Charlie, meanwhile, stood with arms crossed, shamelessly eyeing her from the cute pigtails Noah wanted to pull to her fuck-me heels that made him want to do other aforementioned things to her. A huge grin split his brother’s stupid face. “You might want to reconsider your dress code, bro. This look really rocks. And for the record, I like the watch.”
“Why the hell are you here?” Noah growled.
He leveled Noah with a dumbstruck expression. “Because you need me?”
Oh right.
“We might have enough fill-ins now for you and your brothers to entertain the folks with your li’l ol’ rock-and-roll show,” Dixie drawled.
Noah barely registered the suggestion because over Dixie’s shoulder, Hailey’s wriggling was a distraction Noah was struggling to ignore. Damn it, he didn’t have time for this!
“Boss? The band?” Dixie prodded.
“Uh, we’ll just have to find a playlist on Pandora or Spotify and crank it up. Once people have a good heater going, they won’t notice.”
The tavern wench raised a hand. “Do you have a karaoke machine? You can explain that the band is stuck, which people will understand, and spin the karaoke substitution by saying your patrons demanded it, and you’re giving the public what it wants.”
Noah wanted to kiss her. Whether the desire had more to do with her provocative outfit or the karaoke suggestion, he had little idea. Then his hopes plummeted. “The tavern doesn’t own one.”
“We have one we could loan for tonight,” Dixie piped up. She took in all the eyes staring at her—except Dewey’s, which had yet to peel themselves off Hailey. “Why are ya’ll looking at me like that? Dewey and I enjoy singalongs same as other folks. Don’t we, hon?” Dixie smacked his chest, and he stumbled backward. “Don’t we like to sing karaoke in private?”
Rubbing his chest, Dewey shifted his gaze to his wife, seeming to recognize she was shooting him daggers. He grimaced at her. “Why, yes, we do, sugarplum.”
“Then go fetch it here,” she ordered with an imperious finger wave. As Dewey slinked away, Dixie dusted off her hands and turned to face Noah. “Sounds like we’ve solved every last one of your problems, boss.”
“Yay!” Hailey clapped and bounced in place, which made a number of other delightful parts of her jiggle. A wardrobe malfunctionmightbe in her future, and Noah couldn’t decide if that was good or bad.
As he wrestled with this question, he became acutely aware that while his other problems might be fixed, a growing one was pressing against his fly and wasn’t going away anytime soon.
Tossing a pigtail over her shoulder, Hailey took on a prim pose and in a demure tone asked, “Where do you want me?”
Now there was a loaded question.In so many places and so many ways.Noah stifled a groan. Thank fuck she’d stopped rearranging her costume, but that hadn’t stopped Charlie’s latest round of ogling.
“Charlie,” Noah snapped, “why don’t you go check our glasses supply?”
Charlie’s eyes flew to Noah. “Already did. You’re all set.”
Damn.While Noah searched out a new excuse, Reece made an entrance through the back door. “Had to run a quick errand. I am now reporting for duty.” As Reece pulled off his scarf, his eyes took a quick tour of the attraction that was Hailey Bailey, and he broke into a broad smile. “I approve of the new uniform, Noah. It’ll go a long way toward your, uh, bottom line.”
Just put me out of my misery now.
Reece didn’t put Noah out of his misery, but he certainly snagged his attention. “I just spotted a van with the Celtic Knots’ logo parked in front of Dell’s. Weren’t they supposed to be your act tonight?”
“Yeah, except they couldn’t make it over the pass.”
“Looks like they made it just fine.”
On his way out the back door, Dewey hollered, “Those turd blossoms said they couldn’t get theyselves over the pass. Too bad they didn’t get stuck and stay stuck. I’m gonna find out what’s going on.”
Dixie bellowed after him, “We need the karaoke machine more than we need you getting into a fight.” Fanning herself, she turned to Hailey. “That man can be such an animal.”
Noah clenched his jaw to keep it from exploding. “How about ifIgo over there and deal with Dell and the damn Knots myself.” He relished having a target where he could direct the maelstrom brewing inside him.
“They signed a contract, right?” Hailey ventured.
“No, it was a handshake thing over the phone,” Noah gritted out.
She rolled her lips between her teeth, as if to keep from saying, “In other words, you were an idiot. Got it.”
