu, like I didn’t catch her with Patrick’s cock in her throat less than twelve hours ago. Like I didn’t want to punch her in the fucking mouth and drag her down the street by her goddamned hair. “Thanks.”
She takes the menu and nods, that sugar sweet tone smeared across her face in the form of a smile. Tess watches her go, slim dark brow arched. “Was that weird?” she says, looking at me. “She was acting weird, right?”
“I caught her going down on Patrick last night,” I say, waving a hand in Lisa’s direction. Right now, I didn’t give a shit about Lisa. “What did Sara say?”
“What the fuck,” Tess hisses at me, slapping her hand on the table with a laugh. “What the hell did you do to him last night?”