“No!” Cassidy reached out a hand to calm her. “I mean, I’m married. I was pregnant. I haven’t been a virgin in a long time.”
“Sweet girl, there’s virginity, and there’s virtue,” Marge pointed out.
“He’s crossed none of those lines.”Rat bastard.
Marge eyed her suspiciously. “You ran out like he was the devil.”
Cassidy laughed. “Well…” She turned away and concentrated on unpacking the bag.
“What had you so afraid of him that you took off like that?”
“Not afraid.” She opened the refrigerator door and put away the milk. “Embarrassed. I was embarrassed. I did it to myself. I said things to him. Things that make it hard for me to face him now.”
Marge waved a hand in the air. “Pah! He’s no one to get worked up over. The way that boy conducts himself, he ought to be the one walking around with his tail between his legs. Instead, he seems awfully proud of himself.”
Cassidy smiled. “I think he doesn’t care what anyone thinks.”
“That’s a fact! Arrogant as they come, that one,” Marge grumbled.
Cassidy took out the croissants packet and opened them, taking out two, wordlessly handing one over. They were her favorite pastry, and Marge knew it. She pulled at the flaky, buttery crust.
Marge went on, “Even if he does have those demon-good looks, he doesn’t need to be such a jerk.”
Cassidy side-eyed her teasingly. “Marge! If I didn’t know better…”
“Oh, no, that boy is on my shit list but good!”
Smiling, Cassidy silently agreed.
Chapter seventeen
Cassidy
STUPID BOY
“Thebeergardenisclosed,” Cassidy informed her disappointed guests as she escorted them back toward the front of the bar. “It will open at five.”
“But why?” A middle-aged brunette asked. She flung a sour look at Cassidy, letting her know she didn’t like being ordered away.
“Because there’s only one of me, and only one of me can’t watch both the front and the back,” Cassidy informed her. “At five, there are two on shift.”
“It’s like y’all don’t trust us,” her look-alike female companion complained. “Not much of a girls’ trip if we can’t even sit outside, is it?”
Cassidy sighed quietly as they returned to the front of the bar. The two disgruntled patrons plopped down at one of the tables. “Forty-five minutes; that’s only another beer away.”
“We’re from Texas, darlin’, that’s like three beers away. Each,” the brunette snickered.
“Did I just hear an order for another round?” Cassidy asked with a sly smile.
“Might as well, nothing else to do in this place.”
“That’s the spirit,” Cassidy responded. She poured out two beers from the tap and delivered them. “How about I get the juke going; provide some ambiance?”
They made noises Cassidy interpreted as half-hearted agreement, so she walked over to the digital jukebox and stuck in a five-dollar bill. For her southern customers, she first ordered up “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” As soon as it came on, she heard their whooping approval.
She decided some other country tunes might go over well. Humming tunelessly to herself, she leaned forward and scanned through the list of songs, choosing classics she knew would appeal to her guests.
A head-to-toe buzz ran through her body as a dark-toned arm appeared to her right. He braced his hand on the rounded dome of the jukebox. He was so close she could feel his body heat at her back; his breath stirred her hair at her nape. She froze as her body flushed. Her head swam with the rush of adrenaline.