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“Ryder…”
“James.” I tried to match his stern tone. I wasn’t going to budge. I’d spent most of my adult life as a bartender—in Vegas, of all places. Punch-ups were part of the job. I wasn’t going to let a small cut on my lip be the thing to take me down. Sure, it would be swollen for a few days, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Hell, I’d dealt with worse after that altercation with Dani.
Thankfully, James relented, even if it wasn’t without a look that said he wanted to keep pressing. I could see the concern in his eyes, the way his hands twitched with the need to touch me. I wouldn’t have minded, but we had a full house and evenIrealized that toomuch PDA was bad for business.
James’s gaze shifted to look behind me. “Shiloh, bring me a Ziploc from the kitchen please.”
Shi froze mid-step, eyes widening as they took in my appearance. They backtracked, returning with a plastic bag. James filled it with ice and handed it to me along with a clean bar towel. “At least stand in that corner and ice it for five minutes.”
I looked at the ice pack, then back to him, earning an eye roll at my hesitation. “Please.”
Then his eyes went from stern to… damn it, he was giving me the puppy eyes. That was my move! I could never resist those. I guess my resistance had him resorting to desperate measures.
I tried to stay strong but crumpled. “Fine,” I said, snatching the pack from him and tucking myself into the corner and out of the way. James barely managed to suppress a grin. Those eyes sparkled with mischief as he turned back to the customers. Damn it. He’d found my kryptonite.
“What the hell did I miss?” Shi asked, needing to reach over me to grab a bottle.
“Only the chance to see the world-famous Ryder Clark in action. I tossed some plastered dickhead to the curb.”
“You are so full of yourself,” they scoffed, shaking their head and turning away.
“Admit it,” I called after them, but not loud enough for customers to hear, “the scars only make me hotter.”
My five minutes passed, and James walked over to check my frozen lip. He deemed it still too swollen for his liking. He grabbed me by the upper arm and ushered me to the other side of the bar where he plopped my ass down on a stool.
I pulled the ice away from my mouth. The cut was making my eyes water. “I’m fine,” I slurred.
“When you can say that without the lisp that you’ve never had before, I’ll believe you.”
“I didn’t know you were a doctor,” I groused, voice muffled behind the towel.
He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I used to be.”
He turned away, missing my incredulous look. I’d have to interrogate him about that later, though—Shi was snickering. “What’s so funny, Shi Baby?”
“Nothing,” they said quickly.
I crossed an arm over my chest and tucked it under the one holding the ice pack to my lip. “Keep your secrets. I’ll just sit here and watch you look pretty.”
They spilled their pour, and I grinned in triumph, finally settling back in silence.
“Ryder,” James scolded, “if you keep it up I’m going to start charging you for every ounce of alcohol they spill.”
“Then let me get back to work. I’m useless sitting here.”
“Five more minutes.”
“James—”
“Five. More. Minutes.”
He was giving me that look that made me shrink back in my seat, but I listened. He hovered the whole time, never moving more than a few steps away from me. Once my second round of freezing was over, he finally allowed me to get back behind the bar.
I practically leapt off the stool, tossing the ice pack to James and falling into place next to Shi. James moved to the corner I’d vacated, but he stayed close the rest of the night—almost bumping into me at every turn.
Damn, he was being clingy. It was suffocating.
After a while, James faked a dinner break, finally leaving me alone. Given his behavior tonight, I was surprised he was willing to go farther than two feet from me. I was changing out bottles when someone in the corner of my eye got my attention.
