All the Right Moves(14)

Their parents wouldn’t be here to help him out. They hadn’t believed in him enlisting, much less fighting a war in Iraq and getting his leg blown off. Neither of them were monsters, but they weren’t vying for a parents-of-the-year award, either. They had their own lives, and Cassie appreciated that they didn’t interfere in hers.

The room was quiet enough that she heard a car engine outside. Probably Tommy’s van, which he parked at a reserved spot near the handicap ramp. She stared at the door, and two minutes later, watched him limp over the threshold.

He met her eyes for a second, then swung his gaze toward Gordon and the gang. “Joe, you gotta move your car. It’s taking up two stalls.”

“I did that on purpose,” Joe said, looking up from the menu, his gray-threaded dark hair hanging limply to his shoulders. “I’m saving a space for Spider’s Harley.” He pulled out his cell phone. “I’m calling in a couple pizzas. You eat yet?”

Tommy waved him off and kept walking toward Cassie. “I told you we should be serving food here,” he murmured when he passed close enough for her alone to hear.

“Right. Because I don’t have enough responsibility to juggle as it is.” Her blood pressure skyrocketed when she realized he was headed for the back. “Don’t you dare—”

He stopped, slowly turned. “What?”

“You don’t think you might owe me just the tiniest explanation why you’re late?”

“Can I at least take a piss first?”

“No, you can’t.” She gritted her teeth when the others laughed. She hadn’t meant for them to hear. “Where the hell were you?”

“I told you I had bar business.”

Boy, had he just opened himself up. She bit back the sarcastic remark that came to mind. “Such as?”

“I don’t wanna talk to you about it when you’re in this kind of mood. You’ll just be negative and give me attitude.” He continued on to the back room.

She slipped around and followed him. “You knew I had to study, and you promised you’d cover this afternoon. Now you’re gonna explain what was so damn important that you screwed me over.”

Tommy sighed and turned to meet her gaze. He was clean shaven, not a regular occurrence, and he’d tamed his curly hair. “Can you keep an open mind?”

She glanced at his wrinkle-free shirt, a button-down, not his usual ragged T-shirt. Maybe he was telling her the truth. “Yes, I can.”

“I met with the attorney about the gaming commission. If things go well with the background checks, we could have the license by November.”

“Are you kidding me?” Had he not listened to a word she’d said? The Gold Strike was in no position to consider gaming.

“See, there you go with the attitude.”

“I thought you were joking about this. Even if you could get the license you can’t afford to pay someone to keep the place open twenty-four hours.”

“Do you know how much money those machines pull in? We’ll be able to hire three more people if we want. Put in a kitchen and serve food instead of watching customers bring in pizzas and hot wings. This place could be so much better.”

“Look...it’s not—” Cassie got a false start, breathed in deeply and tried again. She didn’t want to crush his enthusiasm, just inject a dose of reality. “I’m not against making improvements or expanding. It simply won’t happen in the near future. Tommy, the license is a half-million dollars.”

He shrugged and his face flushed. “Len has some ideas about that.”

“What kind of ideas?” She moved closer. “You didn’t have enough in the account to cover the electric bill. I had to dig into my own pocket.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

She stared at him in mute frustration, waiting for him to remember that she had told him. But his personal coffers had also been bare.

Shame burning in his hazel eyes, he looked away. “We can find a way to make it work. We just have to be creative.”

Cassie didn’t bother to argue, or to point out there would be no “we.” Sad for both of them, she watched him walk toward the men’s room, his shoulders slumped. He scared her when he got like this.

Whoever this attorney was, he was outright stealing from Tommy if he was telling him they were in any position to get a license. At least now she knew why Tommy never had a nickel in the bank. The right thing to do would be to track this shyster down and file a complaint against him. Which might save the bar, but could destroy her brother.