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I smile at her. “Hey!” I signal to the crowd. “It’s a full house tonight.”
She nods. “Sure is.”
“No hey for your little bro?” Rex asks her.
Sierra wiggles her fingers in an exaggerated wave. “Hello, my pain-in-the-ass brother.”
“Carolina,” Kyle says, setting his beer down. The resemblance between him and Rex is crazy. “I love when you come with my brother. You tame him.”
“Fake news,” Rex argues. “I tame her.”
Kyle snorts. Sierra scoffs. Gage laughs.
I pat Rex’s head. “I keep him in line like a good little boy.”
The waitress stopping by to take our order interrupts our conversation. Rex and I order two Jack and Cokes, and he adds in an order of nachos supreme for us to share—my favorite.
“You’re not working tonight?” I ask Sierra.
She shakes her head. “Nope. I’ve been overloaded with work, so Maliki hired a part-time bartender to cover for me.”
She shoves a hand through her blonde hair before pulling it into a high ponytail.
Sierra is gorgeous. She was nicknamed the Pageant Queen of Blue Beech, growing up. Okay, therebelliousPageant Queen of Blue Beech, since she acted out like it was her job. After becoming single, she took a job working at the pub with Maliki before starting her own interior design business.
Her gaze moves past my shoulders, and I shift in my chair, following her attention to Maliki pouring a beer behind the bar. Maliki is hot—there’s no denying that—with his dark hair, muscles, and facial scruff. He’s older, in his thirties, and he was known as a ladies’ man who’d never settle down. Word was, he swore serious relationships weren’t his thing, but Sierra came into his life. He changed for her, going from a ladies’ man to one of the best boyfriends I’ve seen.
I love their love, but it also scares the shit out of me.
It proves people who think they’re not capable of love are.
What happens when Rex finds the woman to change him?
His heart is big enough for commitment, for him to be someone’s everything and make her his everything. That fear just needs to be broken.
“Is it hard for him to relax when he owns the place?” I ask, turning back to Sierra.
“Definitely,” she answers. “It’s better now that we don’t live above the bar anymore. It’s not as easy as running downstairs to check on things.”
She sips on her pink cocktail. Down Home was never big on cocktails. It was more of a beer and hard liquor establishment until Sierra came into the picture.
I nod in understanding. “I get that. It was difficult for my father to separate family and work with us living next door to the church.”
We spent more time there than at home since my father was the preacher and my mother ran the after-school program.
The waitress comes back with our nachos and drinks, and Rex has her start a tab for us. Rex was a huge partier since high school, and it only worsened his first year of college, but now that he’s doing so well with his game, he’s cut down on the drinking. A hungover brain isn’t a productive brain. It’s frustrating that people don’t notice the change in him—the maturity evolution is what I’ve named it, to which he always responds with an eye roll.
One of those people being his father, Michael Lane. He lives his life with the belief that all Rex does is party and waste his life away. Since Rex avoids as much contact with him as possible, he doesn’t bother correcting him. Michael has always been friendly with me, but he’s a jackass to Rex, which pisses me off. I force smiles but never go out of my way to start a conversation with him when I attend dinners at Rex’s house.
Call it rude. Whatever.
Anyone who treats Rex like crap is a sucky person in my book.
Rex takes a swig of his beer before peering at me. “I’mma run to the restroom. Save me some nachos.” His hand brushes along my shoulders as he walks away.
Chloe updates everyone on her and Kyle’s adoption journey and reveals they’re considering becoming foster parents while waiting for approval.
I’m mid-nacho-chomp when Rex is walking back from the restroom, and I nearly choke on the chip when a woman stands in front of him, blocking his way. I pinch my lips together, nausea swirling inside my stomach, and shove the nacho basket up the table.
