Declan leaned one elbow on the bar and glanced at me. “He’s got you there.”
I scrubbed a hand down my face, exhausted to my fucking core, thanks to trying to hold everything together. My family, this bar… Myself. “What the fuck are you even doing here, Dec?”
“Came to tell you I can’t work next week, so you’ll have to take my shifts.”
“I can’t take your shifts because I have other shit to do,” I said. “Like lead my team toward the playoffs.”
“Well, someone other than me needs to work them,” Lincoln said. “I already basically live here. I’m not going to work seven, twelve-hour shifts in a week just so Dec can go off and do whatever the fuck.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.” Declan shrugged. “I’ve got somewhere else to be, so work it out.”
“Right, yeah. I’ll work it out.” Lincoln tossed a rag under the counter, the force knocking over a mug. “Can’t count on you for shit anyway. I don’t know why I thought next week would be any different.”
“Don’t get pissed at me,” Declan shot back. “I’m not the one who saddled us with this place. Dad is. You want someone to be pissed at, direct it at him.”
“A little hard to do when?—”
“All right, assholes, keep it down.” I glanced around the bar, noticing a few curious heads turned in our direction. We hadn’t kept our family’s shit locked up tight for years just for these two to ruin it. “I’ll get next week handled. But Dec, you know goddamn well this was a shitty move. Even for you.”
That last bit wasn’t necessary, but it also wasn’t wrong. And from the way Declan’s jaw clenched as he stared at me, he knew it. Which was why he didn’t argue or snap back. He just pushed off from the bar top, grabbed his helmet, and strode straight out the front door without a backward glance. Not caring what kind of a mess he left in his wake.
Lincoln braced his hands on the bar top and blew out a heavy breath. “We can’t keep doing this, Atlas. I’m busting my ass here, but you can’t always pick up the slack. And fuck knows Dec isn’t going to. Maybe it’s time for Xander to come home.”
“You know it’s not that easy.”
“Well, make it that fucking easy. I’m drowning over here, man. And you’re the only one of our brothers who even bothers to toss me a lifeline.”
The problem was, I knew what Xander would say if I called him. The same thing Declan did at least once a week. That we should just sell the bar. Split the proceeds and move on. Stop allowing a man who’d been gone for years to dictate our lives.
But one brother had already fled this town without looking back. If we didn’t have this bar anchoring us here, I was certain Lincoln and Declan would both follow suit.
And I hadn’t worked this hard for this long to keep my family together, only for it all to go to hell in the end.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SUTTON
Sometimes I missedthe anonymity of a big city. There was something to be said for being able to swing by the grocery store at 2 a.m. for some emergency ice cream without running into a soul. I couldn’t do that in Starlight Cove—only partially because the grocery store wasn’t even open past eight. But also because I couldn’t walk anywhere without someone calling out a hello.
I’d only been here for a short time, and the residents already knew me by name. Case in point, the four people who’d stopped me between my car and One Night Stan’s just to say hi.
So, when my name was called for a fifth time, I didn’t think twice before turning around. Since I’d been expecting to be greeted by a patient from earlier in the week or one of Mabel’s friends, it took me a moment to register what I was actually seeing.
Doug—as in, weird ex-boyfriend Doug who lived more than a thousand miles away—strolling toward me with that smile that always seemed a bit too calculated.
What in the actual fuck?
I glanced around at the handful of people milling about on the sidewalk, grateful now for this nosy small town because at least there’d be witnesses if I needed them. While I wanted tobelieve I didn’t have anything to worry about from this guy—he was just a harmless accountant—that still didn’t stop my hackles from rising.
“Sutton, hi.” He rested a hand on my hip and leaned down to kiss my cheek.
I stiffened at the contact and stepped out of his reach. “What are you doing here, Doug? And how the hell did you know where I moved?”
He was still smiling, as if this behavior was totally normal and nothing at all to be alarmed about. “Susan told me.”
Of fucking course my former landlady and all-around busybody would spill that info to my ex.
“That still doesn’t explain how you knew I’d behere,right now.”
