Page 32 of Long Hard Road
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself. It was surprising that it had taken me this long to piss off Madison. As my history proved, I was terrible with women.
The dishwasher ended up being a quick fix of tightening the water hookup. It took longer to clean up the mess on the floor and in that time, Madison and Rhys had gotten the bar cleaned up. The floor had been mopped and the chairs were balanced on the tables. Rhys and Madison were leaning against the bar and she was laughing at something he’d said.
“Rhys, thanks for the good work tonight.” I slapped the huge stack of tips into his hand. Madison had refused to take her cut and I never took any tips since I was just helping out a friend by running the bar for a month. “Feel free to take off.”
“Cool.” He flinched a little at how much cash I handed him. It was twice the usual size for a winter night of bartending. “Mad, you need a ride?”
“I’ve got her,” I answered before Madison could reply. “See you tomorrow.”
“See ya.” Rhys backed away from us slowly. “Will I see you, Mad?”
“Yeah. I’ll be here.” She glanced at me. “Until this guy gets sick of having me around.”
Rhys chuckled. “Guess I’ll be seeing you for a while then.”
I followed him to the door to unlock it and let him out. Then I locked it after him and turned back to Madison. “We’re all done here if you want to grab your coat. I’m just going to lock up the money in the office.”
When I stepped back into the bar area, Madison was wearing her coat and holding something in her left hand. “I need to show you this,” she said before I could ask what it was. “I found this on that table in the corner.”
“What is it?” I didn’t like the way her hand was shaking when she thrust the napkin at me. It was a cocktail napkin that we served with each drink to catch the condensation. Alongside the Nest logo, this one had something written in black ink.
Stay away from the bartender or I’ll have to do something about it.
“Where?” I only managed one word through my clenched jaw.
“That table.” She pointed to a small table tucked between the jukebox and the wall. “It was the only thing on the table.”
We didn’t wait on people at the Nest. If you wanted a drink, you came to the bar to order it. A couple of times an hour, someone would go around and clean up any empties that weren’t returned to the bar, but we otherwise didn’t interact with people who were seated at the tables. I couldn’t remember anyone sitting at the table, let alone someone watching Madison closely enough to know we’d been flirting with each other.
“Did you see who was sitting there?” I knew the Nest had a few security cameras, but I doubted any of them would pick up that table. It was too tucked away.
“No. I wasn’t paying attention. I should’ve been more aware.” Madison’s voice was shaky.
“Come here.” I put an arm around her shoulders and sighed as she buried her face in my chest. “It’s alright, Madison. I’ve got you.”
‘That threat is directed at you, Nate.” Her arms went around my waist and wrapped tightly around my back. “You just met me two days ago. You never asked for any of this.”
I put a hand on the back of her head, holding her gently against me. “None of this is your fault. I’m not scared of some stupid scribble on a napkin.” Then I dipped my head to put my lips next to her ear. “It would take a hell of a lot more than that to scare me away from you, angel.”
I wasn’t surprised when she pushed back and avoided eye contact with me. Things had been awkward between us since the ill-advised groping incident. I needed to apologize but I didn’t want to make things worse. It was easier to just follow Madison’s lead and stay quiet on the walk home. She kept her head down while I kept mine on a constant swivel, just in case that asshole tried to follow through on his threat.
When Madison stepped into her cabin, I followed right behind her. “Oh. Are you… coming in?” She frowned as she looked at me. “Do you need something?”
“I’m not letting you stay here alone tonight, Madison. Not when that guy has been on your porch.” I did a quick scan to make sure nothing looked amiss inside the cabin. “You’ve got a guest room, right?”
“That way.” She pointed past the kitchen. Then she turned the other way. “My room is over there.”
The opposite side of the cabin. “That’s not going to work, angel.”
“What? Why not?”
“The front door is between those two rooms. If someone comes through that door and I am asleep over there, I might not get to you in time.” I made a quick assessment as I hung up my coat and kicked off my boots. “I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
“No. No way.” She did that stubborn, crossed-arms move that drove me wild.
“I’m not leaving you here alone tonight.”
Madison let out a hard breath that fluttered the fringe over her eyes. “Just sleep in the guest room. Please. I won’t be able to sleep tonight if I know you’re out here on that worn sofa.”