Thursday Nights (The Charistown Series) (19 page)

“I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t catch that.” Max tried to listen to the overeager woman sitting with her breasts on display at the bar. The woman leaned over the counter, creating a deeper valley in which to catch a roving eye.

“I said, I’d like a Sex on the Beach,” the woman purred.

That’s what he thought she said, but he had to make sure. Why he was still surprised when women acted this way, he didn’t understand. He had been working at Danny’s for about ten years and very little had changed in the way of women, truth be told. They wanted what they wanted, and they weren’t afraid to ask for it. If he were being honest, that had always worked out great for him. Sex without strings helped him lead the uncomplicated life he was determined to live. Until a certain aqua-eyed brunette walked into his bar and fucked up his quest for solitude.

“You got it, sugar,” Max said with a smooth smile and a wink sure to get him a tip—and probably an unsolicited phone number. The former was great; the latter would end up in the trash.

Shaking the cocktail, he looked to Janie’s table again. He couldn’t believe she actually showed up after what he said...after what he did. The need to make things right between them consumed his thoughts. He had picked up the phone to call her several times over the past few days, but he knew she would either hang up on him or just not answer. He needed to get her face-to-face.

So, for the past two hours, he watched Janie. His eyes followed her fingers as she wiped away the condensation that dripped down the side of her glass. His chest tightened when he saw her smile and laugh with Lyla, Julie, and Ashley. He glared when men would approach their table and start up conversation. So when Ms. “Sex on the Beach” leaned her huge breasts back over the bar and whispered what she would like to do to Max on a beach, he gave her a wolfish grin and nodded his head. Could she help him forget about Janie for a little while?

“Oh my God!” Janie had been watching Max play his games for months - she knew what that grin and nod meant. Feelings of hurt, anger, and most of all, jealousy whipped around in her body like gale-force winds during a hurricane.

“What’s the matter Jane?” Lyla asked with concern.

“Max just used his patented ‘grin and nod’ with the red-headed booby girl at the bar!” Janie’s voice was tight, and Lyla knew that tears were imminent. She quickly shot a glance to Ashley, happy to see that Ashley was clued into Janie’s emotional state as well.

“That fucker.” Ashley nudged the drink in Janie’s direction.

“Jane, you never told us what was so important that you
made
me come out tonight.” Lyla feigned irritation, trying to take Janie’s mind off Max and his walking, talking life preserver.

“Oh, yeah.” Her eyes still on Max, Janie gulped her drink and then turned her attention to her friends. She could feel a smile slowly spreading over her face.

“Really?!” Lyla exclaimed.

Ashley looked at first surprised and then annoyed. “Okay, girls, I realize you’ve known each other forever, but this Spidey sense you two share, while fascinating, is completely frustrating when you are on the outside.”

“Oh, honey, you are not on the outside. As far as I’m concerned, you have stepped in and been a great friend to Janie when I haven’t been able to be there. You are absolutely one of us.”

Janie could see the emotion play out in Ashley’s face. Acceptance was a beautiful thing. “Then share the juicy news, Jane!”

“So, there is this new algebra teacher at school. He is handsome and smart.” Janie inhaled, her smile growing as she described Owen Michaels. “His eyes are like melted chocolate Kisses and his hair is in caramel ringlets, but short and cropped.”

“Christ, Janie, you make him sound like a sundae,” Lyla laughed.

“Like I said, he’s new to the school this year, and all of the girls are falling over themselves to get his attention. The sweet thing is their attention seems to unnerve him. We had lunch together, and we laughed, and then he asked me out, and I said no.”

Lyla and Ashley were leaning into the table, totally entranced in every word Janie was saying until she spoke the word
no.

“What? Why?” they both asked in unison, slapping their hands on the table.

Janie giggled. “Because it’s Thursday night. On Thursday nights, Lyla and I come here. No dates on Thursday nights.”

Ashley raised her arm to get Brittney’s attention, and more shots were delivered within minutes.

“To Thursday nights!”

“So, when are you going out with the teacher?” Lyla questioned.

“Saturday night,” Janie replied. “It’s a little surprising—I’m really excited to go out with him. I mean, he really is gorgeous, but—” Her eyes drifted to Max, who was serving his customers and having his ego stroked by Big Red.

“I’m sure that’s not the only thing she’ll be stroking by the end of the night,” Janie mumbled.

“Janie?” Ashley said with a raised brow.

“Oh, did I say that out loud?”

“You’re beginning to catch that from me, huh?” Lyla joked. “Look, Jane, I know you’ve had a thing for Max for months. To be honest, I was kind of hoping it would happen for you, but it didn’t. This new guy…Owen, right? He sounds cute, he makes you smile and your eyes sparkle. Why don’t we focus on him for a little while?”

“You know what? You’re right. I’m gonna go out with him on Saturday night and see where it goes,” Janie said decidedly.

Ashley lifted her glass. “To Saturday night.”

“To Saturday night!”

“Hey, man. What happened with you and Kyle tonight? He looked like he was ready to shit himself when he came in to start his shift. And when I asked him if he was okay his only answer was, ‘Just a thing with Gage,’” Max said in his best Kyle impression.

Max watched as Gage swirled his scotch.
Hmm, the conversation must have been pretty intense for him to be drinking scotch instead of beer on a Thursday.

“Let’s just say I delivered a message to your boy. As you can see by the lack of broken bones, I delivered it nicely because I care about you and your loyalties, blah, blah, blah. But that was his one and only fuck-up, Max. And that is what I told him. I explained”—at the word explained, Gage’s eyes sparkled, clueing Max into the fact that
explained
was probably more like
threatened
—“that if he ever caused her pain again…I think my exact line was ‘I will show you a hurt that you have only seen in movies.’”

It was hard not to smile at the very large, very dimpled grin that was spreading across Gage’s face. “Nice, Sebastian. You sound like a fucking mobster.”

With all of the laughter gone and replaced with seriousness, Gage looked at Max. “I’m not kidding, man. I can’t have her yet, but she already owns me. I’m not gonna let some careless, junkie asshole hurt her.”

Max nodded and topped off the now empty glass of scotch before moving on to his next customer.

Lyla’s skin tingled. Her eyes had yet to see him, but her body could feel his presence. He was watching her, and that thought sent warmth through her body, straight down to her core.

“What’s the matter, Ly? You just shivered. Are you cold?” Lyla picked up on the hint of sarcasm in Ashley’s question. There was no way her friend could interpret the heated reaction she had just had for one of chill.

“I’m fine.” Lyla casually turned her head to search the bar for the sexy, whisky-voiced man who managed to turn her on, drive her mad, and disappear all in the matter of minutes last week. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since last Thursday night, not that she had expected to, but there was a part of her that felt…something. She just didn’t have the word to describe it.

She hadn’t allowed herself to look in that direction all evening for two reasons—the first being Kyle, and the second, Max. But now, as if a magnetic charge was pulling her eyes in that direction, she knew exactly who she would find.

“Gage,” Lyla whispered. The rest of the bar fell away as Lyla’s vision tunneled on him. She stared at the tall, painfully beautiful, and sinfully sexy man standing in the corner by the bar. His sapphire eyes burned through her skin, and he lifted his drink, arched his eyebrow, and gave her a dimpled half-grin.

Lyla could hear her heart beating and her blood flowing but couldn’t hear Ashley speaking directly to her.

“Um, Ly?” Ashley tapped her on the shoulder.

Lyla instantly pulled out of her trance and looked at Ashley. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

Ashley and Janie broke into laughter. “Yeah, we said a bunch of things. So I guess you’ve formally met Sebastian?” Ashley asked.

“Sebastian?” Lyla’s brows furrowed with confusion.

Ashley looked just as perplexed, and then she understanding swept in. “Uh…Gage. His name is Sebastian Gage.”

“Huh,” Lyla said.
A hot, sexy name for a hot, sexy man
.

“Ly, you know you said that out loud, right?” Janie giggled.

“Fuck…” Lyla took another sip of her drink.

“That was the guy who was at Chopper’s with Max the night I overheard them talking about me. It’s funny, even though I was pissed off with Max, I couldn’t help but notice…he’s hot, Ly.”

Ashley joined in. “He’s hot, wild, and protective, but I have
never
seen him with a girlfriend. I’ve never actually asked, but being a bartender is like being a therapist,” she snickered. “I’ve heard he doesn’t do commitment. He tells the women he dates straight from the start so there are never mixed messages.”

“What is with those two?” Janie blurted out. “Jesus, so they’re just about quick and easy…pun intended. Never more?”

Ashley shook her head. “Sorry, honey. They call it ‘Fuck and Release.’”

Lyla made sure her mouth was closed as she let her memory wonder. F and R…that’s what he was talking about.
Huh…
Well,
that
she would have given him! But he seemed like he was interested in far more than a quick fuck.

You deserve a man who is going to worship your body but also your heart and I am going to be that man.

There she couldn’t—she wouldn’t—go. But it doesn’t hurt to look. When she turned around to find the object of her lust, he was gone.
Shit,
thought Lyla.