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Claudia elbowed her back, then turned serious. “Wait. Is everything okay?” Her gaze swung to Frank before she looked at me, concern filling her features.
Frank shrugged. “Don’t ask me. He’s the one who wanted a family powwow.”
He nodded toward me, and both women softened at the word family. But that’s what they were. Claudia and Jess were the women my brothers were going to marry and spend the rest of their lives with. They’d eventually be my sisters-in-law someday, and that made us family. The realization made me smile, but I fought it off because this was serious.
“Okay, listen, I need your help. Or just your opinion.” I held up one finger, asking for a moment of patience, then took care of the last two remaining customers before asking my brothers if we could close the doors a little early. The bar was dead, and I knew they wouldn’t oppose the idea.
Once the customers had cleared out and the doors were locked, I resumed my position behind the bar and faced the girls. “So I met this girl,” I said, and when both Jess and Claudia squealed, I rolled my eyes. “Before you get too excited, you need to know that she hates me.”
“Impossible. No way,” the girls said immediately, talking over each other.
“My best friend’s in love with you,” Jess said, meaning her friend Rachel.
“Mine too,” Claudia added, talking about her best friend, Britney.
“See? Everyone loves you, Ryan. No way this chick hates you,” Nick said before walking toward Jess. He picked her up and sat on her bar stool before placing her on his lap. It was downright adorable, but everything the two of them did was like that.
She slipped one arm around his neck nuzzled into him, her blond hair spilling over his shoulder as she pressed her cheek to his.
“She hates me,” I told them. “She said that she met me before, which is why she won’t tell me her name or go out with me.”
“Why won’t she tell you her name?” Claudia asked, her face crinkled in confusion.
“She said she’s already told me.”
Claudia nodded in understanding. “So, she’s been in here?”
“Yeah. She said she’s been here once before.”
“Only once?” Jess asked.
“That’s the impression I got.”
The girls glanced at each other in some secret unspoken communication that only females understood, then Claudia said, “You don’t hear the way women at the bar talk about you.”
“Yeah, they say some crazy shit, Ryan,” Jess added.
“Like what?” I asked. Not because I didn’t have a general idea of what they said, but I didn’t know exactly what women talked about while I was working. I couldn’t hear most of the things they said when the bar was hopping.
Jess rolled her eyes. “They talk about dating you, sleeping with you, how you’re a tiger in the sack. They formulate plans on how to get you. Typical crazy-girl shit.”
“They say that about me too, don’t they?” Nick asked, and Jess smacked his shoulder.
“They’d better not,” she said seriously, and Nick smirked at me. Idiot.
Claudia shot Frank a look. “Don’t even think about asking me that.”
He laughed, his hands in the air. “Wouldn’t dream of it, baby.”
“I don’t see how any of that has to do with this girl hating me,” I said, trying to bring the conversation back on topic. I wanted to understand what it was that I could have possibly done to this girl, and how I didn’t even remotely remember it.
“Pretend for a second that you’re a twenty-something-year-old woman,” Claudia said before stopping abruptly. “Is she twenty-something? I just assumed.” She cocked her head, her dark hair falling over her eyes before she tucked it behind her ear.
“I think so. She looks early twenties, I guess,” I said with a shrug.
“Okay, so pretend you’re a woman in your twenties and you’re actually not looking for a one-night stand—” She stopped as my brothers both faked gasps. “It’s been known to happen. We’re not all looking to hook up and break up in the same night. Some of us want to find good guys.”
“I am a good guy,” I mumbled under my breath before she waved at me to be quiet.
