Her breasts looked incredible in the top sh
e wore, and he could see the blotchiness on her chest. Geno got to her.
“Let me refill those beers for you,” Alana told Geno, who lifted the almost empty beer glass to his lips, never letting his eyes leave Alana’s.
Gator watched Alana as she filled each new mug with cold beer from the tap. The muscles in her arms flexed, and he could see the definition in her shoulders and along her neck. She handed Geno a mug first then him and then Jeb.
Then she moved on to serve some more drinks.
“What the hell did you say to her?” Jeb asked Geno before Gator could.
“Just warning her about those assholes at the end of the bar.”
“It looked like you told her something else,” Gator replied.
“I might have mentioned that we’re the jealous types, and that if she let any other man whisper into her ear, that you were going to toss them out on their asses, just like you did the first set of guys.”
Gator cracked a smile. “And she didn’t tell you to fuck off?”
Geno held his steady expression, his eyes still on Alana.
“I think she completely understood what I was implying.”
* * * *
Alana was practically shaking. She was trying to act unaffected by Geno, Jeb, and Gator, but it seemed she was totally attracted to the three men, and they felt the same way. How fucking complicated was this situation? She couldn’t flirt back or accept their advances. They were Gabe’s team members. Besides that, she wasn’t over Gabe. She still loved him and thought constantly about how she could get through to him.
But this wasn’t right. They probably flirted with her, and Geno had said what he did to make her think they cared and were interested, because really they felt obligated to watch over her. But why? Gabe had made his position clear. He wants to be dead to me.
“Hey, beautiful, you ought to stay down here where the real men are. Come on over here and talk to us,” the guy who’d introduced himself earlier as Haslow told her.
She raised one eyebrow and gave him the once-over.
“I think the place is filled with real men. Maybe even a few jerks,” she replied.
His buddies chuckled, but Haslow got annoyed.
“Those assholes badmouthing me down there?” he asked then looked that way.
She glanced over and saw the intense expressions on Geno’s, Gator’s and Jeb’s faces. She gulped. She didn’t need to cause a bar fight. She’d lose her job.
“No, they were saying the complete opposite. Something about you being good men. Real upstanding citizens. So do you need another round?”
Haslow nodded and then lifted the mug of beer toward Gator and the guys. Alana had to hide her chuckle. Hopefully she’d just diffused a potential situation.
It had been a very busy night. She didn’t even want to think about tomorrow as the bar got less and less crowded and Haslow and his friends, who turned out to be nice guys, left. Alana looked down toward the end of the bar and the table filled with stragglers as she cleaned up along with Garrett and Mike. She could see Geno, Jeb, Gator, and Garrett’s two brothers, Wes and Gunner, talking. A few other men were there too. They were joking around, and every so often Jeb, Gator, or Geno would look up as if they were watching over her. She felt on edge and nervous. Just thinking about entertaining an attraction to another man besides Gabe made her panic. But to know his good friends, his roommates, and team members were attracted to her, and she to them, made her feel like throwing up.
“You did fantastic tonight. A lot of the regulars complimented your drink making skills. Especially those specialty martinis and margaritas,” Garrett told her as they finished up.
“Thank you. I was a bit rusty.”
“Well, you can work on sharpening your skills tomorrow night.”
“What do you mean? Isn’t Stella coming back?”
“She’s not reliable, as you could tell. We were trying to help a family friend out, but it isn’t working. Besides, you’re a better bartender, have a hell of a lot better personality, and you’ve got the touch with the patrons. They liked you. Some more than others.” He nodded toward the table of men as he wiped out the inside of another glass.
She felt her cheeks warm.