Priceless (Forbidden Men 8)

A ten-second silence followed his departure before Juli started in. “So...that was your brother?”

Bracing for the tongue-lashing she no doubt wanted to give me, I swung to my coworker. “I am so sorry. He’s clearly been dropped on his head a few times too many.”

She watched me a second before murmuring, “All right then.” Expression transforming into a grin, she kept smiling at me over her shoulder as she turned to grab a glass. “And that thing he said about you trying to score with me?” She filled the cup with ice. “That true?”

I blinked, totally not expecting her to ask that. Since she sounded more intrigued than offended and she was still smiling, I lifted my eyebrows. “Well, I don’t know,” I hedged. “Do I actually stand a chance?”

She laughed, a full, throaty sound. “If you honestly called me Halle Berry hot, then hell yeah.”

“Really?” I rested my back against the counter, facing her and away from the rest of the bar. The idea of doing something with a coworker gave me pause, but she was gorgeous. And she seemed to despise Colton, which already told me she had good taste.

“Are you working Friday?” she asked as she busied herself by pouring vodka into the glass.

“Me? No.” I frowned, confused. “Why?”

“How about you pick me up at seven at my place then, and we’ll see just how much of a chance either of us stands by the end of the night.”

When she added a liberal amount of Sweet and Sour to her creation, I wandered closer. “What the hell are you making?” I asked, right before jerking to a halt. My gaze sprang to hers. “Wait. Did you just ask me out?”

She grinned. “I’m trying to come up with my own signature drink.” With a splash of mint, then pomegranate juice, she turned back to me and lifted the glass, asking, “What do you think?”

I wasn’t a big fan of fruits in my drinks, but I obligingly took the cup from her and sipped. After sucking in a sharp breath and commanding my lips not to pucker, I said, “Wow, it’s...tart.”

With a scowl, she swiped the glass from me to gulp down a liberal shot before coughing and fanning her face. “Oh God. That’s terrible.”

I laughed. Across the room, one of the waitresses called out a warning, letting us know she was unlocking the doors and opening the place for business.

“So, how about that date?” Julianna asked as she dumped the drink down the drain and immediately added gin to the empty glass.

Shaking my head, I couldn’t help but chuckle again. I suspected I was going to like Juli.

“As long as you don’t poison me before then, I guess I’m in.”

She let out a mock gasp. “Poison you? Boy, you just watch. Before long, I’m going to come up with the most amazing new drink ever.” Then she nudged me with her elbow. “Why don’t you try your own?”

I shrugged. No one had come in yet for business, so I followed her lead, grabbing some bourbon and tequila. By the time we’d tossed out more alcohol, we were both laughing over how awful our concoctions were.

For a Tuesday, business was light. Only a handful of groups came in, so we were able to keep up our signature drink blends between customers with ease. But even that grew boring after half an hour or so. Sighing, Julianna leaned her elbows on the counter to watch the patrons talk and mingle.

“We need to start a Taco Tuesday or something,” she murmured. “It is so freaking dead here compared to the weekends.”

I winced, not at all on board with that idea. I actually enjoyed a quiet night every once in a while, especially after working a rowdy weekend.

But I grinned at her and teased, “Thanks a lot. Now I’m hungry for tacos.”

“Good luck finding a Mexican restaurant around that delivers.” She turned her attention to a group of guys who approached the bar to order drinks, and I watched her a moment as she entranced all of them with her smile. Yeah, I wasn’t going to try to compete with her anytime soon over which one of us could rake in more tips a night. With that smile, she’d win every time.

Sighing, I glanced toward my book bag I’d stashed behind the counter, thinking I could get in some good studying time between customers. But the procrastinator in me kept me from reaching for it. It being the last semester of my senior year, I was so over homework. I couldn’t wait until graduation, when I’d have a nice summer break before freaking graduate school began.

Sarah was probably going to miss homework. She was such a geek; she actually liked writing assignments. Not enough to ever write one for me—because I’d asked, numerous times over the years—but she liked doing them for herself. It was no fair that she’d be done with college after this, and I still had to keep going for my doctorate. It seemed as if our situations should be reversed.

Thinking of her, I slipped my hand into my pocket to grab my cell phone. I kept forgetting to ask her if she planned on doing the whole graduation walk-through thing, and if so, did she want to go in with me to pick out our caps and gowns together. I wouldn’t have bothered with that shit, but Aspen was all excited about watching me graduate; I figured I should probably attend the walk-through.

Before I could pull up her name to type out a message, someone else

approached the bar. Since Julianna was still busy with her adoring fan club, I lifted my face to smile at the newbie, only to blink in surprise.

Speak of the devil...well, the devil’s big brother, anyway.