“Yeah.”
“You got it.” Josie turned to grab a glass, drawing Eve’s attention to the tattoo on the back of her shoulder. After their trip to the roof, Josie had taken off her jacket, revealing the red tank top she wore beneath it…and her tattoo.
“A dragonfly?” she said, trying to keep her tone even, as if her fingers weren’t itching to touch it, as if she had no more than a passing interest in this newly revealed part of Josie’s body.
She turned to face Eve as she began to pour her beer. “Dragonflies symbolize transformation or self-realization. I got it after I came out.”
“Oh.” She’d seen the rainbow pin on Josie’s bag, and more importantly, she’d seen the heat in her eyes when she looked at Eve. But somehow, hearing her say it only intensified the restless urge to kiss her, an urge she absolutely could not allow herself to satisfy. “It’s beautiful,” she said, meaning the tattoo, but really, the sentiment applied to any part of Josie, if she were being honest.
“Thank you.” She slid the beer across the bar to Eve, their fingers brushing in the process, warm skin against cold glass.
Eve lifted it and took a long drink, trying to restore some semblance of sanity in her brain. It was the bar. It was messing with her head. The bar, and the beer. Bad ideas multiplying the longer she sat here.
Had she gotten all the information she needed from Josie today? Maybe she should leave now, get the fuck out of here before she lost any more of herself to this place, or this woman. She’d never shirked her job before, not because of an inconvenient attraction or a personal trigger, and she hated herself for even considering it now.
“Do you have any?” Josie asked.
“What?” Eve set the beer down, staring into its amber depths.
“Tattoos.”
“One,” she told her, crossing her legs beneath the bar.
“On your ankle, right?” Josie said. “I noticed it before.”
“Yes.” And she wasn’t going to let herself wonder when Josie had been staring at her ankles. Nor was she going to explain it to her, not today or likely ever.
“An infinity symbol?”
She nodded, resisting the urge to reach down and touch it.
“Cool,” Josie said after a pause, realizing Eve wasn’t going to elaborate. “I like it.”
“Thank you.” She swirled the glass slightly, watching the golden liquid coat its sides. “It’s about time to feed the kittens.”
“I can do it if you want,” Josie offered. “Just text me if anyone comes in, and I’ll come down and serve them.”
“All right. Thank you.” She wasn’t going to complain about skipping a feeding or not having to climb the stairs to Josie’s apartment. Her back had been a mess ever since she started lugging around the box of tiny felines.
“No problem.” Josie headed for the stairs with a bounce in her step. She truly enjoyed caring for the kittens and was genuinely disappointed she couldn’t raise them herself. It was a damn shame Eve wouldn’t be able to turn the bar around quickly enough to make it happen.
She stood from the stool to stretch her legs, and since she had the place to herself, she bent forward, stretching her back with an exercise her physical therapist had taught her, loosening the tension in her muscles and alleviating some of the pain. And then, unable to resist the temptation, she ducked behind the bar.
She placed her palms against its smooth lacquered surface the way Josie so often did. It was cool against her skin. Solid. Familiar. Without warning, she heard Lisa’s laughter ringing in her ears, saw her twirling a liquor bottle nimbly between her fingers before she began to pour. She heard her own laughter, mixed with Lisa’s, felt the warmth of it bubbling up inside her.
And then came the pain, so swift and brutal, it almost knocked the knees out from beneath her. She lowered her head, staring at her hands, waiting for it to pass. She was a different person now, and although Josie’s bar stirred memories, it couldn’t bring the old Eve back. Nothing could. She’d died in that car along with Lisa and their unborn daughter.
Forcing the memories away, she slipped her professional persona into place as she looked around the room, seeing it the way Josie did every night. It was a nice space, open and inviting, albeit somewhat worn and dated. It would need a facelift, but more than that, Swanson’s needed to be fully rebranded to succeed, maybe even take on a new name.
It was no accident that Josie had lost so much business over the last few years. A number of new bars had opened in the neighborhood during that timeframe, fresh and trendy while Swanson’s was showing its age. Eve had a few ideas to make Swanson’s relevant again, but she needed to do more research and observe Josie in action for the rest of the week before she made any official recommendations.
The front door swung open, and two of Josie’s friends walked in, a tall, lanky man with overly styled hair and a pretty black woman with a wild halo of curls. Adam and Kaia. Eve had interviewed them yesterday while the crew was here filming.
“Has she got you tending bar for her now too?” Adam asked jokingly as he slid onto a stool.
“Hardly,” she replied, realizing she was still standing behind the bar. “She’s upstairs feeding the kittens.”
“The ones you found in a trash can?” Kaia asked, sitting beside Adam.
