Tammy laughed, looking over at me, and even though it was at my expense, I was happy to see her smile. I knew she had been tense today with everything that had gone down and had likely been tense the few days before, too, so it was good to see her with a smile.
Tammy was good-looking when she had a sassy grin and her hands on her hips, full of attitude, but when she smiled—genuinely smiled—she was gorgeous. I found myself wanting to be the one to make her smile like that—the kind that lit up her eyes and crinkled them at the corners.
“Don’t feel bad,” the man who had been bartending right next to Tammy said to me. “Jimmy told me I looked like a chump, too, when I first started working here. I’m Sam, by the way.”
He extended his hand to me, and I shook it. Vince had mentioned him along with all the other names of employees who worked here. I’d done a bit of research on him so far, but I needed to do more.
He had worked here for nearly four years while he wasn’t going to college.
“Tammy tells me you just graduated,” I said, using the information that Wade had actually given me to strike up a conversation.
“Yep. I’ve applied for some jobs, but haven’t heard back yet, so I’m pulling any extra shifts Tammy can give me to pay off my extensive student loans while I wait for a job offer.”
Student loans were expensive, which was why I had Sam on my short list of possible employees to be the culprit.
“I’ll be sad when he goes, ’cause he’ll take all his clientele with him,” Tammy said, nodding back toward the other side of the bar.
It was a section of three women who all appeared to have been vying for Sam’s attention all night.
Sam laughed and made his way back over to the other side of the bar to get those women some refills.
“That man has at least half a dozen women hit on him every single shift, and they sit here drinking more and more, hoping to outlast the others and end up getting his number by the end of the night,” Tammy said, shaking her head in a comical way.
I spent the next two hours eating and pretending to hang out with my “girlfriend.” Tammy was busy, but she’d played her part too, coming over to check on me and make some casual conversation, even if it was quick, in order to keep up the ruse.
Honestly, the conversation part hadn’t felt forced at all, or at least for me it hadn’t.
I’d also spent time scanning the pub, looking for places to put additional cameras and also assessing general security—where all the exits were, bathrooms, and the layout of the restaurant.
At one point, Tammy had bent over to clean up the bin of lemons that she’d bumped onto the floor. That fine ass was right in front of me, and I wasn’t the least bit embarrassed to focus my eyes on the spectacular sight in front of me.
I thought back to how lush her ass had felt in my hands last night as they roamed over her body. The older I got, the more my skin looked and felt like a raisin, but Tammy’s was still soft as silk, and I had loved running my hands over it.
She cleared her throat, her eyes lifting, letting me know she’d caught me looking.
She took a few steps in my direction and leaned in closer, whispering so only I could hear. “Cut it out, or I’ll kick you outta the bar.”
I couldn’t help the grin that overtook my face. “God, you’re so sexy when you lie,” I teased, but it was also the truth.
She just rolled her eyes at me and went back to work.
The place had started to slow down quite a bit, but in the last twenty minutes, the bar had practically cleared out.
Sam was closing tonight, so Tammy had begun her tasks to close down her side of the bar and clock out for the night.
“I’m gonna head back and take care of some scheduling stuff, but thanks for coming to visit tonight,” Tammy said to me, her gaze darting to the man two seats over from me.
“I’ll be back again tomorrow, beautiful,” I said to her, making sure the man heard me, too.
She just smiled and nodded at me.
“I’ll be in the back for a few minutes if you need me,” she said to Sam.
I signed my receipt, jotted a few notes into my phone to remember for tomorrow, and checked my email.
Twenty minutes later, Tammy walked back out and stopped abruptly when she saw me.
I had already left my seat and was standing on the other side of the bar near the kitchen door from which she had just come out.
