Page 10 of Resonance
Howie glanced over the crowd assessingly. “It’s not a typical night. Bunch of folks in town for Ryder’s last show, I think.”
I caught him eyeing me and let my gaze drift to Ru. “I’d forgotten about that.” I hadn’t.
When I didn’t say anything else, Howie smacked his hand lightly atop the bar. “Yep. All right. Gonna get back to slinging. Let me know when you need another drink. On the house as always.”
I murmured a thanks.
“And don’t be such a fucking stranger, man,” he added, before easing downbar and leaning so someone could shout a drink order over another patron’s shoulder.
I settled in, tipping a wave in Les’s direction that he might or might not have seen, unwilling to interrupt his night out aside from that token greeting. Ignoring the occasional jostle from the girls next to me, I listened to Ru, watched him reading the audience, and could tell he was adjusting his set list based on what he saw. He was good at it. Quinn, his boyfriend, sat at a tiny two top near the stage with another guy I didn’t recognize.
Ru joined me during a break, and Howie immediately plunked a glass of beer in front of him.
“Can’t believe you came.” Ru nudged my shoulder, and I lifted my glass to toast his. “You still coming to the showcase next week, or are you cashing in your yearly social pass tonight?”
“I’m not that bad.” But Ru had a point. I’d stopped going out to as many shows, attended fewer of the various functions I was invited to weekly. I didn’t seem to have the energy for it lately; everything I had was funneled into keeping my shops afloat.One down, a voice whispered in the back of my mind. I grunted dismissively back at it, then told Ru, “I’ll be there.”
“Good.” He glanced at Quinn’s table with a cant of his head. “You could join us over there.”
“I’m not staying long.”
“Figured.” He took another long swallow of beer and swiped his mouth. “I need to come in a little late tomorrow if that’s okay.”
“No trouble. I’ll be there early anyway. Owen knocked over a display. Meant to fix it tonight but ran out of steam.”
“The one next to Mick?”
I nodded. I’d had the Jagger cutout for ages.
“I told him it was rickety when he started sweeping earlier.”
“Yeah, I know. Same.”
Ru chuckled. “Good thing he’s so cute.”
“He’s not cute. He’s a pain in my ass. Worst hire I’ve made.” Even I didn’t buy the scorn I’d tried to inject in my voice. Ru’s study was all doubt for a second before he burst into laughter and slung an arm around me. I lifted my glass higher to steady the slosh of whiskey.
“He keeps things lively.”
“That he does.”
“It’s the podcasts.” Ru’s mouth softened in thought, and when I gave him a confused look, he explained, “Caught you looking at him a couple of times like you weren’t sure when you’d started actually liking him. But I think that’s how it is with him. He sneaks under your skin.”
Owen had been something of an unexpected hire for me in Gatlinburg. As in, I hadn’t even been looking for help the day he came into the shop, everything about him seeming askew. A button-down shirt with the cuffs hanging loose, charcoal slacks that clung to his ass and were short at the ankle in a way I couldn’t be sure was a stylistic choice or just a pair he’d outgrown. He’d poked around the aisles for a while, glancing at me every so often. I couldn’t figure out if he was trying to muster up the courage to ask a question or getting ready to steal something, so I’d watched him like a hawk.
He wasn’t hard on the eyes.
In fact, I had trouble looking away even when I tried. Finally, after a half hour, he’d marched up to the counter, placed his hands neatly on the naked oak surface, and said, “I’d really like a job here.”
I’d squinted at him, trying to suss him out, the strange blend of confidence and hesitation between the words he’d spoken and the way he fidgeted his fingers in front of me. Like he expected me to refuse but couldn’t stop himself. And maybe among all that I even detected a little defiance in the brief twitch of muscle along his jaw. His eyes stood out against the exquisite definition of his nose and mouth, almost overly large. A green gaze that could overtake you. Where one of his shirtsleeves had ridden up, I caught a glimpse of vibrant red and blue.
He was a walking contradiction to my senses. “I’m not hiring right now, but you can fill out an application,” I told him. And goddamn the way his shoulders had slumped and taken the expression on his face down with them. It lasted only a fraction of a second, and then he squared his posture resolutely.
“Of course, yeah. I mean, there wasn’t a sign in the window or anything, so of course I should’ve realized that and…” He cut himself off with a press of his lips. “I’d be glad to fill out an application.”
I had to rummage around for a good handful of minutes to locate one, then watched as he stood at the end of the counter, neatly and slowly block printing his info with the ballpoint pen I’d given him.
Afterward, he slid the paper toward me and capped the pen as he gave me a smile that nudged a soft spot inside me like the prod of a fingertip. I felt a momentary disconnect between the cheer in his smile and the desperate hope I read in his eyes.