“I got roped into some last-minute documentation.” She shrugs. It’s a stiff one. “In my line of work it happens.”
“At four in the morning?” Caleb asks with narrowed eyes. “In the dark? With...”
“Nope. The four in the morning part is because of the spontaneous game night and the surplus of whiskey Sierra attempted to knock down to average seasonal levels on her own,” I correct smoothly.
“Ouch. That’s going to hurt, tomorrow.” He scratches his head and looks at his phone. “Today.”
“Maybe just don’t go to sleep,” Roman offers.
Nolan says nothing. Just watches. Cataloging like the human equivalent of a security camera with a psychology degree.
I fight the urge to scratch the burn streaking across the back of my neck.
“I’m fine. I’m not drunk. I’m just… overworked and under serviced.”
Three brothers wince in unison at Sierra’s one-two punch.
My brain short-circuits.
My hand continues to pour because muscle memory is the only thing functioning.
Under serviced.
Seems like someone should help her with that.
I happen to know a guy…
“You did not just say that.” Roman says with a cough as he pounds a fist on his chest on the heels of a deep gulp.
“That’s what you get for grilling me at four in the morning.”
Roman's suspicious glare softens into something more like exhaustion as he lays eyes on the woman we love.
Well.
That was?—
You know what… not going there. Slapping that right back in the box.
One crisis at a time. And currently, I’m managing three.
“You've grown, Shutterbug.” Roman grins down at her like she's still five years old and he's still the one standing between her and the world.
Sierra makes a sound that might be a laugh—small, strangled, but real. The first crack in her armor since her brothers walked in.
Despite the panic still radiating off her just moments before, she softens... and smiles, framing Roman's face with her hands. “You always say that.”
There you are.
My hands still on the glass I'm holding.
You little heartbreaker.
Grabbing a clean bar mop towel, I swipe the gleaming wood.
And swipe again.
And shift the stack of glasses ready to go when the bar officially opens back up.
