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Nat’s phone rang just as she finished. It was Mase again.
“Yes?” she asked, biting her lip with pleasure. “Um, did you forget something, Officer?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Forgot to issue an invitation.”
Her eyes widened. “Holy cow. I don’t know how you could top what we did today.”
There was a short silence. Then Mase roared with laughter. She listened, torn between blushing and laughing along with him. That had sounded pretty dorky.
“Baby,” he said, his voice still quivering. “Not that kind of invitation. I know the bar’s closed on Sunday, so I want you to come to a barbecue with me next weekend. Family thing.”
Nat stood there, clutching her phone. Family? His family? “Uh ... wh...” she stuttered. “Um—you do?”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice soft. “I do. At my folks’ place. Just a casual thing, supper, birthday cake and beer and my brother Chip’s kids running around screaming their heads off. You might wanna bring a set of earmuffs for when they get going.”
Nat swallowed. “Oh. Wow.”
“Nat. You in for this? Did I scare you off, uh, complaining about my dad on our date?”
She shook her head, realized he couldn’t see her and rolled her eyes at herself, clapping her free hand to the top of her head. She was such an idiot.
“Um, no. Wait, wait! I mean yes,” she said. “I mean, you didn’t scare me off. I want to go. I do. Your dad is ... your dad. So I’ll deal.” He wanted her to meet his parents. He’d taken her on a date, now his family ... wow.
“Good. Hell, that’s great. Listen, baby, I gotta go, I’ll talk to you soon, okay? See when we can get together again. And just saying, you can call me too. I’ll answer.”
She was smiling so hard her face hurt. “Okay, Officer. Bye.”
She slid her phone back into her purse and floated off to the office to do a few last minute things. However, she couldn’t stop thinking about his invitation, and ended up texting a list of questions to him.
‘Whose birthday is it? Should I bring a gift?’ If it was one of the kids, she would definitely bring a gift, because kids loved that.
‘What food should I bring?’ Because she was not going to supper with his family without bringing some kind of offering. If a person, especially a woman, went to a barbecue she brought something to eat. Something delicious.
‘What should I wear, a dress or just shorts?’ Okay, that one was easy, she’d wear a sundress or a skirt and top. That way she’d be dressy enough to show respect but still cool. Also, did they have a pool, so that she should bring her swimsuit?
She sent the long text and then resolutely went back to the business of going over the sample website her new designer had made up for her to look over.
She soon lost herself in the wonder of seeing Rambles right there on the internet, with a map and directions, the photos she’d taken of the outside and inside of the bar, the taps and the pool tables, and a drinks page listing the microbrews and other drinks currently available, the lists enhanced with antique style gold and black lettering and scroll work.
There was even a proposed merchandise page, where she could sell beer glasses, growlers and tee-shirts if she wanted. Which she did, but that was for later when the bar was up and running and stable.
She would need to build a Facebook page too, and open a Twitter account. Everyone was on social media, which made it a great place to list specials.
Her phone rang. She bit her lip when she saw that it was Mase again. Was he going to tell her to back the heck off, and stop obsessing?
“You worry too much, you know that?” he asked quizzically. “Fuck, baby, you just show up at the barbecue and you’ll knock everyone’s eyes out, so don’t worry about what to wear. No swimming pool, my parents aren’t that much fun. Birthdays, it’s some of the adults who don’t need gifts, and my middle nephew who’s four but we gotta bring little gifts for the other two so they don’t feel left out, they’re two and six. Food, hell if I know. I’ll ask my mom. There, we cover everything?”
Since he sounded amused instead of annoyed, and since he’d just handed her another huge compliment, Nat grinned at the phone. “Yes. I believe so, Officer.”
“All right. By the way, I appreciate you’re worried about making a good impression on my family, but you don’t have to. Just be you. Now, I gotta go.”
“Wait,” she called, her hand tightening on her phone. “It’s not your birthday, is it?”
He sighed. “I’m one of the summer line-up, yeah.”
“Mase,” she scolded. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. You are the most aggravating ... oh, never mind. Just tell me when your birthday is.”
“August 17th. And I already know what I want from you, so don’t buy me anything.”
Nat cleared her throat. “Right. We’ll discuss that.” Like she was going to show up to his birthday party as his date, with no gift for him.
He chuckled, a low, naughty sound. “Yeah, we will. You can bet on that.”
“Bye, Mase.”
“Bye, baby.”
Natalie made a note on her to-do list, ‘buy Mase birthday card and gift’. Because he might have some sexual act in mind for her gift to him, but she couldn’t unwrap that at a family party, now could she? Maybe at Club 3.
List made, she sat back and stared unseeingly at the prototype of her website. He’d invited her to meet his family. This was a huge step in a direction that she wasn’t sure how to handle. It was somehow even more intimate, in its way, than what they’d done together at Club 3. Family picnics implied things about the future—their future. Things she wasn’t sure she was ready to even deal with.
Her hands were shaking as she went back to her website. She wasn’t sure if it was excitement or pure, unadulterated fear. Both, really.
She so did not want to screw this up.
* * *
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16TH
The day of the grand opening of Rambles bar arrived.
When Mase turned off the highway and made the turn along the bluff road that evening, he was pleased to see the parking lot nearly half full. Several local vehicles and a few Oregon plates. Natalie’s opening was off to a good start, and it was only seven o’clock.
As he walked toward the building, he could hear music from inside. Nickelback, one of her favorites. He grinned wryly, wondering how hard it would be to talk her into lining up a country playlist too. Plenty of folks liked country, and a lot of the new stuff was sort of cross-over pop anyway. He’d make a believer of her yet.
In the evening light, the building looked good, the paint spruced up, the junipers neatly trimmed, the outdoor patio washed down and set with plastic tables and chairs. There were even huge painted pots set at the corners of the patio and beside the front door, full of bright spills of bloom and greenery.
The plate glass doors were clean and shiny, the gold and green lettering gleaming in the lights as he pulled the right hand door open and stepped inside. Music, voices and the sharp clack of pool balls filled the air, along with the smell of beer, pizza and mingled shaving cologne and perfume.
Off to his right, one of the three pool tables was busy. There were a few couples at tables, and one large group with pitchers of beer on their table. Two couples and three single men sat at the bar.
Natalie was behind the bar with Judd, both of them wearing snug, green Rambles tee shirts and big smiles. Mase preferred the way the shirt looked on Natalie, the gold lettering flowed across her bodacious breasts. Although if that bozo at the end of the bar didn’t stop staring at her tits, Mase was gonna have a word with him. ‘Cause gorgeous or not, the lady bar owner was taken.
She had some of her hair pulled up on top of her head in a knot, the rest spilling down the back of her neck. As she turned to place a drink on the bar, her dangling gold earrings glinted in the lights. She looked good enough to be on the menu. Except he was the only one who got to eat her. He grinned at the bar, remembering in living, breathing detail his gorgeous sub spread out on it, all for him.
The bar itself looked great too, the mirrored backdrop reflecting the jewel tones of all the liquors on the shelves behind the bar, and the varnished wood of the bar gleaming in the lights. Above this hung the refurbished sign, ‘Rambles’ gleaming in neon green and gold accented with red and black.
Mase walked through the tables toward the bar, taking his time and pausing to greet people he knew. Bill Hayes, owner of the hardware store up across the highway was there with his wife. He stopped to say hello to them, then others, and finally arrived at the bar, where he snagged a stool near the beer taps, turned so he could watch the room and Natalie, and waited. This close he could see that she wore a pair of tight jeans that did fantastic things for her legs, with cross trainers on her feet.
She saw him and ducked around Judd, who was mixing up a blender of margaritas. Stopping before Mase, she put one hand on the bar and smiled at him, her face glowing with excitement as she waited for the blender to stop. “Hi. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Baby. I wouldn’t miss it.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her close enough to lean in for a kiss, long enough duration to mark her as his. She tasted sweet and warm.
Pissing on her corner posts, Dack called that kind of public kiss. Whatever, it worked on the bar fly, who nodded respectfully to Mase and turned to admire the blonde barmaid instead of Nat.
“Looks like it’s goin’ well.”
She nodded, her earrings shimmering, her lips glistening from his kiss. “It is. So what can I pour you?”
He leaned sideways and looked over the taps. “How about one of those Rogue Ambers?”
“Coming right up.”
He watched her move behind Judd, who was pouring blended margaritas into salted glasses. She moved like a dancer, graceful and at home behind the bar. And he wasn’t the only man who was watching her.
When she brought his beer to him, flipping a coaster in front of him to set it on, he waited till she set the foaming glass down and then captured her hand and brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. Her hands smelled like bleach and beer, but that was okay with him.
“I’m just gonna sit here and watch you work,” he said.
Her cheeks flushed and she smiled at him, snagging the twenty he pushed across the bar. “That’ll get boring. Be sure and grab some pizza. We have it coming in every hour until midnight from Bridge’s down in Vancouver.”
“Baby, you got a great pizza place right across the road.”
Her smile slipped. “Yeah, well, they seem to be on the list of River Ridgers who don’t want to work with me.”
What the fuck? Why would the D’Aulorias not want to sell product right here, where delivery was easy and they could no doubt triple their business? Unless they were part of the shit with Buzz and Cassidy. Those two were like a cancer spreading through River Ridge.
But now was not the time to go into that. She needed to get on with opening her bar.
“You get anything to eat?” he asked when she brought back his change. He left the money sitting on the back edge of the bar.
She wrinkled her nose. “I had a few bites earlier. Too excited to eat much. I’m sipping on a Coke, though.”
He nodded, and let her go. He’d see to it that she ate something later.
* * *
BY TEN O’CLOCK, THE bar was nearly full, with the staff going full out, serving beer, drinks and encouraging the patrons to enjoy the pizzas, popcorn and peanuts laid out.
Four tables of customers and a few pool players were Ridgers. The remainder he pegged as Vancouver folks willing to drive to a fun new place and a few trendy urbanites that looked to be from Portland proper.
Nat was flying high, fairly dancing around behind the bar, then emerging to check in with her customers, introduce herself and get their names. She had people laughing and chatting. Hell, she was a natural at this.
He could stop worrying—she’d carry this off with or without the Ridge assholes.
Teri had arrived, with three of her girlfriends who Mase guessed were also hairdressers, judging from their perfect hair, makeup and glitzy outfits. They were sipping drinks with fruit in them and laughing and chatting with the guys at the next table.
To Mase’s shock, Xander was here. He was dressed in almost ordinary fashion too, just a black cap sleeve rocker tee with the emblem of a metal band, and black leather pants and boots. He wore his usual dangling single earring, but his hair was slicked back in a plain tail, and his eye makeup was minimal.
When Mase lifted a hand, the other man walked to perch on the barstool next to Mase’s. He ordered a dark draft and loaded a plate with pizza.
“Great place,” he mumbled around a mouthful. “She gonna serve pizza every weekend?”
“Think you’ll have to order in as a rule,” Mase said. As soon as he had a friendly talk with the neighbors about why it was good business to support a bar that was going to be a huge hit.
“Where’s Dack and the others?” X asked. “Thought for sure they’d be here.”
“Dack and Trace are on club duty tonight,” Mase said. “Which means Daisy, Sara and Kai are at the club too. Jake had to take Carlie to some family thing. Otherwise, you’re right, they’d be here.”
All of them had expressed regret, Jake in particular. Actually, he’d offered to chew nails rather than have dinner with Carlie’s parents over a chance to kick back at Natalie’s bar with good brews and friends. Carlie had made a regretful face and apologized to Mase in a sweet way that made him smile and kiss her soft cheek.
“Tell your Natalie we’ll come up next weekend,” she said. “Pinky swear. Hopefully the others can come, too. We’d drive up tonight after my parents’ dinner, but Jake has to get up early tomorrow morning to open the gym. My big guy needs his sleep, or he’s a bear.”
Jake was a bear all the time, but if he had his woman fooled, Mase wasn’t gonna mess with that. Carlie was no dummy—she knew who she was taking on.
Mase took another sip of beer and turned his head as the front doors swung open on another group. His body tightened. “Shit.”
Xander turned to peer over his shoulder. “Who’s that?” he mumbled around his mouthful of pizza.
“Trouble,” Mase said. “A whole fuck load of trouble.”