Page 57 of Keep Your Guard Up
I grabbed the wad of cash that had been thrown in the tip jar and thrusted it out to the young bartender, who I now knew to be Noah. “Word from the wise, crack a joke with a smile or two and both you and the patrons will feel a lot better.”
His bright eyes shone as he nodded frantically.
“You’re doing great, don’t stress.” I patted his chest and poured Beau and I another whiskey each. Then, with a wink Noah’s way, I climbed back over the bar and plonked down beside my old teenage fling in the fancy suit.
“Awfully kind of you.” Beau tapped his glass against mine.
“I’m just an awfully kind person,” I replied, downing my drink quickly and signalling another.
“I remember you lecturing me that this was asippingwhiskey all those years ago,” he teased, eyebrows flicked up in curiosity.
“I sipped.” I nodded to Noah as he placed another drink in front of me. “Just didn’t take many of them.”
Beau laughed. “Ah, I forgot how much fun you are.”
“A two-year absence will do that.” I swirled the large cubic ice in my drink.
“I missed you, Trevvy,” he mumbled, taking another deep swig from his glass.
“I missed you too, Beckett.”
Chapter 31
Mari
I’d meant it when I told Beau I’d missed him. We sat together, talking and laughing as if we’d seen each other just the other day.
“I shit you not, Trevvy, people do some weird stuff to avoid paying taxes.”
He told me stories about the finance firm he worked for in the U.S, and I filled him in on the shockingly low amount of news in Soggla.
“So, when were you going to bring up the fact that you have one of the UFL’s top up and coming fighters not only training with Al butcoachingout of your very gym?” he demanded, shocked that I wasn’t deeming this big news.
“Must everything be abouthim?” I groaned, nearly tripping on the slip of my tongue.
His eyebrows flicked up in surprise and it was clear as day I’d fucked up.
“Hmm … I don’t know, Trevvy. Must it?” he asked mockingly.
“Ugh!” I threw my head into my hands and groaned again. “No, it mustn’t.”
I glanced over to the beautiful women who were inching closer and closer to Chance. One had wiggled her way in-between him and one of the bigger guys from the gym, Hogs, and was currently twirling circles on his chest. My very blood boiled at the sight of it, a wave of unnecessary possessiveness crashing into me.
Chance’s blue eyes met mine, bored and blank.
Light-bulb moment.
“Come dance with me!”
“What?” Beau gaped, nearly choking on his drink.
“Come dance with me,” I repeated, hopping down from my stool. “Come on, Beckett. We haven’t dance together inages!” I began swaying my hips in the fashion of the way we’d used to dance together in clubs. Mind you, we had been sleeping together in some weird friends-with-benefits arrangement back then.
“Alright! Alright! Calm your tits. I’m coming.”
I laughed and pulled him onto the dance floor.
I jogged over to the DJ set and hit a song. The flow of a sexy beat bounced out of the speakers and thrummed through the room. My hips tipped up and down as I danced my way through the crowd.
