Page 73 of Handful

I grimaced at the boss. That had clearly come from Fewin. “Thank you, Jamie.”

“Better to have loved and lost,” he went on, without a trace of shame, “than never loved at all.”

I stared at him. Then I looked at Derek, who was watching with amusement. “What is with you two tonight?”

They exchanged a look.

“Intervention,” Jamie said without hesitation as he finished the Sidecar. “Turns out we like your biker. Fewin’s told us plenty — six weeks working next to you and never once pushing, when we all know he could have. That’s not the man Derek warned you off.”

I thought about saying something dry and deflecting - something about how Handful was not my biker - but then I thought about the sheriff’s sister stories, my name inked on his skin, Handful knocking one out in the shower every morning. I thought about the weeks of Handful being the perfect goddamn gentleman. And I thought about all the weeks before that.

Jamie and Derek were both watching me.

“Yeah,” I said, after a while. Slowly. “I like him too.” Jamie started to grin. “A lot. But—”

“No,” Jamie said.

“I wasn’t—”

“No, no, no, no.” He set the drink he was making down and turned to face me fully. “No buts. You like him. He likes you. Austen, we watched it happen right here — months of that man parked on the end stool with a paperback, looking at you like you’d personally hung the moon and the stars every time you walked past. And by Fewin’s account he’s only got worse since. A pathetic look on a biker, frankly. One life. Live it.” He glanced at Derek. Derek gave the smallest possible nod. Jamie turned back. “We can close up. Go get your biker.”

I looked at them both. The bar. The door.

“Yeah,” I said. “You’re right. Both of you.”

Both of them whooped. Jamie slid the Sidecar down the bar; Derek caught it and took a sip. Jamie came around and slapped his hand.

“Result,” Jamie said, turning back to me. “Now go. We’ve got this. Go get your biker.”

Six weeks he’d waited.

I’m right here, Austen. Every day. Whenever you’re ready. You just say the word.

I grinned. I had a word for him.

Come.

Chapter 23

❧

— Handful —

My phone went off at nine while I was standing at the back of the floor watching Fewin upsell a bachelor party into a magnum they did not need.

Austen. She’d sent me a video.

I stepped into the office and opened it. Some social media thing. A biker in a helmet leaning on a rail with text across the bottom: let’s play a game. The next shot had the same biker looking back at the camera over his shoulder: run. The fucker was standing next to his bike in the final shot with IICYIFU.

Under it, one word. From her.

COME.

I watched it ten times.

I’d told her just say the word. Was come the word? Was this a green light? Was she messing with me? I had no idea what IICYIFU meant and I wasn’t about to go kick her door in on a guess and get it wrong.

Glitch was at the end of the bar with a laptop, pulling the week’s camera logs. I walked over and put the phone in front of his face.