I met the two sets of eyes through the reflection of the mirror. “It’s totally …”
“Say it,” Nicole prompted.
I stared at the two women for a few moments, trying to cause a little angst. “Perfect.” I grinned and my heart fluttered as the whisper left my lips.
They each squealed and came rushing toward me. I was knocked back a step as their arms went around me and we shared a group hug. And then the flutter in my heart turned into a lump in my throat and my nose flared trying to stop the stinging in my eyes.
“I’m getting married,” I breathed.
“And it’s going to be perfect,” Nicole exclaimed, hugging me tighter.
I smiled, thinking of Easton’s … well, everything. From his finger-length dirty blond hair to his electric blue eyes. His smile that made my entire body tingle. His chest, abs, that V and his other thing that made me tingle.
“First, it’s time to get our drink on,” she continued. “We need to celebrate.”
“Do married women still do that?” I teased as we all broke from the hug.
“I’m married, not an old maid. And watch out, your time is coming.” She waved a hand toward the dress I was still wearing.
“Maybe I should call Easton and tell him I want to get married right now. I don’t want to take the dress off.”
I looked at the store clerk and she frowned. “I need to get your measurements. This is a store sample.”
“I know.” I sighed. “I just feel so beautiful.”
Her frown turned up. “Your dress will look much better because it will be fitted for you.”
I knew she was right, but this was the dress. I never knew I’d look and feel as beautiful as I did at that moment.
“Let’s go to Halo and celebrate,” Nicole suggested.
“Um, yeah. I didn’t come to NYC to not go to the famous Halo,” Bailee whined.
“Famous?” I laughed.
“I hear about Halo all the time. I want to go there already!”
“Calm your tits, we’re going.” I stepped off the raised platform and forced myself to take the dress off.
The perfect dress.
Easton was working—again.
It seemed he worked every Saturday since we got engaged, but Avery was working as well because two people had called in sick. The boys really needed to get the staffing under control, which could totally be my job. When I worked at the law firm, I was also the office manager and could handle those duties. I would love to hire people and do the schedule since I’d never waited tables a day in my life. I was going to have to talk to the boss man—again.
The girls and I dressed in our Saturday going out clothes. Bailee wore a black miniskirt with red heels and a red spaghetti strap tank top. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was on the prowl, and the thought of my baby sister hooking up with random guys made me want to go full mom on her and demand she put pants on. I was wearing pants. Well, jeans to be exact with a sparkly green blouse that matched my eyes. I, too, wore heels. I loved seeing Easton’s face when he saw me in them. I knew he remembered that night when he fucked me on our bathroom counter.
Nicole had on black shorts, black heels, and a pink tank top, and by looking at the three of us, you could tell who was the oldest and who was the youngest. I was more conservative, Nicole a little less, and Bai was dressed like she was still in college. I didn’t blame her. She was young and beautiful—and not attached at the hip.
We took Uber to Halo. Uber was like a taxi but in someone’s personal car and not a yellow one. They also sometimes provided water and candy. It was nice to not have to ride in a smelly cab. The car pulled up to the curb right in front of the wooden door of Halo.
“Brooke.” Gary nodded as we piled out of the car.
“Hey, Gar. Busy night?”
“Do bears shit in the woods?”
I laughed. “I’ve never seen it before, so I can’t say for certain.”
He chuckled and glanced to Nicole. “Hey, Nic.”
“What’s up, G?”
“You know …” He trailed off as he stared at my sister. “And who’s this?”
I watched as his gaze moved from her face, down her body and back up. “Gary, this is my baby sister, Bailee. Bai, this is Gary, Halo’s number one bouncer.”
They reached out to shake hands. “There’s nothing baby about me,” Bailee stated.
I sucked in a breath. “He’s too old for you!”
Gary’s eyes shot to me. “Just how old do you think I am?”
I stared at him a moment, taking in his short, slicked back, dark brown hair. His blue eyes that had a scar on the corner of his right eye. The light stubble around his mouth. He did have a nice smile, and there was no doubt he could protect my sister because of his muscles—I mean job.
I looked up at him. He was a few inches shorter than Easton, but still at least six foot. “I don’t know. Thirty?” I responded.
He grabbed at his chest as if I’d wounded him. “Thirty? You think I’m thirty?”
“There’s nothing wrong with thirty. I’m almost thirty-one and this one,” I hooked my thumb toward Nicole, “just turned thirty a few months ago.”
“I’m twenty-eight,” he corrected.
“And I’m twenty-three,” Bailee states. “Five years difference is perfect.”
“No!” I hissed. “You will not use that word when you’re talking about hooking up.” I turned and walked into the bar, not wanting to hear any more about my baby sister potentially getting it on.
I made my way through the crowd of people toward the bar, but there was no place to squeeze in, so I walked over to the bar pass where Traver and the other staffers waited for drinks for their customers. The moment I leaned against the wood, Easton turned. He smiled and started walking toward me.
“No shenanigans tonight?”
I tilted my head to the side, silently questioning him.
“You never just come in here and wait for me. You usually swindle at least one broad in this joint.”
I grinned. “I couldn’t wait.”
“Wait for what?”
To kiss you and get away from the hormones of my sister. “I wanted to kiss the owner,” I said instead.
“You want to kiss me?” Avery asked, stepping beside Easton and leaning forward.
“Get your lips away from my girl.” Easton pulled his shoulders away.
Avery smirked. “I’m joking, geez. Where’s Nic?” He asked me.
I shrugged. “Still outside talking to Gary with Bailee I guess.”
The guys shared a look.
“What?” I asked.
They each shook their heads and muttered, “Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. What aren’t you guys telling me?”
“I will not be involved in this.” Avery turned and walked away.
“Tell me.”
Easton leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine. “It’s nothing.”
“No, you will not distract me.”
He chuckled. “You wanted a kiss.”
“I wanted a kiss before I knew you were hiding something from me.”
“Gary’s single is all. And if I’m not mistaken, so is Bai.”
“I need a drink,” I stated. I still saw Bailee as an eight-year-old and not twenty-three.
“G’s a good guy.”
It wasn’t the first time Easton told me someone was a good guy. When I’d learned that Nicole was pregnant, he told me Avery was a good guy, and he wasn’t wrong.
“That doesn’t mean I want to know about my sister’s dating life.”
“If something happens between them and he fucks up, I’ll fire him.”
“You can’t fire someone because they broke your sister-in-law’s heart.”
“I know.” Easton leaned across the pass again and pressed his lips to mine. “Nothing will happen. I need to get back to it, baby. What’s your poison tonight?”
“Margarita on the rocks with sa
lt.”
He turned and grabbed the bottles to make my drink. When he placed it in front of me, I asked, “How did he get that scar by his eye?”
“Not my story to tell.”
My eyes squinted, and my nostrils flared. “Tell me,” I hissed.
“You should ask Bai once they … you know.” He shrugged.
“Get back to work. We have a wedding to pay for.”
He kissed me again and then turned to help someone at the other end of the bar. After a few sips of my drink, Nicole finally made her way to the bar.
“Where’s Bai?” I asked.
She grinned, and I felt my eyes bulge. “Calm down. G’s just showing her how to use the UV light on IDs.”
I was certain using a UV light to check if an ID was fake was simple to use. You shine it on the ID and look for the hologram. Done. But Easton said he was a good guy, and if things worked out, my sister might move even closer to me.
That was good because we weren’t going to get any more wedding planning done now that she had eyes for Gary.
Having Brooke working at the bar was … Well, giving me blue balls.
Halo was packed for happy hour. However, I was always able to spot Brooke whenever I had a free moment to look for her. I did it frequently too. It wasn’t because I was jealous. I just loved looking at her. All of her. I watched her ass walk across the floor to the front and then toward the back of the bar. It was a nice ass; a perfect one for my hands to grasp. And the way her jeans hugged each round globe made my mouth water. I wanted to strip her bare and fuck her on the top of the bar—again.
When she’d asked a second time about working for me, I was still hesitant. I knew surgery and radiation had taken a toll on her, and I only wanted her healthy. I didn’t care about her chipping in for bills. I would take care of her until the day I died, but after Vegas, it was almost as if she was back to herself again. I loved seeing her like that, and therefore, I gave her a job.
Avery and I had always wanted to have live bands play, but we’d never had time to arrange anything. Brooke had never waited on tables before, nor had she ever mixed drinks, so I put her in charge of booking bands to play on Thursday nights and making sure we had enough staff so we didn’t have to work more than forty hours a week.
Now I had more time to do homework, and watch movies, with Cheyenne, and she was finally able to have sleepovers on the weekends. Avery and I had talked about playing fall co-ed softball, but at the time he was planning his wedding, and I was spending time with my girls. Yes, I said Avery helped plan his wedding. He totally dug that shit. I, however, told Brooke to do whatever she wanted—with the exception of tuxes because we had to get fitted and shit. I also went to the cake testing because cake. Period. Everyone loves cake.
Brooke caught my eye as she sauntered up to the bar pass. “Hey.” She smiled.
“Hey,” I replied and looked down at her chest. I always did.
She grinned. “Just saying hey. I’m waiting for my applicant to get here.”
I glanced at the clock next to the register then back to her. “Are they late?”
She shook her head. “No, but there’s only so much time I can spend in that office staring at the spot where the couch used to be.”
I grimaced. The day before Brooke started working, Gary and I tossed the couch in the alley behind the building. Brooke had never really spent much time in the office before that. Sure she’d gone up to my office a handful of times, but I made sure she never sat on the couch. I wasn’t sure what was on it …
It was time it went out the door just like my old life before her.
“The new one will be here tomorrow.”
“I can’t wait,” she leaned close to me and whispered, “to christen it.”
My eyes became huge and I started to choke. If she only knew how many times I used that line when I was single. I held up my finger, turned and grabbed a bottle of water. After I had taken a few swigs to calm my throat, my gaze met hers again.
“Are you okay?” Her eyes became soft with concern.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “Choked on my own spit thinking about …” I trailed off as I thought about Brooke naked on the new charcoal-gray couch the four of us had picked out.
There wasn’t anything special about it, but we weren’t allowed to have a black leather one again. Both Brooke and Nicole had said that only bachelors had black leather couches because they wanted to be able to wipe up cum easily. Their words, not mine, but I agreed. Of course, I didn’t tell them that.
“Excuse me.” We both looked at the chick who walked over. She was dark skinned, had curly black hair and a smile that I assumed got her decent tips. “I’m here to meet with Brooke.”
“I’m Brooke. You must be Dominca.” The girls shook hands and then Brooke looked over at me. “This is Easton. He owns Halo with another guy named Avery who’s not working today.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Dominca smiled and stuck out her hand to shake mine as well.
I smiled back and took her hand. “You too.”
“Let’s go up to the office.”
Brooke motioned for her to follow, and I watched Brooke’s ass sashay in her jeans until she was out of sight. I wasn’t sure if having Brooke working for me was good or not because I had a bad case of blue balls daily.
It never failed.
I didn’t like surprises. Especially when snickering was involved.
My first bachelor party was spent drinking and smoking weed in the park across from my parents’ house in Long Beach followed by going to a strip club to see titties as some chick grinds her ass on my junk. I was eighteen, Avery was about to go off to Florida State University, and we didn’t want to go to some lame ass eighteen and over club. Granted, what we did was pretty lame.
This time around, I didn’t want to go to some strip club or even a regular club. I owned a bar where I didn’t have to pay for overpriced drinks. I wanted to have a chill night with my two groomsmen, then end the night having sex with my girl. But it seemed that Avery and Gary had other plans. I didn’t know what. Every time I saw them talking, they were laughing and would look over at me.
“Dude, what the fuck?” I questioned, looking at both of them.
They both backed away from where they each leaned over the bar top on different sides.
“What the fuck, what?” Avery asked.
“For two weeks you two have been whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears and then looking at me to see if I’ve noticed. So, what the fuck?”
“Nope.” Avery shook his head. “We aren’t telling. You just have to wait until tomorrow night.”
I looked to Gary, silently asking him to tell me.
“Tomorrow.” Gary smirked.
I groaned, threw the white towel I was holding underneath the bar top and then turned to go up to the office. When I got upstairs, I took one look at my wife-to-be and locked the door.
We had a couch to christen, and I was tired of my balls aching.
Cheyenne was staying with my parents for the weekend because I was having my bachelor party on the same night Brooke was having her bachelorette party. I didn’t know what the girls were doing, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. I trusted Brooke completely, but I still didn’t want to hear about some dude rubbing his dick all over her even if it was with her clothes on.
Tonight wasn’t going to be talked about unless Brooke shared what she did. Even if Avery and Gary didn’t drag me to a strip club, I wasn’t going to lay my cards on the table and seem as though I wanted Brooke to tell me the same. It was better if the night went unspoken.
After lounging on the couch all day, the guys picked me up an hour after Brooke left with Bailee and Nicole. I was dressed in dark jeans, a button-down navy blue long sleeved shirt, and a black leather jacket. The air had a bite to it as snow fluttered down onto the ground. Having snow and freezing weather made me miss California. It was brutal, and when the wind blew it felt as if it cut through
you like a sword going in for the kill.
As I sat shotgun in Avery’s truck, the cab was silent. Avery wasn’t one to not speak—he was the girl in our relationship, so I knew something was up.
“You two are fucking killing me,” I groaned.
I felt them both stare at me as I looked out the passenger window at the falling snow.
“Just tell me what we’re doing already,” I continued my grumble.
“We’re gonna chill,” Avery stated.
“Why don’t I believe you?” I questioned, giving him a sideways glance.
He chuckled. “That’s your problem.”
“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and stared out the window again.
“We’re not doing what the girls are doing,” Gary chimed in.
My head whipped toward him. “How do you know what the girls are doing?” I looked at Avery, who was glaring at Gary through the rearview mirror.
“Bailee.”
I turned my body and looked back at him as he said her name. I raised an eyebrow. “Do I need to get all big brother on you?”
“Nah, we’re just friends.”
Avery and I started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Guys can’t be friends with girls.”
“They can when they live almost four hours from each other.” Gary frowned.
Avery and I started laughing again.
“Oh. Right …” Gary trailed off as though he finally remembered that not long ago Av and I were doing the long distance thing with our women. “Well, whatever. Nothing has happened.”
“But you like her,” I prodded.
“What’s not to like? She’s hot as fuck.”
“And my family. Don’t make me kick your ass.” Gary was a good guy, but I still had to give him shit because if something were to happen, I’d kick his ass then fire him.
“We need to get this fucker a drink,” Gary said, hooking his thumb toward me. Avery looked over, nodding in agreement.
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