AUDRA
The night was already not going how I expected it to. One, I was supposed to be at darts. Two, Donovan was going. Three, I was annoyed that I had gotten a call from work begging me to come in. When I said no, they switched their tactic to trying to make me feel bad. That was the sixth time in six weeks I’d gotten a call like that, and this was the first time I firmly held my boundary.
Arguing with myself as I got ready, I tried to ease my feelings of guilt. I was not responsible for someone else’s issues. It appeared that the hospital felt entitled to my free time, and that was not acceptable. They could figure something out. It’s not on me that this particular person had called off three times at the last minute in this month alone. It was not my emergency. I had plans. Although my plan was karaoke night, it was still a plan, and I deserved to go. Honestly, I might have been more willing to cover the shift if Donovan wasn’t going, but I really wanted to see him again. It felt like he was throwing out a bit of a vibe at coffee. Those brown eyes weren’t lingering on anyone else at the table, and I knew it because I was openly staring at him. So tonight, I put on a flirty littlesundress that showed off enough curve and cleavage to draw some more of his gaze, and paid a little extra attention to the rest of me, too. When I took one last look at myself, I nodded. I looked good.
Walking in, only the twins and Jules were there, and they had secured us some of the best seats in the house. Though I can’t imagine that’s too hard when you own the bar.
“My favorite Audra,” Bennett grinned when he saw me and scooped me up for a hug. “I’m sorry darts got canceled for you, but I’m not sorry that we’re at my favorite bar in the state.”
“You just want to impress the ladies with your smooth singing voice.” I joked.
“I mean, I was hoping to woo them with my irresistible charm, then impress them with singing. It’s a one-two-punch situation.”
Rolling my eyes at my best friend, I smacked his shoulder. “You are the worst, B.”
“How could you say that to me when I have this delicious chai mule waiting for you?” He pointed at the table where the waitress had just set down our drinks.
“How did you…” I trailed off.
“I saw you coming in and shouted to Chloe to throw it on,” he laughed.
“In that case, I take back everything I’ve said.” I picked up my drink, took a sip, and savored how delicious it was.
Soon after, everyone else trickled in. Everyone except Donovan. We all fell into our laugher and merriment immediately. I’d spent a lot of time with Maeve and the guys over the years, but adding Cora and Jules back into this mix was perfection. Even though Cora had only been back a short while, it was crazy to watch her and Maverick. They were electrictogether. And Murphy and Jules? It was a little harder to figure out what was happening between them, but it was certainly something. They had a complicated history, but things appeared to be thawing between them as of late. She’d spent more time here in the last two months than she had since she left at eighteen.
Analyzing all the people at the table brought attention to the one person who was missing tonight. Looking at my watch again, it was 7:30 p.m. Donovan didn’t seem like the kind of man who ran late.I wonder if he changed his mind?
Before I could get lost in that spiral, Maeve started hitting my thigh and hissed between her teeth. “He’s here, he’s here, he’s here.” Spinning my chair towards the direction she was looking, he was here indeed. Goddamn, this man demanded attention. He was striding powerfully towards us, and people actually turned to watch him. When he reached our table, I noticed his flushed face, and that he was a bit out of sorts. Again, this is a man that I would assume never came across as anything but confident. Right now, I could pick up on the tiniest hint of nerves. That aside, I had never seen him out of his professional clothes. Even when I ran into him at the florist, he was taking a lunch break to do it. Not that those suits were bad on the eyes. They had to be tailored just for him. Broad-shouldered, tapered waist, arms that could stop bullets, probably. Jesus, was I drooling? But tonight he wore a thin olive green sweater that complemented his skin tone perfectly and showed off all the hard work he put into his body, and a pair of jeans. My God, he was beautiful.
“I apologize for my tardiness,” he started with. “Maeve, thank you for including me tonight.” Then he went around the table introducing himself to the people that he didn’t knowand greeting the people he did. After that initial hiccup, he seemed to settle in. “Can I get everyone a drink?”
Coming back over with a full tray, he set it down, sat right next to me, and let out a breath.
“Sorry I’m late,” he leaned in and said to me. “It was a crazy fucking day.”
13
DONOVAN
Safe to say, things took a turn this afternoon. After a successful and productive work call that ended at 4:15 p.m., I thought my Friday was home-free. Best laid plans and all.
About fifteen minutes before five, I received a frantic call from my general contractor at Quest. Their latest shipment of lumber was all wrong. Like $850,000 wrong. They sent pine instead of cedar, and I was left to determine whether it was intentional or an honest mistake. Though I was all about giving people the benefit of the doubt, I’d already given this company millions of dollars for materials, and this was their second major fuck up. I spent over twenty minutes on the phone with the guy, who was apologetic but skeptical about believing that it was the wrong shipment. Demanding he make the trip to meet me on site, he finally agreed. By that point, I decided our business relationship was over.Put finding a new supplier on my list of shit I had to get done. He was not happy, but neither was I. Lo and behold, when he finally made it to Quest, he realized the mistake. I maintainedmy composure, but was furious. Not to mention that I kept looking at my watch, watching the minutes tick by. I trusted my general contractor, but I wanted to be here for this. The lumber guy left around 6:10 p.m., and I sped home to change.
As soon as I entered my house, I fielded a call from my sister, who called to complain about our mother. These days, there were few times I declined my sister’s calls. I harbored some guilt for some choices I made with her, including both abandoning her in New York to deal with my parents and checking out long before I physically left. This was one way I atoned for it: being available to her now. I threw her on speaker and did what I could while listening. Our mother was trying to set her up with some ‘prospective suitors.’ She tried to pull that shit with me too, and I hated it then as much as I hated it now for my sister. I was a little more headstrong than McKenna, so I was quicker to tell my mother to fuck right off. McKenna was the kind of person to nod her head to keep the peace. To be honest, I think she was still holding out hope that one day we would be one big, happy family, but that dream was delusional.
Looking at my watch again, it was already 7:10 p.m. I was already ten fucking minutes late. Punctuality was one of my biggest pet peeves. I hated when people were late, so showing up late to something that felt as important as this made me break out into a sweat.
Parking outside of The Yard, I tried to wrap up the conversation with my sister. “Kenna, at the end of the day, just tell her to fuck off. Better yet, agree to go out with someone and then don’t answer the door when they arrive. That’ll make her look terrible.” The thought of my mother looking terrible brought a smile to my face. “But I have plans I’m already late for…”
“You have plans?” She cut meoff. “What are you doing? Donovan, I haven’t heard about you having plans in … I can’t even tell you the last time.”
“Yeah, I’m heading out with Maeve and her friends tonight.”
“Shut. Up. That’s great, Donovan! Where are you going?” Although I had some personal shortcomings in the sibling department, my sister was the best person I knew. She had been overly concerned with my well-being my entire life, but especially when things were very dark for me. She’d leave me notes, drawings, pretty much anything to let me know she was thinking of me and loved me.
“Just the local bar. It was supposed to be a dart league thing, but now it’s karaoke.”
My sister’s squeal cut me off again. “Who in the hell are you trying to impress?” That’s the thing about family you’re close to. They know all about you, and McKenna knew that karaoke wasn’t my thing these days. “Have you done karaoke since you were a teenager? Wait … what are you going to sing?” She shot questions at me a mile a minute.
