“Okay, baby girl.” My dad snaps me out of my perusal. “This is Rex.” He points to the guy behind the bar. “Rex, this is my daughter, November. She’s going to be doing the books and helping me out from behind the scenes. You won’t see her much, but I wanted you to meet her so if I’m not around, she knows who to talk to.”
“Hey, girl,” Rex says, wiping his hands on a towel. “Nice to finally meet you.”
“You too,” I say as my dad pulls me into his side.
“Wow, Mike, with your ugly mug, I didn’t think you could make such a pretty girl,” Rex says and I feel myself turn red.
My dad looks down at me with so much pride. “Yeah, I did good,” he says, smiling.
“Oh, geez, Daddy, stop,” I say while squeezing his middle and rollingmy eyes. That’s when I feel someone’s watching me. I look around, but don’t see anyone.
“I’m gonna take her to the office and show her my mess,” Dad says.
“Okay, man, but when you’re done, we need to talk about the shit Skittles pulled the other night.”
“Once November leaves, I’ll be on the floor,” my dad says, pulling me with him.
After meeting a couple other people, we go into his office. He was not joking—the place is a mess. It’s going to take me weeks just to get everything organized. There are papers, books, and files everywhere and the computer looks like the first one ever invented. “Well, here you are. You can start tomorrow morning. Just try to be out of here by three. Once you get stuff figured out, you can always move your office to the house if you feel like that works better.”
“Okay, I’ll start tomorrow. It’s gonna take some time just to get things sorted. After that, I should be able to do it from home most of the time.”
“Sounds good,” Dad says, looking around. Just then, the phone rings on the desk. He moves some papers around. When he finally finds the handset, he puts it to his ear. “Yeah, okay. I’ll be out. He hangs up, I have to go, baby girl. There’s a problem out front.”
“That’s fine, Dad,” I say to his back as he runs from the office. Looking around for a few minutes, I see that I have my work cut out for me. I decide to go home and get some sleep so I’ll have all my brain cells in the morning when I come back to this disaster.
I walk out into the cool November air. I pull out my phone and text Dad that I’ll see him tomorrow. The music is now just background noise, but I can still smell the alcohol, perfume, and beer that lingers on my clothes from being inside the club. I’m almost to my car and my mind has drifted to Beast. I want to take him for a walk before it’s too late and we have another skunk incident like we did the other night. “Yo!” I hear shouted from behind me. I jump and end up dropping my purse and keys to the ground. I pick them up, and then look around.
All the air is pushed out of my lungs. The most beautiful man I have ever seen is standing a few feet from me. He is more than a foot taller than my five-foot four—inch frame. His dark brown hair is cut so short that I can see his scalp. His jaw is square; it looks like it’s cut from glass. He has a couple days of stubble on it that makes me want to rub my cheek across it to see how it feels. His nose looks as if it may have been broken, but it does nothing to take away from the beauty of his face.
With only the light from the street lamp above us, I can’t tell his exact eye color, but they look blue or light gray. His lips have a perfect cupid’s bow at the top and bottom. They’re so full, they would make my mom, the queen of lip injections, jealous.
Taking in his face, I’m completely caught off guard by the anger I see in his eyes. He is about three times my size. His arms are so large he could squash me like a bug. I can make out the definition of almost every muscle in his torso. His body is as impressive as his face and the thermal shirt he’s wearing does nothing to hide it from me...or anyone with eyes. His legs are planted shoulder-length apart. His jeans hang low on his hips, and with the way he stands, I don’t even think a tornado could move him. He crosses his arms over his chest while looking down at me.
I take a step back toward my car and remind myself that I need to breathe. I adjust my keys in the palm of my hand so they become a weapon. He doesn’t miss this move, judging by the flash of surprise I see cross his face.
“Hi,” I squeak out.
“Yeah, hi,” he says back in a mocking tone that surprises me. “You need to have an escort to your car anytime you leave the club.” He’s practically growling at me.
“Wh−Wha−What?” I ask, stuttering.
“You,” he says slowly, like I’m stupid, “need an escort anytime you leave the club to walk to your car. All the girls know this shit.”
“Um...okay?” I say, still not understanding.
“It’s my boy’s job to make sure your ass is safe from the building toyour car. So don’t piss me off by not doing what you’re told. And trust me, sweetheart, I don’t give a shit if you’re fucking Big Mike. Next time, wait for one of the guys to walk you out here.”
“Who’s Big Mike?” I ask. I’ve only been in town a short while, how can rumors of me and some guy already be going around?
“Big Mike, the guy you were hanging on and calling Daddy!” he says with distaste. “I don’t give a fuck if you’re sleeping with the boss. He should have told you this shit himself or had the decency to walk your ass out here to your car.”
Oh my God! Ewww... Now, I get it. He thinks I’m sleeping with my dad. Gross! And he’s being totally rude.
“Excuse me?” I ask, narrowing my eyes, hoping he gets the message that he should choose his next words wisely.
“What part don’t you understand, sweetheart?” he says, mocking me. I’m sure at this point, my eyes are bugging out of my head and steam is coming out of my ears.
I jerk my hand out angrily in his direction. “I’m not ‘sweetheart’, I’m November. I’m also Big Mi—”
