I feigned a smile. “I’m sorry. I didn’t.”
“My brothers need to talk. I’ll walk with you to the bar,” she said.
“We’ll talk before you leave for the night,” Duke said at my back. “About self-defense classes.”
I was in a daze as Grace hooked her arm through mine. “Duke is a great trainer.”
I was sure he was good at everything.
The brothers began talking as Grace guided me out of the en suite. “How did you find out about the job opening? Duke doesn’t usually post them, although he’d been searching for a bartender who won’t leave after one night.”
I could see how someone might call it quits. Amber alone was difficult to work with. So I dove in, explaining how Duke had ended up hiring me, and by the time we reached the bar, she and I had talked about several things, including the Hart of Hope gala and how excited she was that Duke was attending his first Thanksgiving dinner with the family.
Maybe Grace was the one I should be hanging out with. She was a wealth of information. Still, the second I was serving customers, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. Being with Duke was all-consuming. I was starting to think that maybe I wasn’t the right person for this undercover assignment, that Bruce was right. I was too green around the gills to pull off this op. Not only that, Duke had made the first move. For fuck’s sake, that kiss. I hadn’t been kissed like that… ever, not even by the drummer who’d broken my heart.
I tuned out Matt and Grace chatting as I served customers.
Matt nudged me. “Amber is calling you.”
I laughed. “Maybe I’m ignoring her.”
I wasn’t. I hadn’t heard her again. It was time for me to put my bitch hat on, though.
I glared at the strawberry blonde. “What do you need?”
Amber tapped on her tray with her red-painted nail. “It’s about time you decided to work again.”
“Let’s get something straight,” I said loudly because of the music. “Stop with the bitchy attitude. I’m not your competition with your beau, Vince. I’m here to make money. So if you don’t cut me some slack, I’ll make your life hell.”
She took a step back then forward, hands on her hips, sticking out her tits. “You dare to threaten me?”
Grace intervened. “Amber, cool your jets. We all know you see Joy as a threat. She’s not into Vince. Okay?”
Amber puffed out a breath. “Joy won’t be here long anyway. Duke has a rule. He doesn’t sleep with a woman more than twice. Then he kicks them out.”
“And maybe I’m not like other women,” I volleyed back with acid in my tone.
Matt spoke up. “Ladies, nix the drama. We’re approaching last call. I’ll help Amber. Joy, the bar.”
The last time I had been a target of drama was in high school, but that wasn’t why I was stomping away. I was annoyed with her comment about Duke. I shouldn’t have been. I wasn’t here to sleep with Duke. At least, my brain wasn’t on board with that idea, although I couldn’t say the same about my damn body.
“Matt just told me you used to work in California.” Grace was throwing out empty bottles and wiping down the bar. “Are you from there?”
I made a cosmo and a dry martini. “All over, really.” I wanted to be as aloof as possible. Not dive in too deep as to who Joy Whitlock was. “But my grandmother, who passed away a year ago, lived in Weston.” Lydia Whitlock was buried in Linwood Cemetery and had died of sepsis from a torn bowel because of an obstruction, according to the research I’d done on her.
Grace’s burgundy-stained lips turned downward. “You should spend Thanksgiving with us.”
“I couldn’t impose.” I wanted to sneak away to spend the day with my dad—a dad that wasn’t in my profile.
“Nonsense,” she said. “We have plenty of room, and I know my sisters-in-law would love to have you.”
After witnessing the bonds among Duke, Denim, and Grace, I wasn’t sure I could handle any more of the lovefest.
You need to tuck your emotions away. You have a job to do.
“Please,” she said. “I can see that Duke likes you, and you’ll fit right in with us. Brian McCauley, maybe not. He’s kind of an ogre sometimes. But his daughter will be there, and he’s usually tame when Fran’s around.”
I’d had my introduction to him, but this might be the opening I was looking for to find out more about Jason’s death. Maybe. “Can I think about it?”
