I look back at the bar at the guy sitting there. The guy has an air about him that screams asshole. “Never seen him before in my life.”
“I think that’s Charlie’s ex,” Scarlet whispers. “Quinn and I kind of stalked her social media to get clues on how to push you two back together.” She holds up her hand, silencing me before I can tell her that was borderline creepy. Though I did have Quinn do something similar. Call it a dirty move, but it made Charlie happy, didn’t it? “Quinn was able to recover or unlock or something—whatever—and we found one photo of Charlie with her ex. I think that’s him.”
“What’s he doing here?” I ask though I’m sure I know. He’s here to try and win Charlie back. Too late, asshole. “And it’ll be easy to figure out if it’s him or not. Her ex’s name is Todd.”
“We had Logan ask for his name, and he told him it was Dan.” Scarlet shakes her head. “Can’t you go card him or something?”
“Not unless he orders alcohol.”
She looks at Wes. “Pretend you’re investigating him or something then.”
“I can’t do that.”
She bites her lip and hands Violet to Wes. “Don’t arrest me, babe.”
“What are you going to do?” Wes asks, cradling the sleeping baby.
“I’m going to find out that guy’s name.” She pulls her dress down, exposing enough cleavage to make me feel like I need to look away. Then she fluffs her hair and saunters over to the bar, sliding up next to the Mystery Man.
In under a minute, she has him buying her a drink. I watch, impressed, as she goes on to spill a bit down her breasts. Mystery Man reaches over to give her a stack of napkins and makes a move to wipe the alcohol off her chest. Wes starts to get up.
“She knows what she’s doing,” I assure him and he sits back down, eyes narrowed. Another minute passes and Scarlet catches my eye, and motions for me to join her in the back. Pretending to go to the bathroom, she slips into the office.
“I forgot how much fun that was.” She smiles and takes a sip of her drink. “I mean wrong. How morally wrong that was.”
“You just talked to him for less than five minutes. What’s wrong with that?”
She cocks an eyebrow and holds up a wallet.
“You picked his pocket? Damn. I’m impressed, Scarlet.”
She bats her eyes. “Thank you.”
I take the wallet from her and look at the guy’s ID. Yep. This asshole is Todd.
“What are you going to do?” She takes the wallet back. “Kick him out? Beat him up?”
“I want to, trust me.” And I would have in the past. I’ve gotten into my fair share of fights over the years. But I want to prove to Charlie that I’ve changed. I’m not that guy anymore. “But instead, I’m going to talk to him.” I look at the wallet. “You’re giving that back, right?”
She purses her lips. “Yes. Though if that is Charlie’s ex, he’s exactly the kind of guy who needs to be taught a lesson.”
“Easy there, Lucifer. Leave the punishing to the law.”
She lets out a sigh. “That’s so boring.”
“It is.” She goes back to the bar, telling Todd she saw his wallet tumble out of his pocket. He checks it right away for any missing cash, and seeing that there isn’t any, he offers to buy Scarlet another drink. She turns him down and goes back to the table with Weston and the kids, leaving Todd sitting there dumbfounded.
No wonder she liked hustling so much. It comes naturally for her.
I go back around the bar, fill a few drink orders, and put in an order for sweet potato fries.
“You passing through town?” I ask Todd.
“Do I look that out of place?” he chuckles.
“You do.”
“I’m trying to locate a friend.”
“Who are you trying to find? I know most people in this town since they tend to pass through here too.”
He looks me up and down. “You wouldn’t know her.”
I arch my eyebrows. “You’d be surprised who I know. So this old friend…you two lost touch and you don’t have their number anymore?”
“Something like that.”
It’s more like Charlie either blocked his number or won’t take his calls.
“Ever think they don’t want to be found?”
He laughs. “Trust me, she needs to be found.”
“Needs to be?” I plant my hands on the bar and narrow my eyes a bit. “You make it sound like she’s in some sort of trouble.”
“If she’s here, she is. She doesn’t belong here.”
It’s getting harder and harder to keep my cool. “Have you asked her what she wants? Maybe she likes it here.”
He shakes his head. “You know how women are. They might think they know what’s good for them, but really, they need someone to show them.”