One Foot in the Grave (Carly Moore #3) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,70
“You are just the sweetest.”
She proceeded to give me her order and Bingham’s. I expected him to contradict her, but he remained silent with his arms folded over his broad chest, his gaze on the baseball game on the TV in the back corner of the room.
I turned to the table of bodyguards, and Bingham told them to order their food with their drinks. They seemed taken by surprise and a couple of them had a hard time settling on what they wanted so quickly.
I ran the food orders back to Tiny, then took the drink orders to the bar. Most of the men had ordered beer, so, lucky for me, I got to take their ticket to Wyatt, whose gaze was firmly on Bingham.
“I need five beers and a coke. And don’t provoke him,” I said, glancing around my section to see if anyone needed my attention. Shockingly, everyone seemed good. Which meant I didn’t have a reason to walk away.
“It’s pretty damn obvious he came here to see you,” he said in a dark voice as he grabbed a mug and started to pull the draft. “He cleared a table of customers to sit in your section.”
“Orrr,” I said, drawing out the word, “he really wanted to sit in a booth with the baby.”
“There’s a booth open in Ruth’s section with a table in front of it.”
“Calm down,” I said, slightly exasperated. “If he picked my section, it’s probably because of Lula. She and Ruth don’t exactly see eye to eye.”
His lips pressed together, and his gaze seemed to turn more intense as he set the first beer on the counter.
“Stop that,” I said as I grabbed a tray for the drinks. “You’re gonna piss him off.”
“Good. I don’t want him thinkin’ he can mess with you.”
That stupid blood price. It was making him crazy.
A flood of anger washed through me, and I leaned closer, lowering my voice. “I can handle myself. Todd Bingham’s no threat to me. I’ve spent more time with him than you and I did when we were dating.”
Jerry caught the corner of my eye as he walked through the door, far later than he usually came in. He sat at his usual perch at the end of the bar, but something about him seemed different. His posture maybe, or the way he was sitting.
“I don’t need to be reminded of your relationship with a criminal,” Wyatt growled.
My brow shot up, and I said in a deadly calm voice, “Be careful, Wyatt. Think very carefully what you say about him and my relationship with him from here on out, or I might not be so inclined to keep helping you.”
Wyatt looked like he was about to choke on his own tongue, so I headed to Jerry, leaving Wyatt without a backward glance.
“Hey, Jerry,” I said, trying to shake the weird feeling squeezing my chest after my encounter with Wyatt. “You’re coming in late tonight. Want me to get you a beer to start?”
“I got me a temporary job,” he said, beaming.
I couldn’t hide my surprise. “A job? That’s so exciting, Jerry. Where is it? What are you doin’?”
“At the construction site. I’m just sort of a gofer, but they kept me busy this afternoon.” He jutted his head toward me. “The construction site opened back up today.”
“Yeah, so I heard.” Something about his job offer made me feel unsettled. “How did this all come about?” I asked excitedly, because Jerry was beaming and I didn’t want to take that from him. He’d felt beneath everyone for so long, and while he’d been coming out of his shell over the last five months, I’d never seen him like this.
“One of the construction foremen was here during lunch. He spotted me and asked if I wanted a job. He said it’s only temporary, but I don’t mind because it’s more money than I had before and it’s something to do.”
The arrangement sounded fishy. I didn’t mention it because if I did, I’d sound crazy, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Bart had arranged this. But I sure hoped not. It would kill Jerry to know he’d been used, even more so if it was Bart Drummond doing the using.
“This calls for a celebration,” I said with a huge grin.
Jerry’s face glowed with pride.
Max must have heard because he came down to the end of the bar. “What are we celebratin’?”
“My new job,” Jerry said, looking pleased with himself. Then he started to tell Max about