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Saturday, August 23rd
The second grand opening of Rambles arrived.
At four o’clock on a hot, sunny afternoon with billowy clouds building to the west over the low hills on the far side of the Columbia, Nat exchanged a last look with Judd, who nodded and smiled at her from behind the bar.
Trista gave her a small fist pump, and she and Becca shared a look of nervous hope.
Nat took a breath, and let it out. “Okay,” she said. “Here goes.”
“Yay,” Trista cheered quietly. Judd echoed it in his deeper voice.
Nat smiled. Despite everything, she was once again buoyed up by hope too, although this time it was tempered by caution and a bit of sheer terror. She’d stumbled out of the starting gate, and this was her last chance to recover and stay in the race.
The Club 3 gang arrived at five o’clock, hot, perspiring and grinning as they filed into the bar, clad in their Rambles shirts and baseball caps which Trace had produced, as a gift.
“We’ve been everywhere in this damn county,” Jake boomed.
“River Ridge is covered in flyers and those cool posters Carlie came up with,” Sara agreed. “So is north Vancouver and strategic areas of Portland.”
Mase walked in a few moments later. He was still in uniform, looking hot and sweaty and altogether delicious to her. He looked tired and grim, although when he spotted her his face relaxed. He strode across the bar to her, carrying his duffle in one hand.
“Just got off shift,” he told her, leaning in for a kiss. “Gonna clean up in your men’s room and change. Then I’m ready to help.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, staying him with one hand on his arm. “You look ... I don’t know ... something’s wrong. What is it?”
“I’m where I wanna be. You go back to what you were doing. You’ve got a bar to open. And nothing’s gonna go wrong this time. Anyone messes with you, I’m gonna throw ‘em out.”
She held up one hand. “Whoa. Mase, as much as I appreciate that, you need to let me make decisions on any trouble. This is my bar.”
He raised his brows. “You’re turning down the services of an off-duty cop as floor man and bouncer if need be?”
“No,” she said. “And I love having an off-duty cop as floor man and bouncer, if we have any fights or drunken shenanigans. But if Cassidy, Buzz or any of their friends show up, I’m asking you to stand behind me, not in front of me. I need to be the one to deal with them.”
He gave her a look that said very clearly he did not like what she was asking him, but he jerked his chin in acknowledgement. “All right. I hear what you’re sayin’. Any trouble of that kind, we’ll wait for you to take the lead. But I’m gonna be right behind you, darlin’. And so are the other guys. You got that?”
She nodded. “Got it, and appreciate it, Officer. Now go change. I wanna see you in one of my tee-shirts.”
She thought he flinched at something she said, but he quickly moved on, casting a roguish look down over her, his gaze lingering on her breasts. “Won’t be quite the same effect as you in that tee-shirt, I’ll tell you that.”
* * *
CASSIDY RODEN PAUSED in the parking lot of Rambles bar to let her friends catch up with her. She scowled at the bar blazing with lights, and the people streaming in. Yeah, the parking lot might be full now, but when she and Buzz got through, it wouldn’t be.
She sniffed back a hot rush of tears as she remembered walking into the bar and seeing her big brother behind the bar, laughing with his friends. Making everyone feel good. So he’d usually had a woman or two at his side, but he was that kind of guy. He couldn’t help it if he attracted women.
And his wife obviously hadn’t been keeping him happy, or he wouldn’t have had to look further, now would he?
Jessica arrived on a wave of her cheap perfume, and Buzz and his friend Carl walked through the rows of vehicles to meet them. Cassidy turned to Trev, who stood unsmiling at her other side.
“You in?” she asked him.
He shrugged, not happy but loyal. “Said I was.”
She smiled up at him, and moved closer to lay a hand on his muscular chest. “I’m gonna have to make this up to you,” she said.
She watched him react, his pupils dilating, muscles jumping under her touch, and smiled. Trev was cute, and after a certain encounter she’d had a couple of evenings ago at Wiley’s, she’d acquired a new belief in her own appeal as a woman.
She shouldn’t have let the guy talk her off her barstool at Wiley’s, especially after he’d bought her all those tequila shooters. And she certainly shouldn’t have let him take her back to her apartment, but it had been so nice.
And in a way, almost innocent. Yeah, they’d fucked, but then they’d lain on a blanket under the stars and talked and talked. Or at least she had. He’d mostly listened as she poured out all her confusion, anger and grief that the one person she depended on—Tony, was gone. Gone forever, leaving her with no anchor, like a boat adrift on the river. Until sometimes she wished it had been her who drove into the cold depths.
Then he’d held her, and for a while it had all been all right.
But of course that had faded today as Buzz reminded her they had a mission, to get back at the woman who’d taken her big brother from her.
“We gonna go in or stand out here all night?” Buzz demanded now, hands on his hips.
“Asshole,” Trev muttered, for Cassidy’s ears only.
“I know,” she answered. “If he wasn’t one of Tony’s best friends, I would’ve told him where to jump a long time ago.”
“Let me do it,” Trev offered, already pressing forward.
She patted his chest and let him go. “Not yet, big guy. First we have business to take care of.”
Her phone dinged just as she was stepping up onto the walk in front of the bar. She pulled it out of her pocket, annoyed. Probably Shawna, explaining why she couldn’t make it again.
Then she saw the name on the screen and stopped, a flush of pleasure spreading through her. It was him. She clicked on the message. ‘Look over by the river’.
“Cass?” Trev asked behind her. “You comin’ or what?”
“Uh, just a minute,” she managed, over her shoulder. “I have to take care of this. You guys wait for me, okay?”
She looked across the parking lot toward the river, and smiled when she saw a lean, raven haired man leaning against the rail. He nodded, and then went back to texting on his phone.
Her phone pinged again. ‘Come and talk to me,’ she read. ‘See u hurting from here.’
She sucked in a breath. He understood her so well, after just one night. Still ... ‘I have to go,’ she texted back.
Ping. ‘U sure? Or will it make u feel worse?’
Shit. Shit, he was right. After she’d confronted Natalie the other night, she’d felt sick, feverish, like someone who’d been through a car wreck and lost her equilibrium. She had expected to feel better, not worse. ‘I have to’ she texted, her heart pounding.
Ping. ‘In my arms, all u have to do is breathe. U r enough.’
Oh, my God. That was so beautiful. He was a virtual stranger, and yet he knew just what she needed. She lifted her head and gazed at him across the parking lot, losing him for a moment as a big SUV pulled in, then finding him again. Waiting patiently ... for her.
‘I have to do something first.’
She waited, sure he’d understand. His response stopped her in her tracks, her breath freezing in her throat.
‘Choose that old shit or look ahead with me. If u go in, I won’t wait.’
“No,” she groaned. She couldn’t lose him—not like this. Her heart pounded harder. Was he right? Was it time to let go of the past?
“Cassidy,” Buzz called. “C’mon. We aren’t waiting all night for you to message your girlfriends.”
She turned on him, her braid flying back over her shoulder. “Shut up,” she snarled. “I ... I changed my mind. I’m not going in.”
Trev, Jessica, Buzz and Carl stared at her as if she’d suddenly popped out horns and snarled ‘I am the Gatekeeper’.
“Say again?” Buzz demanded, hands on his hips.
Anger scalded her face and throat. Cassidy glared at him, at all of them. “I said, I’m not going in. You do ... whatever. Doesn’t mean I have to do it with you.”
She turned and strode toward the river. Footsteps crunched behind her, and Trev caught up with her. “Hey,” he said, his hand on her arm. “Cass, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m sorry, Trev, but I ... I just realized, this isn’t working for me. I’m out.”
He pulled her to a stop. “Well, great. It was a dumb idea, anyway. So, let’s you and me go somewhere else.”
She looked up at him and shook her head. “No, thanks. Like I said, I’m meeting a friend.”
Trev looked uncertainly toward the river and then scowled as his gaze locked on X. “That dude? Who the hell is he?”
“Someone who understands me,” she said. “Bye, Trev. I’ll see you at work. Go have a drink and keep Buzz out of trouble, okay?”
She leaned up to kiss his cheek, and then hurried across the parking lot, her steps lighter than they’d been for a long time.
* * *
AT ELEVEN O’CLOCK, Mase was behind the bar, leaning on his hands and waiting for Becca to return with a load of empties for the glass washer. He’d taken the duty on himself, leaving Judd free to tend bar, Becca and Trista to barmaid, and Nat to do a bit of everything.
She’d been so scared, and then powered right through that, and now look at her.
She was lit up like a ground-level firework, gold and copper gleaming and fizzing under the lights as she moved about her bar, meeting and greeting customers, guiding them to note the paddle board raffle, the free pizza and snacks and most of all the beer list and drink menu.
She had a constant smile on her face and her hair swung around her like a bright banner as she nodded, threw back her head to laugh with customers and tossed her head for a few of the older guys, who from their smiles, ate that right up.
She looked good in her tight Rambles tee and bootcut jeans that accentuated her little waist, long legs and that heart-shaped ass, glitzy embroidery cupping the fullest curves right where he liked to grab her.
He smiled as she laid her hand on Cole Allen’s shoulder and laughed at something the older man had said. The others at his back corner table joined right in. When Mase had let Cole know there was a great new place for the golfers to come and toss back a few cold ones, and that the pretty owner could use their help spreading the word, the man had jumped on it. Anything for Mase, he’d said. He’d come, and brought not only his golfing buddies but their wives. They all looked to be having a good time.
Jake and Dack had taken on the duties of floor men. They circulated through the crowd in their tight Rambles tees and jeans, friendly but letting everyone know that they were here and on crowd control. Mase had watched Dack move in on two young guys in pre-fight stance by the pool tables, separate them and do it in a friendly way that made them both grin sheepishly and get back to having a good time.
Jake hadn’t done much, but then, being Jake and a mountain of muscle and dour countenance, he didn’t have to. He wasn’t a schmoozer, he was a deterrent.
Sales were excellent, from the way receipts kept piling into the till. Mase had helped Judd change out five kegs already. They’d sold out of two popular offerings, one amber and one IPA, but they’d subbed in a new dark amber and a second wheat beer, so they were still strongly in the beer business.
The big blenders were running full time, churning out margaritas and pinã coladas, a constant cacophony mingling with the beat of the classic rock and pop coming from the big wall-mounted speakers. Mase had cut more limes than he cared to remember. A cut on his finger still stung from the tart citric acid. He lifted it to his mouth and sucked on it to dull the sting, then dunked the finger under the stream of rinse water.
He glanced at the clock on the wall. Nearly time for the raffle.
And so far, no Cassidy, no Buzz and no trouble. He saw lots of familiar faces in the crowd too, some who’d been here that first disastrous Saturday night and many who were here for the first time. Nedra Farr sat at a big table with some of the Realtors from her office and a few other business people had shown.
The tables were also peppered with friends, as Dave and Teri had brought their posses, and Mase had invited everyone he knew in local law enforcement.
Lt. Garcia was conspicuous by her absence, but some of his fellow officers were here, with their significant others. A few had clearly heard the latest skivvy, as he was getting some weird looks. He ignored that vibe. This night was not about him, it was about Natalie. He focused on her and set his own shit aside for the night.
She was moving toward the raffle table, with Trace, Kai and Sara waiting for her by the display they’d helped set up the day before. The shiny new paddleboard and paddle, with the Rambles logo emblazoned on the toe of each, hung on the north wall of the bar over the snack table which now bore, along with largely decimated trays of D’Auloria’s pizza, a centerpiece of a big clear container nearly full of raffle tickets.
Mase grinned as Kai handed Nat a microphone and Trace reached in to stir the tickets while Sara stood at his side. Carlie and Daisy stood nearby, both beaming. The Club 3 gang were having as much fun as if they were opening another business of their own.
Nat picked up the microphone, and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitar cut off, leaving the voices of the bar crowd.
“All right,” Nat said into the mike, her voice reverberating over the crowd. “If I can get everyone’s attention over here.”
Voices gradually faded as the crowd tuned in. Daisy stuck her little fingers in her mouth and gave a piercing whistle.
Natalie beamed at everyone. “Thank you. Thank you all, for coming out tonight to celebrate the grand opening—the grand re-opening of Rambles Bar. This is why we’re here, all of us enjoying ourselves and having a good time together. Thanks to the River Ridge folks who are here, those of you up from Vancouver and especially those of you who made that long trek across the river from Portland—wow. Talk about interstate commerce.”
A couple of tables of partiers cheered at this, and Nat laughed with them.
“And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” she said. “We’re going to draw some raffle tickets. I have tee-shirts, I have drink cards and I have a grand prize—a genuine Rambles paddleboard and paddle to use on our mighty Columbia, or in your backyard wading pool, if that’s your comfort level.”
Applause greeted this, along with more whistles.
“Incoming,” Jake’s deep voice rumbled behind Mase.
Mase looked over to see the big man jerk his chin toward the front of the bar. Mase followed the gesture, and tensed. Buzz Allen stood just inside the front doors of the bar, followed by his sidekick and Jessica Dey.
“You want me to get rid of him?” Jake asked.
Mase hesitated, and then shook his head. “No, he’s got a right to be here. Until he fucks up. Then we can remove him.” As much as it killed him to hold off. His hands itched to curl into fists and plow straight into the dude’s pouty, sneering face.
Jake nodded. “Your deal.”
Except it wasn’t, as much as Mase wanted it to be. This was Nat’s deal, her business. And Mase wasn’t ‘on duty’ here, he was a visitor. So no matter how much he wanted to storm in and take care of the situation, he was going to let her handle it.
Unless and until she asked for his help.