“Jorie!” I called. “Keep that table loaded with beer and shots, please.” I set up a tray, and she took it over.
“Yes, ma’am,” she said, shaking her ass to the music as she walked.
A curvy redhead approached the Maddox table, and hugged Trenton. A strange, uncomfortable feeling came over me. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I didn’t like it. She spoke to him for a few moments, and then stood between the brothers. She had that look of hope in her eyes I’d seen many times when women spoke to Travis. Pretty soon the crowd obscured my view. I grabbed cash out of someone’s hand and rang him up, handing him his change. The leftover dollars dropped into the tip jar, and I started on the next order. Between Raegan and me, this one night would pay our rent for the next three months.
The band stopped playing, and those standing at the bar looked around. The lead singer began to count down from ten, and everyone counted with him. Girls were pushing through the crowd, rushing to be next to their dates for the first kiss of the year.
“Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Happy New Year!”
Silver and gold ticker tape and balloons fell from the ceiling, right on cue. I looked up, proud of Hank. For a small-town bar, he always went all-out. I looked over at Trenton’s table, seeing the redhead’s lips on his. My stomach felt sick, and for half a second, I wanted to jump over the bar and pull her off of him. Suddenly, Trenton’s face appeared in front of me. He noticed me staring at his table and smiled.
“She had it bad for Travis before he even got here.”
“They all do,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. Damn the Maddox boys and their identical DNA.
“Happy New Year, baby,” Trenton said.
“Happy New Year,” I said, sliding a beer down the bar to the person who had ordered it.
He jerked his head to the side, gesturing for me to come closer. I leaned across the bar, and he put his lips on mine, cupping his hand gently at the back of my head. His lips were warm and soft and amazing, and when he let me go, I felt a little light-headed.
“Now I’m f**ked,” Trenton said.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Because the rest of my year will never live up to the first thirty seconds.”
I pressed my lips together. “I love you.”
Trenton looked back, noticing that Travis was back alone at their table. “Gotta go,” he said, seeming disappointed. “I love you, too. I’m the breakup support team. I’ll come back!”
Not a minute later, I saw Trenton waving frantically. Travis’s face was red. He was upset, and they were leaving. I waved, and returned to the demanding crowd, glad to have something to keep my mind off of Trenton Maddox’s lips.
When I got off work, Trenton was waiting at the employee entrance, and he walked me to the Smurf. He shoved his hands in his jean pockets while I unlocked the door, and when I hopped up into the driver’s seat, Trenton frowned.
“What?”
“Why don’t you let me drive you home?”
I looked past him to the Intrepid. “You want to leave your car here?”
“I want to drive you home.”
“Okay. Care to explain why?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling about you driving home. It’s been bugging me every time I see you get into the car.”
I watched him for a moment. “Have you ever thought about talking to someone? About what happened?”
“No,” he said, dismissively.
“Seems like you’ve still got some anxiety going on. It might help.”
“I don’t need a shrink, baby. I just need to drive you home.”
I shrugged, and then climbed over the console.
Trenton turned the ignition and put his hand on my thigh while he waited for the engine to warm. “Travis asked me about you tonight.”
“Yeah?”
“I told him you were still with your California boyfriend. Damn near made me sick to say it.”
I leaned over and kissed his lips, and he pulled me closer. “I’m sorry you had to lie to him. I know it’s stupid, but it would start a conversation I’m not really ready to get into just yet. If we had just a little more time . . .”
“I don’t like lying to my brothers, but I hated even saying you were with someone else. Made me really think about what it would be like to lose you. Made me really think about what Trav is going through.” He shook his head. “I can’t lose you, Cami.”
I touched my lips with my fingers, and shook my head. He was trusting me, and making himself so vulnerable, and I was keeping so much from him.
“Can you stay with me tonight?” I asked.
He lifted my hand to his mouth, turned it over, and kissed the thin skin of my wrist. “I’ll stay here as long as you’ll let me,” he said, as if I should have already known.
He backed out of the parking spot, and then drove out of the lot, heading for my apartment. Trenton’s frown from earlier had all but disappeared, and he looked lost in his thoughts as he drove with his hand in mine.
“When I get up enough money saved, I thought maybe you could help me find a place.”
I smiled. “I can do that.”
“Maybe you might like it enough to move in.”
I stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to tell me he was joking, but he didn’t, instead he pressed his brows together. “Shit plan?”
“No. Not necessarily. That’s a ways down the road.”
“Yeah. Especially since I lost a quarter of my savings to Travis’s ex.”
I giggled. “What? Are you serious? How did that happen?”
“Poker night. She’s some poker phenom. Hustled us.”
“Abby?”
He nodded. “Swear to God.”
“That’s kind of cool.”
“I guess. If you like thieves.”
“Well . . . her dog’s name is Crook.”
Trenton laughed and squeezed my knee as we pulled into my spot. He turned off the headlights, leaving the front of my apartment in the dark. With Trenton’s fingers entwined with mine, we walked inside, and then I locked the chain on the door.
“Ray’s not coming home?”
I shook my head. “She’s staying with Brazil.”
“I thought they broke up?”