didn’t. Thank God. Cassie took her own step closer to John. She touched him, low, her hand covered by the bar. “Please,” she said, keeping her voice down. “Please, just go.”
“Get off me,” Tommy shouted. “You happy now, Cassie? Now you’ve turned my friends against me?”
“John. I can’t do this. You need to go. I’ll be fine.”
When he looked at her, the struggle was so clear, she wanted to comfort him, but this wasn’t the time. Tommy had to calm down. He could seriously hurt himself or someone else. He’d already humiliated himself to the point where it made her sick.
She took hold of John’s hand and squeezed it as she walked him to the end of the bar, letting go as soon as it would have been seen. But she continued on with him until he was at the front door. “Thank you,” she said, as softly as she could. She didn’t touch him at all, but she prayed he understood that she wanted to. Badly. “We’ll talk later. I appreciate everything you’ve done.”
Tommy started ranting behind her, and John looked over, ready to charge in, but she put a hand on his chest. His heart was beating so fast it echoed her own. “Please.”
He sighed. Nodded once. Then walked away.
Cassie forced herself to face her brother. It wasn’t easy. She loved him, she did, but this was...
He stared at her as if she’d betrayed everything he’d ever held dear. As if she were responsible for all the bad things that had happened to him.
He closed his eyes and jerked himself out of the grip of Wayne and Greg. When he turned his back on her, he teetered. Greg went to help, but Tommy slapped his arm away. To utter silence, her brother walked between tables, away from her. He didn’t move his head, and what was worse, the folks sitting down, longtime regulars and newcomers alike, avoided looking at him.
Her heart felt as if it were breaking into tiny pieces. Maybe it was all her fault. She treated him like an invalid, and that was what he’d become. If she’d been stronger...
“Come on,” Lisa said, making Cassie jump. “Let’s get back to work. We have orders to fill.”
With as much dignity as she could muster, she followed Lisa, making an effort to meet people’s eyes, to smile, even though she had to blink back tears.
Once she was by the sink, she picked up the towel John had thrown. It killed her that Tommy had gone to the pool room. The old Tommy would have set aside his pride and taken care of business. Not even considering that he’d ignored her, he shouldn’t have turned his back on the bar or his customers.
The anger she’d felt for days, hell, for weeks, came surging up again, but she tamped it down as she looked at the first person who caught her attention. “Need a refill on that gin and tonic?”
It was as if she’d pressed the start button. Bless them, the bikers, the mechanics, the folks from the hospital, all the people who’d become more than customers, started talking. Loudly. Filling the room with sound helped, and for once she was grateful that one of the boys fed a handful of quarters to the jukebox.
“Hey. You.” Lisa popped up again. Right next to her.
“Quit doing that.”
“I really didn’t bring you back here to work. Go get your damn textbook and get out of here.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes,” Lisa said, folding her arms over her chest. “You can. And you will. Tommy brought this on himself. He’s gonna have to figure a way out of it. By himself.”
Cassie opened her mouth to protest, but Lisa’s eyes were like flint.
“He needs to fix this, Cass. Go home. Study. And when you see that man of yours, you give him a big sloppy kiss for me. I swear,” she said, swiping her forehead with the back of her hand, “I nearly swooned when he stood up for you like that.”
“I could have handled it,” Cassie said.
Lisa’s mouth dropped open a bit. “You stubborn... Yeah, you could have. The point is, you didn’t have to. Because you had someone on your side for a change.”
“It’s not like that—”
“I give up on the both of you. Go home, Cassie. I’ve got the bar, and if I have to kick your brother’s butt all the way across the building, I will.”
Cassie didn’t doubt her. About Tommy. What she’d said about John? That, she’d have to think about.
* *