Page 88 of Tangled up in You

By the time the band finished their first set and took a break, more people filled the bar and Christopher stood on the other side of the room at a high-top, talking with a woman with long, blonde hair loosely flowing down her back.

He even watched Chris crack a smile, a very good sign. A woman who couldn’t make Chris smile never made it as far as exchanging phone numbers.

Mark walked over to stand next to Chris so he could meet the woman.

She was pretty, but as he studied her cool blue eyes and the store-bought tan, he realized something.

Shit.

She was definitely underaged, and as he looked at the bottle of beer in her hand he realized he had a decision to make.

Christopher made the introductions. “Hey, Mark, this is Stephanie. Stephanie, this is my partner, Mark.”

Okay, so Chris had already gone there with her, because she appraised him with a slyly sexy gaze. “Nice to meet you.” She held out her free hand to shake and yes, there wasn’t a single wrinkle around her lips, at the corners of her eyes—not even a crease in her brow.

Fuuuck.

Hell, if she was even nineteen he’d be shocked.

“Hey, guess what?” Chris said. “She’s studying wildlife management over at UM.”

“That’s great,” Mark said. “When do you graduate?”

“I’m a freshman,” she said.

Bingo.

“She’s here for the next two weeks with friends,” Chris continued. “They rented a house in the valley.”

“Nice.” Mark reached back and fished his cell out of his pocket, glancing at it like he’d received a text. “Sorry. I need to handle this. Be right back.” He quickly wove his way through the throng back to the end of the bar and caught Jason’s attention. There were now two other regular bartenders behind the bar, along with the new guy.

Jason scowled and walked over, leaning in when Mark motioned.

“That girl talking to Christopher?”

“Yeah?”

“She’s got a beer.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know who served her but she just told us she’s a freshman over at UM. Not sure how you want to handle this, but I can pretend I didn’t see anything, if you’d like to deal with it right now. Maybe I’m wrong and if so, I apologize. But if I’m not, whoever served her needs an ass-chewing that I trust you’ll administer. I didn’t tell her I’m law enforcement.”

That was a rule he had with Chris. When Mark was out of uniform, Chris wasn’t to volunteer his profession as anything but park ranger. Partly so it didn’t turn people off, but also so he didn’t have strangers pestering him for crazy stories.

“Goddammit,” Jason growled, slapping the towel on his shoulder onto the bar and ducking under it to stalk across the space.

Mark leaned against the bar and watched as Jason walked over, talked to her, and then her face turned beet red. That it was visible from across the room to Mark meant he’d been right.

The girl shook her head and now Chris looked confused as Jason held his hand out for the bottle, taking it from her, and pointed at the door, following the girl as she left.

A wistful pang plucked at Mark’s heart over the disappointment on Christopher’s face as he watched her leave. Another of their agreements was that a woman needed to at least be of drinking age, if not closer to their own ages. Neither of them had any desire to bang someone barely legal.

Chris headed back to Mark. “Well, shit,” he said. “Was it the freshman thing I missed?”

Mark nodded. “Sorry buddy. The night’s still young.”

Chris sighed and put his earplugs back in as the band started their second set while Jason pulled the new guy from behind the bar and into the back room, presumably to give him an ass-chewing.

---