He nodded and scanned the lines of people demanding drinks. The DJ hadn’t even started yet and Big Buck’s was packed. Caroline had been right—the juxtaposition of young guys wearing flannel shirts to make a fashion statement and the ones who looked as if they’d spent the better part of the day holding a chainsaw gave the bar a weird vibe. He wasn’t expecting a fight to break out. But if they ran out of Hoppy Heaven . . .
“Hey. You’re here.” Josie rushed up to the service end of the bar. “Show those paper targets who is the boss?”
“Yeah,” he said with a smile. “I gave them hell.”
“I need three Hoppy Heavens and a shot of tequila,” she called as she punched the order into the computer. Her voice was calm despite the chaos around her.
“Coming right up,” he said as he reached for a pint glass. After he’d loaded up her tray, he turned to a group of women and took their orders. But he kept an eye on Josie, watching as she doled out drinks. He’d walked in here feeling lost and on edge. The shooting range usually put a cap on the out-of-control feelings. But today? Watching Josie—that was enough. She didn’t need him to rush to her rescue. He had a bar full of strays, but no one needed saving tonight.
That’s one helluva relief.
Right now, he didn’t want to be that guy. He wasn’t sure he had it in him to rush to the rescue tonight.
He watched Josie head back to the bar. The sway of her hips drew his gaze to her legs. She wasn’t tall, but that didn’t change the fact that her legs would feel damn near perfect wrapped around him.
“Stop ogling your employees,” Caroline said as she placed a clean rack of pint glasses on the bar for him to put away.
“I wasn’t . . .” Shit, he hadn’t thought about how this must look to a woman who’d been raped by her superior.
But Caroline laughed softly. “I don’t think she minds, Noah. Heck, she looks at you the same way.”
The tension eased from his shoulders and he reached for the clean glasses. “I’m not planning to take advantage of her.”
“But your assistant manager might take advantage of you,” his dishwasher said.
Noah stared out into the crowded bar and spotted Josie. “I hope you’re right.”
Chapter Eleven
BIG BUCK’S CLOSED at two thirty in the morning that night. Another thirty minutes would have brought in more tips, but the DJ had packed up an hour ago and they’d run out of Hoppy Heaven around midnight.
Josie sat in the back room, sorting singles and fives into neat piles on the metal desk. She’d made enough since she’d started at the bar to send off her next payment to the hospital. Another few shifts and she’d have cash in hand for the doctors. Everyone billed separately. She’d learned that after the burial when the bills had started arriving one after the other in quick succession.
Behind her, Caroline loaded the last of the dirty glasses onto a tray. The dishwasher had tried to drive Josie’s Mini back to Noah’s place, but the car refused to start. So she’d stayed and kept working.
“Caroline, you can leave the rest of the dishes for tomorrow,” Noah said as he pushed into the room. Josie looked up and almost dropped the bills in her hand. Noah was smiling, offering a glimpse of the grin that had come so naturally to him in high school and the years before he’d left for the marines. His black T-shirt might as well have read “I’d look better on the floor” instead of “Big Buck’s Bar.”
“Josie,” he continued as he turned to her.
“Yes?” She’d sampled the worst of what men had to offer—or close to it. (She had a feeling Caroline might win the prize.) But when Noah’s blue eyes turned to her, brimming with wanting, the answer was yes. There were some lines she couldn’t cross. She couldn’t offer her love this time. But the answer to the unspoken need in his blue eyes was still yes. Tonight, her desire trumped her fear.
“Grab your kittens,” he said.
Just what every girl wanted to hear. . .
“I’m taking you home too,” he added.
“I can’t.” She glanced at the box of sleeping fur balls. They’d had a bowl of milk earlier, explored the bar’s back room and passed out. “My dad—”
“Home to my place,” he said. “We’ll get the cats settled and then I’ll drive you to your dad’s.”
The three of them piled into the cab of his truck along with the kittens and the pie Josh had dropped off. Josie balanced the sleeping animals on her lap and tried not to think about how Noah had to reach across her bare legs to shift gears. But by the end of the drive, she wanted him to take her from first all the way to third.