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“True fact.” Mason grabs Karli’s hand and drops a kiss on her knuckles.
Felix bobs his head in agreement then puckers his lips against Daphne’s cheek.
My siblings are pathetic. But they’re right, though. I do feel like I’m glowing. From the inside out. Inez has not only patched up the holes in my tattered couch. She’s patched up the holes in my tattered heart. She’s given my soul the chance to glow again.
I know all that sounds corny as fuck but her love has had this magical effect on me. Every moment of the day, I’m struggling not to acknowledge that she’ll be leaving, I’m about to lose her and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.
My family lingers a while longer, but I ignore them and focus on the bar. There’s a lot to do, and it’s starting to get late.
At the end of the night when the place is finally empty, it’s just me and Inez per usual. For the most part, we split the closing tasks, but tonight, I keep catching myself staring at Inez as she shuts down the beer taps.
She’s really damn good at her job. Obviously, that doesn’t surprise me. She’s freakishly good at everything she does. When I would close up the bar with any of my other workers, it’d take hours and hours to get out of here. It’d practically be morning before I got home. But with Inez, we’re usually done in less than half the time.
I don’t know anyone who works as hard as she does, managing to get shit done, while also keeping a bar full of rowdy drunks happy and entertained.
She’s a fucking star.She deserves every ray of the spotlight that seems to follow her around.
“Dance with me,” I demand when she eventually looks up and catches me staring at her.
Inez bites down on her lip and nods. So I go drop a quarter into the ancient jukebox in the corner and pick just the right song. Something by The Beatles.
I reach out, our fingers intertwining as the first notes of the tune wash over us. She follows me to the middle of the empty floor, to a spot between the freshly scrubbed tables. In the dim light, our eyes lock, unspoken words hanging heavy in the air. There’s so much I want to say, but I wouldn’t know where to start.
So I don’t.
I hold her close as our bodies sway in perfect sync. The only sounds in the bar are the romantic music and the creaks of the worn wooden floorboards beneath our feet. Christ—she’s beautiful.
“Let’s go check out the art festival tomorrow,” I suggest as we dance.
“Tomorrow?” she echoes me. “Tomorrow’s Saturday, our busiest night here at the bar.”
I shrug. “Every Saturday’s busy. But that festival only comes around once a year.” And who knows where you’ll be twelve months from now? My chest aches. “Let’s play hooky. Let’s take the night off to have some fun. What do you say?”
She leaves for her big audition on Monday morning and I don’t know if or when she’s coming back. Spending as much time with her as possible is my priority now.
She purses her lips but she can’t fight back her smile. “I say…let’s do it,” she answers. “I’ll just have to ask my boss if he’ll give me the night off. He’s kind of a grump sometimes.”
I growl, landing an open palm on the curve of her ass. “At this point, you’re just begging to get spanked with that sassy mouth of yours.”
“Am I?” She raises a brow in challenge.
Damn it. The little flirt.
I’m getting hard already. If we keep going down this road, I’ll end up fucking her on the bar again. Like I did last night. We made such a huge mess. Cleaning it up was a pain. Especially with the orgasm haze we found ourselves in.
I quickly change the subject. “Your audition is next week. How do you feel? Are you ready?”
She tries but fails to hold back another excited smile. “I think so. I know my part as well as I possibly can. Now it just comes down to whether I can do this character justice.”
“I know you can, Inez. You’ve been working so goddamn hard.No one deserves that part more than you.”
We’re silent for a while as we dance, but I feel the heaviness of our unspoken words in the air.
“Everything’s going to go to shit when you leave again,” I say quietly through a boulder-sized rock in my throat. My thumb absently strokes the skin on her hip, where her shirt has risen. “I’m really going to miss you.”
I shouldn’t be saying this to her. I’m being a selfish asshole. The last thing I want is to make her feel guilty about what she has to do. I don’t want her to second-guess herself.
“I should spend more time training the other bartenders to replace me when I leave.” She nods resolutely.
