Irish for that Fräulein
Charlie elbowed Noah behindthe bar—hard. “Your kryptonite’s here, and she’s up to something.”
Noah lifted his gaze to Ursula standing on the third riser leading to the chained-off mezzanine, which made no sense until he took in the length of slack links. Helping herself to what she had no right to claim. Again.
Her eyes locked on to him, as if she’d been waiting for him, and a triumphant smile curled on her face. In that same instant, a pair of honey-blond pigtails belonging to a sexy-as-sin Irish Fräulein snapped with the motion of her head whipping toward him.
Shit!Dread chilled his veins as those pretty blue eyes flew to his. What the hell kind of garbage was Ursula shoveling into Hailey’s head? The day that had been humming nicely along after turning itself around had once again crash-landed at his feet, dashing any hope of the kiss he wanted desperately to replay.
Shaking his head vigorously as he tried to convey a warning to not listen toanythingUrsula said, he crooked his finger at the Fräulein and motioned her over. She pointed at her herself, mouthing, “Me?”
“Yes, you!” Heads turned to look at him, but he didn’t give a fuck.
But Hailey didn’t get the message—or Ursula snatched it from her. Noah sucked in a breath as his ex headed toward him, a grin plastered across her face. He told himself it didn’t matter what the women had exchanged because he and Hailey weren’t athing. He had no business being athingor starting athingwith anyone,especiallywith a girl with plans to go places. Even if kissing her had rocked his world in a way it had never been rocked before. What would someone likeherwant with a loser like him?
When Ursula reached the bar, she practically elbowed Germaine out of the way. Noah didn’t want anything to do with Germaine either, but he felt bad for her. Once Ursula set her Medusa glare on someone, they were woefully outgunned.
“She’s cute.” Medusa dropped the words as if he was supposed to pick them up and do something with them.
“Dixie always loves compliments,” he replied dryly.
Ursula plucked the derby from his head and dropped it on her own, tilting it just so. She had a knack for turning everything into a show. Then she turned toward Germaine and gave her an amusedly evil eye-sweep from top to bottom, and Noah found himself relieved when the poor girl didn’t turn to stone.
“You like to hang around a lot, don’t you?” The words Ursula directed at Germaine were pure ice. “You know, they hold AA meetings in the firehouse once a week.”
He raised a finger. “Hey!” But before he could tell Ursula to retract her claws, Germaine vacated her stool. Ursula watched her go, her eyes glinting as if she enjoyed hurting the redhead. Turning to Noah, she shrugged. “Something I said?”
“No doubt,” he grumbled.
She tossed her hair. “She’s overly sensitive. Probably on her period.” Her entire demeanor shifted into sex-kitten mode. “Serve me my favorite?”
“I’m fresh out of spiced hemlock.”
“Oh, you’re so funny, Noah.” To Charlie, she said, “Mudslide, please, Hunky Blue Eyes.”
“No problem,” Charlie replied easily, even though his eyes weren’t blue. “Hand me your credit card, and I’ll start a tab.”
“Oh, didn’t you hear? Noah’s buying.”
“No can do, sweetheart,” came Charlie’s smooth counter. “His partners put a stop to the freebies.”
Surprise flashed across Ursula’s features. “Since when do you have partners, Noah?”
Ignoring her, Noah glimpsed the clock on the POS screen: 9:10, and the crowd had grown disappointingly thin, which meant he wasn’t as busy and couldn’t escape Ursula as easily as he might otherwise. Where had everyone gone? He looked toward the unchained staircase. Where hadHaileygone?
Ursula seemed to read his thoughts about the dwindling crowd, drawling, “There’s an awesome Celtic band playing at Dell’s tonight. Looks like your customers decided to head that way and get away from these tone-deaf amateur singers from the trailer park. Really, Noah, a karaoke machine?”
“People like it.” He began slicing limes he didn’t need.
Beside him, Charlie waited, giving Ursula a pointed look. With a huff, she extracted a credit card from her tight vest, where a bra should have been, and handed it to him before leaning across the bar so only Noah could hear. “It’s not like your little bar is lighting the town on fire, lover. Dell’s vibe is a whole lot more exciting, but I’m loyal, so I decided to stay here.” She sat back with a self-satisfied grin.
Loyal?Trying not to choke, Noah put on a casual tone. “That place barely accommodates customers. Where did they find room for the band to set up?”
“The remodel is almost done, and Bruno put them in that unfinished section. The space is really, really looking good, by the way.”
Charlie piped up. “That’s a code violation.”
“I wouldn’t know,” she sniffed.
