“Can you check the calendar?”I asked him because he kept the entire club’s life in his head like a Rain Man of beer and ball games.“If there’s a weekend you can spare us, we’ll take that one if four from now doesn’t work.”
Penny threw her hands.“Anyweekend.Just not never.”
Mason exhaled, glanced at the bar, then at the floor, thinking through the math like he always did: security coverage, kitchen staffing, who he could swap on short notice without killing anyone.Finally, he nodded once.
“I’ll look,” he said.“If there’s a weekend I can make work, I’ll make it work.But it won’t be next weekend.”
Penny stared at him like she was looking for fine print.“Youpromiseyou’ll try?”
“I said I’ll look.”His voice went dry.“If I say yes, it’s yes.I don’t say it unless I mean it.”
That landed.Penny’s shoulders lost two inches of altitude.She blew out a breath and let her arms drop to her sides.“Okay.”She cut a sheepish look at me, then back to Mason.“Okay.And I… don’t quit.”
“Good,” Mason said, turning away to grab a towel with more relief than he was ever going to show.“Because you’re on the floor in thirty seconds.”
“Ugh, you’re theworst,” Penny grumbled, which in Penny meantfine, thank you.She leaned into me and whispered, “Fourth weekend or I’m chaining myself to the jukebox.”
“Please don’t,” Bay said, sliding past with a tray.“It already shocks me sometimes.”
Penny stuck out her tongue at her and darted down the lane toward a table waving for refills.I took a step to follow and felt Mason’s gaze brush my cheek like a palm.
“Thanks,” he said quietly, eyes on the taps.
“Don’t thank me yet,” I murmured.“You might still be stuck with a skeleton crew if we rope Bell into this.”
“Bell is already roped into this,” Bell announced, appearing from nowhere like a pixie with a death wish.“Also, did I hear nachos?If there are nachos involved, then I am in.”
I patted her shoulder.“Have you ever thought about getting your hearing tested?”
Mason let out a chuckle and then pointed to Bell.“Get to work,” Mason said.
Bell waved him off and flounced off in the direction Penny had gone.
He looked at me, and I held up my hands.“I, too, will also get back to work, boss man.”I pushed off the bar, and slipped back into the rhythm of the room.The lull had officially left the building; the place surged in waves with laughter at one table, a low boo at another when the Brewers stranded two on base, thetookof cornhole bags in the back.Arlo ghosted past the dartboards with his arms folded; Oliver glowered amiably in the hall like a bouncer with a heart of gold.
I delivered two burgers, a basket of chili fries, and a lie to a man who insisted he’d ordered onion rings.He hadn’t.He accepted the fries when I promised to bring ranch.I passed the bar again just as Thorn tried to flip a shaker and almost beaned himself in the face.I laughed and kept moving.
Penny caught my eye from across the room and mimedroad trip!with a steering wheel motion large enough to land an airplane.I widened my eyes and drew a line across my throat.Later.She pantomimed zipping her lips, then immediately unzipped them to talk to her table.
Bay shoulder-checked me as she went by, grin quick and feral.“Mason’s going to pretend he hates the idea and then he’s going to make it happen.”
“Don’t give him credit yet,” I said, but the truth was I knew he’d do it if he said he would.
At quarter past twelve, I wiped down the long table by the windows and caught sight of my reflection in the glass of tired eyes, flyaways escaping my ponytail, and a mustard smear on my wrist I didn’t know where it had come from.
We finished closing on muscle memory.Chairs flipped, mats rinsed, the register count whispered between Thorn and Mason like a ritual.
“Text when you get home,” Penny ordered, back to bossy and safe.
“Only if you text me your packing list,” I shot back, and her grin widened, wicked and bright.
Mason thumbed the bolt on the front door and did that final once-over that saysgood.He didn’t say goodnight.He didn’t have to.
I slipped my bag over my shoulder and turned toward the door.Mason’s voice found me before I took two steps.
“I’ll give you a ride home.”
I pivoted.“Junior’s at the door.He can walk me to my car.”
