“Got a second?” Lars asked.
I met Lars through Kase and the rest of the Hyde group. Considered him a buddy, but we weren’t tight. We didn’t call to shoot the shit. Especially not at night when we each had our own bars to run—his with tits, ass, and the drama that came with both.
Him calling already set off warning alarms in my head. The tone of his voice, though? That set off warning torpedoes.
“What’s up?” I asked as I headed back to the office.
“My father-in-law wants to meet.”
“Good luck with that?” I muttered, not really sure what he expected me to say.
“Not with me, smartass. Or not just me. He wants to meet you, too.”
“You know this is Rhys, right?” For all I knew, he’d dialed the wrong person.
“Yeah, I’m aware. He said he’s got something important to tell us, but he couldn’t get into it right then.”
My brows lowered. I had no clue who his father-in-law was or why he’d want to meet me. “Who is he?”
“Noah Lennon. Owns some hardware stores.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“Damn, I was hoping you had some insight.”
“I’m better with faces than names.”
“He might be, too, because he only called you the owner of Rye.”
Speaking of faces…
I sat at my desk and loaded the stream from the camera to the side of the bar. I watched as Lo threw her head back and laughed at something, and it hurt. She was so fuckin’ pretty, it literally hurt to look at her.
I did it anyway as I thought about why a man I’d never met would want to meet.
“He want a job or a gig or something?” I asked.
“Since he also wants to meet with me, I sure hope not. Don’t quite think he’s got the core strength to work a pole.” Lars shuddered. “Grossed myself out with that. Anyway, he’s coming here in an hour. Can you get away without your bar imploding?”
For the first time in a while, I knew I could. Not only would Lo help Chuck keep things running smoothly for the quick conversation, she could handle anyone who got stupid.
“I can do that,” I said. “See you then.”
We clicked off, and I went to exit out of the camera before realizing Lo was no longer behind the bar.
I waited a few minutes, hoping like hell she was coming back to fool around. When she didn’t show—and still wasn’t on camera—I got up.
I was on a hellcat hunt.
It didn’t take me long to find her in the kitchen talking to Kodie.
Jealousy punched me in the damn gut, and it wasn’t something I was familiar with. It disappeared—or reduced by ten percent or so—when she looked up to see me and a smile instantly brightened her face.
“A word,” I said to her before returning to my office.
I could practically feel her scowl and eye roll.
But I also knew she would follow. At the beginning, I’d been surprised by those little shows of submission.
