Max’s Tavern T-shirt into place as though she’d just pulled it over her head. The flyaway strands of hair sticking out everywhere indicated my thought wasn’t off base.
I blinked in surprise. While Ruth and I didn’t wear anything obscenely tight, our shirts were much more formfitting. Especially on a football night. Hadn’t everyone told me Lula was a flirt?
She hurried over to the bar and her eyes widened. “Where’s Max?”
Ruth put a hand on her hip and gave Lula the evil eye. “Catchin’ up on paperwork.”
“I didn’t know you knew how to tend bar, Ruthie,” she said, using Tiny’s nickname for her.
“There’s lots of things you don’t know about me, Lula. Maybe if you stuck around long enough, you’d find out a thing or two.” Ruth turned her back on her and headed over to the beer taps.
Lula turned to me with hurt eyes. “I think Ruthie’s mad at me.”
I stared at her in disbelief. Was she for real or was this an act to go along with her innocent-schoolgirl persona? I decided to be generous. “I think Ruth’s upset that you keep taking off and leaving her with all the work.”
“But you’re here now.”
“And so are you,” I said. “We’ll all be making less money. Although Ruth had a discussion with Max earlier, and he agreed to give us all a raise.”
Her eyes lit up. “Oh! That’s good.”
“Yeah,” I said. She didn’t seem to get it, but I decided to let it go, especially since a group of people had just walked in the door. “How do you want to divide up sections? I’ve been working your old section, but maybe I should work Ruth’s tonight. The Thursday night football crowd will be happy to see you.” So happy I wondered if they’d flood her section, leaving me with only the leftover guys who wouldn’t fit.
“Okay,” she said, her nose scrunched in confusion. “So Ruth’s not working tonight?”
Was she really this slow? I didn’t see any hint of duplicity—if anything, she seemed distracted and worried—so I softened my tone. “She’s working behind the bar, remember? Max’ll come out later.”
“Oh,” she said with a frown, then nodded. “Right.”
We got to work, and I watched her with the customers, forgetting things, getting orders wrong, until I finally approached Ruth for some drink refills and asked, “Have you been watching Lula?”
“Like a hawk,” she said with scorn on her face.
“Does she usually make this many mistakes?”
“No, this is excessive, even for her.”
“Do you think she’s nervous because Max kept me on?” Before she could answer, I added, “She didn’t seem to grasp that she and I are going to make less money now that there’s two of us for one job.”
Ruth leveled her gaze on mine. “You are not going to make less money, do you hear me? I’m sure as hell not going to risk losing you over that nitwit.” Her expression softened. “I don’t dislike Lula. She’s a sweet girl and that clueless act is genuine. But you’re right about the mistakes. Something’s up with her. Let’s just keep an eye on her.”
“Okay.”
She handed me the soft drinks and I took them to the table. At around seven, Wyatt walked through the door, and my stomach fluttered at the sight of him.
He’d come early.
Wyatt Drummond was the epitome of tall, dark, handsome, and mysterious. Even though he still wore his coat, I knew what his strong arms looked and felt like. And his hard chest. And his lips. I’d been thinking about him a sight more than I’d expected considering everything else that was going on in my life.
We’d only been together for a few weeks, but the intensity of my feelings had scared me, and Wyatt had sensed it. While my head knew that Wyatt was different than all the previous men in my life, there was something so closed-off about him, even now, and I wasn’t sure I could ever break through his walls. I didn’t like feeling so vulnerable. But I hoped things would change tonight.
I flashed him a smile, and the look he gave me made the fluttering turn into an all-out somersault. He started toward an empty table in my usual section, then did a double take when he saw Lula standing next to a table with her notepad in hand.
I motioned for him to come over to a table in Ruth’s section, and he spanned the distance between us, stopping just in front of me. Close, but not close enough.
“You’re early.” My cheeks flushed.