Free A Heart to Rescue by Ivy Sinclair Page A

the two men sidled right past it . The brothers were talking animatedly about some “ jackass ” at a job site, but that didn't stop Bud from giving her a lewd wink as he shoved his stout body into one side of a booth on the far side of the dining room .
    Her feet dragged as she approached the table. Barry stopped talking as his eyes lit on her face. "Well, hello there Mel! A ren't you a sight for sore eyes?” Barry never had a better pick-up line than stupid clichés . Mel thought that he was generally harmless outside of his lame verbal attempts to attract her attention, but she wasn’t willing to bet on that assumption .
    "Barry, Bud," she said in a crisp greeting as she pulled out her order pad. "Usual?" She wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible.
    "We're celebrating today, Mel. Bring us a pitcher to start," Bud said.
    Mel groaned inside. If the brothers were starting to drink already, that meant they'd be there all afternoon. When Bud got drunk, his hands started to wander, and Mel didn't think that she'd be able to stop herself from decking him if he "accidentally" grabbed her ass one more time. She gave serious consideration to telling Max that she felt sick and needed to go home.
    "Comin' right up," she said instead as she turned on her heel.
    The conversation resumed behind her. She took her time making her way to the bar, straightening salt and pepper shakers and napkin bin s on several on the tables. All too soon she reached the waitress station at the end of the bar next to the door that led into the kitchen . She intended to busy herself with as many small, invisible tasks as possible for the next few hours that kept her out of reach of Bud Parker.
    "A pitcher of Light," she said to Max, who leaned nonchalantly against the bar re ading a car magazine. The biggest difference that she could see between her and Max w as that Max would do everything he could not to do a lick of work during his shift. She preferred to be busy. It helped keep her thoughts from wandering into unwanted places.
    Max grunted in re ply and moved to the beer tap . As Mel started to enter the order into the POS system, she saw that the blue-eyed man, who sat at the opposite end of the bar, now appeared to be studying her. Mel tried to pretend she didn't notice. She was used to men checking her out, but then her mind b lanked on the entry code for a pitcher of beer. She stood there, feeling the weight of the man's stare, before deciding to give into a bit of spontaneity . She turn ed and m et his eyes full-on. Although her life had been turned upside down, she was still the same person, and old Mel wouldn't shrink under an attractive man's gaze. The old Mel would have eaten him for dinner.
    She had to give him credit. Caught staring, he didn't even flinch the way that she had done when he caught her earlier. If anything, she sensed a kind of curiosity there. Mel decided to try an experiment. She raised her hand, pulled her lips into a seductive grin, and fluttered her fingers at him. The man's eyebrows shot up and he frowned before dropping his eyes. Mel was left feeling embarrassed and slightly mortified.
    "Here," Max's looming form blocked her line of sight to the man at the end of the bar as he set a pitcher of fo amy beer in front of her. "You tell those two that if they get loud, I'm kicking them out."
    "Sure, sure," Mel said, rolling her eyes. "You always say that. Thing is, you never actually do it. "
    "This time I mean it," Max said.
    Mel took the pitcher and sighed as she p ut in on a tray with two beer mugs . Max talked a big game, but he wasn't a fighter regardless of his hulking form. Plus that kind of thing would require him to do something above and beyond his normal duties , and Max put in nothing but the minimal effort.
    Mel took her time wal king back to the booth, and set the tray down on the edge. She quickly slid the pitcher and glasses off of it. She knew that Bud was staring at her cleavage. The required