“Hi,” Kelly said casually with a little wave.
“Afternoon, ladies,” Forrester said, and Elle let out a silent sigh of longing at the sound of his voice.
She prayed he didn’t look at her, because if he did, she was afraid she’d swoon and fall off her stool. But then he did look at her.
“Hey,” he said. “Thanks for last night. I was a lot more comfortable in the hotel than I was in my truck.”
Elle smiled. She tried to get her breathing and her galloping heart beat under control.
“No problem,” she said, and instantly thought her voice sounded weird. She was trying to think of something else to say to avoid any awkward silence when the door opened and more people entered the bar. Her heart sank when she saw that it was the same four troublemaker boys who’d harassed her and Kelly in the diner the day before.
“Oh, great,” Kelly said under her breath. “Here we go.”
“They won’t bother us in here, will they?” Elle said.
As if to answer her question, one of the boys came over to them and placed himself right between them. He put an arm around each girl.
“What are two beautiful girls like yourselves doing alone on a night like this?”
“Nothing,” Kelly said.
“And who’s your friend here? Sweet cheeks? Hot lips?”
“Her name’s Elle. Now, leave us alone, creep.”
“Creep?” the boy said. “Come on, Kelly. That’s not what you were calling me the other night.”
“Get lost, Phil,” Kelly said.
“You were begging me for more the other night. Now you don’t want to even look at me.”
“If you don’t get your hand off me and my friend in three seconds, I’m calling Harry.”
Harry was in the kitchen behind the bar and didn’t know that the boys had come into his peaceful establishment yet.
“What’s Harry going to do?” Phil said, making a face toward his other three friends. “He knows my daddy’s the mayor of this town. He knows what will happen to his liquor license if he so much as raises his voice to me.”
Kelly sighed, and Elle suddenly realized that the boy’s threat might be real. Maybe Harry was afraid of these boys, or more accurately their politician fathers.
“Harry,” she called. If this town was under the thumb of some spoiled, stuck up, asshole boys, she wanted to know that sooner rather than later. “Harry, could I get another drink?”
No answer. She knew Harry was back there somewhere, but he was avoiding a confrontation with the boys. So it was true. These boys had free reign it seemed.
Phil was now allowing his hand to slide down lower around the girls’ shoulders, getting dangerously close to touching their breasts.
“Not so fast, dip shit,” Elle said. “If you move your hand one inch more, I’m going to kick your ass.”
That caused a huge uproar of laughter from Phil and his three pathetic friends. Elle lifted up her bottle of beer and thought about smashing it into the side of Phil’s ugly head. But she couldn’t do it. She knew she’d regret it. If Phil’s father was mayor, and the other boy’s father was sheriff, she knew she really had no options. She couldn’t afford to get in trouble like that.
The three boys found themselves a booth while Phil continued to harass Elle and Kelly. Elle remembered that Kelly had dated this numbskull, and shook her head at the thought. If this was the way the men in the town were, it was no wonder that Kelly was single.
“So you’re going to kick my ass?” Phil said.
“Just get away from us, creep,” Kelly said.
“All right, all right, I’m a gentleman. I know when I’m not wanted.”
“That’s right,” Elle said. “You’re not wanted.”
It was at that moment that Harry came out from the kitchen. He must have had about as much as he could tolerate because he came right over to Elle and Kelly and he looked like he was about to say something. Elle noticed Kelly shake her head at him.
“We’re fine,” she mouthed to Harry.
Harry nodded, and Elle noticed a look of relief in his face.
Phil strutted across the bar over to the booth with his friends and Harry followed him. Elle watched as Harry took their order for two pitchers of beer and four burgers.
“What was that about?” Elle said under her breath to Kelly, referring to the interaction with Harry.
Kelly sighed. “He would have stepped in to stick up for us,” she said. “I know he would have. He’s done it before. But it’s not good.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s best to let those boys do what they want. Last time Harry stepped in, the mayor closed down the bar for a month. Harry couldn’t pay his bills. He almost lost the place. Those boys, I know them all too well. You already know Phil. That one sitting next to him is Patrick. The other two, sitting across are Randy and Hal. Their dads are the mayor, the sheriff, the district attorney and the county judge. Imagine trying to run a business in this town once you get in trouble with people like that.”