Chapter 41
NOLAN
41
On Friday night, my rowdy ass brothers stumble into the bar, tipsy and hungry and covered in colorful paint, with their equally paint-covered women in tow.
Apparently, they were all having a night out on the town and somehow, they ended up here. The Annual Festival for Amateur Artists is in Starlight Falls this weekend.
Half the town spent the afternoon down at the big parking lot behind town hall, dabbling in the arts and crafts. Now, the masses have descended onto my bar and it’s absolute chaos in the building.
My siblings all keep razzing me to sit and have a beer with them, but I can’t. We let go of Suzy this week and we haven’t replaced her yet. So I’m helping my crew cover the slack. Or at least, I’m trying to.
Eventually, Inez ends up convincing me to sit with the guys and have a quick bite to eat, and it’s becoming embarrassingly clear that she’s way better at this job than I am.
She runs the whole operation like a well-oiled machine and for a moment, I just sit back and watch it all. She’s whipping up fancy drinks while singing broadway tunes. She’s telling goofy jokes while dropping off appetizers. She’s even somehow managing to keep the Brighton table quite entertained throughout the night, too. She may be busy but she slows down for a few minutes to roast the guys.
“Okay, Brightons. I need to know, who’s got the most embarrassing anecdote about a night here at the bar?” She leans a hip against the side of my chair. “Tell me your stories. I’m the judge, and the winner gets one of my most exclusive cocktails.”
Ronan starts cackling. “Oh, that’s definitely Felix. There was the time he got sick in the bushes out front. Dr. Idiot got so wasted that Nolan had to go out there and feed him ginger ale through a straw.”
“Stop exaggerating, you little shithead. Nobody had to feed me anything through a straw.” Felix punches our brother in the shoulder.
“It was totally Darius, that time when he had too many shots and was trying to impress that chick from New York with his dance moves.” Karli laughs. “He did that awful spin move and ended up wearing her plate of food all over his shirt.”
Darius groans miserably. “It wasn’t that bad. That time a few weeks ago when Ronan drank two pitchers of beer and tried to serenade Nicky was way worse. People actually got up and left the bar.”
I shake my head at the memory. “That is true. Ronan cost me a lot of paying customers that night.”
Inez laughs. “Okay, Darius—you win. One surprise cocktail, coming right up.”
He punches the air victoriously. “Always a winner, baby.”
I possessively drape an arm around Inez’s waist from where I’m sitting and she leans closer to me. “Call my girlfriend ‘baby’ one more time,” I threaten my brother. “I dare you.”
“Please. What are you gonna do about it?” He dares me right back.
I chortle. “You just got over your cold. I don’t want to give you another reason to spend the night at the hospital. But if I have to, I will.”
He just rolls his eyes. “You’re lucky to have a girlfriend at all, with that shitty attitude of yours.”
Inez tenderly rakes her fingers through my hair, shushing me as her gaze floats around the table. It’s a surprisingly soothing gesture. “Okay. On to more important topics, which one of you is going to be designated driver for the night? Because clearly it won’t be Darius…or Ronan...or Mason…or Archer…or Felix.” She burns them all. “Ladies? I think it’s on your shoulders now.”
Karli, Daphne and Nicky all dig into their purses in unison, soberly dangling a collection of car keys in the air. Everyone just laughs.
Yeah. The guys are wasted tonight.
As I’m taking the last bite of my sandwich, I hear them all wishing Inez good luck on her upcoming audition.
Her face turns red. “How do you all even know about that?”
All eyes shift to Karli. Again, we break out in laughter. Of course my big-mouth sister is the one who spilled the beans.
“What?” Karli says, defending herself. “I’m proud of you, Inez. So I’m going to shout about it from the rooftops. We all know you’ll kick some ass at that audition.”
Inez’s blush grows fiercer but I can see the sparkle of excitement in her blue eyes. I recognize that look. It makes her feel good to have my family in her corner. She’s been alone for so much of her life, but now, she knows the Brightons have her back. That makes me proud as hell.
She thanks them for their encouragement and humbly accepts her hefty tip for the night. She deserves it, and then some.
My gaze follows Inez again as she goes back to serving drinks. I feel someone grab my arm and I turn to find Karli beaming at me. “Oh my god. Look at you, Nolan! New car. New furniture. New haircut. It’s like you’re having a”—she makes jazz hands—“a glow-up!”
My other siblings nod in agreement and I cringe.
Ronan laughs, pulling Nicky against his side. “A good woman will do that to you.”
“True fact.” Mason grabs Karli’s hand and drops a kiss on her knuckles.
Felix bobs his head in agreement then puckers his lips against Daphne’s cheek.
My siblings are pathetic. But they’re right, though. I do feel like I’m glowing. From the inside out. Inez has not only patched up the holes in my tattered couch. She’s patched up the holes in my tattered heart. She’s given my soul the chance to glow again.
I know all that sounds corny as fuck but her love has had this magical effect on me. Every moment of the day, I’m struggling not to acknowledge that she’ll be leaving, I’m about to lose her and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.
My family lingers a while longer, but I ignore them and focus on the bar. There’s a lot to do, and it’s starting to get late.
At the end of the night when the place is finally empty, it’s just me and Inez per usual. For the most part, we split the closing tasks, but tonight, I keep catching myself staring at Inez as she shuts down the beer taps.
She’s really damn good at her job. Obviously, that doesn’t surprise me. She’s freakishly good at everything she does. When I would close up the bar with any of my other workers, it’d take hours and hours to get out of here. It’d practically be morning before I got home. But with Inez, we’re usually done in less than half the time.
I don’t know anyone who works as hard as she does, managing to get shit done, while also keeping a bar full of rowdy drunks happy and entertained.
She’s a fucking star.She deserves every ray of the spotlight that seems to follow her around.
“Dance with me,” I demand when she eventually looks up and catches me staring at her.
Inez bites down on her lip and nods. So I go drop a quarter into the ancient jukebox in the corner and pick just the right song. Something by The Beatles.
I reach out, our fingers intertwining as the first notes of the tune wash over us. She follows me to the middle of the empty floor, to a spot between the freshly scrubbed tables. In the dim light, our eyes lock, unspoken words hanging heavy in the air. There’s so much I want to say, but I wouldn’t know where to start.
So I don’t.
I hold her close as our bodies sway in perfect sync. The only sounds in the bar are the romantic music and the creaks of the worn wooden floorboards beneath our feet. Christ—she’s beautiful.
“Let’s go check out the art festival tomorrow,” I suggest as we dance.
“Tomorrow?” she echoes me. “Tomorrow’s Saturday, our busiest night here at the bar.”
I shrug. “Every Saturday’s busy. But that festival only comes around once a year.” And who knows where you’ll be twelve months from now? My chest aches. “Let’s play hooky. Let’s take the night off to have some fun. What do you say?”
She leaves for her big audition on Monday morning and I don’t know if or when she’s coming back. Spending as much time with her as possible is my priority now.
She purses her lips but she can’t fight back her smile. “I say…let’s do it,” she answers. “I’ll just have to ask my boss if he’ll give me the night off. He’s kind of a grump sometimes.”
I growl, landing an open palm on the curve of her ass. “At this point, you’re just begging to get spanked with that sassy mouth of yours.”
“Am I?” She raises a brow in challenge.
Damn it. The little flirt.
I’m getting hard already. If we keep going down this road, I’ll end up fucking her on the bar again. Like I did last night. We made such a huge mess. Cleaning it up was a pain. Especially with the orgasm haze we found ourselves in.
I quickly change the subject. “Your audition is next week. How do you feel? Are you ready?”
She tries but fails to hold back another excited smile. “I think so. I know my part as well as I possibly can. Now it just comes down to whether I can do this character justice.”
“I know you can, Inez. You’ve been working so goddamn hard.No one deserves that part more than you.”
We’re silent for a while as we dance, but I feel the heaviness of our unspoken words in the air.
“Everything’s going to go to shit when you leave again,” I say quietly through a boulder-sized rock in my throat. My thumb absently strokes the skin on her hip, where her shirt has risen. “I’m really going to miss you.”
I shouldn’t be saying this to her. I’m being a selfish asshole. The last thing I want is to make her feel guilty about what she has to do. I don’t want her to second-guess herself.
“I should spend more time training the other bartenders to replace me when I leave.” She nods resolutely.
I sigh, shaking my head. “No, Inez. I’m going to miss you…You.”
Her swaying pauses. She searches my eyes. “Do you…do you want me to stay?”
“Fuck,” I groan. “No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t want to stand in your way. I just…”
A loud silence suddenly fills the empty bar as we stare into each other’s eyes. My finger starts moving on its own, tracing letters across her hipbone. At first, I don’t even realize what I’m doing.
I…L…O…V…E…Y…O…U…I…L…O…V…E…Y…O…U…I…L…O…V…E…Y…O…U…
I want to say the words so bad. I’d give anything for the courage to just say them. But at this point, what would it accomplish? More harm than good, that’s for sure.
It doesn’t matter that I love her, it doesn’t matter that I want her. As the man who’s crazy for her, who wants the best for her, I refuse to cockblock her success.
She stares up at me with wide, watery eyes. “Say it…Say the words to me…”
Fuck. I groan again. “I…”
I can’t.
I shouldn’t.
It would be so fucking selfish if I did.
“Nolan, please…” she whispers, her voice cracking.
I stroke her cheek. “We can’t do—”
She reaches up on her toes, silencing me with a searing hot kiss. “Don't tell me the politically correct answer. Can you just be selfish for once? Instead of worrying about everyone else and what they need, can you just think about yourself for once?”
I cringe. She knows me too well.
And I know her, too. I know that she’s been craving those three little words ever since she was a child. I also know that if I say them, she’ll change her plans, she’ll rearrange her whole life for me.
I can’t do that.
“Inez, I won’t be the one to come between you and your dreams.”
Internally, my head is churning. Once upon a time, I tried to get in the way of my ex-wife’s dreams, and look how that nonsense turned out. I’m not setting myself up for disappointment again. I’m not going to sabotage Inez, either. No matter how much it’s going to hurt me later.
It’s not fair to either of us.
Inez exhales, stepping back with a sad smile. “We should go…”Her words hang in the air as though she doesn’t know how to refer to my house.
“…Home,” I finish for her, lacing my fingers through hers. “We should go home.”
Where she belongs. With me and Stella. For now, at least.