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Her father had always warned her to beware of alcohol and slow dancing.
And he was right.
She almost grinned at the thought.
The first night she and Casey had been together, they had danced to a slow, lazy tune after the bar had closed and after they had shared more than one drink.
Her stomach clenched at the memory of that night.
There on the bar. He’d turned the cameras off and he’d taken her like a man starved for a woman.
“Hey, Sheila, you’re blushing.” Sarah Cooper’s brows were arched as she made the accusation teasingly. “What are you thinking about that has your face all red?”
Hell.
She was half tempted to turn around and walk out rather than face the warmhearted teasing. She hoped that Casey wasn’t around.
“Secrets,” Sheila informed her as she took the bar stool one of the bouncers vacated.
The new guy, Morgan Keane.
Six feet four and a half inches of power and well-honed muscles. Dark blue eyes and black hair, sun-bronzed skin, and a hardened expression.
Wearing jeans and a black Broken Bar T-shirt, he looked like a man most men, let alone a woman, would be scared to run into in a back alley.
The background check her father had done on him had pretty much confirmed that impression. He wasn’t a criminal, and never had been, as far as Captain Rutledge could tell. He was just a man who had treaded a thin line a little close to that element.
Even worse, and a bigger sin in the captain’s eyes, Morgan Keane hadn’t joined one of the military forces and served his country either.
He was a hell of a bouncer, and one Sheila knew Cooper was coming to depend upon after less than six months.
“You are not answering me.” Sarah leaned forward, shy dimples peeking out from her rounded cheeks as she brushed back the incredibly long curls that fell around her.
“That’s because I don’t want to,” Sheila answered as she leaned forward as well, ignoring the other girl’s playful pout. “Where’s Cooper? He’s supposed to be keeping you out of trouble.”
“In a meeting with your bed warmer,” Sarah all but whispered as her grin widened. “Tell me, Sheila, how long did you think you would keep it quiet if you dared to challenge Casey as you did?”
Sheila’s brows lifted. What in the world had Casey told Sarah? It wasn’t like him to tell anyone anything about his private life.
To say she was shocked he had even let on that they were sleeping together was an understatement.
Sarah rolled her eyes, almost laughing back at her.
“His truck has been parked at your house the past two mornings and several of the bar’s customers just happen to be working on your father’s landscaping.”
Sheila grimaced. She had forgotten about that. She should have thought. There were very few members of the community who hadn’t been in the Broken Bar at one time or another.
“Oh well, he can deal with it then.” She shrugged as though it didn’t matter when she knew very well it did. She detested being gossiped about. But even worse, she knew for a fact that Casey had broken off relationships with other women for no more reason than the fact that his personal business with them had become public knowledge.
She didn’t need this.
She didn’t need to be forced to grapple with her own emotions and fears while wondering who in her father’s employ would dare to gossip about his daughter. Because she knew every damned one of them would. It was the reason why her father employed them.
How better to stay below suspicion where the wrong men were concerned than by employing the worst gossips in the county? Men and women who knew or worked with the very men that Ethan Cooper and his bouncers watched on a nightly basis.
“So when did all this begin?” Sarah propped her cheek in her hand as she stared back at Sheila. “Come on. Give deets. Ethan so refuses to allow me to take an interest in his bouncers’ buff bodies.”
Sheila winced as the bouncer behind the bar, Morgan, stared at his boss’s wife in amazement. He was only seconds from blushing, and Sheila had a feeling he rarely, if ever, blushed.
