“Lizzy, you look beautiful as ever,” Jeff beamed, walking over and giving her a kiss on the cheek.
Michael eyed me warily again, even though he’d been working with me every day. Liam seemed a little less confrontational, but still eyed me suspiciously.
“How’s the bar?” Liam asked.
“Oh, it’s going great. I couldn’t ask for it to be doing better.”
“Good,” Liam nodded, his eyes flicking to mine again. “So…what’s going on?”
“Well, I asked you all here because I have something very important to tell all of you.”
Michael’s gaze shifted to mine. “What’s he doing here?”
“He’s here because I asked him to be.”
“Fuck,” Michael cursed. “I knew it. Didn’t I tell you she was gonna screw the help?” he snapped at his brothers.
“Excuse me?” I said at the same time Lizzy gasped.
“I am not screwing the help!”
“Then what is this little meeting about?” Michael argued. “Because you sure as hell never needed a protector around us before.”
“Would you just sit?” Lizzy snapped, finally losing her cool.
I took a step back, not wanting to be in the middle of it any more than I already was.
“Okay, so, I know I don’t always tell you guys everything?—”
“That’s an understatement,” Liam muttered.
“But I was seeing this guy a while back and?—”
“No,” Liam said immediately. “The answer is no. If he can’t meet your family first, there’s no way in hell he’s marrying you.”
Lizzy rolled her eyes as she continued. “As I was saying, I was seeing this man for a while. None of you knows him. He came by the bar a few times and we hit it off.”
“And?” Michael asked warily.
“Well…” she cleared her throat, her fingers toying with the rag in her hand.
“Oh, fuck,” I muttered, already knowing where this was going.
Her eyes flicked to mine, and I saw the fear and the tears welling in her eyes.
“Fuck, what?” Jeff asked, completely oblivious to what was happening.
“Where is he?” Michael growled, his voice low and disturbingly dangerous.
“He’s gone,” Lizzy said, dropping her eyes to stare at her hands.
“Gone?” Liam asked. “Call him. Tell him to get the fuck back here and fix this!”
“There’s no fixing this, Liam. You can’t just make this go away.”
“I’m sorry,” Jeff cut in. “Make what go away?”
Michael shoved back from his chair, running his fingers through his hair. “What the fuck were you thinking?” he shouted.
