Bran is behind the bar, just where Lilah met him—after he’d already slept with Lilah’s sister. Let’s just say things were complicated between them for a while, and it was only complicated further by the fact she was sixteen and he was twenty-six at the time. But they’ve obviously worked it out.
“I don’t usually play on weeknights,” she says as we move to the bar. She grins at me. “But tonight I’ve got my rockstar best friend here, so it’s happening.”
We slide onto stools and Bran gives Lilah just about the sexiest smile I’ve ever seen from behind the beer taps, where he’s got a fistful of mugs he’s filling. He drops them on a tray and a waitress comes by for them, carting them to a table of guys in the corner.
“What can I get you ladies?” he says, planting his hands on the bar in front of us. With the motion, his pecs flex, and holy shit.
“Two burgers,” she says with a questioning raise of her eyebrows at me. When I nod, she adds, “And two Diet Cokes.”
The waitress comes by the end of the bar on her way to the kitchen and Bran catches her eye. “Tell Jeff I need three burgers.”
She nods and disappears through the swinging door.
He pours our Cokes and then comes around and sits on the stool next to Lilah with a beer. He nods at the guitar. “You playing tonight?”
She smiles and glances at me. “I got my partner in crime here, so I couldn’t resist.”
He looks past Lilah to me. “It’s not going to touch your normal payday,” he says, “but you’re welcome to sing in my bar anytime you want.”
We shoot the shit while we wait for our food, and when Bran gets up to pour another round of beers for the table of guys, I notice one of them looking at us. He gets up and makes his way over as the others watch and throw out the occasional catcall.
“So…” he says when he stops between our stools, scratching his elbow nervously. “Has anyone ever told you, you look exactly like Shiloh Luck?”
Lilah shoves his shoulder. “I know! That’s what I keep telling her, but she doesn’t think so.” She looks at me through a frame she makes with her fingers. “I mean, if her hair was just a little lighter, and maybe if her cheekbones were a little more defined and her nose a little smaller, she’d be like her twin, don’t you think?”
The guy is nodding along as she talks, way less nervous now that he thinks I’m not who I really am. “Yeah. I mean, seriously. She could totally pass for her.” He smiles at me and holds out his hand. “I’m Greg, by the way.”
“Lilah,” she says, shaking his hand even though it was pointed at me. “And this is Giselle. She’s an exchange student from Costa Rica and doesn’t speak much English.”
The way this guy’s eyes go all glassy as they scan down my body, you’d think she just told him I was made of pure gold. “Giselle,” he says, sliding onto the stool next to me. “Wow…so, Costa Rica, huh? This must be a big change.”
“Take a hike, buddy,” Bran says, pounding the side of his fist on the bar in front of us.
Considering Bran’s neck is nearly as wide as this guy’s waist, the look on his face when he turns and sees Bran is no surprise. His eyes widen and he lifts his hands as if to demonstrate that he’s not touching anything he shouldn’t be. “Dude, I was just talking to the lady.”
“Find a different lady,” Bran growls, and the guy nearly falls off his stool and stumbles back to his table.
“He was kind of cute,” I say, watching him fill the others in. “What if I was planning on taking him home?”
Bran shakes his head. “Not gonna happen on my watch.”
I turn to him. “So now you’re my protector?”
“Lilah cares about you, so I’m going to do what I can,” he says with a slow nod and a deadly serious look in those intense eyes.
I suddenly see why Lilah went through the hell she did to be with him.
“Okay,” I say with a nod. “Thank you.”
The waitress drops our plates on the bar in front of us and sets one on Lilah’s other side. “Thanks, Carol,” Lilah says as Bran comes around the bar and hikes himself onto the stool.
We eat and with the first bite, I see what Lilah was talking about. I never realized a burger could be more than a burger, but this is a little slice of heaven on a plate.
The image of taking a bite of Tro’s room service burger in Miami flashes through my head and a cold sweat breaks down my back. I don’t even remember what that one tasted like. My mind was on Tro’s half-naked body and what it was about to do to mine.
I shake the memory off as Lilah says, “Good, right?”
I can’t even stop eating to answer.
I’m licking every last morsel off my fingers when Carol comes for our dishes. Lilah reaches for her guitar and Bran mutes the TV and sets a beer mug on the bar in front of us. He slips a ten in from his pocket to get the tipping started. There are more people now than when we came in, but just barely, so I get what he was saying about the payday.