“Yeah.” I smiled and stretched out my back. “Need another whiskey?” I pointed to the empty glass in front ofhim.
He shook his head. “We have to get out of here. Won’t be toolong.”
He and the older guy got up with a few of the other men sitting at the bar. They all pulled cash out of their wallets, paid, and went on theirway.
“You going to be okay here for a few hours? I need to go take care of some other shit for abit.”
Holt started wiping up the counter and throwing the empty beer bottles into thetrash.
“Yeah. Sure. I’ll befine.”
“I’ll be back later to finish out the night shift so you don’t have to work anotherdouble.”
I shrugged. “Can’t complain about the money. Do what you have todo.”
My shift was pretty uneventful. A few of the regulars popped in and out, but there was nothing to write home about until a group of guys walked in. They looked to be a few years older than me and were completely out of place with their grungy, messy-but-put-together-messy look. Their hair and outfits were like controlledchaos.
The five-some took seats right in front of me at the emptybar.
“What are y’allhavin’?”
“Do you guys havePBR?”
They were all tattooed and incredibly good looking, with an accent that I could notplace.
I nodded. “Five PBRs coming up,boys.”
After setting their beers down, curiosity got the better of me. “So what brings y’all to this neck of thewoods?”
The guy on the end, who had a mohawk and tattoos on his skull, looked up from peeling the label off his bottle. “We’re in a band. Playing in a show tomorrow night right up theroad.”
“Are y’all like famous orsomethin’?”
The guy next to him, who had a sweet, seductive face, smirked. “I guess you could saythat.”
“So what band are y’allwith?”
Tatted-Skull guy chimed in again. “We’re The Hysterics. I’m Maverick, this is Colt, Dane, and Rodney. And that guy on the end is Quinn, our head roadie. We’re playing a concert at AppState.”
The guys started chatting among themselves as the front door swung open. Abel strode in with Holt and a few other members following closely behind. Holt came back behind the bar and the rest went to the pooltables.
“You good?” Holt leaned over my way, grabbing beers to bring to Abel’sgroup.
“Yeah. Go hang out for a bit if you want. It’s been dead all day. I’ll stick around a littlelonger.”
He glanced over at the five guys. “Yousure?”
Holt had an edge about him that I hadn’t seen before. He was usually quiet but sweet, not edgy andprotective.
I nodded. “Yes. Now get out of here before you lower my tip.” I batted my eyelashes dramatically and shoved Holt’s shoulder. Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw Abel’s jaw churning while his eyes bored holes in Holt, but by the time my gaze snapped to meet his, Abel was winking at me, flashing his killersmile.
Weakknees.
Heartpounding.
Lady parts begging for me to tackle him onto that pooltable.
After about an hour of chatting up the band members and roadie and catching Abel looking at me more and more, the flirty side of me decided to take over. Part of me wanted to see how jealous I could make Abel and the other part was just plainbored.
