Birthday Girl(25)

Sammy Hagar’s The Girl Gets Around plays on the juke box, and Cam heads for the bar, holding onto the edge and doing a little dance while lip syncing to me.

She’s a trip.

“All done already?” I ask over the music, glancing at the clock on the wall. “I’m not off for at least another hour.”

“That’s fine.” Cam waves me off as she reaches around and grabs the rum out of the well and the clean rocks glass in front of me. “We need to chill out before we head home to bed anyway.”

She pours one shot, replaces the bottle, and takes the soda gun, filling her glass with Diet Coke.

I pluck the scoop out of the ice bin and add a few cubes to her glass before I move down the bar, checking on the customers.

I replace Grady and Rich’s beers, get a refill for Shel’s husband playing video poker, and mix up three Cosmos for a few ladies who left their editions of Deepak Chopra’s The Gift back at their booth which they bring every week, so their husbands think they’re actually in a book club meeting.

“You want to jump behind here?” Shel shouts to Cam. “I need to restock beer.”

She shoots Shel a look, but she gets up and comes behind the bar. Shel charges down the hallway where the cooler and beer is stored.

“Empty out the tips and start the jar over,” I call out to my sister at the other end. “You don’t get a share of mine.”

She laughs, looking at me smugly as she puts her hands on her hips. I turn to mix a Screwdriver for another customer, and the next thing I know there’s a fat roll of cash in my face.

“Like I need your dimes and nickels, babe,” she replies smugly.

My eyes go wide, and my mouth hangs open as I gape at the wad. “What the hell?” I grab it out of her hand and fan the bills, seeing lots of ones but an impressive amount of tens and twenties, too.

“That’s what making your rent in one night looks like, honey.” She snatches it back out of my hand. “We had a bachelor party.”

Lots of drunk guys showering money. I watch her slide it back into her back pocket and frown at the gleam in her eye. It makes sense she makes a hell of a lot more than me. I work in a bar. She works in a club. She entertains. I pour drinks.

It must be nice, though, to go home tonight, knowing you can pay your bills tomorrow. That you can go to the grocery store and put whatever you want in your cart.

I look up and meet her eyes, and I can tell she’s thinking the exact same thing. It could be easier for me, too, if I take her boss up on his job offer.

I won’t make as much as my sister as a bartender there, but I’d make more than here.

But while The Hook may offer fast money, nothing about that place is easy. Men look at Cam like a free meal, and she puts up with a lot of shit.

Still, though…I’m tired of worrying about money every damn day.

I go back to work, but I can feel her eyes on me. She thinks I’m a hamster on a wheel.

“Just shut up,” I mumble.

She snorts. “I didn’t say anything. Not one single thing.”





“Thank you,” I say, climbing out of Cam’s Mustang just over an hour later. I fold up the front seat and grab my bag from the back, quickly glancing over my shoulder to see if Cole’s car is in the driveway.

It’s not. Just Pike’s truck.

I shake my head.

“You don’t work tomorrow, right?” Cam asks.

I turn back. “No, but I do Saturday night. I’ll text you my schedule later.”

“Okay.”

I slam the door and dig in my pocket for the house key. “Love you. Bye,” I call out.

“Oh, I bought something for you, by the way!” Cam shouts through the open passenger side window. “Look in your backpack when you get into your room. Test it out. See how it feels.”

I stop, turning halfway around and thinning my eyes on her. “Not another vibrator…” I whine.

She throws her head back and laughs at the present she gave me for my eighteenth birthday last year. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t let me open it in front of a party full of people.

“Not that,” she says. “But it’s definitely something you and Cole can enjoy together.” And then she jerks her chin toward the dark house behind me. “Or, um…perhaps the man of the house might like it, too. The other man of the house, I mean.”

She wiggles her eyebrows at me, and I shoot her a dirty look. “I don’t even want to open the package now.”

“’Night!” she taunts and pulls away from the curb.

Jerk. I love my sister, but she knows how to embarrass me.

After unlocking the front door, I step inside, push it shut behind me, and twist the lock again, looking around the dark living room. It’s tidy, and I walk past the entrance to the kitchen, taking in the single, small stove light left on the way I appreciate. The sink is empty of dishes from what I can see, and I exhale, loving the feeling of coming home to a clean house.

I trail up the stairs, the house giving off an eerie silence around me. Walking down the dark hallway, I lift my head and see Pike’s bedroom door straight ahead of me. It’s closed and no light shines from under the door.

I swing open the first door on the left and flip on the switch, discovering what I already suspected. The bed is empty. Cole’s still out.