I twisted in the last of the red lightbulbs and jumped down from the chair. It looked pretty damn good, if I did say so myself.
Halloween was always a fun time for me. Hillary hated it, but I loved it. It was a holiday that was all about fun. I didn’t go for the scary parts of it since it was a good kid-friendly holiday, but I liked it. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for the bar this year, but Joey suggested a graveyard, and I was all-in.
The red and orange lighting was the first part of it. It cast an eerie glow on everything, making the bar look like twilight was coming. I changed a few of the orange bulbs out for navy blue ones and liked it better. A little darker, which was always good on Halloween.
With the lighting decided, I had to position the headstones. I found a ton online with hilarious names like Noah Scape and Izzy Gone. People were damn clever.
Danielle whistled when she walked in. “Hey, boss. The place looks great. You need any help?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m trying to figure out where to put the tombstones.”
“Well…” Danielle set her stuff on a table and looked around. “Do you have a plan for what people are going to do? Is it business as usual tonight, or are you trying to get people in and out?”
I shrugged. “I dunno.”
Danielle laughed. She’d been working for me for almost a year. She was smart and friendly and didn’t take shit from anyone. She reminded me a lot of Piper.
“I’d say things should be business as usual, but maybe have family-friendly stuff to one side. That way, the families who come through won’t worry about getting beer splashed on them or anything like that.”
“Good idea. How do we do that?”
Danielle sorted through the tombstones and separated the ones that were a little less appropriate for all ages. We moved those toward the side of the bar where the pool tables were. I’d been planning to line the walls with them, like decoration, but Danielle, and Joey, Jonathan, and Sam all worked together to create pathways and stations for guests.
“Well, damn, I never would have come up with all of this. Thanks, everyone,” I said.
They accepted the praise and went about setting up everything else for the night.
Everything for the town started at five o’clock. Early enough that kids could enjoy it before the teenagers and adults got too spooky. Dinner rush was busy, and I was helping Charlie in the kitchen when I heard a crash.
“Want to go check that out?” Charlie asked me.
I shook my head. “Not really.”
He chuckled. “You gonna anyway?”
“You trying to get rid of me?”
“Nope. Just know you’re a control freak and need to have things done your way.”
I opened my mouth to argue as the door swung open. Joey looked up at me with a shell-shocked expression.
“What happened?”
“Someone stepped in front of me when I was carrying a tray. I dropped it.”
“Okay. Clean it up. You’ve done that before.”
He nodded.
“Is there more to it than that?”
He shook his head.
“What’s going on? Why do you look afraid to go out there? Did something else happen?”
He shook his head. “She’s wearing this tiny little bikini thing and her… you know… popped out when she collided with me.”
Charlie barked a laugh.
I sent him a glare and moved toward Joey. “Did you touch her?”
“No! Of course not.”
“Did you say something to her?”
“No.”
“Did you do anything inappropriate?”
“No. It was just right there. I bent down to pick things up, and she did the same, and it was right in my face. I just left.”
I nodded, wondering what hell I was going to get from his mother for that one. It was after the dinner rush, and almost time for Joey to clock out, and he was face-to-tit with some woman who likely had too much to drink already.
“Need me to take care of it?” I asked.
“No, I got it. It’s my job. I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for. It sounds like it was an accident, and the woman was trying to help, but clearly wasn’t aware of her state of undress. If she says or does anything, let me know and I’ll take care of it.”
Joey nodded and grabbed the dustpan and broom.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Charlie let out a belly laugh. “Oh, that poor kid! Nose-to-nipple and no clue what the hell to do with it! I’ll go clean up for him. You were quick to offer that one.”
I threw a towel at him and chuckled. “That’s not why, and you know it. I’ve had plenty of women throw themselves at me. Not my style.”
Charlie still laughed. “Yeah, man, but damn. Sometimes a woman makes it too easy. I like a little challenge.”
“Is that what you tell your wife?”
He snorted. “Trust me, she’s got more than enough challenge for me.”
I grinned. “Keeps you on your toes.”
“Damn straight. And keeps me coming back for more. I don’t want anyone but her. I— What happened?” Charlie’s tone changed too fast.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I turned and found Joey holding his wrist, a towel around his hand.
“I cut myself. I was picking up the glass and someone bumped into me.” Joey moved toward me, red seeping into the towel.
It was one of those moments where I wanted to laugh because I thought he was joking, but the look on his face was too serious. If he was pranking me, he was damn good at it.
“Let’s wash your hand first. If you need stitches, we’ll call your mom and get it taken care of.”
“I don’t like needles,” Joey said, his face paling.
“No one does, kid. Let’s see if you need it first. Wash.” I guided him to the sink and set my hand on his shoulder.
He slowly unwrapped the towel, revealing a small cut on his left palm, near his index finger. Blood seeped from the wound, trailing down his hand. I didn’t think it was bad, but that didn’t mean much since my medical training was nonexistent.
Joey winced when the water hit his skin, and again when I squirted soap onto it.
“Hey, boss, want me to get someone to finish cleaning up?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah. Thanks,” I said.
I focused on Joey while he left the kitchen to find someone to clean up the rest of the broken glass.
Joey washed his hand, three times, then we dried it with a clean towel. I led him to the office where I had a First Aid kit. The cut was small, a quarter of an inch at the most. The bleeding had mostly stopped. He held it tightly together with his fingers, but I knew it would bleed again if he stopped.
I pulled my phone out and tapped Nico’s name for a video chat. The phone beeped at me until he picked up, nearly invisible in whatever dark space he was in.
“Hey, Hud. What’s up?”
“Joey cut his hand on some broken glass at O’Kelley’s. We cleaned it up and are holding pressure on it, but I’m not sure if it needs stitches.”
“Where are you? Laura and I are at a table.”
“We’re in the office.”
“On the way.”
Nico hung up, and I put my phone back in my pocket.
“You doing okay?” I asked Joey.
He nodded, but I could tell he was trying to be strong.
“You can be not okay,” I told him. “The first time I got hurt playing ball, I wanted to cry it hurt so damn much. I pretended I was good, and it meant a longer recovery because my coaches all thought it wasn’t as bad as it was.”
“This isn’t the same.”
“Sure it is. You’re working for me. I’m not going to make you go out there and carry things if your hand is bothering you.”
“My mom’s going to kill me,” Joey mumbled.
His mom’s going to kill me.
I was not looking forward to that conversation. Anna was a mama bear on the best of days. This was not one of those days.
A knock on the door was followed by Nico and Laura, and right behind them was Anna.
“Joey, what happened? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Mom. It was just an accident. I was cleaning up broken glass, and—”
“Why were you cleaning up broken glass?” Anna screeched.
“It’s my job, Mom. Someone bumped into me. It was an accident.”
“This is why I didn’t want you working here. I never should have allowed it. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Laura walked over to them and calmed Anna down while Nico approached me. “Sorry. She was talking to Laura and heard our conversation. She followed us back here.”
“It’s fine. She was going to find out eventually. I just want to make sure he’s okay and doesn’t need to go to the hospital or something.”
Nico nodded. “Laura will check things out, and she’ll get him patched up.”
“Not you?”
Nico shook his head. “She’s the one who does things like this more often. I can sew up a surgical wound, but for small wounds like this, she’s the expert.”
I nodded and watched Laura talk to Joey and Anna. Anna’s shoulders were up around her ears. Joey looked a little pale, but he sighed and smiled when Laura said he didn’t need stitches.
“I’m going to bandage it up for you, if that’s okay,” Laura said.
Joey nodded and leaned back in the chair.
“Are you sure he doesn’t need to go to the hospital or urgent care or something?” Anna asked. Her voice was pitched and tense.
I got it. He was her kid. One of the most important people in her world. And he was hurting.
It was damn hard to watch, and since I was no longer needed, I told Nico to use the office as long as they wanted and headed back to the kitchen to help Charlie.
He was rocking and rolling when I got in there, orders lined up and ready to be delivered. Jonathan was doing the same behind the bar. Between the two of them, I felt like I wasn’t really needed at all. It was kind of a good feeling.
I wandered through the crowd, chatting and laughing with customers. Nico and Laura came back out and joined our group of friends. Nico gave me a thumbs up, so I took that as a good sign.
I made it back to the bar and was about to head into the kitchen when Anna stopped me.
“You didn’t think calling me was warranted?”
“Excuse me?”
“Calling me. When you realized my son was injured. Why didn’t you call me?”
“I was trying to get a handle on the situation. He told me what happened, and I did the best I could. I figured getting him checked out by a doctor and nurse was a good idea.”
“Of course it was, but he’s a minor. As his sole guardian, I should have been informed. I also should have been present. I did not give you permission to get him medical attention.”
“Actually, you did. It’s in the paperwork you signed when he took this job. Legally speaking, I have permission to get him medical attention when necessary as it relates to his employment.”
She huffed, and I took advantage of the moment and went into the kitchen.
“Doing okay?” I asked Charlie.
“All set, boss. How’s the kid?”
“Good. Laura patched him up. No stitches.”
“I bet he’s relieved to know that.”
“Yeah.”
“You can go out and enjoy the party for a bit. I’ll let you know if I need help.”
I snorted. “No, you won’t. You’ll just get shit done like you always do.”
He laughed. “Then it means I didn’t need help.”
I laughed and shook my head, understanding that I was being dismissed.
Without thinking about it, I walked out of the kitchen and found myself face-to-face with a very unhappy Anna Charlotte.
“You’re still here?”
“We weren’t done talking. You should have called me. You should have let me know my son was hurt. I should have been your first call, not the one you never even made.”
“I didn’t need to call you. You were already here and let yourself into my office.”
She got up in my face. Her big brown eyes got even bigger. Her nostrils flared with her temper. Her oversized breasts rose and fell with each ragged, angry breath.
Fucking hell, she was stunning.
Which meant I had to get the hell away from her before I did something I couldn’t take back.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she shouted, grabbing my arm when I tried to move past her.
That fire in her eyes made me chuckle. It was definitely the wrong moment for that, but I couldn’t help it. She was funny. She came up to my armpit and thought she could intimidate me.
“I’m going to my office,” I said over my shoulder, shrugging her off.
I needed a minute. A minute away from her. It was getting bad. She was getting bad. I tolerated her for a while, but I was losing the last bit of my patience with her. I knew she was Finley’s friend, but I wasn’t going to put up with her shit for anyone, even Finley.
I pushed the door closed behind me and stalked toward my desk. Five minutes. Just five minutes and I’d be able to breathe again.
But the door didn’t slam, and I didn’t make it to my desk.
“He cut his hand. You told him to clean up glass on the floor and he cut his hand. How could you do that? How could you—”
“Shut up!”
The rest of her sentence stuck in her throat, her mouth open and ready to spew it at me. I’d never raised my voice to her. Hell, I rarely raised my voice to anyone. But this woman. Fucking hell, she had a way about her. She could make a nun swear. I wasn’t a nun, but my sex life for the last decade or so was just as exciting.
“I—”
“No. You don’t get to barge in here and do this. This is my office. If you have an issue with the way I operate my business, you can leave.”
She opened her mouth to interrupt, and I held up a hand to stop her.
“If you’re not happy with Joey working here, he can quit. I’m not forcing him to stay here.”
She twisted up her lips like she was sucking on a lemon.
I’ll give her something to suck on.
The thought sent me stumbling backward. She was off-limits. So far off-limits, she might as well be in another country. I could not… anything with her. I couldn’t kiss her, touch her, claim her. It didn’t matter how many fantasies I had about her, she was not and never would be mine.
“Joey needs the job,” she breathed. “We need the money. And before you start in on what a horrible mother I am—”
“I don’t know where the hell you got that idea, but I have never said you’re a horrible mother. Not everyone is born with a silver spoon. Most of us have to work our asses off to get what we have.”
She nodded, that amber highlighted hair tumbling over her shoulders and falling in gentle waves over her breasts. Breasts I wasn’t allowed to notice. Breasts I shouldn’t be noticing. Breasts I couldn’t help but notice.
“I don’t like seeing my kid hurt, and you—”
I took two steps toward her. Her eyes widened as I moved into her space. I didn’t give her time to react. I just leaned down and sealed my lips to hers.
Instantly, I knew I’d fucked up. She was definitely going to make Joey quit. And she was probably going to file an assault charge against me. I deserved it, too. I put my hands on her without permission. Without even thinking about asking for permission. I—
Fuck me, she kissed me back. Her lips parted under mine in invitation. One I wasn’t going to pass up. I backed her up until she hit the wall, and I closed the door next to us. The last thing I needed was someone walking in on us. Not when I finally got her in my arms.
Hell, no.
