“That’s it. Get the fuck out, Steve,” the bartender orders.
“I’m waiting on my drink.”
“You’re harassing my customers.”
“I have every right to—urp.”
Well.
It seems the man’s shirt collar has somehow ended up in my fist. However did that happen? “If you don’t leave this premises at once,” I growl into his startled face, “I’ll be happy to demonstrate how we handle sheep-fuckers where I come from.”
I’ve honestly no clue how we handle sheep-fuckers in Britain. I practice law as a barrister, but that’s not my specialty, nor an area of interest I’ve ever had any desire to research. But I do quite enjoy watching Steve’s face pale to the shade of gray wool.
“N-no,” he stammers, sweat breaking out on his upper lip.
His companion bounces off her stool onto her feet. “Come on, Steve. Let’s go.”
“No,” he squeaks again, sounding even less sure of himself than before.
“If you don’t come with me, I’m leaving by myself,” she huffs. “And I’m taking this coat off and never putting it back on again, no matter how much you beg.”
“Oh-okay.” He glances her way and nods, though he’s clearly a trite uncertain. “Okay. Let’s go.”
I shove him away, and she takes him—also by the collar—and drags him out of the bar.
And that leaves Savannah, me, and the nosy bartender.
“Savannah, love, could we—” I start.
She cuts me off with a wave of her hand. “Thank you, Colin, for the rescue, but you don’t have to pretend in front of Jace. Now, I would very much like to know what you’re doing here, and I’m sure we’ll get around to that, but I’m a little preoccupied at the moment. And I have to sing—” She cuts herself off and looks at Jace. “I do have to sing for my next clue, don’t I?”
He swipes a hand over his face as though it’s a painful question. “Yes.”
“Well, I’d like to get on with it before everyone else gets here. I’m winning right now.”
“That actually depends on how you define winning.” Jace cringes again and looks at the door, which is shutting behind Steve and his new woman.
She gasps. “Steve is winning the treasure hunt?”
“I didn’t give him the clue, but Van, you know Steve. He grabbed one of the cards from the box behind the bar while I was swapping out a keg.”
“The cheater.” She shakes her hands out. “Turn on the music! I have to sing! I need my clue! I have to win this freaking competition!”
“Okay! Okay!” He backs away with his hands held up in surrender again. “What’s your song?”
“My song? I don’t know,” she wails. “I hate singing in public!”
“Shall I sing for you?” I offer. She’s bloody adorable when she’s frustrated, and it happens so rarely that I would rather enjoy an opportunity to play hero for her. Again. If she’ll let me. “Or we could…we can be a team.” Please, Savannah. Please understand I want to be on your team.
Jace is fiddling with a computer next to the stage on the other side of the bar. “Pick a song, Van,” he calls out. “If someone else comes in here yelling for me to cue up ‘It’s Raining Men’ before you decide, I have to do it.”
“‘Wannabe,’” I blurt.
Savannah lifts her eyes to mine again. “Colin, no, you don’t—”
“Put on the damned song. ‘Wannabe.’ Spice Girls. A man doesn’t cross the pond in the middle of the night to—”
“‘Respect,’ Jace!” an older woman crows as she pushes through the door. “Put on some Aretha for me! I want that next clue!”
And that’s how I end up on a karaoke stage in a small bar in the middle of Georgia, performing a Spice Girls song for Savannah in front of a group of women in matching electric pink tee shirts, to get her the next clue in her treasure hunt for love.
Chapter Four
Savannah
I can’t breathe.
My heart has decided breathing is too difficult, and my lungs are too shocked to start a fight about it because Colin is here. Here. In Happy Cat.
And I know he’s only here because he would do anything for Beatrice, and he had such a hard time finding a nanny for her before fate flung me into their lives. And he doesn’t like change. He’s not really here for me, not in that way.
But he sang so I didn’t have to. And he told everyone he was my pussy-kissing boyfriend so that I didn’t look like a loser in front of Steve, and he threatened to disembowel my ex-husband since the courts have apparently failed to provide justice.
But he would’ve done that for any lady in distress. Beneath his gruff exterior, Colin is a total knight in shining armor. And a literal knight too. I found out from the neighbors that he was knighted as a teenager after he saved a bunch of puppies someone had thrown into a burlap sack and tossed in the river. Queen Elizabeth got word of his heroism and summoned him to London for an official knighting the very next weekend. So, he clearly has a history of being brave and protecting the innocent, and he’s modest about it too.