Hearing his cue, Heath made his way past his brother and Jameson to offer Toni his hand. "Hi, I'm Heath." He caught Bunz's eye and gave her a wave, which she returned with a smile.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm aware of that," Toni replied, her eyes moving over him appraisingly. "Nice to meet you, finally."
"You must be Toni," Heath said politely.
"That's me," Toni said, sipping demurely at her wine. "I would grill you now, but it can wait until tomorrow. I don't want to scare you off before you come over."
"Uh - thank you," Heath said, bobbing his head in appreciation while shooting Drew a quick wink.
"Okay, okay, Toni," Nik said, pressing her sister's arm. She smiled charmingly at Heath. "It's good to see you again," she said graciously.
"Thanks, you too," he replied. "So are you also going to wait to read me the riot act?"
"Of course," Nik said. "I prefer to let my victims squirm." She smiled innocently and Heath laughed out loud.
"Hey, I get it," he said, lifting his hands in the air. "I like overprotective siblings."
"Speaking of siblings," Nik said, nodding toward Connor. "Are you going to introduce him?"
"Oh, sorry," Heath said hurriedly, reaching behind him for his brother's shoulder.
"What's with you forgetting about me all the time?" Connor demanded, then smiled at Drew's sisters, reaching out to shake their hands, then reached for Bunz's hand. "It seems to happen around beautiful women, apparently."
His compliments went over well, and conversation quickly fell underway. Anthony made his way over to Bunz's side, and the group began chatting animatedly.
Drew drifted in and out of their conversation as the crowd at the bar picked up. Between her sisters and Bunz, and the clientele that found out it was her last night, Drew was plied with various shots and drinks. She had a good, strong head for liquor and could usually drink more than the average woman of her height and weight but she was definitely starting to feel the shots. But she was having fun, more fun than she'd ever had at Cliff's, and in her drunken haze she wondered if she was making a mistake by quitting.
Too late now, she thought with a shake of her head. She knew she didn't really mean it. She glanced over at the group of her friends and family, smiling as she saw that everyone was talking animatedly. Her sisters seemed to be on their best friendly behavior although she knew that tomorrow they'd read Heath "the riot act", as he'd phrased it.
Her eyes strayed to him, leaning on the bar, listening quietly to Connor relay a humorous story from their childhood. She cocked her head, wondering if it was a true story now that she knew more about the circumstances under which they had been raised. She assumed it was since Heath had a slight smile on his face as he listened, a smile that seemed genuinely amused. She noticed also, pouring out a glass of red wine for a woman in front of her, that he looked incredibly good, dressed in a charcoal gray button-up, the sleeves pushed to his thick, powerful forearms, and dark jeans. She suddenly felt wetness on her hand and realized she had overfilled the wine glass and it sluiced down the sides.
"Shit!" she hissed, stopping herself. She grabbed a fresh glass and poured it out properly, serving it with an apologetic smile. She glanced over again and saw that while Heath's face was still tilted toward the bar as it had been while he listened to Connor, his eyes had lifted to Drew and he'd caught her slipping. He flashed her a quick, full smile, letting her know he'd seen the whole thing, and then looked away.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur as Drew worked the bar and downed more shots from the patrons. An hour before closing, Cliff came out to replace her behind the bar and told her to go have fun. The DJ started playing all her favorite music, and she took to the dance floor with her sisters and Bunz. A few of the waitresses stopped in their duties occasionally to dance with her. Drew felt completely exuberant as she danced, tilting back her head to laugh, spinning as the room spun. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had so much fun. As she finished a turn, her eyes fell on Heath once again and she licked her lips. She knew of only one way to end such a great evening properly.
***
Heath leaned against the bar and sipped at his club soda with lime, his eyes glued to Drew as she danced with her sisters and her friends on the small dance floor in front of the DJ booth. He knew that Rex and Jameson and his brother and Bunz's boyfriend Anthony were conversing around him but he couldn't focus on anything they were saying. He couldn't focus on anything but the way Drew looked when she danced.
He'd seen her dance before, at the studio. That had been for art, for her showcase piece. The dancing she was doing now was purely for fun and it was so much sexier. It wasn't sexy in a salacious way; she was clearly just having fun. But every move her body made was rhythmic, graceful, smooth. It was a huge turn-on, and moreover, he'd never seen her let go in such a way before, and he found it really refreshing.