think that’s a little premature.”
He gave her a half smile that could charm the stripes off a tiger. “I’m Gil. Gil Cooper.” He extended his hand across the bar.
“Kerry.” His hand was hard and warm around hers. She refused to let it give her ideas.
“I take it, Bartender Kerry, that this is your first night on the job?”
“Hopefully not my last.”
“So that—” he made an almost imperceptible motion with his head toward the newly occupied booth “—was just first-night jitters? Or did they say something to you?”
“Jitters,” she said easily. He knew the three friends. She could tell. Even if their suspicions weren’t justified, she had no intention of stirring up trouble.
He reached for the bowl of pretzels she’d set out and knocked over the stacks of coins. His hand jerked in a belated attempt to keep the towers intact, and pretzels scattered across the bar. Seemed they were two of a kind. He muttered under his breath and cleaned up after himself.
She forced her gaze away from his hands. “Can I ask you a question?”
“No,” he said, brightening. “I’m not married.”
She fought a smile by pursing her lips. “I was going to ask if you’re a regular.”
“I’m thinking we don’t know each other well enough to discuss my bathroom habits.”
“Not irregular. A regular.” His sense of silliness sparked a wistfulness inside that she had no business feeling. “Do you come here often? To—” she used both hands to gesture from him to the laptop he’d abandoned at the corner table “—do whatever it is you do?”
“I am a regular.” He dusted the salt from his hands. “Starting tonight. Is that your question?”
No way she was responding to that, though in an absurd way, his declaration made her feel less lonely.
“My question is, does she bother you?” She jerked her chin toward the pen. “Mitzi? Everyone seems to take her in stride.”
“She bothers you.”
“I don’t count.” When he raised an eyebrow, she added, “I mean, I won’t be here long. I’m only filling in while Snoozy’s on his honeymoon.”
“He’ll be gone a couple of weeks, right?”
“Three.”
“Long time to be looking over your shoulder. You’re going to have to find a way to lighten up about the apple of Snoozy’s eye.”
Kerry set a bowl of popcorn on the bar, eyed Gil’s elbow and moved the bowl farther away. “I’m open to suggestions,” she said. She caught the mischief on his face and added, “About getting used to Mitzi.”
“How about a joke?” He narrowed his eyes, then snapped his fingers. “What was Mitzi’s favorite subject in school?”
Kerry raised the other eyebrow.
“Hisstory.”
She groaned and started to move away.
He held up a finger. “One more. ’Cause everyone deserves a second chance. What’s Mitzi’s favorite TV show?”
“I don’t know.” Glass clinked as Kerry rearranged her speed well, the thigh-high rack for a bartender’s most commonly used bottles. “When Animals Attack?”
Gil chuckled, then made a sound like a buzzer. “Wrong. Monty Python.”
She laughed, and looked up, and intercepted an appreciative glance. Did a decent job of ignoring it. “Your jokes are almost as bad as my dad’s.”
The moment she said it, she regretted it.
“His must be terrible, then.” Gil tossed a piece of pretzel into his mouth. “Give me an example.”
Kerry caught the eye of Brass Monkey Woman and realized she was doing a rotten job of looking after her customers.
“Yeah, well, it’s all fun and games until a reptile gets out of her pen,” she said. “Excuse me. I need to check on someone.”
“You don’t need to worry,” Gil said to her back. “She got away from Snoozy once. No way he’ll let it happen again.”
Kerry whirled around. “She got out? When was this?” When Gil lowered his head and pushed his glasses higher up his nose, hiding a smile, she slapped the bar. “Now that was mean.”
Brass Monkey Woman came up beside Gil, carrying her empty glass. Kerry swallowed a sigh. Be dependable. That’s all Snoozy had asked and already she was sucking at it.
She apologized to the woman and asked if she’d like another of the same. When the woman nodded, Kerry retrieved a fresh glass and gestured at Gil. “Don’t you think that was mean?”
The woman nodded again, this time with a conspiratorial smile curving her lips. She never looked away from Gil’s face.
“It’s the truth,” he said. “This was quite a few years back, before Snoozy set Mitzi up here in the bar. He was going through a divorce and his wife deliberately let Mitzi out of the house. Half a dozen years later, Allison found her coiled up in a wall at the motel. Mitzi, not Snoozy’s ex.”
Kerry paused in the act of unscrewing the lid on the orange juice. “Wait, Allison found Mitzi? At the motel? I was just there.” Thank God for Eugenia and her dress shop apartment.
Gil helped himself to a handful of popcorn. “I’m sure if she’d had any roommates, they’d have found them by now.”
Brass Monkey Woman made a small noise of distress and shifted on the stool.
Kerry sent her an empathetic glance and turned a glower on Gil. “You’re a real hoot.”
“Relax. They had an exterminator out there and everything. Besides, it was a good thing. Mitzi brought Joe and Allison together.”
Kerry stirred the cocktail, added two cherries and slid it across the bar. “I’m not big on reptiles.”
“I can see that.”
Brass Monkey Woman handed Kerry a credit card and reached for the bowl of popcorn. Gil offered her the pretzels, as well, and she beamed.
“So, you’re staying at Joe’s,” Gil said casually. He didn’t notice Brass Monkey Woman’s sharp glance.
“I was.”
“You don’t have friends or family in Castle Creek?”
“There wasn’t room for me.”
“What happens when Snoozy gets back from his honeymoon? You plan to hang around?”
Brass
