“She’s good. She’ll be back in a few months and maybe I can even convince her to come back to bartend while she’s here.”
Cash moved around his desk toward the door. “As long as she’s not going to sue us for sexual harassment, I’m fine with whatever she wants to do here.”
“She loves me, so it can’t be sexual harassment. I’m a changed man, gentlemen.”
I rolled my eyes at Stefan’s remark, secretly hoping it was the truth. I might not be able to hire Abbi, but I wanted to believe she’d be okay bartending for him.
Standing to follow Cash, I felt Stefan jab me in the shoulder. “What the hell was that look for?”
“No look. Just hoping we don’t have to shell out any more money on bartenders who aren’t as in love with you as you think.”
He walked beside me as I headed out into the club. “I’m not the one Cash should be worrying about. I saw the way you looked at that girl, Kane. I get the feeling she’s just your type.”
“Shut up, Stefan. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know what I saw. You can put that miserable guy face on all you want. You liked her. Not that I blame you. I like my women a little feistier, but whatever floats your boat. All I know is you liked her.”
I stopped and turned to face him, hating that he could goad me like this. “If she was my type, wouldn’t I have hired her to dance for me?”
He gave me a sneer. “I never claimed to understand how your mind works. I just saw the way you reacted when I said she could bartend for me. You can fool Cash since he’s not paying attention because his head is full of all that wedding business, but I saw that look in your eyes. You don’t have to worry. I told you. I’m a changed man. She’s safe with me. I can even make sure nobody gets a chance with her, if you want.”
“I don’t care what you do, Stefan. What that girl does or doesn’t do is none of my business. Now if you don’t mind, I have work to do upstairs.”
I quickly got away from him before he saw how much it bothered me to think of Abbi with him. I didn’t know why, but it did and it had nothing to do with him being unfaithful to Shay.
“Hey, don’t forget to give me her number,” he yelled as I hit the stairs. “I want to get her in here as soon as possible.”
Waving him off, I headed back up to my office to bury myself in work and forget about Abbi, her big blue eyes, and the ugliness of her life I couldn’t seem to get out of my mind.
I knew from Stefan’s nightly reports to me that Abbi learned her job as a bartender pretty easily. Much to his amazement, she was a quick study. After he’d gotten over his surprise at her being more than just a gorgeous outside, he saw her as someone who could handle the highly coveted position of front bartender.
Even as he told me these things night after night, I tried to convince him I didn’t want to know about her or how great she was at her job. Standing in front of me at my usual post on the top floor, he yammered on about her, and I held my hand up to stop him.
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“Because I know you like her, Kane. I don’t know why you didn’t hire her, but your loss is my gain. She’s a natural down there. Men love her. Hell, even women seem to like her serving them. You should come down and say hi.”
“Thanks, but she and I aren’t friends.”
I busied myself with paperwork, hoping to give him the clear hint that I wasn’t interested in what he had to say. Unfortunately, that’s not how Stefan worked. He’d gotten it into his head that I liked Abbi, and until that thought was proven wrong, he’d continue with these reports every night.
“Kane, what is it with you? You never touch the dancers, and even though we have some gorgeous women working as bartenders downstairs, you never bother with them either. You live in that tiny apartment at the back of the building like some weird hermit. For the first time since we all began this thing, you like one of the girls. Why won’t you admit that and do something about it?”
Stefan may have been my brother—or half-brother, to be more accurate—but he knew little about me. I’d made sure of that from day one, even as we’d hung out together as drinking buddies in the beginning. As different as night and day, he and I had few things in common. I was closer to Cash, maybe because we were almost the same age, but probably because his temperament was closer to mine. You could talk to Cash and trust him with what you said. Stefan was an entirely different story. Even if I wanted to admit that Abbi had moved me in some strange way, I could never say it to my younger brother.
“There’s nothing to admit, and as far as I’m concerned, you can quit telling me this shit every fucking night.”
Frustrated, he shrugged and shook his head. “Whatever. Just keep in mind that you can always stop down and say hi. She might like that. Maybe you could try to smile too. It might help.”
Stefan turned and headed back down the stairs, disappearing into the darkness of the club. The truth was as much as I tried to act disinterested in his nightly rundown on Abbi, I began to look forward to hearing about her progress behind the bar. I didn’t understand it, but there it was. I couldn’t put my finger on how, but in just those few minutes with her she’d made me feel something I hadn’t felt in years.
And that’s what it would remain. A feeling and nothing more. Whatever spark she’d ignited in me as I watched her dance couldn’t be fed. It, like any other feelings I could have for her, needed to be extinguished for the good of both of us.
Fate, or at least the people around me, seemed to have other ideas, however. Just as I got rid of Stefan, Gemma appeared in front of me for the first time since I hadn’t hired her friend. One of my favorite dancers, she wore an expression that told me I wasn’t one of her favorite people at the moment.
“It was the bruise on her leg, wasn’t it? That’s why you didn’t hire her to dance,” she said as she stared up at me with anger in her eyes.
“She got a job bartending, Gemma.”
Her hands landed on her waist as her right hip shot out. “You know it’s not the same, Kane. You promised me you’d give her a chance and you didn’t. I think it’s because you thought she’d be a problem. Stefan doesn’t seem to have any problems with her, though.”
I tore my gaze away and looked down at my paperwork. “Then it’s a good thing he wanted her to work for him.”