A few minutes later, he walked through the side door that separated Bowie’s from the apartments and headed toward the front. Gabe was drawing beers behind the bar while Sean and his brother Jordan sat on the other side, sipping their drinks. Joel plopped down on a bar stool beside them.
“Sometimes it’s nice living a flight of stairs away from a drink, huh?” Sean slid a bowl of pretzels Joel’s way. “Beats sulking alone in your apartment.”
“Who says I was sulking?” Joel tossed a pretzel in his mouth.
“The frown that’s burned into your forehead kind of gives you away, my friend,” Gabe said.
Two fingers of Scotch slid under his nose, and he tipped his head in gratitude toward his brother-in-law, who knew his taste well by now. He took a swallow, savoring the warm burn of liquid.
“What do you do when you get a note in the morningsaying, ‘be home by dinner’ and then nothing else all day?” He caught the look that passed between Gabe and Sean. “What?”
Sean’s lower lip stuck out as he shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Bullshit. Explain that look?” Joel waggled his finger between the two men. “You guys know something. Spill it.”
Gabe busied himself wiping down the bar while Sean took a long sip of beer and became fascinated with a piece of art on the other side of the wall.
Joel leaned forward and caught Jordan’s eye. Sean’s brother was a massive motherfucker, built like a beast, and scary as hell when you first looked at him. But as it turned out, Jordan was a quiet introvert. He tended to mind his own business and keep a low profile. Like right now, as he sat hunched over his soda.
“Jordan, what are these losers not telling me?”
Jordan shrugged. “Why should I know? The only reason I’m sitting here is because this guy”—he jerked his thumb at his brother—“made me come out tonight.”
Gabe’s jaw dropped. “It is freaking scary how well you can lie.”
Joel whipped his head to glare at his brother-in-law.
“Come on man!” Sean leaned over the bar and gave Gabe a shove. “You just gave us away. I knew you would.”
“Shit, sorry. It’s scary though, right? Like he didn’t even flinch.” Gabe gestured to Jordan, who still stared into his soft drink. “You should play poker.”
“No thanks,” Jordan mumbled.
“Okay, that’s it, someone tell me what’s up or I will buy this place and turn it into a Garden Center.”
“Jesus, no need to get nasty,” Gabe chided. “Nothing’s up. The girls are out, that’s all.”
“What girls? Out where? Is Lucy with them?” His questions tumbled out in a wave of relief.
“Well, Ivy is with them. I think her hairdresser too, and Lucy’s sister, maybe,” Sean told him.
“Vanessa,” Joel supplied.
“That’s the one,” Sean said. “Ivy was excited to get to know your fiancée better, and apparently her sister is a famous model or something, so she wanted to meet her. Anyway, they went to Silk.”
“Silk?” Joel leaned forward. “That nightclub across the river.” Techno music and strobe lights didn’t sound like Lucy’s style. At least not the Lucy from four years ago. Then again, a drunken Vegas wedding hadn’t sounded like her either.
“They’re fine. Jordan is a bouncer there twice a week. He put a guy on it. Anything off happens and we’ll know,” Sean reassured.
Jordan grunted in assent.
A guy on it? What the hell did that mean? What guy? He gulped down the rest of his Scotch. He didn’t like the idea of some random bouncer in charge of his wife’s safety.
“Trust me, my friend. You do not want to go over there and interrupt their night,” Gabe said, reading his mind.
“Don’t I?”
“You absolutely do not,” Sean agreed. “I get it, I do. I, myself, have been there and done that. They don’t like it. Don’t mess with girls’ night unless they allow it.”
