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She didn’t.
And I exhaled, strangely disappointed.
Yeah, that was the most irritating aspect about Chloe, right there. No matter how much I avoided her and dreaded each encounter I was forced to suffer through with her, whenever shedidappear in front of me, she always left this gaping hole when she was gone again, this void that needed to be filled and had me craving more of her specific brand of torture.
I swear, she got off on riling me up and preparing me for war, only to take off again as soon as I was ready to brawl and leave me hanging with no one to conquer.
“I think I’m going to take off too,” Pick announced, slapping the countertop lightly to get my attention.
I blinked in surprise and turned to find him still there.
Shit. That wasn’t awkward at all that he’d just watched me stare after his daughter as she left. Nope.
But I didn’t say anything about it since he didn’t, and I nodded to him instead. “Sure thing, boss. We got this handled.”
He smiled with a proud glint in his eyes and offered me a half nod. “I know you do, Luke.” Then he patted the bar top again, almost lovingly this time. “Take care of her for me.”
When he turned and strolled off down the back hall, I squinted after him suspiciously.
The thing about Pick was that he was perceptive as fuck. He saw things no one else saw and knew things from his keen sense of observation alone. And the way he’d just saidtake care of her for meafter watching me watch Chloe kind of freaked me out.
I mean, I knew he was talking about the bar that he wanted me to take care of.
But…was hereally?
I shook my head, refusing to think about that, and I checked the clock, only to realize…
“Shit. Two minutes ’til go time!” I called. “Hear that, people? We open in two.”
I spent the next few minutes concentrating on bar procedures until the first few customers started to trickle in. And then everything turned toward mixing that next drink, flirting with the pretty faces, joking with the sporty jocks, and commiserating with the downtrodden.
But barely twenty minutes into my shift, yet another Ryan decided to invade my life. My cell phone vibrated from my back pocket, and since there was a lull in traffic, I pulled it free, only to groan when I saw Trick’s name.
“Dude, I’m working,” I grumbled in answer. “What?”
“Then find a sub,” Trick spouted back cattily. “Because it’s single guys’ night. And you’re in.”
Single guys’ night? I made a face because that wasn’t a thing in our group.
“Uh, we’re the only two single guys left in the family,” I reminded him dryly. “So if you’re trying to ask me on a date, bud, I gotta tell you; you’re not my type.”
But Chloe’s little brother only sniffed in my ear. “Sugar, I’m everyone’s type,” he countered. “And besides, your math is wrong. There’s Vaughn now, too, and he’s single.”
I wrinkled my nose in confusion. “Vaughn?”
“You know… Baby Uncle.”
I sighed and closed my eyes briefly. “Yes… I know who Vaughn is, dipshit.” He was the newest member of our big conglomerate of a family, joined through Lucy as her newborn daughter’s uncle. I just wasn’t sure how his name fit into the current conversation. “What about him?”
“Oh! Right,” Trick said, finally catching on as to what I was asking. “Well…Lucy’s all worried about him spending too much time alone, so she asked Beau to keep him company, but Beau’s got plans to rail Bentley all night, so he’s passing the buck along to me… AndIam generously volunteering you to assist since I have a big, caring heart and was thoughtful enough to include you. So it’s not so much going to be asingleguys’ night out as much as a babysit-Vaughn night.”
I groaned. “No… No, no, no, no.”
It wasn’t that I disliked Vaughn. He was fine, and I was happy as shit that he was a part of all our weirdness now. I’d been seriously worried about Lucy raising her new kid all alone—hell, I’d even proposed marriage to her because I was so willing to step in and help if she needed it—but now that the brother of her baby’s dead dad had shown up in her life, and he also wanted to help her,plusshe seemed to have the major hots for him, I knew she was going to be fine.
The problem was Vaughn was still kind of fucked up from his brother dying and all. And I didn’t know shit about cheering up grieving people. I always wanted to justfixthem, except they weren’t broken, you know; they were just suffering and carrying a heavy load that I couldn’t help them carry. And that drove me batty.
Trick, the sly little fucker, however, said, “But he needs companionship. And Lucy asked. She wants our help. So… What do you say? For Lucy?” And I knew I couldn’t say no.
