“Thanks, but I’m not so sure,” she said, biting into a cheese nacho. Watching her full pink lips close around the chip in her hand, he realized his heart wasn’t the only thing causing him problems. He needed to get back to work before he had a full-blown hard-on.
“I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll send one more of these over to you,” he said, motioning to the drink. “After that, you move to water. Don’t leave here until I make sure you’re good to go. No driving home buzzed. Deal?” He knitted his eyebrows together in his best version of a stern look.
“Oh, no. I got a ride over. I would never drive after drinking.”
“Good girl. No getting in a car with a stranger drunk either. So come talk to me before you leave and I’ll get someone safe to drive you home. Sit here as long as you want, though.” He stood and turned toward the bar.
“Parker,” she called after him.
“Yeah, sweetness?” he asked, turning around.
“Thank you for… you know… listening.”
“Anytime. Maybe we can discuss this later?” Parker walked back to the bar, taking over for Andrea so she could return to the floor. The bar was slowly starting to fill up with regulars coming in for a drink before heading home for the night.
He mixed one more drink to send to Astrid–including a glass of water this time. He felt bad for her as she sat staring out into space. She was obviously wrestling with the decision to pick the right path for her.
Parker hadn’t ever had to make that decision. His dad had needed help after suffering from a stroke, so Parker had returned from a short stint of freedom to help out. When it became obvious his dad had become too disabled to work anymore, Parker had simply stepped up to run the bar.
Donnelly’s Pub, or Donnelly’s for short, landed somewhere between a dive and an ale house. It had an old wood bar that ran down the length of one side with tables scattered around the floor and booths against the opposite wall.
The kitchen in the back served mostly pub food with a different special offered for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. There was a long hallway in the back where the bathrooms, office, storeroom, and stairs to the apartment upstairs were located.
Parker lived with his brothers over the bar accessed by the back stairwell. The apartment consisted of two small bedrooms, an open living area, and a small kitchen.
When his mother was still around, they had begun planning how to add on to the tiny space. Now that his mother was gone and his father was in a rehab care facility, there was plenty of space for the three of them.
He would have to figure out how to put an elevator in when his father came home. It looked like he still had some time to stew over that. His first problem was hanging on to the bar.
Parker had forgotten about the hockey game tonight. The bar became suddenly busy as the game let out. Fans poured through the door for one more, or ten, before calling it a night.
He soon lost track of Astrid as he worked at keeping up with not only the bar but the table drink orders as well. The majority of the customers finally filed out sometime around one.
He took a look around the remaining hangers-on, hunting for a glimpse of her. He remembered asking her to switch to water early in the evening and to check with him before she left. He had been so busy, though, she could have just slipped out without his notice.
“Hey, Andrea?” he asked when she brought a tray of empties to him. “Did you see what happened to that woman I was talking to earlier? You remember, tiny, dark hair, big doe eyes?”
“Astrid?” She smirked. “She’s still here. She’s amassed quite a crowd of admirers though. I think they might have been buying her drinks. I tried to keep up with the water, but I got busy. Sorry.” Andrea left to keep cleaning as Parker quickly walked out from behind the bar.
“No, no,” he said quietly to himself, seeing her sitting with a couple of guys he knew from the neighborhood.
“Hey, head out,” he barked at them when he reached the table. They started to argue with him but changed their minds looking at the scowl on his face. He continued to scowl at them until they walked out the door.
He slid into the booth and looked her over. Astrid’s eyes were glazed, her face was rosy, and her speech slurred when she spoke.
“Parker! I missed you. Where did you go?”
“I had to work, sweetheart. How much did those guys buy you to drink?” She laughed then placed a finger over her mouth, shushing him.
“They said not to tell you, it’s a secret. They were nice.”
“I’m sure they were,” he growled. “Andrea, can you watch the bar for a few minutes?”
“Sure, sweetie,” she said, walking over. “Man, she’s really out of it. What are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure. She’s one of Sam’s friends, so I don’t want to call it in.”
“Do you think Sam will come get her?”
