Page 45 of Daddy Issues

“Yeah, well, I owe you.”

He squeezed my shoulder. “Nah, but I appreciate it none the less. We take care of family.”

I stepped back from his embrace and tried to smile through the pain of the memory.

“You already have.”

***

The inside of Miller’s bar was a lot nicer than the outside. The bar top was clean and shiny, the floor wasn’t sticky, and the tables were all new. Even the felt on the pool tables looked competition worthy.

Dylan would love it. The girl could throw down on a game of pool. Me and my tiny self could barely lean over the table without a step stool. Which, coincidentally, was why I’d learned how to throw darts instead.

After my third bullseye, Whitney gave up with a laugh.

“Let’s get another drink.” She pulled me to the bar.

So far, we hadn’t paid for a single one. The place wasn’t packed, but there was a small group of younger guys in their early twenties who seemed nice enough. I still didn’t get close—them being there was eerily similar to the college assholes from Desert Lights. Though, these all looked like hard working guys from a construction site, fresh dirt on their boots.

No preppy college boys here. Thank God.

“Hey, Dani, we need shots!” I called down the bar.

“Lemon drops?” she asked.

Whitney shimmied in a circle as Dani made the shots, slid them to us, then leaned over the bar to me. “Does all this score me an introduction to one of those tall, tattooed bad boys you are always snuggled up to?”

“You were chatting one up earlier.” Whitney threw back her shot and swallowed without a flinch. “And he’s pretty damn hot.”

“Merc?” I tilted my head to the side and thought about it. She wasn’t wrong, but there was an edge to him that scared me in a way even Jester didn’t. But the dark wavy hair and the striking blue eyes definitely worked.

Rumors that he made people disappear for enough zeroes freaked me out. Even if he was Dylan’s brother.

“I was more meaning the two she had eating out of her hand a couple of weeks back.” Dani waggled her eyebrows and laughed, the motion accentuating the piercing in her left cheek.

Jealousy made my stomach knot up. But only when I thought about Puck. Sure, Jester was hot, but…he didn’t make me feel the same way. Our messing around some hadn’t meant anything.

“It’s not like you’re handling them both at the same time.”

I blinked and felt the blood rush up from my chest to my cheeks, burning everything in between.

“No way.” Whitney slipped up on the barstool. “Girl, I need all the tea on this one.”

“At the same time?” Dani showed genuine interest, her face lighting up.

I didn’t answer, couldn’t. How did someone just admit to shit like that?Oh god. I dropped my head to the bar.

“Oh shit.” Dani whooped, hopped down from the box she stood on, slapped her towel on the bar, then hopped back up. “Did they, ya know—” She pressed the tips of her two index fingers together.

“What? No.” This time I laughed. I couldn’t imagine Puck ever doing something like that. Jester, it wouldn’t be a massive surprise.

“That’s a damn shame.” She shook her head sadly.

Whitney, looking equal parts shocked and impressed, couldn’t hide her smile. “Puck?”

I closed my eyes tight. For that split second, I forgot she was Eli’s aunt. “Oh shit. I’m sorry, Whitney. I forgot he’d been with Jessica. I’m not trying to—” I groaned.

She snorted. “So has half of Hayes County, including Merc.” Then she laughed and elbowed me. “He’s a great guy, though. Seriously.”

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