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Something flickered in her eyes. She was somewhere between irritated and amused. Without another word, she turned and disappeared behind the bar, dismissing me like I was just another headache in her already long night.
I stood there for a beat, unsure if I should sit back down, or leave. But I felt her eyes on me. Even with my back turned.
I made the decision to slide back into my seat, but the bourbon didn’t taste the same anymore.
It had gone warm, forgotten.
Still, I stayed and watched. Not her this time, but everyone else. The way they carried on like that hadn’t been the first timesomething like that happened. Like it wouldn’t be the last. It bothered me more than it should have. It was a dive bar, after all, that kind of thing always happened, right?
When my eyes scanned back to the bar, I saw the feisty bartender working like nothing had happened. She was serving drinks, throwing out smiles, and ignoring the glass that still sparkled in the creases of the floor.
But I saw the way her hand trembled when she poured the next whiskey. The way she blinked too long, like she was trying to reset. Drunk bastards may have been common in a dive bar, but that didn’t mean it was easy for the people who had to deal with it.
Two voices behind me caught my attention. I didn’t turn to look and they had no idea I could hear them, but I tuned in when I heard what they were discussing.
“Those two are only going to make her life harder now that Officer Brooks is gone.”
“And you know Jeff won’t do a damn thing. He likes their beer money more than he likes protecting his staff.”
I never turned around or asked questions. Just let the names settle in my mind. Jeff must have been the owner. Miles used to tell me about the trouble the Murphy brothers caused, so it was safe to bet that the guys I’d just faced down were the same ones he’d always complained about.
I shouldn't have given a shit. I had my hands in enough things to keep me busy for a lifetime. The other thing I should have been doing is figuring out how to fix my lie with Mr. McConnell. The only thing I could come up with was telling him we broke off the engagement, that it wasn’t meant to be.
But that would definitely make him backtrack, wondering if he could trust me. I was a fixer. I wanted to fix everything, probably to make up for the one thing I couldn’t fix.
Me.
My phone was already in my hand and a plan was being formulated before I could think of what a shitty idea it was. But I was on a roll that day, why stop now?
I was tapping a name from my contacts and held the phone to my ear as I got up. I left enough cash on the table to cover everyone’s tabs that night and made my way out the door as it was nearing midnight.
The parking lot was packed, but quiet, and I leaned against the hood of my car, eyes flickering between the neon sign of Fiddlers and Marcus, who was standing ready by the car door.
“I need to talk to you about a place in Harmony Haven,” I said into my phone. “I have an idea.”
My eyes went back to the bar, noticing the cracks that somehow held the place together. It was important to the community. It was important to my brothers. And for some reason, it flickered through my mind that it was important to her.
And I had the ability to make it better with just one fucking call.
Chapter Five
BLUE
The whole townknew who Westley Brooks was, but very few had actually spoken to him. He wasn’t the type to show up at Fiddlers on a Friday night. But no one was more shocked than Buddy “whatever the fuck his name really was” Murphy.
Buddy was big and had a tough aura, but he cowered to West and took the entire bar by surprise. Well, except for West himself. He acted as if he was used to people bowing to his requests. It was both impressive and irritating. Anyone who could make a Murphy backpedal like that deserved a slow clap, but I had wanted to be the one to deck him, and West had stopped me.
Who the hell did he think he was?
Then he just… left. And Tuffy and I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out if we’d somehow stepped into the Twilight Zone. Tuffy had lived in Harmony Haven her whole life and was old enough to know everyone’s dirty laundry, but she said it was only the third time she’d seen West in person.
And the whole town must have felt the same way, because the next day, when I stopped by the grocery store, people were stilltalking about it. The cashier lit up when she saw me, acting like it was Christmas and begging me to spill every detail.
“Why was West Brooks at Fiddlers?”
“Was he staying in Harmony Haven?”
“Was he as good-looking as his brothers?”
