Page 100 of When You Wish Upon a Wideout

“I love you!” Grace yelled out over her shoulder.

Sienna waited until both girls were inside the house and sighed. There were a few things Grace asked for that she could say no to these days. Time with friends, even if it meant spending the night apart, was not on that list. So, when Grace asked to spend the night at Lilah’s after the concert, Sienna happily said yes, planning to go to Maloney’s to relieve Henry and help her staff close out for the night.

Still a few blocks away from the bar, Sienna could hear the noise—musicthumping. At first, she thought it might be coming from one of the many cars that took up all the spaces—including the one she normally parked in right out front.

“Whatthe hell?”

The line wrapped around the corner caught her attention, and she slowed as she drove by, her mouth gaping as she saw what could have been a hundred—or maybe more—people waiting outsideherbar. She turned into the alley, where she was certain she could park, but instead found Beau’s truck and a loud, bright-yellow sports car she didn’t recognize.

Leaving her car behind Beau’s, Sienna sprinted to the front entrance.

“Hey, lady, there’s a line, and you’re cutting it!”

“This ismybar.”

At the front of the line, Sienna found Henry focused on a clipboard while balancing a large jar of cash between his legs.

“Cover is ten, and that includes one Dole Whip piña colada. If you can’t do ten, cover is five, no drink. If you really can’t do five, we’ll take whatever you’ve got. But don’t be stingy, tonight is for sick kids,” Henry said, not looking up from the board. “Entrance fees will be matched—”

“Cover? We don’t have entrance fees!” Sienna hissed.

Henry looked up from his clipboard. “Oh. Oh. Shit.” He pressed his lips together before his eyes flicked to the line of people behind a fuming Sienna. “It was Beau’s idea.”

“What is this?” She pointed at the money. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be—”

Henry stood on his toes, ignoring his sister. “Next!” He took the twenty dollars from the couple at the front of the line, handing them bracelets before unclipping the velvet rope. “You need to wait,” he told the next woman in line. “We’ve got a fire code to abide by.”

“A fire code?” Sienna asked, completely lost. All of Brookwood could probably fit in Maloney’s without worrying about the fire code. “Henry! Who are all these people?”

“Didn’t you hear?” The man who had just passed through Henry’s barricade asked over his shoulder. “Sparks are in town.”

Sienna’s eyes widened, boring into her brother, who shuffled awkwardly, focusing on the tally he kept on the clipboard. “Do you... want a bracelet?” he offered, avoiding eye contact.

Sienna hopped over the rope, pushing open the door. She huffed at the comments coming about her cutting the line.I own the place!She wanted to scream. But when Sienna stepped into Maloney’s, she wasn’t sure if she was even at her bar anymore.

“Oh, you made it. You’ve got to try the Dole Whip floats,” Frank said, his voice just loud enough for her to hear. “We’ll need to order more rum tomorrow though.”

Sienna wanted to grab Frank’s arm as he passed by and demand answers, but the shock seized her. She didn’t know where to look—at the crowd of people or the shirtless grown men dancing on the bar top in football pants.

What the hell?

It took three people bumping into Sienna for her to shut her mouth. Sienna shook her head, eyes scanning. Behind one large shirtless man was Beau singing along and dancing as he stood behind the bar, pouring shots of rum into plastic cups of Dole Whips. He was about to stick a plastic spoon into one cup when he saw her, and his eyes widened larger than a deer caught in headlights.

Sienna took a deep breath and began to fight her way deeper into the crowd so she could get to Beau and wring his neck.

“Sienna!” Beau called out. He tapped one of the men dancing on the bar before pointing at her. The man held out his hand, which Sienna looked at skeptically before accepting, letting out a gasp as he pulled her up onto the bar top so Beau could help her down the other side.

With his cautious eyes and his brown hair sticking out through the opening arch of his backward baseball cap, Beau resembled the five-year-old who once had to tell his mother he and Sienna broke a vase in the living room while conducting an experiment on gravity.

“How mad?” Beau offered her a cup of Dole Whip.

Still flustered, Sienna shook her head. From behind the bar, she could seemoredancers at the back, and in front of her, all she could see were thick sweaty bodies as they continued to dance and taunt the bellowing, excited crowd.

“Did... did you just turn my bar into a strip club?”

Beau fiddled with his hat. “I was going more for the Chippendales vibe.” Since Sienna didn’t accept the Dole Whip, he gave it a quick swirl and spooned some into his mouth before directing her attention to the bar top. “Running back. Safety. Tight end,” he continued, pointing at each of the men on the bar. “Offensive lineman.” Beau pointed at the rather large man in the middle, whose confidence wasn’t inhibited by the fact that his stomach hung well over the waist of the bottom of his football uniform.

“Defensive backs and wideouts in the back. Quarterback is DJing, but honestly, he’s been playing ’80s jams most of the night, so I think we might have to sub him out.”

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