Chapter 17 Don’t Quit Your Day Job
Chapter seventeen
Don't Quit Your Day Job
Roxy
The sun blinded me as I stepped out of my motel room.
I didn’t have sunglasses, so I quickly locked my door and headed downstairs to the parking lot.
I hadn’t been able to sleep, tossing and turning all night until I had just given up—worrying about the saloon and what the fuck Cactus’s problem was.
Ignoring the urge to check my phone, I stopped on the sidewalk, tilting my head back to soak in the sun.
I wasn’t his keeper, and if he texted, I’d answer when I had a free moment.
A catcall came from somewhere behind me.
Of course. Perfect timing, assholes. It was a good reminder that I couldn’t depend on a man.
Nothing good could come from trying to figure out last night. I was an outsider, and once I was gone, he wouldn’t have to worry about how I was going to disrupt their quiet lives. I’d been a fool. Whatever shift I thought was happening was just a figment of my imagination.
My phone beeped, begging to be checked, but I shoved the urge down deep.
I wouldn’t get giddy over a good-morning text.
If he asked me how I was, I would respond cordially.
It was a little girl’s fairytale dream to have her knight come to her rescue.
I had taken a small leap of faith when I had asked about the fight, but when he couldn’t answer, that had sealed my fate. I wouldn’t ask again.
As I opened the back door to the saloon, my phone vibrated against my ass.
Ignoring it, I called out into the kitchen.
The stainless-steel countertops shone under the lights.
The kitchen staff always kept things clean, but this was something else.
Sticking my head in between the two prep rows, I checked to make sure I had missed no one.
Pushing open the swinging door that blocked the kitchen from the dining room, I called out again.
“There she is,” Aces sang. He was sitting on the bar, dangling his legs over the edge.
“No one wants to eat where your ass has been,” I said.
No one would have ever known there had been a bar fight here last night.
Someone had painted the walls in the dining room a fresh hunter green, bold against the polished trim.
The bar shone, and I didn’t see any sticky residue.
In fact, it sparkled in the light as if someone had added a couple of coats of varnish.
The splintered furniture was gone, but nothing new had replaced it. The surviving tables and chairs stood against the far wall. I wasn’t sure if we had enough to fill the dining room for service.
“They had to order new ones. They’ll be here later this afternoon, which is why we’re hanging out.” Eights was sitting in the chair closest to where I stood. The rest of the Saints were situated around the room. Some played on their phones, while others napped.
I nodded at Eights, before leaning against the bar, biting back what I really wanted to say. “Did you work all night?” I asked Aces.
“Yeah. Had to make sure none of you had anything to bitch about.” He flexed a few times, like he had done all the work himself.
“Don’t listen to him. We hired a cleaning crew. They did most of this, but it was a late night.” Eights came up behind me. “How are you?”
“Okay.” I kept my head up, shoulders back. “Is there anything I should do?”
“Nope.” Aces’ legs swung, and I wanted to put my hand on his knee to stop them. I didn’t, knowing he’d get the wrong idea.
“Have you started working on my car? I’ve been trying to call, but you must be busy, since you never answer.”
“Nope, I’ve been ignoring you.”
I tried to keep my cool, but I really wanted to yell and scream at him. “Why would you do that?”
“You’ve got a crack in your radiator, and I don’t have the part. That’s not very customer-friendly.” He shrugged. “Besides, I can’t get yelled at for telling you something you don’t want to hear if I don’t tell you at all.”
“Do you know how much it’s going to be?” I tried to convince myself it wouldn’t be expensive.
“You shouldn’t quit your day job, but you could pay it off another way.”
I watched a smirk form on his lips. It didn’t click until he made a hand motion at Eights behind me. I’d rather stay in town than pay on my knees. It wasn’t even funny, and when I caught the look on Eights’s face behind me, he clearly didn’t think it was amusing either.
“You’re disgusting. You sure you shouldn’t have ridden out with the Disciples? They’d be just your type.” I started to walk away before turning around to face them again. “Besides, I prefer to be in charge.”
The front door opened, and Lulu walked in with fancy coffees, ending the conversation.
***
A supplier had already delivered the glassware, and the boxes were lined up in front of the bar. I desperately wanted to be helpful, opening the flap of the top box—salt and pepper shakers.
“Hey,” I asked the nearest brother to me. I’d never seen him before, and none of them had introduced themselves when I’d walked in earlier. “How much damage can salt and pepper shakers do?”
“You’d be surprised.” He grabbed one from the box. “There’s enough glass that if you aim well and throw hard enough, the cuts sting like a bitch.” He shrugged. “All the glass was on the floor, so it was easier to order everything new.”
I could only imagine how much this was costing Angelica. I had to remind myself there was nothing I could have done to prevent this, but I couldn’t hold the sadness back, staring at the breakables.
“Grab a box or two, and I’ll go grab the refill containers. No one bothers the help.” Lulu winked at me, running past. We were both pretending all of this was normal, when we should have been slinging hamburgers and fries.
It was easier to be busy than to stop and worry about what was going to come next.
Lulu must have been thinking the same thing because we made small talk at one of the older tables as we worked, but it was nothing like the jokes we normally cracked.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d been at it. I was deep in thought, trying to decide what to do next.
“You’ve got that look,” Lulu said as she poured pepper into a shaker.
I didn’t bother responding. If I told her the truth, she’d only try to talk me out of it. She wanted to keep me, and while I enjoyed her company, this wasn’t my home. My phone beeped, but I continued dumping salt into my shaker.
“Are you going to check that?” she asked me, with a small smile.
“Nope.” I didn’t need to check it to know it was Cactus.
The brothers’ reactions gave it away. Each time my phone dinged with an incoming message, they would point and giggle.
I would ignore it, but one of them would text him back.
I could only guess what they were telling him.
They were busy having fun, but to the rest of us that actually worked here, this was too sad for words.
“What happened, sweets?”
Something in Lulu’s tone made me pick up my head to look at her. Her lips curved into a sad smile, as if she had been in my position too many times.
I searched the room, scanning to see if any of the brothers were paying attention to us.
I didn’t need them up my ass. They would tease me, and I wouldn’t have any recourse to make them stop.
They’d also tell Cactus, and while he might not care, he was prickly.
It could go either way, but I could only see him starting a fight.
“I fucked up,” I whispered. “I made a mountain out of a molehill.”
“A mountain…” Lulu cracked up, laying her head against the back of the chair. “Where the fuck did you get that expression?” I’d never heard Lulu swear, but it wasn’t hard to pick up when the brothers were loud.
“Somewhere in the Midwest.” I chuckled, watching the genuine enjoyment on her face. Lulu smiled often, but I had noticed it hardly reached her eyes. I wasn’t sure if I was the only one who recognized she hid pain. “Cactus called last night.”
“Oh.” Her lips made an O shape as she dragged out the syllable. “Did you ask where you stood? There’s nothing wrong with that, sweets.”
“Yeah, but now I’m ignoring him. He told me to ‘get some rest,’ like I’m a little kid he has to take care of.” I had just wanted someone to pick me for once.
“Girl! You should have told me. I would have helped you string him along until he couldn’t see straight. Oh, my God.”
Aces heard the end of her diatribe when he straddled one of the remaining chairs at our table. “You rang?” He smirked.
“No one called you.” She ignored him, turning back towards me. “We should have a girls’ night.” Lulu bounced back quickly.
“You’re the one who wanted an invitation to my bed.”
“Shouldn’t you be unloading the tables, or something?” Lulu reached for the pepper container, but he grabbed it before she could. “What I said was there were plenty of prospects if you would just ask.” She rolled her eyes.
“What’s wrong with you people?” I chimed in. “You run your mouths, talk a good game, and when it comes down to it, you have the emotional awareness of a gnat.”
“Have to have water for gnats.” Aces shrugged, crossing his arms over the top of the chair. “Read those texts yet?”
“Fix my car yet?”
His jaw dropped as if I had sucker-punched him. His gaze slid over the dining room until it landed on where Eights was carrying in one of the new chairs. “Hey Eights, you tell Cactus his bitch is as prickly as he is?” Laughing, he stood before I threw a salt shaker at him.
“No one’s bitch,” I yelled at Aces’s back, and I swore Lulu’s hand reached for one of the pepper shakers. We were on the same page.
“Yeah, we’re too much for you to handle,” Lulu chimed in.
“I sent him a proof of life picture.” Eights lingered on Lulu a beat too long. “He’s going to owe me,” Eights muttered, more to himself. She didn’t look impressed, so I didn’t pretend to be.
The rest of the brothers had stopped what they were doing to watch this exchange. They couldn’t contain their laughter, and it bounced off the rafters.
“Fuckers,” I whispered, sliding towards the back of my chair.
“Do you have club clothes?” Lulu whispered to me. “We’ll grab Angelica and go dancing tomorrow night. If we pick up a few cowboys, more power to us. They need to remember who we are. There are plenty of men who’d be grateful for our attention. Fuck them.”
Fuck them. I didn’t bother checking my phone, deleting his messages without opening them. It was going to be a while before my car was ready. I didn’t have enough money to buy a new one, so I’d have to wait, but I could avoid him. I’d done all right before things had become serious.
Once my car was ready, I’d leave. I didn’t need him to pick me. I’d picked myself. Dancing sounded fun. Fuck him.