by Sue Brown
Chapter 14
SMOKEYJO WAS still there when Dan woke up, feeling like a complete tool. He’d thrown Ariel and Gideon’s hard work in their faces, and for what? Just because they’d arranged a pity date for him didn’t mean he couldn’t take Gideon to the wedding and maybe meet some of the other guys outside of Cowboys and Angels. At least two of the guys had shown an interest in him, and he really needed to expand his social circle outside the bar. He might even call the stripper, Cris.
Dan sat up and stroked SmokeyJo’s head. “I’ve gotta eat humble pie and apologize to Ariel and the boss.” She purred in agreement. “That’s if they’re still talking to me after I walked out last night.”
He rolled out of bed and skinned into his usual hoodie and sweats. Coffee, hot shower, and pastries from the bakery a block away would be next. He fed the cat because, of course, she demanded it. Then he wrapped up against the cold and left his apartment.
Dan had real hatred of the early morning shifts, which was why Gideon generally gave him the late shift and Juan the early start. But he was grateful for the ass-bitingly cold air to clear his head as he thought about what to say to Gideon and Ariel. Neither of them was around when he arrived. He didn’t expect any different. Gideon employed people to open up the bar because he hated early mornings too.
All the furniture from the previous night had been cleared away, and the usual tables and chairs were in their place. Dan went through his normal procedure to get the bar ready for the day. Eddie arrived soon after to help him with the deliveries.
“How did it go last night?” Eddie asked when he’d divested himself of his coat.
Dan eyed him cautiously. Eddie was a nice enough guy, and they’d never had an issue, but he was a Catholic and very traditional in his views. “It was good. I think they made money on the bar.”
“And less damage.” Eddie chuckled at his own joke.
“Yeah,” Dan agreed.
“Maybe they’ll have to do it again.”
“Are you okay with that?”
Eddie shrugged. “I am. Times have changed, and some of us have changed with them.”
Dan stopped what he was doing to look at him. “Thanks, Eddie.”
The man flushed and muttered something about deliveries. Dan let him go. They both needed a moment to process their exchange.
They had a new draft beer on tap, and Eddie chatted away with the delivery man about the new arrival. Eddie could work hard when he wanted to talk beer, and the deliveries were finished soon enough. The bar opened just after eleven, and not long after that, the usual suspects arrived. They ordered their drinks and vanished into various corners of the bar to read the newspapers and do the crossword.
Just after opening, Ariel came downstairs and spotted Dan. He braced himself as she walked over. Before she could even speak, he said, “I’m sorry. I was an ass yesterday, Ariel.”
She nodded with her lips pressed tightly together. “What did I do wrong?”
Dan mopped the same section of the bar several times before he answered. “I didn’t need a pity date.”
“It wasn’t meant to be a pity date,” she protested.
“Wasn’t it? Because it sure felt like that.” He cut himself off because it was meant to be an apology, not an attack.
She shook her head vehemently. “I wanted to do something fun to help you. It was my dad who suggested he should end up being your date. You know him, and you know you’ll be looked after at the wedding.”
“Looked after?”
“What Ariel means is you don’t have to worry about me,” Gideon said from the bottom of the stairs. “You have enough to take care of at the wedding. I’m just the pretty boy on the side. If you took a date you didn’t know, you’d be worrying about them. This way you don’t even have to think about it.”
“I wouldn’t have to worry at all if I went stag.”
“Just let us help,” Gideon said, wearily. “I’m sorry if you felt we were laughing at you last night, but it really wasn’t like that. It was just meant to be fun.”
Dan gritted his teeth. He was angry but mainly at himself. This wasn’t the way his apology was meant to go. “I know, and I’m being an ass. Again. Thanks for thinking of me.”
“I loved it,” Ariel said. “I can’t wait to do it again.”
Dan’s eyes widened, and he held his hands up as though to ward off the oncoming threat. “Oh no. No, no, no. I am not putting myself through that again.”
She waved a hand dismissively. “What makes you think you’ll be invited? We’ve done your one, now we need to do boys-and-girls speed-dating night. You never know. I might find a date.”
“So, we get your dad to run interference on this one too?” Dan asked sweetly.
“Once is enough. I’m not dating my father. That’s ewww.”
He raised an eyebrow at her horrified look. “It’s all right for me to be set up, but not you, missy?”
“That’s right.” She smirked at him.
Dan rolled his eyes, and then he caught a matching smirk on Gideon’s face. “Now what?”
“Nothing,” Gideon said. “Nothing at all.”
He vanished back upstairs, and Dan wondered why he’d come down in the first place. Ariel leaned over the bar to give him a kiss, and then she, too, disappeared back upstairs, leaving Dan feeling better than he had before. He’d apologized, kind of, and they didn’t seem to hate him, so all was right with the world.
THE WEEK passed by at a breakneck pace. Dan was either at work, head down in his studies, feeding his cat, or running interference between Marty and Lena. For some unfathomable reason, considering it was Marty’s third wedding, he was working himself into a panic about all the arrangements. Dan spent hours on the phone trying to calm him down as he worried about this detail and that detail. After the fourth time Marty rang him up in a panic about party favors, Dan called Lena and they concocted a plan to “calm Marty the fuck down.” That involved Dan taking Marty for a squash game—which nearly killed both of them—and a meal with Lena at his favorite restaurant followed by a movie and late-night drinks at a jazz club.
Marty called Dan very apologetically the next day. “I guess I was over-the-top.”
“Ya think?” Dan injected all the sarcasm he could manage into the two words. He was polishing the bar at the time, and he took pleasure in the mindless task.
“Lena told me if I don’t calm down, the wedding is off.”
“You’re gonna get an ulcer if you don’t calm down.”
“I know.” Marty sighed. “I’m leaving all the arrangements to the wedding planner.”
“You had a wedding planner and you were worrying about wedding favors? Isn’t that like having a dog and barking yourself?”
“I just wanted to it be perfect.”
“It will be perfect. You’re marrying Lena,” Dan assured him.
“That’s probably the sappiest thing you’ve ever said. Anyone would think you’re a romantic.”
Dan choked. “Don’t say that out loud. Someone could hear you. I haven’t got a romantic bone in my body.”
He left Marty scoffing at him and disconnected the call.
“You know that’s a lie, don’t you?” Gideon said. As far as Dan knew, Gideon had been in his office. Now he was sitting on a stool by the bar, and he had an amused smirk on his face.
“What’s the lie?”
“The fact that you’re not romantic.”
“I’m not,” Dan protested. “I leave romance to straight guys.”
“Romance is for everyone.”
Dan threw the cloth under the bar and leaned over on his elbows. “I suppose I’ve never thought of myself as someone… you know. Love and romance and the two point four kids and white picket fence have always been something for heterosexual families, not people like me.”
Gideon shook his head. “That’s not true. Many guys have long-term relationships. Why don’t you think you’re worthy of it?”
Dan ga
ve a bitter laugh. “I don’t have good experience with marriage. Or rather my mother doesn’t.”
“How many times has she been married?”
“Just once.”
“Not a happy marriage?”
“Not the best.” Dan was a master of understatement when he wanted to be. “It put me off marriage.”
“But not romance. You’re still a romantic soul at heart.”
Dan gave a wry look. “You keep telling yourself that.”
“I don’t need to. You forget, I’ve known you for five years. I probably know you better than most people.”
Dan narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t about to be psychoanalyzed by his boss. “You spend most of your time upstairs. What makes you think you know me?”
Gideon didn’t seem fazed by the snap in Dan’s tone. “I’ve worked with you enough to know what sort of man you are. You know your customers, don’t you?”
“Yeah, quite a few of them. What’s that got to do with me being romantic?”
“You talk to them about their lives—the families and the kids. You know when they’re in love and when they’ve broken up with someone.”
Dan couldn’t see where Gideon was going with his reasoning. “I’m a barman. I talk to people. I’m not like a hairstylist, but people want to tell me what’s happening in their day.”
“And you listen to them. The others, they nod and say yes, but you actually listen to them. You pay attention.”
“I still don’t see—”
“You think I’m upstairs, but I’m down here more than you realize. I watch you when people tell you about their families, and I see the look on your face. And I see the longing when somebody tells you about their loved one. I know you’re a romantic, and I know that what you really want is a husband and a house—”
Dan had had enough. “If you mention the white picket fence, I’m walking out that door. I don’t care what you think you know about me. I’m the least romantic person you’ve ever met.”
Gideon slowly got to his feet, and Dan couldn’t take his eyes away. It was like watching a snake uncoil—all power and strength and ready to strike at any moment. Gideon walked over to him, and Dan knew he must have had that deer-in-the-headlights look again.
“Tell me the real reason you haven’t gone out with anyone in a very long time,” Gideon whispered. “Not the hours, or the lack of dating opportunity. Tell me the reason.” He cupped Dan’s jaw in his hands.
Dan panicked and tried to look around, but it wasn’t easy with Gideon gripping his chin. No one seemed to be in the bar at that moment. He had no idea where Bradley and Eddie were.
“Focus on me,” Gideon said. His voice was a rumble in Dan’s ears.
Dan licked his lips. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“Just tell me the reason you haven’t dated.”
“Because I’m in love with somebody.”
No way in hell was Dan ever going to admit he was in love with the man standing in front of him. The devil himself would have to be there before Dan would admit that. But his answer seemed to satisfy Gideon, who smiled and dropped his hands. But he didn’t step away, and he remained well inside Dan’s personal space.
“You’ve been in love with this person for a long time.” That wasn’t a question. Gideon spoke with an assurance he shouldn’t have had.
“Yes,” Dan admitted reluctantly.
“Why have you never told him?”
“Because I’m not his type.”
Gideon raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”
“I’m sure. You don’t think I’ve had crushes on straight guys before?” Gideon opened his mouth to speak, but Dan didn’t let him. “It doesn’t matter if he’s straight or not. Sometimes being in love with someone isn’t enough. I want to be that person’s everything. I want him to look at me the way Marty looks at Lena. I don’t want to be second best, and I think, in this instance, I’d definitely be the runner-up.”
Gideon sighed and shook his head. “You seem so sure.”
“I’m not sure about anything,” Dan admitted. “These last few weeks have turned my world upside down. But I do know I don’t want to be anybody’s consolation prize.” Dan squared his shoulders and looked up into Gideon’s dark eyes. “I don’t want to be a date, or a plus-one, or a notch on the bedpost. I don’t know that I’m romantic, but I do know I deserve better. I’m not going to jump into dating someone without knowing their feelings about me. At least Parker was honest. He wanted to fuck and that was all. He’s an asshole but an honest asshole. I want the person who gets me to know what they’re getting. I want them to take care of me the way I want to take care of them. I’m not looking for a sugar daddy. I’m looking for a partner.” Dan took a deep breath and smiled as brightly as he could at Gideon. “I guess what I’m saying is I want the person who goes out with me to know what he wants too.”
Gideon had remained silent through Dan’s speech. Now he nodded and said, “I understand.”
Dan was a bit bewildered by the two-word answer. “You do?” Dan wasn’t sure he understood the workings of his own mind.
“Yeah, I think I do. And I’m glad you told me all this. You’re right. Anyone who wants you needs to know they’re worthy of you.”
“That makes me sound high-maintenance,” Dan protested. “I don’t need a white knight.”
“No, you don’t. You need a partner. That’s what you said.” Gideon stroked Dan’s cheek, and his touch was a gentle brush over the nick from the broken glass incident. “I’m going to go away and think about what you said.”
Then he was gone, leaving Dan confused but strangely reassured by their conversation.
Chapter 15
DAN HADN’T stopped since the moment he entered Cowboys and Angels. Happy hour had only just finished, and the crowd was ten-deep at the bar. When Bradley waved the phone at him to say someone wanted to speak to him, Dan shook his head.
“Take a message and tell them I’ll call back later.”
Bradley repeated what he’d said to the person at the other end of the line, and then he looked apologetically at Dan. “He says it’s kind of an emergency.”
Dan apologized to the man he’d been serving and took the phone. “You take over from me. It’s the guy in the blue shirt.” He didn’t know who the heck would be calling him with an emergency on the bar phone. If it were his family they’d call his cell, the same with his friends. “Hi, this better be important.”
“Is that Dan Collins?” The male voice seemed vaguely familiar, but Dan couldn’t place it.
“Yes, who is this?”
“This is Cris.”
“Cris?”
“The stripper. I’m the redhead from the speed-dating night.”
“Oh!” He was the last person Dan expected to hear from. “Hey, it’s nice to hear from you, but it’s really busy at the moment. I haven’t got time to talk.”
“Thanks, but this is not a booty call. I’m at the club, and I’ve got a bachelorette party here. I’ve got a bride who’s feeling unwell. She tried to get hold of her fiancé, but he’s out of town.”
“Okay,” Dan said slowly. “But what’s that got to do with me?”
“Her name is Lena. She says she is a friend of yours. I figured she might be part of the wedding you’re going to.”
“Lena? What’s the matter with her?” The noise in the bar suddenly increased, and Dan clapped a hand over his ear to hear better.
“She says she’s feeling sick and dizzy. I could put her in a cab, but I’d rather she was with somebody she knew. You were the first person I thought of, but if you’re working I could—”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll be there in thirty minutes. She’s pregnant, which is probably why she’s feeling sick.”
“Come to the door and tell them your name. I’ll make sure you’re let in immediately.”
Dan disconnected the call and dialed Gideon’s phone.
“Have they started fighting a
lready?” Gideon rumbled. “It’s a little early, isn’t it?”
“I’m really sorry, boss. But Lena’s been taken ill at a club, and Marty is out of town. Is it okay if I take her home? I’ll be gone an hour, two tops. I’ll make up the time.”
“Where’s the club?”
“It’s what used to be Bones. It’s a strip club now. Forbidden Nightz. I’ll get a cab and take her home.”
“I know it. I’ll drive you,” Gideon said. “Ariel can take your place for an hour. Give me five minutes, and we’ll be down.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Dan protested.
“Lena is my friend. I’m not going to leave her feeling ill and alone without friends.”
Gideon disconnected the call before Dan could protest again. He stared at the phone and then shrugged. Even if Gideon just dropped him at the club, it would save him a lot of time. He told Bradley Ariel was coming down to help, and under no circumstances was she allowed to flirt with any of the customers.
Bradley stared at him as though he were stupid. “She’s Ariel, the boss’s daughter. I don’t have any control over what she does.”
“I know, but it was worth a try. Just try not to get the place completely destroyed before I get back.”
“Maybe you should be telling her that,” Bradley suggested.
Dan collected his jacket and wallet, and when he got back to the bar, Gideon was there waiting with a plastic bag. Ariel was behind the bar, already serving customers.
“Thanks for doing this, Gideon,” Dan said.
“Not a problem. Ariel will take over for as long as necessary. She’s under orders to keep the place intact.”
“You mean not to start a fight.”
Gideon winked. “That’s exactly what I mean.”
Dan thought there was more chance of snow in August, but Gideon had faith in his daughter, and if Dan thought it was misplaced, it was still none of his business.
They reached Forbidden Nightz in good time, although Gideon grumbled about leaving his car to the mercies of the neighborhood. Dan refrained from saying he could have gotten a cab. He was curious to know what was in the plastic bag that Gideon brought with him, but they got to the club before he could ask, and they walked straight to the door, ignoring the annoyed rumbling from the waiting line.