“Let’s never find out, huh?” She smiles back before turning her attention back to me. “So, no dragging you out tonight?”
“Afraid not. You guys get out of here, though, I’m fine.” I give her a reassuring smile just as three more people saddle up to the other side of the bar.
I don’t wait for their answer. They aren’t going anywhere, and they’ll still be here when I get done with the new people on the far side of the bar. Automatically, I move over to help the new customers as well as a handful more people behind them. It finally settles down enough for me to go back to Lee and Mac. I see him twirling her around the dance floor to some old love song instead of waiting where I left them. Between serving customers and watching them spin around and dance, the next few hours fly by.
I’m making a round of lemon drops for the bachelorette party when someone saddles up on the bar to the side of me. I’m too focused on what I’m doing to notice who it is. After finishing up with them and closing tabs for a few people, I bring my focus back over to the new person. Only they aren’tnew at all.
Natasha sits perched on the bar stool, her bright blonde hair falling pin straight down her back, and her true blue eyes raking over my body with a barely contained sneer. I look down at my sneakers, faded jeans, and gray henley with a black and gray plaid shirt over top of my shirt, trying to figure out what she’s looking at.
“What are you doing here?” I ask with disdain. She quickly schools her face, which tells me she wants something.
“Don’t be like that, Jake. I came to see you. I’ve missed you.” She bites her lip seductively.
“Yeah, I’m not interested. I’m actually extremely busy right now, so you should probably get going.” I’m trying to dismiss her gently, but I’m about as subtle as a bull in a china shop, and I think I just poked the bear.
She looks around my busy bar before her eyes land on Lee and Mac, and a look of trouble covers her features. “Oh, I see. Do they know? I mean, they probably should, right?”
My heart lurches into my throat, “Natasha, stop it.”
“Stop what?” She asks with all the faux innocence she can muster. “I’m just making an observation.”
“What do you want?” I bite out.
“The usual. Tomorrow at seven. Don’t be late.”
She lets the malice shine in her eyes as she hops off the stool and without another word, struts out of my bar. While I stand here riddled with anxiety about the secrets she wields to get her way.
* * *
Quickly catching the biscuit that’s thrown at my head, mylaugh rings through the empty three bay garage at my brother’s shop. Fischer Automotive doesn’t open for another thirty minutes, but it’s Monday, which means I’m here to eat breakfast with my brother before the bay doors are rolled open and he sweats his ass off all day in his navy coveralls.
Dieter is just two years younger than I am. It was obvious who was the oldest when we were kids, but now not so much. We’re not kids any more so we both stand at a respectable six foot four inches or so. We have the same dark brown hair, except where mine is just about an inch long, Dieter’s is long enough that he keeps it up in a bun at his nape when he’s at work. Our ice blue eyes are identical to our Papa’s, whereas our sister’s eyes are green like our Mama’s. Dieter and I have worked our asses off since we were eight and six to protect our baby sister from anything that could stand in her path. That doubled when Lelonie came to live with us when we were almost eighteen and sixteen.
We take Monday mornings to ourselves and hang out before life gets busy. Once those doors roll up, I go home and crash out until I have to be at the bar again. While he goes back to work and clocks out at the end of a long day to go be the best Papa to my niece.
“So, again? How long are you going to let her do this shit to you before you break the cycle?” Dieter pulls me out of my own thoughts.
Pulling the wrapper off of my breakfast sandwich, I lean back on a mountain of tires and shrug as I take a bite.
“I can’t let it get out, so forever, I guess.” Dieter knows everything about me, which means he’s the only person outside of the situation that knows what happened.
“You can’t let it get out, orhecan’t?” Dieter raises aneyebrow at me in question.
“You know the answer to that is both. Drop it, D. It isn’t that bad.”
“Yeah, the shit she does to you sounds like a fucking cakewalk, J.” He rolls his eyes. “You come in here looking likethatagain, and I’ll kill the fucking bitch myself.”
He gestures to the bruise blooming from my cheek to my jawline. “I hear you.” I grumble out.
“Make sure you do, because I’ve watched you do this shit for years to buy her silence, and I’m over it.”
Changing the subject, I bring up the one topic that can always turn both our moods around.
“So how was my girl this morning?” I grin thinking about our perfect princess.
Hannah looks just like her Mama did. She gets her determination and fire from her Papa, but she’s gorgeous just like Michelle was. It’s just D and Hannah now, and one day I’m convinced he’ll get his second shot at love. Until a woman literally falls into his lap though, he’s content just being a good Papa.
“Mad. I’ll have you know I’m the ‘worst hair person ever’ now because I couldn’t do this weird braid thing that wraps around her entire head. Forget that I’ve spent hours mastering French and fishtail braids. No, that’s not good enough anymore. Now I have to make a fucking crown out of braided hair now.” He shakes his head in amusement. “I threatened to send her to Uncle Cub’s after that.”
