Stay with Me (Wait for You, #3)(45)

Sighing, Katie reached over and grabbed my shot. “Snooze, you lose.” She downed it and then cracked the glass off the bar top. “Yeah, I just said that. And yeah, I got to go and make some mon-nay! See you later, bitches!”

I watched Katie spin like a ballerina on her heels and head for the door just as it opened and two other girls walked in. One of them, a busty redhead, curled her lip in Katie’s direction and then whispered something to her friend, causing the other lady to giggle.

Eyes narrowing, I realized I didn’t like that.

Katie stopped, looked the redhead straight in the eyes, and said, “I’ll cut a bitch.”

Roxy’s mouth dropped open.

I snorted. Yep. Like a pig in a cozy blanket.

The redhead paled and the other woman flushed.

“And those bitches back there won’t serve you, so you can go hang out at Apple-Back down the street.” Katie glanced over her shoulder at us. “Right?”

Since I figured I had some ownership over the bar, I nodded. “Right.”

“Be gone, bitches.” Katie all but ushered them back out the door, pausing to throw us what looked like a gang sign. “Peace out, home skillets!”

Roxy and I were quiet for a good minute and then I looked at her. “Katie’s always been a wee bit different, but I’ve always liked her.”

She nodded as she grabbed up our shot glasses, grinning. “Oddly enough, she has been right with some of her predictions. She told me something once . . .” Her tiny button nose wrinkled. “Something I really should’ve listened to.”

I gaped. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“Nope,” she remarked. “But I love that girl. Crazy shit always happens when she’s in here. And I like her feelings.”

“Feelings . . .”

“Feeee-lings,” Roxy crooned loud enough that Reece’s table turned in our direction again.

Namely Reece.

His lips were hitched at the corners as he watched Roxy spin around like a drunk go-go dancer and place the shot glasses in the tray to be cleaned. She twisted back to me and pointed. “Nothing more than—”

“Feeee-lings,” I sang, just as badly and loudly. Probably more badly. “Trying to forget my feeee-lings . . .”

“Oooof loooove,” Roxy belted out as she spread her arms and bowed dramatically.

A round of applause went up from Reece’s table, and we broke into a fit of giggles just as Jax rounded the bar. He stopped a few feet from us, grinning as he eyed me. “What in the holy hell is going on out here?”

“Nothing,” Roxy sung, and I stared at him a moment too long, but he looked good in his jeans, like always, and in his worn shirt, but then she twirled back to me. “So you’ve never been drunk?”

“Back to this again?” I crossed my arms. I’d rather be singing.

Jax’s grin slipped into a look of incredulous disbelief. “What?”

I rolled my eyes. “Is it really that big of a deal?”

“She’s never been drunk,” Roxy pointed out to Jax, who was still staring at me like I had whipped off my top and was shaking my ta-tas at him. “Like ever.”

“Do you drink at all?” he asked, strolling forward, and somehow he managed to get in the minuscule space between Roxy and me, which meant the entire left side of his body was pressed against mine.

I tried to suppress the shiver of response and lost. “I drink a beer or two every once in a while.” Truth was, I never finished a whole beer in my life.

Placing a hand on the bar top, he angled his body toward mine, which lined our hips up and put me at eye level with the tight black shirt that stretched over his chest. Oh my. I could see his pecs. The boy had actual pecs. “Have you ever drunk liquor before?”

I shook my head as I stared at his chest.

“Not once?”

“Nope,” I whispered. Staring at a guy’s chest like it was a chocolate mousse cake was dumb, but it was the kind of dumb I liked.

“Before that drink I tried, I’d never tasted liquor,” sighed Roxy. “Never been drunk. Missing out on a lot of stupid.”

“We’re going to have to change that.” Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Jax move his other hand. My chin jerked up as he tucked a strand of my hair back behind my left cheek. “Soon.”

When he exposed my left cheek, I jerked back, banging my butt into the ice well. I could see Roxy watching us, brows raised and grinning. God, this bar needed to be busier on Thursday nights so it would leave Jax less time to torture me.

And Jax was really in the mood to torture me with his charm and flirt. He dipped his head, and I knew it wasn’t just Roxy watching us. “What else haven’t you done? I think you said something about this before.”

My breath caught in my throat and then was released. Him being so close threw me. “I haven’t been to the beach.”

Roxy shook her head.

“And . . . and I haven’t been to New York City or been on a plane. I’ve never been to an amusement park,” I rambled on, stomach tumbling. “I haven’t done a lot of things.”

Jax held my gaze for a few moments and then he backed off, heading toward the other side of the bar. I stood where I was, finding myself staring at Roxy.