He looked like he wanted to argue, wanted to say something back put the mountain of a human being that was clearly the bouncer for the bar came around the corner. He looked at the guys on the car and the heated polo shirt and shook his head.

“Enough. You four go back in, Ayden told me what was going on so your tab is on me. You,” he pointed a meaty finger at Gabe. “You are no longer allowed at the Goal Line, consider yourself 86’ed. If Shaw doesn’t want you here I don’t care how much you got in your wallet or what kinda pull your old man has this is my house and you aren’t welcome. Next time you want to get all up on one of my girls, put your hands on them you won’t have to worry about these guys because I’ll make sure they never find your body, understand?”

Even I didn’t question that this monster meant business so polo shirt gulped and nodded his head slightly. My boys pushed off the car and Nash ‘accidentally’ shoved into him as they made their way over to where I was standing. Gabe swore and jumped into his car. He pulled away from the curb and flipped us all the bird as he squealed into traffic. The bouncer looked me up and down and flicked his impassive gaze over our motley crew.

“You friends with Shaw?”

I mean we weren’t friends exactly but it was as close as any other explanation so I shrugged and answered, “Sure.”

He nodded. “I’m Lou. I look out for the girls that work here, Shaw and Ayden just happen to be two of my favorites. They’re good girls; work hard here and at school. They aren’t here just to show their asses and get into trouble and I respect that. I don’t let anyone mess with those two; in fact I take it personally when someone tries to.”

I wasn’t sure why he was telling me all this but frankly he was one scary mother so I kept my mouth shut and just kept making eye contact.

“Shaw is a sweet kid but she tries to do too much by herself and if that asshole keeps bothering her she’ll just suffer it in silence.” Now he was looking at me pointedly so I lifted an eyebrow. “I wanna know if something needs to be done about him.”

“Shaw and I aren’t exactly close like that. She wouldn’t tell me something like that. You might want to have this talk with her roommate.”

“I’m having it with you, son.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that but just as I was about to say something sarcastic back the doors to the bar opened and the middle aged guys in the jerseys came spilling out and got between us. Lou gave me one last direct look that I couldn’t help but take as him meaning business and went back inside. I looked back at my friends and sorta threw my hands up in the air.

“See what you miss when I go out of town on Sunday?”

All three of them burst into laughter and Jet decided it was time for us to move onto another bar so I had to run in and get my card from Shaw. The guys pitched in ten bucks each for me to give her as a tip so I wound my way back to the bar where she was talking to another waitress; this one had honey-gold colored hair and was dressed in the cheerleader uniform. Shaw stopped midsentence and looked at me through narrow eyes, I grinned at her and handed her the money. “You bouncer friend picked up our tab but the boys wanted to make sure you got taken care of.”

She handed me the AMX card back. “What did you do to Gabe?”

“Nothing.” She sighed and I didn’t even try to not watch the way it stretched her tiny little uniform across her chest.

“Well thanks for intervening; I don’t know what his problem is.”

The cheerleader was having sex with me with her eyes, and while I was normally totally a fan of hot chicks doing that to me I barely even registered her because Shaw was bending over to get her drinks and the ruffles on her butt were suddenly the only thing I could see. She was short so I never really thought about her having such great legs, but they were toned and curved just right and given enough time I could work up some seriously awesome fantasies involving those legs and those boots and nothing else.

“His problem is you’re hot, richer than hell, have parents that are connected out the ass and you wouldn’t put out. You not only left him physically hard up but blue-balled his visions of playing golf with your dad at the country club and sitting next to your mom at the republican convention. You dismantled everything he was trying to build.”

She flipped one of her pig-tails out and picked up a tray full of drinks. “I gotta get back to work. You think we can ever have a Sunday not filled drama and fights?”

I ran a hand over my messy hair and shook my head ruefully. “Sunday’s have never been a great day for me. I’ll catch you later, Shaw.”

“Bye Rule.”

I made my way back out of the bar thinking that it was probably the first time since I had met her when she was just a kid that I had ever seen Shaw be Shaw and it made me a little nervous that when she didn’t have all her guards up and all her haughty defense mechanisms in place she seemed so fallible, so undeniably human, so approachable and so…attainable.

Chapter 4

Shaw

I counted the pile of money in front of me for the fifth time. I was having a hard time concentrating for a couple reasons; one was that the bar had gotten busy so I had stayed two hours past when I was scheduled off so I was dragging, the second was that there were ten other girls all trying to cash out around and the chatter was like a swarm of bees buzzing about purses and boys, the third was Ayden kept watching me like a hawk, looking for something but I didn’t know what and the final was that Loren Decker, my post high school Amy Rogers wouldn’t stop talking my ear off about Rule.

Loren was a living, breathing centerfold and was what happened when mean girls left high school and entered the real world. She was vapid, boring and made more money than most of us combined when she was on the schedule because her job was to be flirty and come across easy things that were hardly a stretch and for some reason she was dying to get every single detail I possessed about Rule. She wanted to know how I knew him, wanted to know how come he had never been in the bar before, wanted to know how old he was, what he did for a living, if we were dating, if he had a girlfriend, if he liked blonds and so on and so forth. It was endless, exhausting and I think it bothered me that yet another bimbo was just tripping over herself to fall on him. While I knew my feelings for him were my burden to bear alone, I wasn’t about to offer up my slutty coworker on a platter so I just kept grunting responses and evading all the personal questions, which unfortunately didn’t stop her from rambling about how gook looking he was.

“I mean I don’t normally go for guys with all those tattoos and piercings like that, but oh my God those eyes, have you ever seen anything like them? They’re like glacial ice, so pretty! And his body, I bet he works out, I mean I normally like a guy with a six pack but that tall lean thing totally works with his look. What kind of girls does he normally go for? Are you sure he doesn’t have a girlfriend? Seriously Shaw I just want to lick that hoop he has in the side of his lip, like so freaking bad. I can’t believe you’ve been friends with someone that sexy and haven’t gotten a piece, that’s like against nature.”

I hadn’t gotten a piece of anyone ever, not that she needed to know that. Guys had tried, I had been tempted but every time I was close to sealing the deal my brain short circuited and reminded me that they weren’t who I really wanted and I shut down like a light going off. I looked up at her and narrowed my eyes.

“Lore I’m trying to do my cash out, can this wait?”

“Just give me his number.” I was close to losing it and ready to shove the pile of ones down her throat when Ayden must have sensed the storm brewing. She settled in the seat next to me and leveled the blond with a dark look. There was just something about Ayden that made people pay attention to her, whatever it was I loved her for it.

“Lore give the girl a break. It’s not like their besties. If you wanted to ask him out you should’ve done it while he was here.”

She made a face that probably made guys buy her things but made me want to roll my eyes. “I would’ve but he was too busy checking out Shaw’s ass, that’s why I asked what was going on between them. I mean he didn’t even give you a hug or anything when he left but you looked at each other like you were about to start making out any second.”

Startled I looked up at Ayden. Since when did Rule who normally ignored me, or pretended I didn’t exist start checking anything on me out? She lifted her eyebrow.

“If Shaw runs into him any time in the near future I’m sure she’ll pass it along that you want his number or she can just give him yours if he’s interested, now let’s talk about something really important, what do you want to do for your birthday? It’s only two weeks away.”

I groaned and gave up on trying to get an accurate count out. Instead I just handed the money to Ayden and started sorting and stapling the credit card slips which took far less brain power. I hated my birthday. Normally it was a fight between which parent and step parent I was going to spend an awkward dinner with, that was when they bothered to remember, last year I just got a card from dad with a check for a grand in it and a call from my mother with a promise of something when she found time, there was never time. Ayden had ended up taking me for sushi and we went to see some stupid romantic comedy and the day went by lack luster and unmemorable. Even the Archers tended to be low key on my birthday I think it reminded them that another year had passed and that Remy was still gone. Rome always sent me something from whatever part of the world he was in and to this date those were always my favorite gifts. I guess since I was turning twenty this year I should try and make a big deal about it, I just didn’t want to.

“Why don’t we go dancing?” I looked at Loren like she had grown a third head. I didn’t really socialize with the girls from work, not because I didn’t like them, some of them were really sweet and most of them were just like me and Ayden struggling to pay bills and balance college, but they were normally young adults into drinking, partying, meeting guys, going out and doing all the things that just didn’t register for me. I didn’t need any more people in the world thinking I was fundamentally broken so I just avoided those social interactions.

“Uh I don’t dance.”

Ayden scowled at the blond. “Plus who invited you?”

She blinked heavily lashed eyes and wrinkled her nose. “I thought maybe since it’s your birthday Mr. Tall, Dark and Tattooed would be around. I’m telling you ladies I’m in stage four lust and it can’t be cured.”

Ayden and I shared a look and I went back to my stapling. “No, my birthday isn’t a big deal so Rule won’t be around. I like to keep it low key.”

“You mean boring.”

I wasn’t friends with Loren, in fact I wasn’t even particularly fond of her so I was about to tell to stick her where the sun didn’t shine which was totally against character for me, but Ayden just kept on talking like Loren wasn’t even there.