“Thanks, Savi.” Graham smiles.
“Sure thing, Taylor,” I joke back, but burst out laughing when he lets out a howl. Okay, so he’s been called that before.
“Heard it all before.” His gaze goes from joking to smirking as Jake appears at my side. “Nice performance, Savi, but I play for both teams.” He winks and walks away, and my jaw drops as Jake puts his head to my shoulder in a fit of laughter.
“Oh my god!” I hit Jake’s arm. “You’re welcome.”
“Does anyone actually work here?” I hear her call out from the other side of the bar. Jake mutters something as he approaches Christina, the evil bitch. “No,” she flicks her finger, dismissing Jake, “her.”
Oh, hell, speaking of the Devil’s shit…I make my way over, not missing the way Dell is scowling at her. “Three margaritas, one Stella, one glass of pinot, and two shots of tequila,” she barks at me. “You think you can handle that, or should I write it down?” I bite my tongue as her friend comes up. “I was with him again last night,” she says loudly enough for me to hear.
“Who?” I decide to play the game.
“Logan.” She glances at me, making sure I can hear her as she turns her attention elsewhere. “He came out to the bar, then we went back to my place.” She looks at her friend. “I love running my hands over his tattoo.” I tune her out, mainly because Cole said he never slept with her. I hate that she can even get a rise out of me. A small niggle of doubt nestles inside me, right by my heart. I place her drinks in front of her and tell her the total. She flicks her credit card at me, hitting my arm.
Don’t hit her, don’t hit her.
After she signs the slip with no tip, she leans over but talks nice and loud. “If you know what’s good for you, sweetheart, you’ll stay away from him. He’s mine, and I have ways of making people like you disappear.”
I have a great comeback, I really do. I can be feisty, but the worddisappearsends me three steps back. So instead, I change course. I wait for her to leave and pretend not to see the concern written all over Dell’s face. I turn to Don and make my move. Leaning over, I whisper in his ear. He smiles and checks my cleavage once more before he grabs his drink and heads over to her table.
Davie is shaking his head when I return to watch the show. “What did you say to him?”
“Just that if he wants a farewell fuck, he’s guaranteed to find it over there, because after three drinks she’ll be pouring herself into his bed.” I smirk and head off to take some more orders.
“It’s dead,” Zack announces by eleven. “Chaps is having some BOGO special, so why don’t you guys go home early?” Jake and I don’t move. It’s sad we don’t have Friday night plans. “All right, let’s do one better,” Zack says, shaking his head at us as he drops three shot glasses on the bar. He slips two straws over the hole, pouring the tequila in three different streams, filling all the glasses at once.Impressive. “Cheers.”
I slide my butt onto the bar top and take the drink, chasing it with a lime. Graham drops off his tray on the bar and asks Jake if he knows of a place to go for a late meal. Jake smiles at me knowingly as he grabs his tips. I laugh and wave them both off.
“So, Savannah, how are you liking living in town?” Zack asks as he pours me another.
I drink it quickly. “It’s nice.”
Zack hops up on the other side of the bar top and turns to face me. “I know this is none of my business and a little late, but I’m sorry about what happened in your life.”
“Thanks.” I shrug, taking a moment to think. “I think the worst part of it all is feeling like I don’t really belong anywhere. I can’t go back to New York for so many reasons. I have no family or friends there. I left Shadows because I felt like I needed to find myself, like they were worrying about me when they should be focusing on their open cases.” I glance over at him, realizing I’m complaining. “Sorry, didn’t mean to toss you into my pity party.”
He shakes his head. “No, it sounds exactly like someone should in your situation. The only difference is their hearts aren’t invested in someone tall, dark, and handsome.” I smile and throw a sigh. He’s right. “When I retired from Shadows, I couldn’t leave. My family is here. What’s that saying? Home is where the heart is. This is where my heart wants to be, and I lucked out that my brother came and joined me.” He pours me one more but stops me when I go to drink it. “You may not think you’ve settled or put down any roots, Savannah, but you have a house full of people who care about you up on that mountain, and you have two in this restaurant. Stop worrying about what youshouldbe feeling and just feel. Life is too short to float, so sink a little and start living.” He holds up his glass. “To you.”
“To me.” I raise my drink and drop it back, letting his words absorb. “Now,” I clap my hands together, needing to change the subject, “I want some juicy stories on Cole and Mark when they were younger.”
Zack moves his eyes around like he’s trying to pull a good memory to share when his mouth curves into a smile, and I know I’m in for a good story.
“About a month after Mark arrived at the Logans’, he started to gain confidence and become a lot less skinny. Poor kid hadn’t tried different kinds of food before, so his taste buds were firing off in all directions, and it was really fun to see. Most kids wouldn’t want to try fried haddock or rib eye steak, but that boy would try anything we put in front of him. Sue would bring him in once a week and let him order anything he wanted so he could try new things.” Zack’s smile widens. “I even created a Marcus Menu and let him design what he’d like to try, so I could order in the foods he wanted.”
“Aw, I love that.”
“It was sweet, and it gave me a chance to connect with the boy through food. All Mark needed was a safe environment and love, and poof, there was a sweet, kind, charming little boy, just waiting to share his laugh with the world.”
I feel my chest tighten and my heart squeeze, all at once. The Logans really do save people in so many different ways.
“But,” Zack gives me a small shrug, “we noticed Cole started to seem more withdrawn and would disappear up in his room almost every day after school and wouldn’t show himself until nighttime. Sue was worried, but Daniel insisted boys just needed to find their rhythm. It was odd, though, because Cole never was that kind of a kid to be jealous or not want to share his family with others.”
“So, what happened?” I am so incredibly engulfed in the story I forget we were at work.
Zack hops up on the counter and turns to face me. “We’d been out for dinner to celebrate something, and when we came home, there was green paint everywhere. Cole came into the living room covered in the green paint, beaming with excitement. He told Mark to follow him upstairs, all the while explaining they had some work to do. We followed, curious to know what in the world the kid was up to, and when he opened his bedroom door, we couldn’t believe it. Cole had transformed his own bedroom into a room for both of them. You see, Mark was living in their basement, and that bothered Cole. He felt he needed a real room, so until they built an add-on, Mark should be living in the house like everyone else.”
“Wow.” I feel the skin around my eyes twitch with the need to relieve some emotion. “And the green paint?”