Page 29 of Playing for Keeps
It was almost seven-thirty in the evening and Del was still at the bar. He was sitting at one of the tables in the Bullpen area with his tablet and spiral notebooks spread out in front of him. He also had a beer that he’d only half finished and his cell phone within arm’s reach.
“Read over the last financial statements you sent out this morning,” Jeret, the former Texas Ranger said after taking a seat across from Del.
“We’re pretty damn close to working in the black. Not many businesses can say that after only eighteen months,” Jeret continued.
Del nodded without looking up from what he was doing.
“Yeah. I was pretty encouraged by the numbers after I ran them three times,” he replied.
“You know Noah’s claiming full credit because of his awesome marketing skills,” Jeret said.
Del did look up then, and he frowned. “Of course, he is.”
Jeret laughed, an infectious sound that Del knew he’d never forget. Jeret’s Game Changers t-shirt was a couple sizes too small, which was exactly the way the guy liked it. This combined with his fitted jeans and chiseled good looks kept the women swarming the bar waiting for the opportunity to see him come out of the kitchen. And Jeret with his dark brown hair and hazel eyes loved every minute of the attention.
“He gave you a little credit for handling the social media thing,” Jeret added.
Del shrugged. “It’s not as bad as I thought it’d be.”
If only they knew. While logging onto the social media app and posting about the bar since finding out who MercedesGirl926 was had felt a little different, he’d continued to do so, seeing growth in how many people replied to or simply liked the posts. Also, after figuring out how to go live on the app and starting a Karaoke Check-In on Wednesday nights, traffic in the bar on those nights as well as online interaction had increased. So yeah, it was working.
“This is working out a lot better than I thought too,” Jeret said. “You know I had my reservations.”
After mistakenly taking the life of an eight-year old boy who’d come out of nowhere when Jeret and his team were engaging a suspect, the military trained officer, turned chef, now had reservations about a lot of things. Del could relate to being cautious as well, his time at the DEA and the scandal that precipitated his early retirement was a prime example.
“Our plan was to come back and make a statement,” Del said, trying to be as positive as possible. “We’re doing that. Especially with our sponsorship of the youth little league and cheerleading teams and now Ethan’s idea for the new youth center.”
“Speaking of which, wedding plans are in full swing. We’ve gotta get the bachelor party together. Ethan’s adamant about no strippers, which is fine, but we still need to come up with a fantastic going away celebration.”
Del shook his head. “He’s not going anywhere.”
“Yeah, he is, going off to married life. The land where none of us have gone before,” Jeret continued with a chuckle.
Jeret was right. None of them had ever talked about getting married. Their conversations about girls and then women had covered only the basic topics, dates and break-ups. Nothing about long term commitment, ever.
Del closed the book he’d been using to copy notes onto his electronic file and logged out of his tablet. “He seems pretty happy about it.”
Jeret sat back in the chair and folded his arms across his chest. “Portia’s a good woman. I don’t think any of us saw that in her when we were in school.”
Del agreed about Portia. “We weren’t looking for it back then. He contemplated how true that statement was especially since he knew he’d never looked at Rylan the way he was now.
Jeret ran a hand over the stubble at his chin. “Yeah, we weren’t looking for a lot of things back then. Anyway, we’ve rented a room at the resort for the actual party and a few guest rooms for afterwards because I’m pretty sure none of us will be in any shape to drive home.”
“Sounds like a smart plan.” A plan Del was glad he wasn’t in charge of. He was about to say something else when his phone vibrated on the table. His frown was immediate the moment he recognized the number.
“Do me a favor and take this stuff back to the office for me. I’m gonna take this call outside,” he said to Jeret.
“It’s like twenty-five degrees outside and the temps are supposed to dip even lower as the night goes on,” Jeret stated, confusion clear in his tone.
Del had already stood and picked up the still ringing phone. “I’m not gonna freeze to death taking a five-minute telephone call. But if I do, all my shares in the bar go to Camy.” He walked away heading to one of the side doors.
Cursing came next as he stepped outside because it was rather brisk as the sun that had been high in the sky earlier—offering very little warmth—had long since set and now the indigo sky gave way to the cold. So, he stuffed one hand in the front pocket of his pants and answered the phone before it stopped ringing.
“Hey Del, it’s Clark.”
The familiar voice didn’t make him feel any better about this call. “Hey Clark. What’s up?”
“Sorry to call after normal business hours but I just wanted to give you a head’s up that trial’s starting next week in the Wimbley case.”
