Page 9 of Denim & Diamonds

Brock

I looked down the block before flipping the OPEN sign in the window to CLOSED and grumbled to myself. “Good. Maybe she’ll never come back.”

Though that thought made my chest grow tight.

It had been five days since I’d seen or heard from February.

The last message I’d received was from an unknown number the night she’d returned my little brother’s phone.

It read I’m back , and apparently that was that.

Though it hadn’t stopped me from watching the damn bar door every night I’d worked.

“Hey!” my brother Elvin yelled. “Grab me a shot of Casamigos, will ya?”

“Your legs broken or something?”

He pointed to his casted ankle.

“Shit.” I hung my head. “Sorry. I forgot.” A few weeks ago, my oldest brother had snapped his tibia when he fell off a roof at a jobsite. He hadn’t been wearing a safety harness, so the dumbass was lucky it wasn’t his neck .

Tonight was our monthly card game. All the Hawkins boys played except for Axe. I grabbed five shot glasses and lined them up on the bar before filling them with one continuous pour. Two of my brothers weren’t here yet, but they should arrive any minute.

“Tequila for everyone.” I walked over to the table and started passing out shots. “Don’t say I didn’t get you anything at Christmas.”

I had two left on the tray when the front door burst open. Trevor strutted in with a gloating smile and held up a big Tupperware container. “Sorry I’m late. My new lady, Emma, wanted me to bring the homemade seven-layer dip hot.”

Everyone groaned. Maddox cursed as he dug into his pocket and threw a fifty-dollar bill on the table. “Fucking unbelievable.”

I chuckled. “Told you. You underestimated the man and bet way too low.”

Trevor was the second youngest brother and the ladies’ man of the bunch.

A little over a month ago, he’d shown up to card night with some elaborate Mexican dish a woman he’d gone out with had cooked for him to bring.

By the end of the evening, we’d started a betting pool on how many weeks in a row Trevor could get a different woman to cook something Mexican for poker night.

I’d picked thirteen. Maddox hadn’t been as confident and had only picked five, so he’d been hoping Trevor would show empty-handed tonight. No such luck.

Elvin grabbed the deck of cards from the middle of the table, slipped them from the case, and started shuffling. “I vote we change the rules of the bet to allow for duplicates. That carne asada what’s-her-name made last week was freaking delicious. ”

Trevor set the platter in the middle of the table and flipped a chair around to sit backward. “What the hell was her name?”

I shook my head. “It was only a week ago, you idiot. Your dick’s gonna fall off at this pace if you keep it up.”

“I’m pretty sure your dick falls off from nonuse, too,” Maddox said. “So both Trevor and Elvin are gonna look like Ken dolls from the waist down soon.”

“What are you talking about?” Elvin stopped shuffling. “Linda promised me sex a week from Tuesday if I cleaned out the garage this Saturday.”

Maddox shook his head. “I’m never getting freaking married.”

I filled two pitchers of beer behind the bar and brought them over to the table. “Where the hell is Fritz? He’s never late.”

“Oh. I almost forgot…” Trevor peeled the top off the plastic container, and a smoky smell wafted through the room. “He texted me. He got a last-minute call for a pickup, so he’s either gonna be late, or he might not make it at all, depending on how things go.”

“He still didn’t find a replacement driver for Pete?”

Our brother Fritz owned the local tow shop. He was currently down a few drivers.

“Nope. He hired some guy last week. Dude showed up Monday, worked one day, then quit because he got a better job. Fritz is working eighty hours a week.”

“Let’s get started without him then. If he shows, we can deal him in later.”

The guys all anted, and twenty minutes later I was down almost a hundred bucks.

I’d lost every damn hand. So when the front door swung open, I was grateful for some new blood to mix things up.

I yelled without looking up. “Get your ass to the table. I need you to break this shitty streak I’m stuck in. ”

But the voice that answered wasn’t my brother’s. “That sounds like you’re saying I’m your lucky charm?”

February.

All heads whipped to the front door, including mine.

“ Damn .” Trevor cooed. “I don’t know who you are, but you can be my lucky charm.”

I elbowed him in the ribs before jumping to my feet.

“What the fuck?” he complained.

“ Watch your mouth .”

“My mouth? What the fuck for?”

I ignored my brother and headed to the door to greet February. Her cheeks were all rosy. “Why the hell don’t you have a jacket on?”

“I didn’t have anything that went with my outfit.”

February had on a burgundy, form-fitting, V-neck dress with a bright teal belt cinched tight around her narrow waist. It accentuated her killer figure, showcasing the beautiful tits I knew were under there since I’d spent waayy too many hours looking at that middle-finger picture this week.

I grumbled and removed my flannel. “Here. This goes just fine.”

She looked around me as I draped it over her shoulders. “Am I interrupting something? I noticed the sign on the window said closed, but the door was open.”

“Nothing important. It’s just card night. I close early one Sunday a month to play poker with my brothers.”

“Oh.” She thumbed over her shoulder. “I should go then.”

She should definitely go—what with my nosy brothers and how damn sexy she looked tonight—yet I found myself shaking my head. “Stay. I’ll make these guys be on their best behavior.”

“Are you sure?”

“I haven’t heard from you in a while. Thought maybe you were done with sneaking out.”

“The maintenance guy that I bribe for my ladder has been out sick, and my friend Morgan’s phone was confiscated, so I couldn’t text you.” She smiled and tilted her head. “Shame. I had big plans to make that photo I’d sent you into a series.”

Yep, it was a bad idea to have her stay. A bad, bad idea. But before I could come to my senses, my brother Elvin yelled, “Are you playing this hand or what?”

I raked a hand through my hair and lowered my voice. “I have three aces. I need to play this one out.”

“Mind if I watch?”

“Just ignore the jackass brothers, especially Trevor.”

February and I walked to the table together. Each of my brothers had a look of surprise on his face, except for Trevor, who was too busy checking out my guest. I kicked his chair as I passed. “ Don’t be a dick .”

“What did I do?”

I grabbed a chair from a nearby table and positioned it next to where I was sitting with a nod. “Everyone, this is February. Feb, these are three of my idiot brothers—Elvin, Maddox, and Trevor.”

“You must not be from around here. I definitely would have noticed you.” Trevor smiled. His tone made me want to punch him.

February politely smiled back as she sat. “I live in New York. I’m just…visiting for a while.”

I tossed two chips into the pile and lifted my cards. “Raise. ”

The betting went around the table, yet all eyes stayed on February.

“You ever play poker, February?” Elvin asked.

“Once or twice. But I’m not very good.”

“Call,” I said and flipped over my cards. Three aces and a king high . All of my brothers tossed their hands onto the table without bothering to show what they had.

Trevor tipped his chair back until the front feet came off the floor. “Looks like maybe she really is your lucky charm. That’s the first hand he’s won all night.”

“Oh really?” February turned to me as I swept the chips to my side of the table. “Do I get a cut of the winnings for my part?”

“Sure do. You want a beer or a beer?”

She chuckled. “Tough choice. I guess I’ll go with a beer.”

Elvin gathered all the cards and shuffled once again. “What kind of a name is February? I’ve never heard of it before.”

“My mother went through a phase where she believed she was remembering things from her past lives. She went to see this medium who claimed to channel the spirit of my mother’s past life from two-hundred years ago—a prostitute named February.”

My brows jumped. “Seriously?”

“Yep.” February reached for my beer and knocked back a healthy gulp. I have no idea why, but it was sexy as fuck.

“So you’re named after a hooker?”

“I am indeed. The medium also told my mother she was once a man named Chuck who robbed banks. So I think I made out on the deal. ”

I lifted my chin to February. “You gonna drink the rest of my beer or you want me to make you your prissy cocktail? I picked up bleu cheese olives at the market the other day.”

February’s eyes lit up. “If you say you also have orange bitters, I might propose.”

My lip twitched. I’d picked that shit up, too. “I’ll make it. But I’m stirring it, not shaking.” As I stood, I glared at my brothers. “Be nice .”

Trevor grinned. “Oh, I’ll be very nice.”

I wagged a finger at him. “The martini won’t be the only thing getting stirred if you don’t cut the shit.”

As I worked behind the bar, I listened to the conversation at the table.

“So how long are you in town?” Elvin asked.

“Almost another three weeks.”

“What do you do back in New York?”

“I design purses.”

“No shit. You know, Brock did some designing back in the day.”

I had no idea where this conversation was going, but I knew it couldn’t be good. I yelled over. “Whatever he’s about to tell you is a lie.”

“Really?” Elvin smiled. “So you didn’t sculpt stuff out of cat shit?”

I closed my eyes. “ Fuck .”

February laughed. “He made sculptures out of cat shit?”

“Yep. Brock was probably five or six when we used to go to this park on the outskirts of town. It had a few swings and a slide with a sandbox. The local stray cats treated it like a litter box. Brock thought the shit was clay and started sculpting crap for our mom. ”

“Did you know it was cat poop?” February asked.

“Of course. I’m not an idiot like my brother.”

“Why didn’t you tell him?”