“Hey, man.” I sent Knox a head bob greeting. “How’s Felicity? She give up on you yet, so I can have a turn with her?”
Brown eyes lifted to sear me with a deadly glance. “I won’t just cut you,” he said in a voice that made me want to piss myself, because I knew he wasn’t mere talk; this one backed his words up.
Yeah, Knox wasn’t nearly as entertaining to tease. But I still liked him, regardless, because he was a good man to have on your side when you needed help.
I cleared my throat, sent him a tight smile, and quickly escaped to help Ten prepare the customer area.
As soon as I pulled a chair off the table, however, Harper admitted three people into the club. Only VIPs—aka, people close to us bartenders—were allowed inside before opening and after we closed—new rules—so I glanced over, curious to see who’d stopped by to visit. It had to be someone I liked, because I adored all my coworker’s other halves. My friends had found the most awesome women to fall in love with.
The lucky fuckers.
The gorgeous brunette in the lead of the trio marched straight to the bar, her face wreathed in anger. The first boy directly behind her hung his head in shame, while the younger one behind him, gaped around him in starstruck wonder.
Aspen Gamble stopped in front of the counter opposite where her husband was counting out bills before he slotted them into the cash register.
“Your brother,” she snarled, making Noel’s head come up. “Is in so much trouble right now, I can’t even deal with him.”
Noel immediately scowled at the older boy as the kid slumped onto a stool and glumly set his elbows on the bar top and then his chin in his hands.
“Brandt,” he growled. “What the hell did you do?”
Brandt opened his mouth to answer, but Aspen spoke over him. “He got into a fight. At school. The very school where I’ve been working only four months. It was so mortifying; I was called to the principal’s office. Oh my God, Noel. I have never in my life been in trouble with a principal before.”
“You weren’t the one in trouble,” Brandt argued. “I was.”
“But I’m your legal guardian, which puts me in the same boat as you. I seriously cannot believe you. You broke that other boy’s nose.”
“Totally shattered it,” Brandt agreed with smug pride before both Noel’s and Aspen’s frowns had him slumping back into his seat with shame.
“What’d he do to make you punch him?” Noel asked, still the puzzled outsider.
“Oh, that’s the best part,” Aspen railed, still glaring at her teenage brother-in-law. “He refuses to divulge that little piece of information, so I have no idea why he just walked up to some boy who was merely trying to get into his locker between classes and decked the hell out of him. I heard it even knocked him unconscious for a couple seconds. But all Brandt will say on the matter is...”
When she lifted her eyebrows Brandt’s way, he sighed reluctantly and replied, “The cocklicker deserved it.”
“He said that verbatim, too, straight to the principal,” Aspen wailed.
I’d just settled on the barstool on the other side of Colton, the younger brother, who was staring at all the bottles of alcohol lining the back wall with wide eyes. But at Aspen’s words, he glanced at me. “What does verbatim mean?”
“Means word-for-word,” I murmured back.
He nodded while Noel sighed and scrubbed his face before sending Brandt a dry glance and repeating, “He deserved it?”
“Well, he did!” Brandt cried.
“So this is what Noel’s bar looks like from the inside?” Colton asked me.
I didn’t correct him that it was technically Pick’s bar. Since this was where his big brother worked, it’d probably always be Noel’s in his mind. So, I said, “Yep. Pretty cool, huh?”
He shrugged. “It’s okay.” Then he slapped the top of the counter to catch Knox’s attention. “Hey, bartender. I’d like a beer.”
Knox blinked his way. “How old are you?”
“Eleven,” Colton proudly reported.
“Yeah...” Knox shook his head slowly. “Cherry limeade is all you’re getting from me.”
As Colton heaved out a sigh and gave a reluctant groan, saying, “Fine,” Brandt thundered, “Why can’t you just trust me? It wasn’t as if I attacked some poor, innocent, unsuspecting guy. I’m telling you, the douchebag cocklicker fucking deserved it.”
While both Aspen and Noel railed at him to watch his language, Ten slugged him companionably on the back. “Hey, man, I totally believe you.”
Noel sent him a scowl. “You’re not a part of this conversation.”
“Uh, excuse me? I’m just as much his brother-in-law as Shakespeare is,” Ten argued, motioning to Aspen.
“Except Aspen and I have legal custody over him. You don’t. Butt out.”
“I just don’t see why you’re not cutting him any slack,” Ten went on mildly. “Since he came to live with you, he hasn’t gotten into one scrap. He’s been a damn good kid.”