Sinner (Shelter Harbor #1)(9)

“It’s on the house,” I murmur as I pass it her way.

“Oh, thanks,” she blushes.

“Look, if you want, you can go tell your friends that I promised to meet you on the beach later and fuck the single right out of you.”

Her eyes go wide, flashing over me in something like lust as I grin.

“Trust me, it’ll make for an awesome bachelorette party story.”

“Thanks,” she blushes, sipping quickly on her G&T before turning and scurrying back to her gaggle of friends.

“A sex on the beach? Really?” Jade groans, and I turn to catch her rolling her eyes behind the bar with me. “I love how every girl thinks that’s the most original line in the world because one of her friends found it on Google.”

“Aww, what, jealous you didn’t get the line?”

Jade flips me off before grabbing a couple cold pints from the fridge and filling them from the Sam Adams taps.

“She had clingy trust-fund case written all over her. Hard pass from me.”

“Quitters never win, Jade.”

She snorts as she makes change for the guy buying the beers before nodding her chin at the next person lined up to the bar.

It’s Saturday, and we’re fucking cranking. The bar is three deep, the music is rocking, and this place is actually filled with more than just drunk townie locals who’ve been coming to drown themselves at O’Donnell’s since before I was old enough to drink, let alone before I owned the place. We’re slowly moving from “actual dive bar” to “fun dive bar,” and while the purist in me would be just fine keeping it the sticky, smoke-filled, grungy shit-hole I fell in love with at the age of sixteen with my fake ID, the business owner in me is pretty okay with the change.

So, as a business owner, I’m pretty pleased with the night. As a man still nursing an epic hangover from the night before though?

It’s a goddamn nightmare.

“Drink?”

Jade elbows me in the ribs and I turn to see her handing me a half-pint of beer.

“The responsible business owner in me is frowning at the employee giving away free booze and encouraging drinking on the job, you know.”

“The same responsible business owner who just gave away that gin and tonic and keeps a bottle labeled ‘Rowan only’ behind the bar?”

I grab the glass from her hand and raise it up. “Sláinte.”

Jade tosses the Gaelic toast back my way, and we drink. The beer chases some of the lingering headache, and I’m tossing it back to finish the rest of the glass when my eyes land on the front door swinging open.

Well, huh.

Because there in the doorway is the very last church girl I’d have ever expected to see back in here.

“Excuse me sir, but do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior?” Jade snickers in my ear.

“She’s Baptist, I think. Or like, Evangelical Calvinist or, whatever.”

“Huh?”

“The Lord and Savior stuff is Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

Jade gives me a look. “Right, well, good luck.”

I turn back to see Eva nervously slipping her way through the crowd, and for a minute, I’m actually wondering how she managed to get past Jon, my door guy. As much fun as I had in this place back in high school with a fake ID, Massachusetts’s stance on serving minors is no fucking joke these days. My once-over of her this morning would not have put her at legal drinking age.

And however much Jade was kidding, she practically looks like she’s going door-to-door with the good word. She’s wearing khakis and a freaking tucked in t-shirt with some sort of ministries slogan and logo on the front of it. It’s a far cry from the white-dressed angel I woke up to.

“You got this?” I nod at Jade and the crowd at the bar, which actually seems to be thinning slightly.

She shrugs. “Sure.”

I slip out under the service bar and meander through the crowd towards a very lost, very freaked out looking Eva Ellis.

“You even old enough to be here or should I be calling the cops.”

She whirls, her face white and her eyes wide. “Oh, no, I’m old enough.”

She fumbles in her pocket and starts to yank out an ID before she sees me grinning.

“Oh, you’re joking.”

“Just a little. Seriously though, how old are you?”

“Twenty-one.”

I raise a brow, shrugging. “Well okay then. What are you drinking?”

She blushes. “Oh, no, I don’t drink.”

Of course not.

“Well if you’re here for the cuisine, you’re probably in for a let-down.” I nod at the bowl of pretzels on the bar next to me.

Eva smiles, and I can’t help but grin back.