Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 83970 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83970 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Thank you,” I tell him softly as I walk into the dimly lit bar.
I walk toward the man behind the bar. He’s got a clipboard in his hands, obviously taking inventory before his night begins. He turns and smiles when he sees us approaching. I grin at the tall, lanky, but undeniably handsome man as I approach.
“Coors?” he asks Kid.
Kid laughs. “Fuck no, man. It’s not even eleven.” He motions to me. “This is Emmalyn.”
I reach my hand out, and he shakes it. “I was hoping to get an application,” I tell him before Kid can speak for me.
He gives Kid a quick glance before he looks back to me. “I don’t have applications.”
I frown slightly. “Okay, well thank…”
He cuts me off. “Do you have bar experience?”
“I’ve waitressed for five years at a bar in…”
This time, it’s Kid who cuts me off. “She’s got experience.”
I turn my head and glare at him. I want to chastise him for speaking for me, but the man behind the bar pulls my attention away before I can speak.
“I’m Jake,” he says reaching out his hand again. “You can start on Friday. Be here by four to fill out the paperwork.”
I hear Kid clear his throat and watch as Jake looks at him. Something passes between them before Jake looks back at me. “Make that four-thirty. No paperwork.”
If I wasn’t so happy about finding a job, I’d question whatever it was that’s clearly going on here. I thank Jake and leave the bar knowing by the charge in the air that Kid is right on my heels.
“What the fuck was that?” I ask Kid the second we’re both back in the vehicle.
His shrug from the driver’s seat makes me want to slap the back of his head for the nonchalance. “You got a job.”
I cross my arms over my chest and look out the window not willing to complain any further because in four days I’ll start a job that brings me one step closer to independence.
“We need to grab a few things from the grocery store before we head back,” Rose says as we pull out of the parking lot.
***
I’m doing my best to make the most of my first shift at Jake’s, but every time I look over at the table in the corner and see Kid supervising me, my temper grows. That, along with the fact that my period started this morning, and I had to ask another woman for tampons because I was completely unprepared for it pisses me off even more. My focus has been off since the moment I set my eyes on Diego Anderson, and it’s becoming frustrating.
I grin again at Jake as he makes a comment about the group of ladies at the back of the bar. I’ve been serving the bachelorette party since they got here. At first, I was certain Jake was testing me to see how I handled the table of ten; he settled when he realized not only was I being truthful about my experience but I’m very good at waitressing. He’s been flirting with me every chance he got since realizing I’m capable of handling myself in a busy bar.
I smile all the way to the loud group of boisterous women to deliver the colorful mixed drinks they ordered. When I turn back to the bar, I see Kid has moved from his table to a stool near the drink pick-up area. I ignore him as I lean in to grab the beers ordered by another table. He and Jake were talking but grew silent as I approached.
Without a word, I leave them at the bar.
“She’s Kincaid’s,” I hear Kid say in a low voice.
I smile, for some reason loving the idea of being Diego’s.
The atmosphere around the bar, including Jake, when I come back to place my next drink order is entirely different than it was just moments before. Jake smiles and is polite, but gone is the flirting and suggestive looks. I have to wonder about the power of the man I can’t seem to get my mind off of if two words have other men backing down immediately. It makes me feel safe and protected, a feeling I haven’t felt in a very long time.
My shift goes by quickly, and I find that the people of New Mexico, for some reason, tip more than the patrons I encountered at Drifter’s in Denver. After his conversation with Jake, Kid went back to his table, which surprisingly stayed empty while he was away even though the bar was fairly crowded. Just another level of control the Cerberus MC has over this town. I have no doubt the club’s standing in the community is the reason I was given this job within minutes of asking for it, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth because at the end of the day I have a job; for that, I’m grateful.