Page 119 of Unforgettable

I lifted my hands in mock surrender to their insane thought processes. It was like they had a silent conversation that only the two of them could hear.

Reed stepped forward, slid his hand around my neck, and kissed my forehead. “I promise we’re good, babe.”

“Yes,” Josh said, moving behind me and kissing my temple. “We’re good.”

They shared a soft smile, and finally, I felt like I could agree with them. My heart pounded in my chest, but it wasn’t nerves that made my heart rate accelerate—it was happiness.

“I have to call Collin and see how things are holding up at the gym.”

“Yeah, I’m going to call Sam and try to talk to Zach.”

“On that note,” I said, turning on my heels toward my bedroom. “I’m going to take a much-needed shower.” The ache between my legs was evidence of last night I didn’t mind. Actually, I loved that they’d used me so thoroughly that I could feel them both hours later. However, I wasn’t necessarily fond of the dried sweat and body odor.

They shared a look and then glanced at me. “Hopefully your complex uses gas to heat the water,” Reed said before putting his phone to his ear.

“I guess I’m about to find out.”

“Save some for me, babe.” Josh winked.

I rolled my eyes, but I also couldn’t contain my smile.

THIRTY-FIVE

Josh

Yelling wasthe first thing I was greeted by when I opened the back door to Murphy’s.

I recognized Rhonda’s drawl immediately but not the other voice that participated in the argument.

As I approached, it seemed like they were at the tail end of their little spat. “Just get it done as soon as possible. I need to be open tonight!”

She rounded the corner from the back bar the same moment I did, and we nearly collided. With hands on either of her shoulders, I steadied the tiny spitfire of a woman.

“Christ on a fucking cracker! You scared the shit out of me, Josh.” She braced a hand over her heart and took shallow breaths.

“Sorry. Leak still isn’t fixed yet?”

In a dramatic motion, she waved her hands out beside her and shook her head. “No, it’s still not fucking fixed. He promised it’d be done earlier this week, but then there was an issue getting a certain part. Then yesterday, it was something about his kid, and today he made me the same promise he did before.”

Compared to most businesses—and people in general—the bar escaped the freeze nearly untouched. The leak, although significant, was our only issue.

It still meant that the water was shut off and without running water, we couldn’t open the bar. And without opening the bar, we couldn’t make money. Every night the place was closed was another hit to our pockets.

I didn’t envy Rhonda’s position as the owner and making all of the difficult decisions.

“But anyway, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve already chewed him a new one, so let’s go chat for a second.”

I could count on one hand the number of times I’d been at the bar before nine a.m. And most of them were not for anything pleasant. Rhonda—or the previous manager and one of my best friends, Blakely—would only call me in if there was something wrong or if I’ddonesomething wrong. The possibility of either happening that morning was making my heart beat at a wild pace.

She’d called me the night before to tell me that she needed to speak to me the following morning and that it was urgent. I’d tried—and utterly failed—to get her to tell me over the phone and reluctantly agreed to meet her at the bar before my workout with Reed.

As glad as I was that the winter storm was over, I also wasn’t at all. Being locked in an apartment with Reed and Amanda was the happiest I’d been in a while.

Rhonda led us to the front of the place and took a seat at a high-top table near the door. I joined her at the opposite wooden barstool and nervously bounced my leg.

“Look, you know me, and I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m getting old, and I’ve been doing this for way too damn long already. This place has been my baby, but I can’t keep up anymore. I’m a grandma and every second I’m at the bar is another second away from my grandkids.”

All of that I knew. I knew she had a third grandkid on the way. They lived out of state, and it was part of the reason she gave me the manager job—my son was here, and with Sam’s and my joint custody agreement, it made me available every other weekend. She also trusted me to build a staff that could handle the place when I wasn’t on the premises.

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