Chapter 9
It couldn’t actually be true—because no one could change the atmosphere just by stepping into a room, but the air felt different when Jay Haddon entered the Rollaway.
After seeing him at the Swing Through Cafe, Blue hadn’t laid eyes on the man, which suited her, if this was how she reacted when he was near.
“Hey there, pretty girl. How you doing?”
“Good, Fox. You?” Blue dragged her eyes from Jay, who was talking to JD Hopper. Jeans and a deep blue button-down shirt shouldn’t make him look so good.
The problem was, she knew what was under those clothes now and always would. Maybe exposure would help with her reaction to the man. That, and dating again.
“You and me would be great together, Blue Jay.”
“You and Betsy broken up again, Fox?”
They’d been dating for years, and their breakups were legendary because they happened at least six times a year, but the couple always found their way back to each other.
“For good, this time. I’m done with her bossing me around. She told me I needed to do more to impress her.” The man looked outraged.
“Yeah, what did she suggest?” Blue asked, pouring his beer.
“My hair needs a trim, and she said my whiskers need to go because I can’t grow a decent beard like JD and Sawyer.”
Betsy had a valid point, Blue thought. The whiskers were misshapen and sparse. His hair looked like a bowl had been placed on his head and someone—probably Mrs. Gleeson—had cut around it.
He wasn’t bad looking, Blue supposed, just really scruffy.
“Do you love that woman, Fox?” she asked, handing him his beer.
“Of course he does,” Dan Duke said. He’d been sitting on the stool, listening to the conversation. “They wouldn’t have been together, even considering all the breaks, for as long as they had if he didn’t.”
“I ain’t owning up to that,” Fox muttered before he took a drink.
“Let me put it another way,” Blue said, shooting Jay a look. He was playing a shot, and those jeans stretched nicely across his firm ass. “If Betsy took up with someone—”
“Make it Beau Keller,” Dan said, smirking.
“Okay, let’s say Betsy dates Beau Keller. He’s a good-looking guy who keeps himself in shape and always looks handsome.”
“The hell you say,” Dan snapped.
“Really handsome,” Blue said to annoy him, “but back to my point.” She gave Dan a look that shut him up.
“If Betsy dated Beau, and he was real good to her and treated her nice, and she thought, well, hell, so this is what it could be like if I left Fox for good and found someone who really cares about me.”
Fox was looking shocked now. Clearly the man thought this dumpster fire of a relationship he had with Betsy was going to continue his entire life.
“And instead of you two always getting back together, she said no the next time because she wants to settle down and have a family, and she’d get that with Beau. How would that make you feel, Fox?”
Fox was the color of sour milk now.
“You think on that and come back to me with an answer in a minute while I pour our law enforcement another beer,” Blue said.
Instead, Fox got off his stool and staggered away, throwing Blue hurt looks as he did.
The youngest Duke brother whistled. “You wake up in that mood today, or did someone do something, and if so, do you want me to arrest them?”
“One of you should have said those words to that idiot before now,” Blue muttered.
“What about Betsy? Surely she’s equally to blame?”
“Is Betsy here?” Blue made a show of looking around her.
“And I repeat. Who pissed you off?” Dan asked. “We’re family now, so you can unburden yourself to me.”
“I couldn’t before?”
Dan shrugged. “I mean, you could have, but now there’s that family code of silence thing we share.”
“Ah, that,” Blue said. “No one pissed me off. Red and Bart made me come to work by guilting me into it.”
“Harsh,” Red said, dropping a tray of clean glasses down before Blue. “You big-city types need constant stimulation, so I’m supplying that.” His big, beefy hand swept the room before her. “What’s not to love? There’s ambience and happiness everywhere.”
Dan snorted loudly.
“I need two more beers, Red,” JD Hopper said, having just arrived at the bar. “I’m counseling Jay.”
“Yeah, yeah, keep it together, pretty boy. I’m enlightening Blue here.”
“About what?”
JD Hopper could easily stroll into New York’s most elite society gathering and fit right in. Well-groomed and dressed in expensive labels as he was, it was a wonder to Blue he still lived in Lyntacky.
She was born here, so that was her excuse for coming back, but not his. From what she gathered, he came from money and had been raised in luxury, but he’d forgone that for Lyntacky.
It took all sorts, Blue guessed, which was what she loved about this place.
“Is that a Tom Ford?” Dan asked, pointing at the tailored button-down shirt JD wore.
He rolled his eyes and ignored his brother-in-law.
Birdie had told Blue that the family researched high-end labels to annoy JD.
“About Lyntacky society and the ambience,” Red answered JD’s question with a straight face. “She’s bitching about working for me.”
“No way?” JD said straight-faced. “People kill to work in the bar on boys’ night. It looks real good on a resume.”
“Damn straight.” Red held out a hand, and JD slapped it.
“So about those beers?”
“Pour the man two beers, Blue,” Red said. “Why does Jay need counselling?”
“He’s a lost soul, Red,” JD said, shaking his head. “He needs the love of a good woman to complete him.”
“I just threw up a bit in my mouth,” Blue said.
“Can you hear yourself?” she added, refusing to acknowledge the little stab of something she felt at the thought of Jay with another woman—which she had absolutely no right to feel.
“You sound like you’re sixty and married with a passel of kids, with no life. ”
“I can honestly say I haven’t heard the word ‘passel’ in years,” Dan said.
“No need to get tetchy, Blue—”
“Another word that is missing from my vocabulary,” Dan cut in.
“You and Jay need to settle down. I can highly recommend it,” JD added. “Right, Dan?”
“Damn straight. Did I tell you that Hudson won an award at school for his paper on growing sustainably?”
“No way. That’s cool,” JD said.
Blue loved how Dan and Leah Reynolds had become the boy’s parents. She might not live in Lyntacky anymore, but her family kept her up on all the goings-on.
Slowly all the people she’d grown up with were finding partners and building lives together. Some had children, and while she knew the reality was that not everyone was happy in a relationship, most of those she knew who lived here were, at least outwardly.
Blue wondered when she’d become such a cynic. Did she even believe in happy-ever-afters anymore?
And you’ve never wanted that, so why does it bother you now?
Her eyes went to Jay. As if sensing her, he looked up, and their eyes met. He smiled, she nodded, and then Blue looked away.
“So, are you having a holiday?” JD asked her.
“Not sure yet,” Blue said, not wanting to outright lie, but also not wanting to get into the details of the hell that was her life right now. She really needed to tell her family first, which she’d been avoiding even as they were subtly digging for answers to their questions.
“Which means what?” Dan demanded. “Because Birdie told me that something’s off with you, but you haven’t told her what yet.”
“Nothing is off. I’m just having a break.”
“From what? Life? Work?”
“Don’t bring your investigative cop techniques into play with me, Deputy Double D. I’m immune,” Blue said.
“I think you should take Jay out on a date, Blue. You guys would be great together,” JD said. “He’s New York refined and has a few brains, so you’d get some decent conversation out of him. Plus, his table manners are great, and he’s funny when he wants to be.”
She just stared at him, shocked that those words had actually come out of his mouth.
“Yes!” Dan punched the air. “They’d be awesome together. He’s like this uptight, number-crunching freak with a secret life that he won’t tell me—his oldest friend—about. And Blue doesn’t take any shit from anyone, so she’d break down his walls. Plus, she’s hot.”
“Thanks, and I’m standing right here,” Blue drawled, although the words came out a bit more high-pitched than she’d intended.
JD thought she should date Jay Haddon. Oh, the irony.
“Great pairing,” Red agreed. “It has my vote.”
“Oh, well, if Red agrees,” Blue mocked them. “Now go away and let me work and stop meddling. I’m not dating Jay Haddon. He’s not my type, and besides, I’m going back to New York soon.”
“Disagree,” JD said. “I think you’re perfect for each other. Both big-city types. Both intelligent.” He ticked things off on his fingers. “Both hot.”
“It makes me feel uncomfortable that you think my best friend is hot when you’re married to my sister,” Dan said.
“I think you’re hot too.” JD patted his shoulder.
“Okay, you’ve had your fun. Now go dance or something,” Blue said as her nerves stretched tighter.
“We don’t dance on boys’ night. We shoot pool and talk shit,” JD said.
“Damn straight,” Dan said.
The men then launched into a debate about who was the hottest man in the Rollaway tonight.
Jay, she thought but didn’t say the name out loud.
The Rollaway got steadily busier as more of the locals came in for boys’ night, so Blue focused on what needed doing and not Jay, who had, as yet, not come to the bar.
“You take a break now, Blue, while it’s quiet. Go on out back, and here’s a basket of chicken sticks and fries for you,” Red said.
“How come Dee’s not working tonight? She usually loves boys’ night,” Blue asked, taking the basket even as her arteries clogged at the thought of eating all that greasy goodness.
“The youngest has an icky throat and fever. Dr. Hannah said bed rest. But this one is really clingy with her mom, so we didn’t get a sitter. She might pop in later, though, if things settled down.”
The thought of anyone being real clingy with Dee, the firebrand, made Blue smile.
“She’s a great mom, Red.”