Page 34 of Here In Your Arms

“I was having a conversation with her!”

“While she’s on the job? Do you think it’s smart to keep her from doing her job? I doubt her boss would appreciate it, but I can go find him in case you want to check.”

“Fuck off,” he mutters and turns away from me.

I make a point to knock into him a little as I walk past and go find my seat next to Wes. He was clearly watching the entire exchange and looks concerned and angry. He’s never been big on conflict, but I can see him trying to gear up and jump in to protect Rory or myself if needed. My hand finds his as I settle into the seat next to him, and I squeeze reassuringly.

“It’s okay, love, I’ll explain it later,” I promise him.

“That guy is a problem,” he says softly.

“You’re tellin’ me.”

Rory walks over with a beer and sets it down in front of me. I take a sip and my eyes jump to hers.

“You remembered my beer,” I say with a small smile.

She shrugs and smiles back. “Yeah.”

“I missed you,” I confess to her. “Hopefully that doesn’t make things weird.”

“No, I missed you too,” she says, smile still in place. “You have great timing, by the way. Thanks for coming to my rescue.”

“Who is that asshole?” Wes asks.

“Just some guy that’s always at the bar, total nuisance for me, but he doesn’t cause problems beyond pissing me off, so we don’t have grounds to kick him out,” she says.

“We’ll just have to keep an eye on him whenever we can,” I promise to her. “I don’t like the look of him.”

“You guys are sweet,” she says. “Be back in a minute. Duty calls.”

She walks off to help other customers and I turn to Wes after taking a long drink of my beer.

“That guy needs to fuck all the way off,” I tell him.

“Seriously. I didn’t tell Rory yet, cuz I didn’t want to freak her out, but I saw him standing in the parking lot after we made out there. It was real fuckin’ creepy.”

“Shit, is it way overbearing to say one of us always needs to be here?”

“Overbearing and not realistic,” Wes reminds me. “We both have jobs, and we would drive her away so fuckin’ fast.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” I sigh and take another drink of my beer.

Rory chooses that moment to come back and eyes my half-gone beer. “Thirsty tonight, Pool God?”

“Still with the ‘Pool God’ bit then, eh?” I ask in a teasing voice.

She grins. “Of course! Life’s more fun with silly names.”

“So what should we call you?” Wes asks her.

“Oh I can’t give that away, you gotta work for it, Whes,” she quips back.

“I’ll work for it,” he says, a grin spreading across his face.

She winks at him with a cheeky smile. Looking over his shoulder, her smile widens a little at whatever she sees. Turning to look, wanting to see what has her smiling, I see a woman with long black hair coming up to the bar, smiling just as brightly.

“Hey girl!” she says to Rory.

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