The dog calmed, and Noah reclaimed his hand, pushing Hailey’s hair away from her face. “You are so beautiful,” he murmured, his tone filled with awe.
He cupped her jaw and looked at her with such tenderness tears built behind her eyes and wedged in her throat, making it hard to swallow. “I’m in love with you, Hailey Bailey.”
Taken aback, she could only choke out, “I love you too.” Her clumsiness didn’t seem to faze him. He merely smiled and drew her mouth to his, sealing their words with a slow-moving, toe-curling, spine-numbing kiss. She sank into it, happy to remain there and drown.
More days passed, andthe Miners Tavern was packed for its grand reopening. Hailey read off a list of drink orders to her hottie bartender. Between snatching glasses and bottles, Noah poured her a shot of tequila and pushed it toward her. “Here. You earned this.”
She leaned across the bar and whispered in his ear, “Barkeep, are you trying to get me drunk so you can take advantage of me later?”
“Thought never crossed my mind.” A low chuckle rolled through him as he worked the soda gun.
She gave him a flirtatious grin. “There were two thoughts there. Which one didn’t cross your mind?”
“The one about getting you drunk. But that second thought?” His smirk told herexactlywhat he had in mind. She clamped down on her lower lip to rein in the tingles of anticipation running along a live wire inside her.
He looked around and, seemingly satisfied no one was paying attention, traced his forefinger along the inside of her wrist. The intimate touch made her blood sizzle. “Now stop distracting me so I can keep this crowd lubed and happy.”
Charlie was also working the bar, so she refrained from sharing aloud the wholly inappropriate ways “lubed” and “happy” were lining up in her imagination. Switching gears, she instead offered in her most seductive voice, “I’m nottryingto be a distraction.”
Mouth twitching at one corner, Noah scooped ice into a shaker. “You’restandingthere. That’s a distraction.”
Satisfaction soared inside her, and she gleefully took in the distraction thathewas while he finished up the order.
As she loaded the drinks onto her tray, he glanced up, and his eyes fastened on a commotion at the front. “Oh fuck.”
Hailey swiveled her head. Bruno Keating’s beady gaze burned into Noah. On either side of him stood the twin towers. That hard gaze slid to her and widened. Then the smirk she wanted to wipe from his arrogant face formed. He strolled toward the bar as if he owned the place, his bodyguards bringing up the rear, and Noah growled, “Hailey, get those drinks to the customers.”
“But I don’t want to leave—”
“Now.”
“Do it, Hailey,” Charlie chimed in from beside Noah, his expression as dark as she’d ever seen it.
Dixie motioned at her from across the room and mouthed, “Get over here!” Luanne, standing beside Dixie, flapped her hand with urgency.
A large frame loomed from the side. “Go!” Reece barked. Backinghimup was Deputy Shane.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!
She hoisted the tray, feeling like a coward for fleeing, but when three Hunnicutt brothers and Dixie Dobbs told you to get the heck out of there, you didn’t mess around.
Unfortunately, she got caught in a current of customers, and Miami Vice Thor intercepted her. He gripped her arm, and she nearly dumped the drinks on an unsuspecting customer who was in the middle of delivering a punch line.
“You’re smearing my reputation with your baseless accusations, sister.”
She glared down at his hand. “And you’re verging on assault,brother.”
He released her with a malevolent chuckle. “You’re good at throwing that term around.” Obviously, he and Cliff had talked.
Amy appeared and lifted the tray from her arms. “I got these.”
Hailey thanked her and inched up her trembling chin. “What would thesebaselessaccusations be?”
“You filed a report with the health department accusing me of bribing an official, and I’m going to sue your ass for everything you’ve got.” His icy blue eyes scanned her from her toes to the ponytail on her head. “Which doesn’t appear to be much, but that’s not important because I’m going to enjoy every fucking minute I make your life a living hell.”
Suddenly, Hailey had her owntrioof towers—Reece, Shane, and Micky—with reinforcements on the way, if Noah’s snarls somewhere behind her were an indication.
God, she was sick of Bruno Keating’s bullying! With a calmness she didn’t feel, she folded her arms across her chest and leveled him with the fiercest glower she could muster. The place had grown quiet, and anyone within earshot heard her say, “You might want to check your sources because they seem to be inaccurate. If you somehow gained access to my written resignation—which is the only recent document of mine on file with the health department—you’ll note that ‘Bruno Keating’ is nowhere in there. Perhaps your name was supplied by theofficialin question in an attempt to save his own hide.”
