Free Rip Current by Jill Sanders

didn’t trust Shelly; it was more like she didn’t trust Cole with Shelly.
    “ Club soda. I think I got food poisoning at lunch.” She rubbed her stomach. “That’s the last time I let Marcus convince me to try something new.” She rolled her eyes. “FYI, don’t try the new Thai place at the edge of town.”  
    “ Noted.” She handed over the club soda and looked at Cole, who was just staring at her.  
    “ You?”  
    “ Hmm?” He smiled at her.  
    “ What’ll you have?”  
    His smile grew bigger. “You know what I want.”
    She actually felt her cheeks turn pink so she quickly turned around and started making the girlie drink that he liked. When she was done, she hoped her face had gone back to normal as she set the drink down in front of him.
    His hand reached out and took hers, holding her still. When her eyes met his, she couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on her lips.
    “ What?” She chuckled.  
    “ Later?” She knew what he meant and even though Shelly was standing right next to him, she nodded quickly before pulling her hand away and taking the next order.  
    She didn’t notice her feet or back hurting, not when she was enjoying the music so much. Her hips bounced along to the good tunes and she even stopped a few times to shake her booty during a favorite song.
    Marcus showed up less than fifteen minutes later and the three of them made their way to their favorite booth near the back. She found it hard not to glance that way all night. Cassey had made her rounds and headed towards the booth. She knew her boss would be on her feet as much as anyone else in the place, which made her respect her even more.
    She’d worked for plenty of people before, but none she’d liked as much as Cassey.
    “ Hey, baby, can I get a beer here?” When she turned around, she almost groaned out loud. Brad, one of the locals, was leaning on the bar with two of his buddies. Brad, Mark, and Joseph were Surf Breeze’s local troublemakers. The three men caused more trouble in a season than most tourists did all year.  
    “ What’ll you have?” She prayed that they would have a beer each and then leave, but when he tossed down his credit card and opened a tab, she knew it was going to be a long night.  
    Sure enough, less than an hour later, right as the band decided to take a break, a small fight broke out between the trio and another group of men who had just walked in. Brad said that the newcomers had stolen a bar stool, which had caused Joseph to fall directly on his butt. But Wendy had been looking that way and had seen that Joseph had moved the stool aside to tell a story and had just been too drunk to remember.
    It took Tyrone, a bouncer that worked on busy nights at the bar, along with Mike, two other band members, and both Marcus and Cole to clear the group out of the bar area. She was at least thankful that the cops hadn’t been called. When they got involved, it usually shut the place down for a while.
    After that, Cole took up residence at the bar instead of heading back to the booth.
    “ Does that happen a lot?” He frowned towards the doors.  
    She shrugged her shoulders. “The three of them usually only come in once a month. We’ve made it clear to them we’re not going to deal with it.”
    He nodded and then looked back towards her. “I guess I never really thought about this place as a bar bar before.”
    She laughed as she started building a Guinness. “What did you think I do back here?”
    He smiled and nodded. “You know what I mean.”
    She slid the Guinness across the bar to its owner. “Yeah, like I said, it doesn’t happen often.” She turned and took the next order and was happy to note that things were slowing down. The band was packing up and with no music to distract her, she was feeling every bit of pain from standing on her feet for the last eight hours.
    “ Does it bother you? Standing so long?” He leaned over the bar and snatched a handful of cherries