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The guy next to her, her boyfriend no doubt, immediately jumped to her defense. “What the hell? Watch it!”
Darcy whirled and glared at him. “You fucking watch it!”
“Bones—”
“On it.” He pushed away from the bar and stalked to the floor and immediately placed himself in front of Darcy, but gave her his back so he could address the woman and her boyfriend.
In a few minutes, he’d diffused the situation entirely and offered to buy them a round of drinks. The couple wandered over to the end of the bar and waited, clearly shrugging off the moment.
My attention slid back to Bones, who was now speaking in low enough tones to Rach that I couldn’t hear him. Rach nodded and the two of them walked toward the exit with Darcy in tow.
Bones returned a few minutes later.
“You just broke up a potential bar fight,” I said in amazement.
He sighed. “Yeah.” He gestured to the bartender and pointed out the couple. Bones reached into his pocket for his wallet and pulled out a few bills. “Buy them a round, or two on me. The rest is yours.”
“Thanks.” The bartender took the cash and then left us to tend to the couple.
“So, what was that about?” I asked. “With Darcy, I mean?”
“How much did she have to drink tonight?”
I thought back over dinner. “She ordered a few rounds of drinks. And she did a few shots. Why?”
“Darcy lost her husband a few months ago,” he said softly. “And she’s not handling it well. She’s trying to find solace at the bottom of a bottle, which never works.”
“Oh, that’s really sad,” I murmured. “She was so quiet during dinner. I caught her staring off into space several times. Rach would ask her questions, and Darcy would answer flatly, but that was kind of it.”
“Rach gets it. Gets Darcy, I mean. She lost her husband too.”
My heart ached for them.
Darcy had mentioned that she was kid-free for the night, but I didn’t know how many she had. “Darcy has kids?”
“Two. A boy and a girl.”
I thought of losing my own father. How I was just starting to heal, three years later.
“There are things I’m ready to tell you,” I said quietly. “But not here. Not in a bar.”
He nodded slowly. “Okay.”
“Follow me home?”
He nodded again.
“Let me say goodbye to Sutton,” I said, looking around for her.
“Good luck finding her,” Bones drawled. “Knowing Viper, he picked her up and carried her over his shoulder out of here.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
I was unable to hide my look of intrigue.
“You like that idea, don’t you?”
