His Old Lady - Debra Kayn Page 0,44

at Faye's suggestion. She believed the dimness added a little mystery and seduction.

Apparently, she thought the sexy mood would encourage the men to drink. He'd take her word for it. Far as he knew, being a guy, all it took was a bottle in front of him to want to drink.

For now, peanuts in a shell and pretzels would be the only thing keeping people around the tables. Next week, a pool table was coming in.

Faye smiled at him. His pulse raced, and he reached up to capture that radiance when her eyes widened, and she backed up a step before he could touch her. Disappointment filled him.

She turned away from him and hurried to her friends. He couldn't hear what they spoke about, but their excitement enveloped Faye into their circle.

He felt like an outsider in his own bar.

"Hey, Curley. What's the name of the bar?" shouted Frank.

He looked back to Faye, connecting with her. She too wondered. The last two weeks, trying to get things up and open, so he could keep Faye, he hadn't given any thought to the name of the bar. All the paperwork pertaining to business, he'd used his name.

He'd done everything for Faye. It was her bar, even though he'd put his money down to gets things started, and Tarkio paid the rent.

His life was with the club, not running a bar. But he'd done it all to keep her in his life, and for that, it needed a proper name.

Her emotional eyes, the same color they were when she was eight years old and had begged him to let her stay at his house while he'd taken her to Grandma June, gripped him now, even more powerful than they had back in her childhood.

"Promise," he said to her, but loud enough for everyone else to hear the name of the bar. "That's the name of the bar."

Faye's gaze rounded, and she continued looking at him. More confident in his choices, he wouldn't back down. No matter how much she wanted him out of her life, he'd promised to always be there for her, and he would be.

Someone slapped him on the shoulders, he turned to see who it was and found Priest walking away. When he looked back to Faye, she was gone.

Pushing through the crowd, sweat broke out on his back. He couldn't tell if the name of the bar pissed her off or not and didn't want her taking off to go back home yet.

Paco grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Got the key, brother."

"Thanks." He took both the new one and the spare. "Have you seen Faye?"

Paco hitched his thumb over his shoulder. "She passed me going toward the door. Roddy's standing by his Harley, watching over everything. She's good."

He strode across the room and pushed outside, looking around for her. Spotting her sitting on the bumper of her car, her back to the street, he slowed, not knowing what kind of mood he'd find her in.

She kept her head down when he stopped in front of her. "Change the name."

He squatted in front of her, needing to see her face. "Of the bar?"

"Of course, I’m talking about the bar." She straightened without leaving her make-shift seat. "You have to keep throwing it out there that I belong to you, keeping everyone away from me. I had the best time in the last two weeks. All the bikers were nice to me and treated me like I belonged—"

"You do."

"No, I don't." She moved to get up, and he put his hands on her knees, stopping her. "They all know we don't have a real relationship, and I'm a joke to you. I'm such a fool for letting myself believe that this job was anything but a way to make me stay under your control."

He thrummed his thumbs against her legs. "I never do anything unless I'm serious. I want you working here."

"Really?"

"Swear on it, Faye."

"I want to believe that," she whispered.

"Besides, you're the only one I know who has the talent to run the place."

Her gaze flickered, and her mouth drooped. "Why did you have to say that and ruin everything?"

He straightened, grabbing her hands and pulling her to her feet. "Let's call it a night. We're both dead on our feet, and the bar opens in two days. I'll follow you home."

"You don't have to."

"I want to." He opened her car door.

She held up her finger for him to wait and moved toward the building. "I need to grab