Todd wandered over from the other end of the bar. “Someone what?”
“Kelli was the one who bailed on Wendy’s shift,” Jane huffed, turning toward the register to add the beer to the guy’s tab. “She waited until the last minute and gave her some crappy, vague excuse about something coming up. But we all know there’s only one thing that would drag that girl away from the tips she’d earn on a Friday night shift.”
Todd nodded. “Oh, yeah, for sure it was a dude.”
Jane snapped a towel at his thigh and pointed over his shoulder to the woman who was tapping her fingers against the top of the bar—a sure sign that she felt as though she’d been left waiting too long for service. Don quirked his brow at the inappropriate gesture, but Jane just winked and shrugged. Everyone knew she and Todd had been dating for the past six months. They restricted their PDA to when they weren’t working, but it was impossible to miss how comfortable the two were with each other. I loved having shifts with them because the time tended to fly by.
I smiled at Don and shook my head. “Don’t worry about them on my account. I’d happily do every single shift with them if it meant I didn’t have to worry about working with a couple of the other bartenders again.”
“Yeah, like Kelli,” Jane grumbled as she mixed a cocktail.
Don didn’t look too happy with the direction the conversation had gone, but a couple of my customers' glasses were getting low and a guy from one of the high-top tables was making his way over. So I lifted a finger to ask him to wait a minute while I took care of everyone. Once I was done, I walked back over to where Don was standing.
He moved closer and lowered his voice to ask, “Is Kelli really that bad to work with?”
“She’s awful,” I confirmed with a nod. “Normally, I never would’ve asked her to cover my shift, but Jack wasn’t willing to fix the schedule, and the only other bartender who wanted to switch needed me to take a shift tomorrow.”
“Which would’ve been worse because then you’d miss the wedding.” He scrubbed his palms down his face and sighed. “When did you ask for the time off?”
“The day after Breaker proposed to Ireland.” I laughed, remembering how she’d grumbled about the one-month time limit he’d set before jumping into planning with both feet. “I’m not one to complain, but this shouldn’t have even been my problem in the first place. I have vacation days and was marked down to use them tonight and tomorrow. It really sucks that I’m missing out on the rehearsal because he messed up the schedule and couldn’t be bothered to fix his mistake himself.”
“You’re right, and I’m really sorry, Wendy. I’ll have a talk with Jack about the situation on Monday,” he promised.
Don was a good guy, and I trusted him to keep his word. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”
“I own the place, so the buck stops with me.” He scanned the crowd and nodded as though he’d come to some kind of decision. “Which means it’s my job to step up when something goes wrong. So how about you get out of here, and I’ll take your place behind the bar.”
If he’d made the suggestion a few hours earlier, I totally would’ve taken him up on it. “It’s really great of you to offer, but there’s really no need. The rehearsal and dinner are already done. Now they’re just drinking and hanging out, which I’ll get plenty of tomorrow night.”
“Damn. Then I guess this is the only thing left for me to do to try to make it up to you.” He pulled his wallet out of his pocket, took a few large bills out, and handed them to me.
I was about to tell him it wasn’t necessary when Jane tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Take the money, Wendy.”
“Alrighty then.” I flashed a smile at Don and tucked the bills into my back pocket. “I guess my bad luck has officially turned to good.”
“And who knows?” Jane bumped her hip against mine. “Maybe you’ll end up getting really lucky later.”
I played along even though I knew damn well that wasn’t going to happen the way she meant. I knew what I was looking for in a man, and I doubted I’d find it with a random guy I met at the bar.
2
Rider
I gave Breaker, my captain, a one-armed hug and a slap on the back before turning to his fiancée. “Don’t know how you could pick this asshole over me,” I sighed with a dramatic shake of my head. I leaned in for a hug, only to find myself shoved away.
“Mine,” Breaker growled. “Don’t touch.”
Putting my hands up in surrender, I backed up farther and laughed. I wouldn’t have actually hugged Ireland. You don’t touch an old lady without her man’s permission. I’d been fucking with him, and he knew it but still couldn’t stop himself from reacting. “Another one thoroughly bites the dust.”