I stepped back and watched. He didn’t just make the drinks, he performed. No measuring, no recipe. Just instinct. He added juice with a flick of his wrist, squeezed a lime, rimmed a glass with salt, and did it all without breaking stride. When he was done, he nodded toward the drinks and tilted his head at me.
I slid the glasses down the bar. The women took a sip, giggling like they were tasting something illegal. Then I looked back at West.
He wasn’t watching them.
He was watching me.
“What’s next?” he asked, still smug as hell.
I rolled my eyes. “I should’ve known you could bartend.”
He didn’t answer, just smiled and started taking the next order himself. For the next two hours, we worked like a well-oiled machine. Me, West, and Tuffy were a weird little trio slinging drinks and pretending everything was normal.
And frankly, it was kind of fun.
Once the crowd thinned, we took a few minutes to restock and reset the bar. I slid up beside him, nudging his hip with mine.
“So… I take it this isn’t your first rodeo?”
“Surely you don’t think I just woke up with a few billion in my account, do you?”
“Honestly?” I snorted. “I figured you popped out of the womb wearing a three-piece suit.”
He chuckled, then turned serious. “After I left Harmony Haven, I worked behind the bar at a little place in Atlanta.Learned quick that people open up easier when there’s alcohol involved. Makes them honest.”
I nodded. “Same with small towns. Cheap beer and too much time, next thing you know, everyone knows everything about everyone else.”
He looked at me and nodded with a small knowing smile. It hit me how different this night was from what I imagined. It was better, and I wanted to do it all over again.
“Hey, darlin’,” I heard the familiar drawl coming from the other side of the bar and my heart dropped. I almost forgot Aiden even existed. “You sure know how to make a guy suffer,” he went on, grinning like we had some kind of inside joke. “Been walking around all week thinking about you, waiting for the day you finally make good on all those promises you fed me.”
I opened my mouth, scrambling for some kind of polite brush-off, but before a single syllable could escape, West was there.
Not behind me. Not hovering to the side. Right there. So close his arm brushed mine when he stepped forward, his hand flattening against the bar with deliberate force. His entire body angled toward Aiden like a predator closing in.
“Excuse me?” West’s voice was low, tight, every syllable sharp enough to cut.
“Wait, West—” I tried, but the words died on my tongue.
Aiden finally registered him, blinking fast. “The hell’s this about?”
“She’s not going anywhere with you.” West didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. The calm in it was lethal enough.
Aiden’s smirk faltered. “What’s it to you?”
West lifted his left hand, the glint of gold catching in the low light. His eyes never left Aiden’s face when he said, flatly, “I’m her husband. Which means it's got everything to do with me. Blue is mine. You got a problem with that?”
For a second, one stupid, reckless second, I thought Aiden might puff up and push back. But then West’s stare landed on him full force, cold and unblinking, and I watched the fight drain right out of him. His jaw worked, but no sound came.
My heart kicked hard, my mouth bone-dry. West wasn’t just bluffing, he’d laid everything out in the open without hesitation. And God help me, he looked like he’d enjoy it if Aiden gave him a reason to escalate.
“I should, uh… I should leave,” Aiden muttered, already backing up. His bravado crumbled as he all but tripped over himself in his rush for the door.
I turned on West, heat rising to my cheeks, ready to scold him for overstepping. For terrifying a guy who had no idea things had changed. But the words never left me.
Because one look at West stopped me cold.
The hard set of his jaw. The muscle ticking there. The way his eyes followed Aiden until the door slammed shut, like he hadn’t fully ruled out dragging him back just to finish what he started.
