Page 20 of Whispers and Wildfire
“It’s a bar. I came in to get a drink.”
“They’re out. You can go now.”
“Out of drinks?”
He nodded once.
“I doubt Rocco ran out of alcohol.” Did Rocco still own the place? I glanced at the bar, and, sure enough, there he was, the burly lumberjack bartender himself.
“That’s not a thing, dude,” Theo said.
Luke side-eyed his brother.
“I have as much right to be here as you do,” I said.
“But why are you here?”
“I just answered that question.”
“No, not here at the bar. In this town. Why are you in Tilikum? Don’t you live… I don’t know, somewhere that isn’t here?”
“Not anymore.”
His jaw hitched, and nothing about the hard look he gave me was sexy. Absolutely nothing at all.
I was such a liar. He dripped sex appeal, which only made me angry.
“What do you mean, not anymore?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“I mean, I’m at the Timberbeast because I wanted a drink, and I’m in Tilikum because I live here.”
He stared at me for a few seconds, unblinking, as if he were too shocked to reply.
“Luke?”
“Great. This is fantastic.” He gestured to my seat. “You steal my chair and my town?”
“Your town? I don’t think you own Tilikum.”
“I don’t have to own it to have dibs.”
“Oh boy,” Theo said.
Luke glared at him. “Don’t take her side.”
Theo put his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I’m not getting involved.”
“You can’t call dibs on an entire town.” I leaned back in my seat as if making myself more comfortable. “Or a bar. If I want to sit with Theo and have a drink, I will.”
“I was here first.”
“You didn’t save your seat.”
The fact that this was practically devolving into playground taunts like we were nine probably should have calmed the situation—made us both laugh. From the outside, we undoubtedly sounded ridiculous.
But he’d riled me up, and I wasn’t going to be the one to back down.
He crossed his arms. “Go have a drink with your own brother.”
