AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Alexa smiled. “I saw the way he looked at you.”
“What?”
Alexa shifted her weight under her tray. “What do you want to know?”
“He … well, I noticed everybody helping him,” she said. “Do I need to help him too?”
“No.” Alexa started for the kitchen door. “Just treat him like anyone else. Nick pretty much runs this place on Fridays.”
Now she felt worse. Inconsequential. “I want him to know I’m willing to help. I’m just worried he’ll get offended if I offer.”
Alexa laughed. “Honey, I’ll win the lottery before Nick Freeman gets offended by a pretty woman.”
He seemed pretty offended by me,Hayley thought.
“Don’t worry.” Alexa swept through the kitchen door, Hayley following her. “If he wants you to be part of the fun, he’ll ask you.”
It wasn’t just that Nick had a good voice. Nick actually had a great voice—better than a lot of the singers she’d worked with—but that wasn’t what had impressed Hayley the week before. It was the way he’d commanded the stage, the spotlight—the whole bar, really. He’d stepped out of the booth into that walker, and she had expected him to start clumping away from her, facing the metal bar in front of him the same way she’d seen in nursing homes. But he’d actually turned around within the square—the wordcagehad come to her mind unbidden—until he was facing her, butt against the metal bar, fingers closed around the handles, shoulders squared. She knew when he winked at her that he saw exactly how overwhelmed she was, as all she’d just said to him got jammed into a new context. Even so, he’d added those three words, like a slap in the face:“Sorry to disappoint.”
Then the place went nuts.
She’d really never seen anything like it. The guy running the karaoke actually gave him a full-fledged intro, like he was bringing the main attraction to the stage after the openers:“And now, ladies and gentlemen, the one, the only Nick Freeman!”The bar erupted in applause. Nick turned away from her and started making his way to the stage, nodding and smiling, laughing and chatting as a path cleared in front of him like a red carpet for a movie star. Hayley was sure walking had to require significant effort for Nick, even though she could only see him from the back—each foot dragged forward before leaving the ground, his hips swung back and forth awkwardly, his shoulders lurched. YetNick seemed not to notice any of this. His gait wasn’t pretty, but it was effective, and without anyone in his way, he made it to the stage faster than some other able-bodied performers had.
The Squeaky Lion staff had stepped in; Hayley knew all of their names now. Alexa and Stephanie stood on either side of Nick, perpendicular to him, each extending an arm across the small of his back for support as he put his arms across their shoulders. They moved upward as a single unit, the singer mounting the two steps to the stage head-on as his friends climbed them sideways. Theo, the bar’s bouncer, easily hefted Nick’s wheels from the floor to the stage, and Stephanie smacked Nick’s ass as he transferred his weight to the walker. Nick laughed, blew her a kiss, and made his way to the microphone like a rock star. When the karaoke track started, Hayley couldn’t spot a trace of the weariness she’d seen in him moments before.
Nick didn’t glance at the words on the screen, not once; he sang with an energy that seemed to physically fill the room. She knew how hard it was to capture and keep an audience, and so it startled her to realize Nick wasn’t actually moving, beyond an occasional nod or turn of the head. She had assumed Nick didn’t know joy, but it was right there in front of her, burning in his eyes, filling his voice. Was so much passion flowing from him now because it had no other way of getting out?
Hayley had slipped outside and joined Kevin in the parking lot while Nick was still singing. She was terrified their eyes would meet, and she would connect with him like they had before, except this time he’d be the one in the glow of his element, and she’d be peering in from the dark. It was only now, in the middle of her shift a week later, that Hayley realized why that connection scared her so much. There had been sadness in his eyes when he’d seen her dance, but there’d also been raw need. He’d seen something in her that was missing from him. Hayley was afraidNick would find her while he was on that stage, and his gaze would reveal something missing in her too.
She didn’t want to talk to him tonight, didn’t want to even see him now that Vivez Dance hadn’t worked out as planned, but she wasn’t about to let one guy keep her from a good job at a nice bar. Truth be told, she liked the work—she’d even liked bartending and serving at Icarus, especially on a packed Friday night. The faster she had to move, the easier it was to find her rhythm. Take this order, carry this plate, deliver this drink—no matter what, she always knew her next step. While Hayley worked, it didn’t take long for doubt and guilt and fear to fade into the rest of the room’s background noise as her focus narrowed to each task at hand. She actually had a spring in her step and a smile on her face by the time Elliot, the bartender, waved her over.
“What’s up?” she asked.
He had two bottles of beer in his hands. “Gavin,” he said, lifting the left one slightly, “and Nick. They’re in the booth behind you. Gavin’s the one with the cap.”
Her smile disappeared as she recognized Nick Freeman. “Do they need to pay?”
“Nah,” Elliot said. “They opened a tab up here. Nick can’t carry the bottles, so we bring ’em over after he sits down.”
Of course they did. Nick really did run this place.
Come on, girl. Go talk to him. Do your job.
She nodded at Elliot, put the beers on her tray, and started what suddenly seemed like a very long walk to Nick’s booth.
Nick was wearing a steel-gray shirt, sleeves rolled up past the elbows, and as he gestured at Gavin, Hayley noticed how big and toned his forearms were.Well, sure,she thought.He’s got to drag those legs around all the time.Which immediately made her feel like a bitch.
Gavin’s cap was a darker gray than Nick’s shirt, and he was thin, with a gray vest over a light blue shirt, and an impeccablytrimmed blond beard. The pair was obviously very entertained by their conversation, and Hayley was glad—it meant neither of them noticed her coming.
“I can’t be a Navy SEAL,” Nick was saying.
Gavin wasn’t giving in. “Why not?”
“Because one day there’s going to be a Navy SEAL in this bar, and when I say I got my ass kicked rescuing kittens from a desert fortress or whatever, he’s going to figure out I learned about the SEALs from that Demi Moore movie, and then I’mactuallygoing to get my ass kicked.”
“No one would ever kick your ass,” Gavin said. “You sawG.I. Jane?”
“WesawG.I. Jane.”
