Mended Hearts (New Beginnings Series) (24 page)

Sugar Creek was in rare form, their spirits high.
They’d even finally gotten Les to sing lead on a song they’d been working on for a few weeks—Jamey Johnson’s
In Color
. Les didn’t do a lot of singing with the band, but his voice had an honest, raw quality reminiscent of the old classic country singers. His voice wasn’t as versatile as Colby’s and Gracie’s—but wow. He could really nail that song—which had an honest, raw quality to match his voice.

Kelli dropped in around nine o’clock and the guys found an empty barstool and brought it over so she could crowd in with them. Charley teased and flirted with her
a bit, bringing more than one blush to her cheeks. They had dated for a short time a couple of years before, and when the SEAL wives had kept her around, including her in all of their activities, it had made him a little uncomfortable. Of all the women he’d dated, they’d never adopted one before. But Kelli was special and they all adored her. And now Gracie and she were thick as thieves. Charley didn’t stay uncomfortable for long, though, because Kelli never gave him any reason to be. She wasn’t at all clingy like most of his other exes. They’d formed a kind of friendship themselves. Everyone—including him—realized that he and Kelli didn’t last long because she was too sweet for him. Whenever he brought his new women around, she’d just roll her eyes. He had a “type.” Looking back, she couldn’t understand why he’d asked her out in the first place, because she’d come to realize she’d been nowhere near “his type.”

Gracie hung out with them during her breaks, and she and Kelli chattered about wedding plans, and all of the things they needed to get settled when they met at Meg’s the next day. The guys just stayed out of it and talked football, tomorrow’s fishing trip, and
other testosterone-based topics to counteract the girly-girl stuff flying through the air around them.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Rob came in and took a stool at his usual end of the bar. Gracie was over there with her friends and her brother. He’d tried to stake out her apartment that day, but her car hadn’t been there any of the times he’d driven past her apartment house. She’d been out all day. Maybe she was staying with
him
. He regretted never following Sonny home to scope out where he lived. Why hadn’t he thought of that before? Rob had to make his move fast.

On the other side of the bar, Rob’s usual waitress—
Stevie—sidled up to one of the bartenders. “Hey, Jase . . . will you do me a favor?”

“Sure.
Wait. Is it legal?” Jase studied her in mock-concern.

“Hah!” She swatted him with her bar towel, then
neatly tucked it back through her apron strap, her white blonde hair taking on the changing colors of the neon beer sign behind her. She discreetly motioned to the far end of the bar where her station began. “See that guy over there? With the ball cap on?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you take care of him tonight? Please?”

“Why? He giving you trouble?” The bartenders were very protective of the waitresses, and it bothered him that he might have missed one of them being harassed by a customer.

“Not really—he just really skeeves me out. I don’t know what it is, but he just seems sketchy.”

“How so?” Jase was
watching the guy, without appearing to do so.

“He’s been coming in pretty regularly the past couple of weeks
—always alone—and he always wears that cap pulled over his eyes. But I get the feeling they’re always darting around. Know what I mean? Like he’s casing the joint or something. He always sits in my station too.” Stevie gave a little laugh. “Maybe I’m being paranoid.”

“No, honey . . . if you get a bad vibe, I don’t want you to second guess it. I’ll take him.” He winked at her. “As long as you swear it’s not really because he’s a crappy tipper.”

She laughed. “No, he tips okay—not great, but at least he’s never stiffed me.”

“Okay, then. I might take those first three stools
too, so he doesn’t get suspicious and just thinks that’s my section. I’ll share those other tips with you, though.”

“No, that’s okay—keep ‘em.
See that back table over there? Marines. Yesterday was payday. They’re taking good care of me. And they’re cute too.” She smiled.

Jase clutched his heart. “Ow!
Stevie, you’re killing me. Flirting with a table full of Marines right in front of me that way . . . after I agreed to do you a favor and everything.”

“Thanks, Jase,” she
laughed. She headed off to check on her tables, wishing Jase had been serious about being jealous. She’d had a crush on him since she started working there. And he treated her like a little sister—which they could have passed for, both being blonde, blue-eyed Nordic types. Oh well. At least he was a good friend.

She noticed a
s the night went on that Jase stayed pretty close to the ball cap guy, and he must have said something to the bouncer working the door, because she noticed he was watching him too. She was getting a little annoyed at Jase, though, because he kept making little teasing remarks whenever she was nearby about how some people should lay off reading all those true crime books—it messed with their minds and made them paranoid. She couldn’t help it. She had a weakness for them. And she
was
a criminal justice major at UCSD. At one point she stuck her tongue out at him like she was five years old. He clutched his heart again—and winked at her. The bottom dropped out of her stomach as she realized he
was
flirting with her. Maybe she shouldn’t give up hope just yet, she thought.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Towards the end of the evening, Sonny was on his way back from the men’s room, when he was accosted. By Colby and Savannah. They cornered him next to the pay phones.

Sonny raised his eyebrow. “Something I can do for you?” he asked.

Colby looked at Savannah, but she was staring Sonny down. “As a matter of fact, there is.”

“Okay . . .”

Savannah had obviously been put in charge of this little conversation. “So, Sonny . . . you’re marrying our Gracie.” She paused, but he just kept silent, wondering what she was getting at. “Would you say you’re an old-fashioned kind of guy?”

Okay . . . that question surprised him. Why was she beating around the bush? “Um . . . not really, I guess. Never thought about it. Why do you ask?”

“Well . . . an old-fashioned guy—newlywed—might not want his young, sexy wife singing in a bar four nights a week. Get my drift?”

“Ah! Now I see. You’re protecting your interests.” The light bulb had gone off in Sonny’s mind about the time she hit him between the eyes with her proverbial two by four. He hadn’t seen this conversation coming because it never occurred to him to object to Gracie staying with Sugar Creek and singing at Savannah’s after they were married.

He played along. “Well . . . an old-fashioned guy might not get such a kick out of hanging out in said bar, watching his young, sexy wife perform with her truly excellent band. So, I guess that makes me not so much of an old-fashioned man. What do
you
think?”

Colby seemed to breath a sigh of relief. “So you’re not going to be after her to quit, then?”

“No! I know how important this is to her. I’d never expect her to give it up. Not to mention the fact that you guys are like family to her.” His gaze swung to Savannah. “However, I hope I can count on everyone here to keep an eye out for her . . . whenever I can’t be around, I mean. Or if I get back on active duty status and have to deploy at some point. Can I count on you guys?”

“Of course, Sonny. You don’t even have to ask . . .” Savannah started, but was interrupted by a new voice entering the conversation.

“What’s going on here?” Gracie looked them over with suspicion. “Everything okay?”

Sonny pulled her into his side, wrapping his arm around her. “Everything’s great. Right?” The other two nodded. “
Just getting better acquainted, that’s all.”

She looked at him skeptically. “Okay. If you say so.”

Colby and Savannah made up lame reasons to excuse themselves and high-tailed it out of there. Gracie looked up at Sonny. “Okay. Spill.”

“It’s nothing, angel. They were just concerned that I’d chain you to my stove the second the ink dried on our marriage license. Speak
ing of which . . . we have to . . .”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa . . .” She interrupted. “
Chain me to your stove? What is
that
supposed to mean?”

He laughed. “They were afraid I wouldn’t support you in staying with Sugar Creek and continuing to sing here. That’s all.”

Her face seemed to pale a little and she studied his face carefully. “I didn’t think of that. Are you going to have a problem with this?” She waved her hand behind her towards the bar area.

“No! Of course not! You love it here and I love coming in
to see you perform. Nothing has to change. Except . . . you could give up the second job—the daycare center—if you wanted to. I can support us, even if I have to transfer to a stationary position on base—training new SEAL candidates or something. What you bring in from this job is gravy. But it’s completely up to you.”

She nodded. “I’ll think about it. I
do
love the kids. Maybe after we try it with me keeping it for awhile, we can decide. See how our schedules mesh.”

“That seems sensible. We don’t have to make any big decisions about that now.
Except for where we live. We should probably look for a new place.”

“Or I could move into yours. It’s a little bigger than mine.”

Sonny thought about that for a second. “Well, my lease is up next spring. You could move in and that’ll give us a few months to find something we like together. That way I wouldn’t be leaving Mrs. Farraday high and dry. She’d let me out of the lease, but she’s been so good to me, I don’t want to take advantage.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “What about
your
lease, though? Are we going to have to buy it out? Or do you have a month by month arrangement?”

“No, I signed a year’s lease, but Kelli needs a new place. Her lease is up and they’re raising her rent. She loves my little place, so we could try to get my lease transferred to her.” She smiled. “It’s like
it was meant to be.”

“
We
were meant to be.” Sonny bent his head to kiss her.

The corner was dark and, even though the hallway s
melled a little like stale beer, cigarette smoke and the faintly noxious aroma of the restroom air fresheners, it was romantic to them. They made out awhile, taking advantage of the dark privacy. Several minutes later, Sonny sensed someone entering the hallway from the bar area and, as he started to pull away from Gracie, was bumped hard by a guy rushing towards the men’s room. Both he and Gracie turned to watch him hurry past. He had a ball cap pulled low on his head and had apparently had too much to drink. Sonny shook his head, and looked regretfully at Gracie.

“Guess you have to
be back onstage anyway, huh, angel?”

“Guess so.” She looked as
disappointed as he felt. As he took her by the hand and led her out to the bar, she nonchalantly said, “Are you sure you don’t want to have a sleep over at my place tonight?” She reached up to wipe her lipstick off his mouth with her thumb.

He stopped and looked down into her face
, as he choked out in a pained voice, “You’re bad. Stop that.”

Gracie laughed. “It’s your own fault . . . making out with me in a dark hallway . . . right after you mentioned something about chaining me to your stove. Where do you
expect
my mind to go?” she asked sassily.

“Sugar, we’ll get to it. We may have to work up to
that
part, though—but not for another three weeks. So stop torturing me.”

“Okay. I’m sorry.” She sighed and shook her head. “I do love you, Luca.”

“Love you too, angel.” He pecked her on the mouth and they headed back to where their friends were sitting at the bar.

Charley looked at
them suspiciously. “Where the hell have you two been?”

Mathias put his hands over his ears. “I don’t even want to know.”

Kelli clamped her hand over Charley’s mouth. “Shut up, Charley. It’s none of your business.” She blushed when Sonny threw her a thank you wink.

Gracie circled the bar to find her purse, then walked back a
round to grab Kelli by the hand, taking her along as she went to the ladies’ room to fix her lip-gloss.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Rob watched them through a crack in the men’s room door after he’d bumped them apart. It worked. They separated and headed back into the crowded bar. Gracie hadn’t recognized him, he thought with relief. She had assumed he was just another drunk bar patron. He wasn’t the least bit drunk. He had to keep his wits about him. He’d decided that tomorrow was the day. He just had to be sure he kept track of her tonight, so she wouldn’t slip away somewhere he couldn’t find her.

After he finished in the men’s room, he headed back to his
place at the bar, sure to keep the crowd between him and Mathias, so he wouldn’t be recognized. As he settled back onto his stool, the buff blonde bartender, walked over to check on him. He ordered a Coke and ignored the bartender’s raised eyebrow. Rob had seen the little blonde waitress who usually waited on him, but she must have a different station tonight. He’d noticed a table full of rowdy young guys with buzz cuts were keeping her hopping, so maybe the bartender was just helping her fill in the gaps.