Page 52 of Stay with Me

That wasn’t why I’d put effort into my hair and makeup and clothing again today. It was for the tips.

Jax was here now, but he was back in the office doing God knows what, and I felt like I should be back there because thiswasmy mom’s bar, but before I could act on that, Reece approached the bar. Sometimes when I saw Reece, I thought about my brother Kevin. He’d been fascinated with firemen and police officers. There’d been a good chance that if he’d been allowed to grow up, if heaven hadn’t needed angels, he would’ve been a cop or a fireman.

No more than a second after Reece reached the bar, Roxy spun on her heel and pretended to be dusting bottles or some crap. This wasn’t the first time she’d done that.

Every time Reece was in the bar, which seemed to be whenever he wasn’t working, which also seemed often, Roxy bounced like a rubber ball. And it was obvious.

“Hey,” Reece said to me, but his eyes were on Roxy’s back. “Can I get two Buds?”

“Yeppers.” I tilted my head to the left as I grabbed the chilled bottles. Popping off the caps, I handed them over. “On a tab?”

“Works for me.” His gaze finally shifted back to me. He had pretty blue eyes—vibrant and almost startling in depth. “So, you’re really sticking around?”

Since Reece didn’t look at me like he looked at Roxy, who still had her back to him, I wasn’t self-conscious. Well, not really. It was like talking to Cam, Jase, or Ollie. In other words, hot guys who had eyes for only one female and didn’t care if I looked like the cousin of the Joker.

Worked for me.

“Yeah, at least until the end of the summer.” The words sounded weird to my ears, and I wasn’t sure why.

“Cool.” He leaned against the bar, head cocked to the side. He had a wonderful jaw and bone structure. And I was easily distracted. “This bar has really changed since Jax stepped in.”

I had to agree with that. “When I lived here, Mom had some ... um, real winners working the bar.”

Reece laughed, and it was a nice laugh. “I’m pretty sure we have files at the sheriff’s office on the fuckers she had working in here.”

My lips twitched. “Probably true.”

He grinned, and a dimple appeared in his left cheek. “See you in a little bit.”

Roxy waited to make her way over to me until Reece was back at the table near where a pretty serious-looking game of pool was going down. I glanced at her as I tossed the caps into the trash. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Why do you walk away every time Reece comes up to the bar?”

She pulled off her huge glasses for what had to be the first time since I’d met her and wiped the lenses off with the hem of her tank top. Without the glasses, I got a good look at her face. The girl was literally as cute as a pile of kittens sleeping together. Tiny, pert nose and baby-doll-looking lips, paired with big brown eyes. Those bow-shaped lips pursed.

“I don’t serve him,” she said as she placed her glasses back on.

Before I could further explore that statement, the words “Calla-freaking-Fritz?” were shouted from the door of the bar. “You really are working here!”

What the?

I spun to where the sound traveled from, and at first I had no idea what I was seeing standing there.

It was a life-sized Barbie.

Kind of.

If Barbie had smaller boobs and dressed like a stripper.

The female prancing toward the bar was wearing some kind of skintight Lycra dress that covered her from her butt cheeks to her boobs, and nothing else. It looked like someone had taken a bedazzler to the dress. She was as sparkly as a disco ball on New Year’s Eve.

Her blond hair was blown out and large and as she hurried toward me on sky-high shoes that had see-through heels in them; her hair flowed like she was strutting down the runway.

As she got closer and her big smile spread, I started to see past the glitter on her cheekbones and eyelids. I recognized her.

“Katie?” I placed my hands on the bar, stunned.

---