by Rye Hart
Shit, I’m in trouble if they stay around here all damn night.
I stacked the glasses while the three of them put all the chairs down. I threw a rag to Nick so he could start wiping down the seats as Jacob went back to get more glasses.
Did I die and go to heaven?
Adam sat at the bar and helped me dry off shot glasses, and I could feel his eyes heavy on my body.
“You work often?” he asked.
“As often as I can,” I said.
“I like a hard-working woman,” Adam said.
“You’re shit at flirting, Adam,” Nick said. “Let me show you how it’s done.”
“Oh, and you think you can do better?” I asked.
“I can. And you want to know why?” Nick asked.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because even if I couldn’t, you’d be worth the effort.”
“That was pretty good, I’ll give it to you,” I said with a wink.
“Nice ass,” Jacob said as he came out with more glasses.
“That all you got?” I asked.
“Nice tits, too,” Jacob said, grinning.
“Ass and tits. That’s all men ever want,” I said, sighing.
“Not all men,” Nick said.
His words halted me in my tracks as my eyes panned over to him.
“Oh, really? And what is it you want?” I asked.
I could feel their eyes on me as Nick drew in a breath. But before he could answer me, my boss, Booker, came strolling through the front door and ruined my fucking moment.
“The crowd’s about to settle in, Emma. You ready?” he asked.
“Yeah, boss. I’m good,” I said.
“You’ll be the only bartender until midnight, so try to keep up your energy. You eat yet?”
“Nope. You rolled me off the cot, remember?” I asked.
“Doesn’t sound very nice,” Nick said, mumbling.
“Here. Eat a protein bar.” My boss tossed me a piece of chalk, and I laughed. It was a literal piece of chalk. Booker was an asshole, but he was an entertaining asshole.
“What? Don’t like the protein bars I leave you on your desk?” I asked.
“No, now stop doing it. I like my chicken wings.”
“But your heart doesn’t,” I said.
“And she gives a shit. That’s nice,” Jacob said.
I looked at the three peculiar brothers and shook my head. What were they buttering me up for?
“I can hear the hordes of regulars about to descend. You three want anything? Because if you do, get your order in now,” I said.
“How much does a shot of you cost?” Jacob said.
“Okay, okay. You’ve proved your point. You can stop flirting,” I said. “It’s painful.”
“What if we don’t want to?” I stared into Adam’s ocean blue eyes and found nothing but sincerity in them. His voice was harsh, but his words were softening quickly. People started shoving through the front doors, sitting in chairs and calling out their orders. I slid out from behind the bar and ran around to them, writing shit down on my arm before I got to work.
And the entire time, the three brothers sat at the bar and talked to me.
“You sure you guys don’t want anything?” I asked.
“Beers would be great,” Nick said.
“Three beers coming up,” I said.
I popped open three beers and handed them out before I leaned against the bar. The fucking waitress was late, as always, and I was prepared to take every damn tip from every table I’d already served. She knew the drill. She only got paid for tables she worked. The more tables I worked meant more of a headache for me, but it also meant more money.
And I could fucking use all I could get.
The brothers sat there all night, talking and staring. Their company was nice, but I had no idea what the hell their plan was. They came in here, helped me with shit, then sat there nursing two, maybe three beers all damn night while making casual conversation with me.
Thankfully, my mother stayed the fuck away that night. If she hadn’t, she’d be all over these men in a fucking heartbeat. The embarrassment would have been too much. They made me laugh and kept me going until the bar finally started to wind down around three, then they took their leave so I could clean up and close down.
As I was heading to my car, I got a notification from my bank on my phone. An updated statement on my joint savings account with Lindy. I opened the attachment and jumped up and down in the parking lot like a mad women, when I saw that Lindy’s deposit had already hit.
After two years of working ourselves half to death and saving every single penny we made, we had all the money we needed to finally find our store.
Shit was finally heading the right direction.
CHAPTER 3
“Did you know Booker started closing the bar on Sundays and Mondays?”
“Lindy, I haven’t had coffee yet. I can barely hold this damn cell phone up against my ear,” I said, groaning.
“When did he start doing that?” Lindy asked.
“Uh, it’s been a few weeks. Why?” I asked.
“How the hell did I not know this?” she asked.
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me the bar was closed when I told you I thought I worked today?”
“Because we were swamped, and my mother was acting like a drunk maniac.”
“Your mother is a drunk maniac.”
“Yes. We’re now closed Sundays and Mondays. Though I think Booker rents out the place sometimes Sunday nights. Maybe that’s why you thought you were working?” I asked.
“Maybe. I don’t fucking know. All I know is the bar’s closed and I don’t have shit to do. Want to get lunch?” she asked.
“What time is it?”
“Two.”
“In the afternoon?” I asked.
“It’s light outside, so I’m assuming so.”
“I can hear that fucking smirk,” I said.
“I love you when you haven’t had coffee. I’ll come over with some. Then you can ride with me.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I rolled myself out of bed and dragged my body into the shower. I still smelled like stale cigarettes and expired whiskey. For the first time in two years, I had money to spare for a lunch with Lindy, and I was ready to talk shop with her. We could start going through listings of places we could buy to start the clothing store. We had one hundred and thirty thousand dollars to work with for expenses. If we played our cards right, we could put a down payment on a place, get a loan for the rest, then purchase our first three rounds of clothes out of our pockets.
I was ready to make it happen.
“Coffee,” Lindy said.
“Holy shit! How the fuck did you get in here?” I said, startled.
I wrapped my towel around my body as my mother’s snores trickled into the room.
“She didn’t even go anywhere last night. Did she?” Lindy asked.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.
“Everyone knows where your mother keeps her spare key.”
“Wonderful,” I said. “I can’t even get privacy here.”
“All the more reason to talk about the buildings I’ve found for us to buy.”
“Wait, you what?” I asked.
“The alert on the bank account came through yesterday, and I was too excited to go to sleep. I’ve already been looking up some places. Most of them are scattered on the outskirts of town, but a couple of them are in town. I can’t wait for you to see them.”
“They’re all online, right? Because I’m starving,” I said.
“Of course. Girl, I got you. Come on. Get dressed so we can go get food.”
I pulled on some jeans and threw on a tank top before I grabbed my leather jacket. Though it was January, southern California never got too cold. My leather would keep me warm. I took my coffee from Lindy's hand and started to chug as we walked out to her car. I thought about locking
the door, pausing as Lindy's comment dawned on me. If everyone knew where the spare key was to our house because of my mother's hookups and drunken tirades, it made no sense to lock the house anyway.
So, I left it unlocked, and we headed to lunch.
The two of us stayed silent as we drank our coffees. That was the rule. When we needed coffee, there was no talking until coffee was finished. We traveled through town and passed by the bar, flipping it off as we went by. I could already feel the freedom whipping through my hair. I was within inches of being able to quit that dingy place and start my own business. I became more excited as the luxurious caffeine made its way through my veins and, as we pulled up to the diner, I was ready to talk.
“Okay, so what are these places you have for me to look at?” I asked.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Lindy said.
She pulled out her phone and opened numerous tabs. All the building she had up ranged from $100,000 to $500,000 – our price range for down payments. I wanted to stay away from the ones that were more expensive because I wanted to pay as much out of pocket as we could. The less debt we could go into with this type of venture, the more money we would be able to scrape off the top and take for ourselves. I knew it would take time to build up a devoted client base, which meant we were facing anywhere from six months to one year of not being able to make any significant profit for ourselves.
And I was going to pay Lindy before I paid myself. Since I’d be living in the building, I could afford to do it.
There was one building, however, that caught my eye. It was a rough-looking building and it was boarded up. It was three thousand square feet and was free-standing. It would need a lot of work, at least on the inside. The outside wasn’t too bad, especially for being boarded up for four years. The price was set cheap at $150,000 for everything, and it even had the lofted second story I was looking for.
Not only that, but the loft already had plumbing and electricity running through it. Jack pot!
“Holy shit, this place is awesome,” I said.
“I knew that one would catch your eye. And the price is great. We could put thirty thousand down, take out a loan for the rest, and use our remaining one hundred thousand to fix up the place and get the equipment we’ll need,” Lindy said.
“That’s not a bad idea. If we could get approved for the other one-twenty, we’d be set. From the looks of it, it shouldn’t take more than about sixty thousand to do what we need to do inside, which would leave us forty for inventory, and I found a place we can get stuff wholesale for pretty cheap.”
“And you could put some of that into the loft upstairs so you’d have your own place.”
“No, no, no. Outfitting the loft is going to be with my own money. The business money isn’t gonna touch that place,” I said.
“But you need a place to stay. It has plumbing and wiring for electricity, but it has nothing else. You’d need to put up walls and get shit for a kitchen. It’ll take some money up front for you to move into a place like that.”
“It looks like the main area already has a bathroom. Sort of. It will when we renovate. I can use that to clean up until I can find the money to—”
“Emma.”
“Lindy, I’m not fighting with you on this. That’s my home, and the business money isn’t gonna fix up my new home. End of story,” I said.
“Fine. I take it this is the place you want to put an offer on?”
“I mean I want to go check it out tomorrow with you but, if all goes well, then yeah. I think it’s pretty damn perfect.”
“Well, pick one to have on the back burner in case this one falls through. You know, so we aren’t starting at square one,” she said.
“Well, considering that it’s been boarded up for four years, I don’t think the bank is going to turn us down.”
I could feel my dreams getting closer. Lindy was already on her phone setting up an appointment to go see the place tomorrow on our day off. We ordered our food and got to talking about how we would want to fix the place up, but my phone ringing interrupted our conversation.
And I groaned when I saw it was my mother.
“Fuck. Hold on,” I said. “Hey, Mom.”
“Did you leave the damn door open?” she asked.
“Did you tell everyone you fucked where our spare key is?” I asked.
“That’s none of your damn business. Lock the fucking door. You trying to get me killed?” she asked.
“Do you really want me to answer that question?”
“You’re not funny. Anyway, that’s not why I’m calling.”
“Shocker. Some dude steal your panties again?” I asked.
“Drop the attitude. I’m calling about the Grove Brothers.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Don’t play stupid with me. The Grove Brothers. You know. Black hair. Blue eyes. Tall. Muscular. Tattoos. Wear the navy-blue leather jackets.”
“Navy blue? That’s a shit color for leather,” I said.
“They were in the damn bar last night talking to you,” she said.
“How do you know who the hell was talking to me in the bar last night?” I asked.
“So, you do know them,” she said.
“No, I don’t. What the fuck are you talking about?”
“The three hot men that sat at the bar with you all night. My friend Georgia said they were nursing beers and shit. She sent me pictures. They are hot as fuck. Did you get their numbers?”
Holy hell, she was talking about Nick, Jacob, and Adam.
“No, I didn’t,” I said.
“Why the hell not? You know the kind of guys I go for. They were perfect!”
“I didn’t get their numbers because they’re not single, Mom,” I lied.
“Oh. Well, shit.” I could hear the disappointment in her voice, but I knew that wouldn't stop her for long, especially if she was drinking.
I wasn’t going to let my mother sink her talons into those three. They had seemed like decent guys. I’d been around some nasty bikers in my time, and these guys weren’t that.
“Well, maybe they’ll be back.” my mother said.
“Can’t you just respect people’s boundaries for once?” I asked.
“What? They’re men. They aren’t married, right? Girlfriends come and go.”
“So do booty calls,” I said under my breath.
“I heard that. The bar open tonight?” she asked.
A thought crossed my mind, and I grinned as I eyed Lindy.
“What?” Lindy asked.
“Can I stay at your place tonight?” I asked while I covered the phone with my hand.
“Of course. What’s up?”
I held up my finger before I cleared my throat.
“Yeah, Mom. The bar’s open tonight. Booker is trying something new out. He’s theming nights now.”
“Theming nights? The fuck does that mean?”
Lindy clapped her hand over her mouth, stifling the laughter pouring from her lips.
“It means some nights have a theme now. Tonight is ‘leather and lace.’ Men are in leather. Women are in racy lace,” I said.
“It’s about damn time that boss of yours did something to get more men in there. I gotta go shopping. See you tonight.”
“I’m not working, but have fun,” I said.
“Always do, sweet cheeks.”
“You are so bad,” Lindy said as I hung up the phone.
“Serves her right for being a bullshit mother,” I said.
“I would love to see the look on her face when she shows up all dressed up, and there’s no one there,” she said.
“Thanks for letting me stay at your place. But we’ll have to go home soon so I can pack.”
“Yeah. She’ll definitely lock you out of the house for this one,” she said.
“Did you get us a time for the tour tomorrow?” I asked.
“Yep. The realtor said she can do anytime, so I told her three in the afternoon. We can sleep, e
at, then go, prepared to walk around for a while.”
“I knew there was a reason why I liked you,” I said.
“Smart ass.”
CHAPTER 4
I having a feeling I might just blow up from excitement.
Even as I stood behind the bar serving drinks, I couldn’t get my mind off the warehouse. Lindy and I had gone to see it the day before, and it had been better than the pictures portrayed it to be. Plenty of space, with rooms on the inside already divided by walls. The loft upstairs spanned the entire length and width of the building, which gave me over three thousand square feet of space to set up a new home for myself.
I could see everything as I walked into that place: the themed rooms with different sets of outfits, a room where Lindy and I could work on fixing up other people’s items, a shoe room, and a boot room. We could set up a denim room and a leather room, and another room for women’s nightgowns and extras to spice up their hookups and shit. It made me both thrilled and impatient for this new venture ahead.
And putting an offer in on the place meant I was one step closer to my dream.
We told the realtor of offer we wanted to put on the place: ten thousand below the asking price, at one hundred and forty thousand. She said she would put it in and get back to us on what the owner said, but she had a feeling he would be more than willing to offload the burden onto us.
The building wasn’t a burden. The building was a beacon for a new life Lindy and I could make for ourselves.
“Five beers, please.”
I was pulled from my thoughts by a familiar voice. When I looked up, I was met with those dreamy icy blue eyes and shaggy black hair. I grinned as Jacob stood in front of me, his chiseled physique leaning against the bar.
“Fancy seeing you again,” I said, grinning. “Five beers? Aren’t there only three of you?”
“Nope,” Jacob said.
I watched as four other men appeared at Jacob’s sides. They were all wearing the same leather jackets, and they were indeed navy blue. They each had a different shade of piercing blue eyes, ranging from Jacob’s icy gaze to Adam’s deep ocean blues. I nodded toward Nick as he bowed his head to me, but there were two men I didn’t recognize, though they looked like the rest of them.
