“Coming,” she said, her eyes on Tawk as he stood near Harley, saying something she couldn’t hear over the noise of the country song playing on the Jukebox. He glanced back at her, and she felt busted, so she rushed to pretend she’d been wiping down the counter
She didn’t do this, she didn’t get flustered around anyone, but with Tawk, she felt like she was on uneven ground in high heels. And why? She didn’t know him.
She blew her bangs out of her face and rushed to make drinks for Pendleton Straight and Two-Shots-of-Jack. For the next hour, she forced herself to get lost in the bustling chaos of happy hour. It wasn’t until she had to make the rounds at the tables while the server, Marcy, was on her break that she had to face Tawk again.
“Everyone okay over here?” she asked the table where Cold Foot was hanging out.
Tawk was sitting in a chair, with two empty chairs on either side, but he was still hanging and seemed to have built up some kind of rapport with Cash. That wasn’t hard to do. Cash could talk to a fencepost and probably entertain it.
“It makes me relax,” Tawk said from right beside her.
She frowned at him, then looked around the table, but the Crew had all gone quiet too. “Come again?”
He pushed his empty beer bottle with the tips of his fingers and looked up at her. “Drinking relaxes me, and the dragon takes advantage. I can’t control him if I don’t care.”
“Why…” She swallowed hard. “Why don’t you care now?”
“Jess put him to sleep,” he said, gesturing to the other side of the table where Jess was sitting next to Kade.
“My head is empty,” he said, searching her face. “I can rest tonight.” There was an air of relief in his words. “A drink won’t hurt anything tonight.”
She glanced around the quiet Crew again and then picked up his empty bottle. “I’ll bring you another.”
“Say thank you,” she heard Cash tell Tawk as she walked away.
“Thank you,” Tawk repeated after him.
She turned and offered him a polite smile. What a strange one. “You’re welcome.”
Okay.
Okay.
Jess was a witch, and she must’ve had some power to put Tawk’s animal to sleep. The Cold Foot Crew seemed reserved around him, but they hadn’t kicked him out of the bar or the territory yet. She was curious about the history between them.
For her, she had made a habit of not asking too many questions when she hung around the Cold Foot Crew. In her years as a bartender, she had learned to listen, and to observe, and to form her own opinions based on the cues she picked up from people.
With Tawk, he wasn’t an easy read at all, but something about that made her more curious about him. He was interesting and challenging to talk to, and he kept her on her toes. His mind worked in a completely different direction than hers did, but she found that intriguing.
He was…different.
And sexy as hell. He was easily the hottest guy here, and all of Darby. Hell, he was probably the hottest man in all of Montana. It was the sharp angles of his face, and his appealing bone structure, gold eyes, physique that was definitely obvious under that thin T-shirt. His powerful legs pushed against his jeans, and when he walked, it was with the confidence of an animal at the top of the food chain. That man was pure sex appeal, but his words weren’t as smooth, and for some reason, she liked it way better than if he said everything perfect, or recited lines. He didn’t talk easily. Perhaps he’d been telling the truth before when he’d said he didn’t talk much.
Ding.
She didn’t know why, but chills rippled up the back of her neck. Tammy turned and looked at the entry and froze.
Aaron stood in the doorway with his friends, Brian and Jeff.
Fuck.
When her ex-husband’s eyes tracked to her, a slow smile took his lips. “Hey, pretty girl,” Aaron called loudly across the bar.
“No. No,” she said, holding her hand up as he approached. She did an about-face and made her way directly behind the bar. “I’m not doing this.”
“Not doing what?” Aaron asked innocently as he took a seat at the bar. Brian and Jeff took the stools on either side of him.
“Hey Tammy Ray,” Jeff said with his Mister-Charming smile. She’d known these guys since she was a kid, and she was zero percent surprised they had come with Aaron for whatever dumb reason he had to drive all the way from Bozeman to here.
