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“Here,” he said with a lift of one shoulder.“I’ll probably still be in bed, though.I need to go to Hannigans’ to help out tonight.”
“Hannigans’ is your other job?”
“Yeah, the bar.It’s family-owned.”He traced his thumb over my index finger before releasing me.It was insane, or maybe wishful thinking, but it seemed like he was reluctant to let me go.
Nervousness tossed and turned in my stomach, but I slowly inhaled through my nose to fight the burn of bile in the back of my throat.It was fine.I was fine.I’d been on my own all my life.Even when I was five, my mom would leave me home alone to go out and score drugs.She’d come home the next day—or a week later.During that time, I’d get myself to school, make my own dinner when there was food to eat, and make sure I took a shower so I didn’t stink.If I went to class smelly, the other kids complained, and the teacher would try to call home.But my mom never answered, and child protective services had been called a few times.
Somehow, I’d never been taken into care.I knew kids who’d gone into the system and they seemed fine, but there were others who told me I was lucky.I wasn’t sure who to believe.Was it worse in foster care?
Mentally shaking those thoughts away, I tried to put on a brave face for Jack so he didn’t realize how scared I was that he was leaving me.For the past two weeks, he’d been my one constant.
My protector.
My hero.
My big, sweet, beautiful bear.
I ached to beg him not to leave me, but he had a life to get back to.
A job.
Responsibilities that didn’t include me.
It was time to let go.I couldn’t keep clinging to him.His life was waiting on him, and I needed to move on with mine.
CHAPTERTWELVE
jack
“I need two margaritas,one rum punch, and three vodka cranberries,” Kingston called as I placed the three cases of domestic beer on the floor behind the bar and opened the fridge beneath to start replenishing.
We were getting hammered, and despite the bottled beer having been fully stocked when I’d first arrived at opening, we were down to the last two bottles now.My uncle Colt grabbed them both while I was crouched down.Thankfully, we kept the cases in a cooler in the back so no one would get warm beer if they ordered a bottle, but the drafts were getting slammed just as much as the bottles were.
It was Friday night, and we were at full capacity.I’d debated not coming, wanting to make sure Nishia was settled in and comfortable with her new home.She’d looked nervous when I’d left her with Marcy and one of the nurses who had promised they would help her shower and get her into bed so she could rest.Although I knew she was in good hands, that didn’t stop me from worrying about my little fairy.But I’d already missed the past two weekends at the bar because I’d been staying with her around the clock in the hospital.
I should have been exhausted from the lack of restful sleep, but instead, I was wired as fuck.All I wanted was for the night to be over and close up so I could get back to Sanctuary to check on her.
Uncle Raider started mixing the drinks his son had asked for and had them on a tray by the time I was breaking down the boxes.
“We need more ice,” my dad announced, and I grunted, letting him know I was on it as I carried the cardboard to the stockroom and then grabbed the bucket hanging off a hook attached to the ice machine.
Four trips later and the ice was replenished, but the place seemed to be even more crowded.The front doors were propped open, and people were taking their drinks out into the parking lot.Scrubbing a hand over the scruff on my jaw, I knew I was going to have to start tossing people in case the fire marshal showed up and shut us down.
“You got it?”Dad asked as he popped the top off on a White Claw for one of the college girls standing at the bar with her sorority friends.
“Mmm.”Pulling the tie from my hair, I redid the bun and adjusted my MC cut before making the first round.
Anyone obviously overly intoxicated was shown to the door first.That barely put a dent in the numbers, but at least the doors weren’t open, and anyone caught in the parking lot with a drink was told to get lost.But the fire marshal would still be a shithead if he showed up and saw how busy we were right then.I had to wait a few minutes, pause, and observe if anyone was getting rowdy.That typically meant getting rid of the idiots playing pool.
Not surprisingly, Tanner and Matt were seated near their usual table.They should have had their names engraved on the damn thing, because that was where you found them unless we were having church.But instead of them hustling some of the college boys for easy cash, Chance and Elias were the ones with pool sticks in their hands.
What caught me off guard was who they were playing with.
“Sammy?”
Samara Vitucci turned to face me.She looked so much like her mother, Anya, that it made anyone who knew who her parents were a little twitchy.Anya was intense without having to open her mouth, but I couldn’t get a read on Samara.She was sweet one minute and scary quiet the next.But I adored her just as much as I did Nova.Having the Vitucci family visit so much over the years made it seem as if Samara was just as much a member of my family as my now-absent little cousin.
Sammy had a pool stick in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other.When her gaze met mine, she grinned.“Hey!”Shifting the pool stick to the crook of her arm and the beer bottle to the opposite hand, she hugged my side.
