Harper doesn’t respond out loud. Her face tells me maybe it’s me who needs to get more sleep. She turns and starts taking drink orders. I want to watch over her in this wild room. Really, I just want to stare. Watch her true, wide smile break out for others, if not for me. Watch her twist and turn her set of perfectcurves to wordlessly take cash, pour beer, and nod at James. But I’m interrupted.
“Hey, aren’t you the rich asshole who’s come to ruin this place?” A young guy says to me. I can’t place his face from around town but I do recognize that he’s drunk.
“That’s me,” I say, turning to face him. “And you are?”
“Not someone who’s afraid of you and your money. You’re not welcome here,” he inches closer, swaying a bit.
“Hey, now,” James says calmly behind the counter.
“You heard me, man,” the guy reaches to shove me.
And is pummeled.
By ice water.
An entire bucket of it.
“THE HELL?” The guy turns to face his assailant. The silent, sweet, sexy little baker is holding the pitcher proudly and telling him to get lost with her expressive face.
“He’sourrich asshole,” she says quietly right as Carl and some other big men arrive to escort the drunk tourist out of Nog’s.
I’m frozen, I think, slack-jawed that that woman just stood up to a drunk, belligerent, not-small man. For me.
“I really do love having you in town, Aid,” Steven says as he shoves a beer in my hand. He yammers on about the local drama as he leads me by the arm to his table where Miles and a few others are gathered for trivia.
But I don’t hear what he’s saying. I don’t greet the table. I just stare back at her.
“Hey, HEY! Earth to Aiden,” Steven snaps in front of my eyes.
“Hm?”
“I thought I told you to go easy on her,” Steven says.
Annoyed, I exhale, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“She’s fiercely loyal, as you just saw, but she’s…she’s not available, Aid,” he says.
“So I’ve been told,though I did not ask,”I grumble.
“Uh huh, and you’re here barking at her about whether or not she ate dinner becauuuuse…?”
“Because Stuart keeps getting out.”
Steven snorts at that and shifts his attention from me back to the trivia games at hand. Apparently Miles is the mastermind of the table because Steven isn’t saying much. Unusual for him.
“Whose is he?” I ask, annoyed with myself that I can’t let any of this go.
“Huh?”
“Stuart. Whose dog is he? Was he?”
The realtor’s happy demeanor visibly shifts to an expression that’s somehow both sad and angry. “Lewis. Total asshole.”
“Her ex boyfriend?”
“Yes, and he got her that dogto show her he was going to stay around!”
I blink to process what he’s saying, “And then he left?” I finish the thought.
