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“I have to admit, I wasn’t sure this was really a good idea when I told Angel she could have classes here, but I’m glad I did it,” Patrick said, his gaze scanning over all the women. They’d clumped together in three different groups—those who wanted to sit, those who were standing by the bar, and those who were at the food table. “This is good for them.”
“Her next session’s already full, isn’t it?” Andrew asked. Patrick nodded. Giving Rick a glance, Andrew tipped his beer towards him. “Are we going to see your girl in one of these classes anytime soon?”
“She’s not my girl,” Rick said, casually, even though his gut clenched. He’d like to see Maria here, getting friendly with the other subs. Glowing with confidence and delight. “Not yet anyway. Maybe not ever.”
“Don’t count her out yet,” Patrick said, giving the group of women another casual glance. Rick noticed his friend’s eyes were settling on Lexie at least twice as often as he was looking at anyone else. “She was interested Saturday. You fucked up a bit, but if she likes you—and I think she does—she’ll get over that. Just give her time.”
Angel sidled over to them, and Rick realized she had been just close enough to be in earshot. Granted, he’d thought she was involved in the conversation with Laura, Hilary, and Erin since she’d been standing with them at the food table, but she’d heard enough to be distracted from the female conversation.
“Are you guys talking about Maria?” she asked, popping a cube of cheese in her mouth as she smiled at Rick with interest. “I liked her.”
Rick took a sip of beer, trying to shrug off his discomfort. He knew the girls had liked her. That actually made waiting for Maria to decide if she was going to take a chance on him even harder, adding to the internal pressure he already felt. If he decided he didn’t like her then he wouldn’t care what the group thought, but since he did like her, and he wanted her to like him, he had the uneasy feeling he’d be getting the blame if Maria didn’t come around again. Probably because it was at least ninety percent his fault if she didn’t.
“Don’t get your hopes up that she’s coming back to Stronghold,” Rick said, half-talking to himself. Plus, maybe saying so would help to lower expectations. Angel pouted. “She hasn’t been coming to hang out at the pool with me in the mornings like she used to.”
“Have you seen her since Saturday night?” Angel asked thoughtfully. “She might just need a little push.”
“I saw her Monday.” Rick shrugged. Patrick raised an eyebrow at him. The grapevine had probably gotten the news around that he would have been pretty hungover on Monday. Chris had probably told Justin and Jessica, and it would have just gone around from there. Their group really needed to work on personal privacy. Realistically, Rick knew it was never going to happen; it all came from a place of caring and control-freaks. Besides, sometimes the incessant grapevine was a good thing.
“Well?” Angel pushed. “Did she talk to you? Did she avoid you? What happened?”
Frowning down at her, Andrew shook his head. “Adam is way too lenient with you.”
“Adam’s not here.” The saucy tone of her voice was almost insolent. Little brat knew she could get away with more when her Dom wasn’t around.
“Are you saying you’d be behaving better if he was?”
Tilting her head, Angel thought the question over for about thirty seconds. “Yup.” She grinned and pointed her finger at Rick’s chest. “But he’s not here to spank or plug me for being nosy, so spill.”
Rick spilled. Why not? After all, getting a female’s perspective on Saturday had helped him understand a bit better where he’d fucked up. Maybe Angel would have some advice. After all, she’d managed to work through a pretty major misunderstanding with Adam when they’d gotten together, and Adam wasn’t exactly known for being the most forgiving person in the world.
Of course, talking about Maria meant Lexie also ended up veering into their orbit, tucking herself up next to Patrick. Not touching, but with barely an inch of space between them. Neither of them looked at each other, but they were so obvious about not looking that it caught everyone’s attention.
No one was stupid enough to say anything.
“I think you’re doing the right thing,” Angel said, when he finished. “She likes you, that’s obvious. But you kind of messed up by not talking things through with her before bringing her to Stronghold.” Angel grinned. “If anyone knows it takes a bit of time to work through that kind of miscommunication and breach of trust, it’s me. But I think she’ll come around.”
“Just don’t let her wait too long,” Lexie said, still studiously not looking at Patrick. “Sometimes you need to step up and go for what you want, because otherwise she might think you don’t want it enough.”
Andrew coughed to cover a laugh as Rick nodded his head with a sober look on his face. Grinning even wider, Angel nodded her agreement with Lexie. His usual stoic expression on his face, Patrick just took another sip of his beer.
This was one of those times when no one needed the grapevine to know what was going on. It had become increasingly obvious to all of them Lexie had a thing for Patrick, and Patrick was doing his damndest to ignore her blatant attempts to get his attention, continuing to treat her as a little sister. Angel shot Lexie a look of sympathy.
Yeah, the girls were definitely on Lexie’s side. This was going to get interesting eventually, especially if the women decided to get involved. Rick had no doubt they would if they thought Patrick was taking too long; that’s just how they were.
12
“Maria. You’ve got visitors at the bar.”
“Who is it?” Maria asked, looking up from the computer where she was arranging the server schedules for the next couple of weeks. Damien, one of the busboys at the bar, was hanging on the doorframe, grinning. He’d been working at Murphy’s long enough to recognize her family when they came in.
“New people. And they’re hot.” Damien grinned at the surprised look on Maria’s face and then scuttled away, heading back into the restaurant.
New people? And hot? Slightly confused, she got up from her desk. Maybe they were asking for the wrong person. If Damien had been one of the girls, or gay, she might have hoped Rick was there, but she couldn’t see Damien getting excited over Rick.
As soon as she got out to the bar she looked around, but she didn’t recognize anyone right away. It was crowded from Happy Hour, so that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Giving a second look around, she caught Damien’s eye, and he pointed to two women who were sitting at the bar, their backs mostly towards Maria.
Walking towards them, she caught a glimpse of a profile which looked familiar, but it took her a second to recognize Angel from Stronghold. She looked different outside of the club, in the light, but Maria recognized the curls, as well as Angel’s distinctive features, which were a beautiful mix of Asian and white. She was dressed in jean shorts and a t-shirt and was sitting with a slender woman whose long brown hair with blonde highlights hung down about halfway down her back. Maria couldn’t fully see the other woman’s face, she didn’t recognize her, but going by the way her two male bartenders were drooling—and the pouting one of the cocktail waitresses was doing—the other woman was gorgeous.
