I stood to leave and Kane smacked me on the arm. “Tell Shay we miss her here. The bar isn’t the same without her. I miss seeing her on the fourth floor.”
“Watch it, big brother. That’s the woman I love you’re talking about.”
Positioned in front of my laptop, I sat waiting for Shay’s call, nervously running my hands through my hair as I readied myself to see her again. Every night of the week we did this together, and every time it made me miss her even more than the time before. I never told her that because what would be the point? She was thousands of miles and a continent away in Copenhagen for another eight months, and there was nothing that could change that.
Sometimes late at night as I lay in bed missing her more than I thought it was possible to miss someone I thought about telling Cash and Kane I couldn’t do this anymore and I had to leave. I had more than enough money to pay for a few months of living in Copenhagen, no matter how much it cost. But I couldn’t do that to them after how much I’d fucked things up at the club, and Shay needed to do her work. She didn’t need me hanging around her neck. We’d endured four months apart. We could handle eight more.
My laptop made that chiming noise that signaled she was calling me, and I turned to see her beautiful face in front of me again and that smile that never failed to make my day.
“Hey, baby! What’s going on?” she asked as she always did at the beginning of our chat.
“Not much. How’s my girl today? Doing lots of research?”
Chuckling, she shook her head. “I love that you ask me about my research, but you don’t have to, Stefan. I know it’s not your thing.”
“It’s my thing because it’s your thing, Shay.”
“Well, I could bore you with all the details, but I’d rather talk about other things. What have you been up to?”
“Just the club and home. Counting the days until you’re back,” I said, trying to sound upbeat.
“What’s new at the club? I miss that place. I never thought I’d say that about a bartending job, but I do.”
“It’s always the same. You know how it is.”
Her smile faded just a touch, and she asked in a quiet voice, “Is something wrong, Stefan? You seem different tonight.”
I forced myself to smile and shook my head. “No. Just tired.”
She leaned in toward where the camera was on her laptop and blew me a kiss. “I miss you, baby. It’s lonely without you.”
“Me too. It’s just eight months, though, right?”
Nodding, she said, “Right. We’ll be seeing each other soon. Those months will go by like it’s just a few minutes.”
My cell phone rang and I looked over to see it was Cash calling. Silencing it, I ignored it, pissed off that he didn’t remember how important these calls from Shay were to me.
“Do you have to go? I heard the phone ring.”
“No, that’s just Cash. I’ll talk to him later.”
Just then, my phone rang again. I looked over and saw it was Cash for a second time. What the fuck? Irritated, I silenced my phone again and turned back to Shay as she said, “I’ll let you go. We can talk later.”
“No, no. I don’t need to go yet. I want to spend more time with you. Whatever Cash wants can wait, Shay.”
“Are you sure? Maybe you should go see what he wants.”
I leaned forward toward my laptop screen and touched my fingertip to it, wishing I was touching her. “I don’t want to talk about my brother or the club anymore. I want to hear you tell me about your day, even if I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. I want to close my eyes and pretend you’re here instead of what feels like a million miles away.”
“Oh, Stefan. Honey, you look so sad. I hate that we can’t be together, but I had to do this. I couldn’t just be some girl who mooched off you. You understand that, don’t you?”
I hung my head. “Yeah. I understand. I just wish you were here.”
A knock on my office door set me off, and I jumped out of my chair to find out who the hell couldn’t figure out I was fucking busy. Throwing the door open, I saw Cash standing there with his phone in his hand.
“What do you want? You know I’m busy talking to Shay in here.”
“I need you to come into my office. We’ve got something we need to handle right now.”
“No! I’m talking to Shay now. When I’m done, I’ll come back. Now get the fuck out of my face.”
“Stefan, this is club business. I know you want to talk to her, but this takes priority.”
From behind me, I heard Shay’s voice come from my laptop. “Stefan, I can call back in a little while, if that would be better.”
Storming back to my desk, I sat down. “No. We don’t get much time together, so whatever my goddamned brothers want from me will have to wait.”
Shay’s green eyes stared out at me with a look that told me she understood. I didn’t, but she did. “It’s okay, baby. Remember, we can talk again tonight, and we’ll see each other really soon, right? How about I give you a half hour?”
I looked up over the laptop and glared at Cash. “You have thirty minutes. Any more, and you and Kane will have to figure whatever it is out by yourselves.”
“Thirty minutes. Fine.”
Turning my attention back to where it belonged, I forced a smile. “I’ll talk to you in a half hour, okay? We’ll pick up right where we left off.”
“Okay. I love you, Stefan.”
“I love you too, Shay.”
My laptop screen returned to my screensaver of a picture of Shay and me at the beach, and I slammed the top closed. “Cash, what the fuck could be this important? This better be big. I mean, fucking huge.”
“It is.”
“Well, it better be,” I grumbled as I followed him out into the club. “So what’s the problem?”
“I think you’ll get a better handle on the situation when we get to my office. Relax. She said she’d speak to you in a few minutes. It’ll be fine.”
I shot him a glare and followed him into his office. Kane was nowhere to be found, though. Looking around, I snapped, “I better not have just walked away from a chat with Shay to wait for that fucker to get his ass down here. He’s as bad as I used to be these days.”
Cash picked up his phone and dialed a number. “I’ll get him. Just head back into the conference room and take a seat. I’m sure he’ll be right down.”