That was better.
“Excellent.” Stef speared a potato. “I’ll leave it all in your hands, but you should know that if you do need advice, the men of Bliss are willing to help. Have you thought about how you’re going to approach Lucy again?”
“I thought we would show her we can work together tonight.” He’d had enough of Stef. “If things go well, we’ll take her back to our place. Now unless we’re going to discuss Max’s upcoming vasectomy, we’re done talking.”
“He’s worse than Doc was in the beginning,” James whispered to his brother.
“Don’t talk about Doc.” Max had paled, and he put his fork down. “Does it have to be Caleb? He’s awful with the prostate exam. I can’t imagine what he’ll do to my balls.”
“We have a place?” Ty asked.
“We have your place.” At least the food was excellent. He’d forgotten what good food tasted like. For a long time everything had tasted like ash in his mouth, but he was starting to remember what a good breakfast could do for a man. “It’ll have to do.”
“And we might have to be sneaky about getting her there,” Ty said with a nod.
“Nope.” He wasn’t going to spend his time playing games, no matter how well intentioned they were. It was time to strip down to the basics and see if they could work.
“What does that mean?” Ty asked.
“Eat your breakfast. You’ve got the mid shift and then we’ll pick Lucy up. She’s working a late shift tonight. I’ll handle everything. Just be ready to follow my lead.”
“I’m kind of afraid not to,” Ty admitted.
Then things would work out. For the first time in a long time, he felt a wave of positivity.
He went back for seconds.
* * * *
It had been almost a whole day and no text.
Somehow she’d thought there would be a text. Or a call. Or Michael might drop by to pick up his SUV.
After telling her he’d gone back to Ty’s place, she’d expected that they would show up for breakfast. She’d thought she would wake up and both men would be on the porch waiting to apologize and ask her what she was doing this evening.
Working. That was what she was doing. She was working, and it looked like she would stay working.
“Hey, order up.” Van had joined her again. They’d spent much of the shift talking about the party they would both be supervising this weekend. Van would run the bar and she would manage the servers.
Would that be when she saw Ty and Michael? When she was at the lodge?
She picked up the tray that held two glasses of white wine and a glass of red and sighed. The jerk siblings were back, though at least the worst of them wasn’t around today. She hadn’t taken the order, but Zane was on the phone in the back, and it wasn’t worth interrupting him.
“Thanks,” Van said, already moving to pour out beers.
Trio was rocking this evening. It had been snowing for a couple of days, good white powder that would bring all the skiers out this weekend. Tourists were starting to outnumber the locals, and she realized that lull they got between seasons was over.
Maybe that was a good thing. That lovely lull meant slower business, and now she could concentrate on work and getting the job at the lodge, and she would be so busy it wouldn’t matter that Michael and Ty weren’t interested in her anymore. She worked her way around the tables toward the booth at the front of the bar.
They’d likely talked and come to the conclusion that it wouldn’t work, and that was all right.
It didn’t make her heart hurt. It didn’t make her ache with what could have been because she’d never believed they’d had a shot in the first place.
The door came open, cold air whooshing in as two big figures moved into the entryway. One of the new hires stood at the hostess stand. She wore a thick sweater over her jeans and Trio T-shirt in deference to that wind that swooped in every time the door opened. Pilar Gomez was a student at Adams State and lived with her parents in Del Norte. She’d hired on to work a few nights a week. Zane always hired more staff for ski season, and this year that meant a lot of college kids. He’d tried to put the Farley twins to work in the kitchen this summer, but they’d blown up one of the dishwashers trying to make it work faster. So it was Pilar, Holly’s oldest kiddo Micky Lang, and Van who were helping part time now.
Pilar smiled at the two newcomers and shivered slightly from the cold.
But Lucy suddenly didn’t feel cold at all because it wasn’t tourists waiting to be seated. Michael and Ty stood there, side by side. They were big and gorgeous and they were here.
Why were they here?
Michael looked up and his eyes locked with hers and—yup—nothing cold there. She could practically feel his hands on her, moving over her hips and dragging her closer to him. She’d felt his cock against her leg, and she hadn’t cared about anything but rubbing herself against him and riding him to pleasure.
Michael nodded her way and then followed Pilar.
Ty gave her a bright smile and waved.
He’d kissed her with those ridiculously sensual lips of his and she’d dreamed about it last night, dreamed about those lips moving lower and lower until he had his mouth on her pussy.
“Uh, you need some help there?” Micky Lang had a beer in one hand and a basket of hot wings in the other. He was a lanky twenty-year-old with dark hair and green eyes. He had an apartment on campus but spent a lot of time with his mom and stepdads and baby sister.
She shook herself out of her very not-safe-for-work thoughts. “No. I’m good. Is that for table five? Because they wanted ranch instead of blue cheese. I’m pretty sure I wrote that down, but it must have gotten mixed up.”
Micky winced. “While it goes against all my sensibilities, I shall fix the problem.”
She ignored the impulse to look back to where Michael and Ty were and proceeded with the job at hand. She made her way to table twelve, where the Foster siblings were seated.
They were all on their phones, but the one named Sonya looked up and smiled. “Hey. Nice to see you again. How are you?”
Chet set his phone down and slid her a sly smile as he took his glass of wine. “She’s been talking about you nonstop, Lila.”
“Her name is Lucy,” Kendall chimed in, her fingers moving across the screen. She glanced up. “You should wear a name tag. He would remember your name if it was written close to your boobs.”
“Kendall,” Sonya hissed her sister’s way.
Kendall went right back to her phone. “They’re nice boobs, and Chet rarely looks at a woman’s face. If you want him to retain knowledge, you have to put it on liquor or boobs.”
Chet gave her a completely uncharming smile. “Well at least my sister knows me. And I expect credit for even remembering she has a name. I was close. Lucy, dear, I’m so glad you came over because I wanted to thank you for taking my brother down a peg. It’s the biggest thing to happen to this family in forever.”
Lucy felt herself flush. She’d thought for sure Brock Foster would act like nothing happened. “He talked to you about that? He was…”
Sonya held up a hand to stop her. “You do not have to tell me what my asshole brother was doing. I’m sure he hit on you and when you turned him down, he got aggressive.”