Her Dirty Bartenders (Men at Work #5) - Mika Lane Page 0,17

needs to be patient,” Robbie said. “What I can tell you is that I can’t remember the last time I saw a more beautiful woman.”

There was no shortage of beautiful women in our lives, thanks to Tableau. When you were owner of a popular club, women swarmed around you like flies on shit. Maze and I had accepted our newfound celebrity with caution. In fact, that was pretty much how Maze ended up being voted Denver’s Most Eligible Bachelor.

Robbie, however, hadn’t taken all the attention in stride and instead dove into the middle of it. And that’s pretty much how he ended up a baby daddy.

So, for him to call out this woman as exceptional—well, she must be pretty special. Not that any of us had much time or energy for women. We had some pretty big fish to fry.

“Beautiful or not,” Robbie said shrugging, “I doubt she’ll be back. She was hating on the shit work.”

Understandable.

Maze looked at his watch. “Okay guys, thanks for the meeting. I want to get over to the club. You wanna ride with me, Cab?”

“Let’s do it.”

We looked at Robbie. “I have to bring Jax to Elise’s mom. Grandmas always be babysitting.”

Ugh. Another reminder to keep my dick in my pants.

12

Cab

We were gearing up for a busy night where both Maze and I would be working the main bar.

“Fuck, there’s Annabel,” he said under his breath.

She walked around setting up tables, all while continually looking in his direction.

“When are you getting rid of her, man? Just let me do it,” I whispered.

“You know her father’s an investor here. It’s not that easy.”

Seemed like investments never came without big, ugly strings attached to them.

I shook my head as I wiped down our liquor bottles and looked around. Where was our barback? I didn’t need to be wasting my time cleaning shit.

“Hi, Maze. How are you today?” a voice behind me sang.

“Hey, Stell, good to see you. Hope you’re ready for a busy night,” he said.

Thank goodness. The barback was here. I turned to meet her, curious about her supposed great looks, and wondering what the hell she was doing accepting such a dirty job.

Oh.

Shit.

There was a churning in my stomach and for a moment I tasted bile.

No, no, no.

I swallowed hard so I wouldn't get sick. “Estella? Estella, is that you?” I stammered.

This was our new barback?

What the fuck?

Maze looked between the two of us and fake-smacked his head. “Of course! You guys already know each other. Stell is Marni’s friend. For Christ’s sake, you all grew up together, didn’t you? I completely forgot to put that together.” He beamed at the small world-ness of it all.

I glared at him.

Yeah, he’d completely forgotten.

And my sister Marni had completely forgotten, too.

But he was oblivious, clearly delighted that a ‘friend of the family’ had joined the team.

“My name is Stell now,” the former Estella said in a flat voice.

Maze continued stacking glasses, happily reciting a rap song to himself.

She did not look happy. “Yeah, um, Marni neglected to mention that you worked here, too.”

“So funny,” Maze added in between his humming.

Holy shit. Estella Kline. Here. In Denver. At Tableau.

And we were going to be working together.

“Hey, guys, can you excuse me for a sec? I gotta run to the men’s room.” I casually walked away, and the second I was around the corner, I grabbed my cell and dialed Marni.

“Hey, Cab,” she said cheerfully.

I wanted to kill her. Maze didn’t know about my history with this woman, but my sister sure as hell did.

“Marn. Why didn’t you tell me Estella Kline was coming to work at the club? Actually, why didn’t you tell me she was coming to Denver?” I hissed.

“Cripes, bro. Calm down. I guess I just didn’t think about it.”

She was so full of shit.

“I don’t appreciate this, Marn. And I suspect your friend Estella does not, either.”

“Oh, Cab, she goes by Stell now. Estella just didn’t suit her personality—”

“I’m pissed, Marn. You should have told me.”

Weights clanked in the background. She was clearly making her rounds, like she did a hundred times a day. “Look, Cab, don’t be upset with me. Talk to your damn business partners. I mean, don’t you guys tell each other anything? Jesus.”

“They told me someone named Stell had come to work for us, who, by the way, was a big pain in the ass. But they didn’t tell me Estella Kline from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose dad is a congressman, and who we grown up with, was coming to join