Page 38 of The Dating Pact

Liam eyed Nate. “What’s that mean?”

“She asked for a raise.”

Evie sat up tall, interested. “What’d you say?”

“I’d think about it.”

She threw a balled-up napkin at him. “Don’t pretend you’re not gonna say yes. She’s been your manager for, what, five years?”

“Six,” Nate said, his gaze toward the bar, presumably on Tabitha.

“And she’s been here since you opened the bar,” Evie went on. “You wouldn’t be able to keep yourself afloat without her.”

“I know that.” Nate frowned at his sister. “But I don’t want her to know that. These are how negotiations go.”

“I didn’t know this was a Fortune 500 company. Excuse me.”

“Listen, Little Miss Sassypants, I don’t need any of your lip.”

We all busted out in laughter, with Kennedy saying, “Okay, Dad.”

Nate shuddered. “Please don’t speak that into the universe.”

“What? I think you’d be a great dad.” She looked between all of us at the table for agreement. I would have if I didn’t know all of Nate’s hang-ups from his childhood about his own father.

Evie pointed to the bar, telling her brother off. “Go help her. And then go give her a big raise. She deserves it for all the shit she puts up with from you.”

Nate slanted his head toward Dylan. “You gonna let her talk to me like that?”

Dylan merely slung his arm around her shoulders.

Nate huffed. “What happened to bros before hoes?”

“First of all, if you call your sister a ho, I’m gonna crack your jaw.”

Nate grinned. “As if you could.”

“And second of all, she’s right. Tabitha deserves all the money she wants.”

“Of course she does,” Nate said easily. “But I have to make her sweat it out for a little bit. That’s good business sense. Now…” He extended his arm along the back of the booth. “What’s the plan with sweet Melissa?”

I palmed my phone, scrolling back through the messages with her. Sweet would not be the word I’d use to describe Melissa. “I don’t have one yet.”

“You want to see her?” Liam asked, and my mind flashed to Brooke and how we’d agreed to never talk about what happened last week.

So I dropped my head back to my shoulders and blew out a breath. “Yeah, I want to see her.”

“Hey, man, it’s only coffee,” Dylan said. “If you’re not feeling it, you could leave. No big deal.”

All my friends nodded, including Evie and Kennedy.

Only coffee. I could totally do that.

“Yeah,” I mumbled to myself, forcing my thumbs to type out the words. I’d love to grab a coffee with you. Let me know when you’re free.

ELEVEN

BROOKE

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