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“You’re lucky you got in to see her before Pick put up the ban,” Lucy’s dad told me. “He’s not lettinganyonevisit now, not even her siblings.”
Fuck. This was not what I wanted to hear. If her dad was keeping people away, I would’ve liked to at least hear that she was getting up and moving around and eating.
When I finally left Lucy’s and went to work, the bar was quiet and dark. With a big exhale, I started in, turning on all the lights, opening locked doors that led into the kitchen and store room and bathrooms, and did all the usual things Pick did before any of his employees arrived.
But my head wasn’t in it, and I was distracted all evening, messing up orders, giving back wrong change, and basically pissing off all the customers along with my coworkers.
Then I was a stickler about people not walking to their cars alone at the end of their shift.
None of them had heard about what had happened with their boss’s daughter yet, and it wasn’t my place to tell them.
Unable to keep going like this, I sat in my truck outside the bar and ran my hands over my head a moment before giving in and texting Pick.
I typed:U up?
Not long later, he answered:If this is a booty call, you have the wrong number, idiot.
I snickered out a smile and shook my head before typing back:Funny, boss. Just closed up the bar. I was hoping I could swing by there and check in on her.
There was a pause, and I was sure he was going to deny me, but as soon as I gave up hope and geared my truck intodriveto head home, my phone buzzed with an incoming message.
Come to the back door when you get here.
“Yes!” I hissed, fisting my hand and tapping it against the steering wheel in celebration.
My nerves which had been strung tight all day had already started to loosen by the time I pulled up to the Ryan house, just knowing I was going to get to see her again.
Pick was waiting for me when I approached the back door.
“After this morning, I wasn’t going to let anyone bother her for the rest of the day,” Pick told me as he let me in. “But she’s not sleeping again tonight, and I was hoping you could do whatever you did last night to help her with that.”
My stomach tightened with worry. She wasn’t sleeping?
Shaking my head, I said, “I didn’t do anything. I just sat with her.”
“Then sit with her again,” he said simply, only to lift a finger threateningly. “Just know that if anything sets her off and upsets her, you’re out. Got me?”
I nodded. “I got it.”
Pick exhaled a shaking breath and patted my back gratefully as he led me toward his daughter’s bedroom. “How’d everything go at the bar?”
“It sucked,” I answered bluntly. “I mean, it ran smoothly enough. But my head was just not in it, so fair warning: you’re probably going to hear a dozen complaints about everything I fucked up.”
“I don’t even care,” Pick answered, glancing back at me with a pleading look. “Just get my baby a couple of more hours of oblivion, and all will be forgiven.”
I swallowed, growing uncertain about the heaviness of the responsibility he was heaping on me, but then I nodded and said, “Will do, boss,” because the alternative was probably him kicking me out, and I couldn’t let that happen.
He nodded back and then paused at the open doorway. When I stepped up beside him, the scene was almost a replica of the night before, except it was missing Pick on the bed with his wife and daughter.
Eva glanced over at us, and her eyes narrowed when she saw me. Turning an accusing glance toward her husband, she started a silent argument with him with her eyes alone, demanding to know why I’d been allowed inside the house.
Pick shrugged helplessly at her, letting her know he was desperate and was willing to try anything at his point. So his still-unhappy wife sighed and relented, letting me stay.
Pick turned to me and wished me luck with only a pat on the shoulder, then he walked off.
Left alone in the doorway, I turned back toward Chloe and her mom just as Chloe finally decided to speak.
“You’re back.” Her voice was so lackluster I wondered if she was doped up on something strong.
