Fever (3 page)
COLE
“You lose! Wo
ohoo!”
I watched Frankie prance around like an idiot, a pool cue in one hand while the other punched the air. I understood the fourteen-year-old's elation. Beating Malachi Quigg at pool was damn near impossible. I'd been trying for years and only managed it a couple of times.
Throwing the damp cloth from my hand to the counter top, I continued wiping down the bar while Nina bustled in from the kitchen with an empty tray to collect up the remaining glasses from the pub tables.
I grinned as she hummed her way around the room. It had been a busy one tonight; the sturdy
, wooden tables filled with people enjoying plates piled high with food and mugs nearly overflowing with thick, Irish ale.
People came from all over Chicago to hang out at Quigg's. It was a friendly joint that Malachi and Nina had started up on their meager savings. They wanted it to be a place that everyone felt comfortable in. Sunday lunches saw families with young kids shuffling in the door while Friday nights often brought in a fresh haul of college students. They were stubbornly strict on checking IDs from anyone who looked mildly underage
, and alcohol was served accordingly. I had been given very clear instructions when I first started working behind the bar. It'd been drummed into me so hard, I could practically recite the rules in my sleep.
I finished wiping down the polished wood until it gleamed and then pulled the dishtowel off my shoulder to dry off any remaining watermarks. Nina dumped the tray onto the edge of the bar and I took it off her, walking back into the kitchen and leaving it by the sink for Declan to deal with in the morning.
Stepping back into the room, I spotted Nina, her freckled face scrunched tightly in disgust.
“I'm guessing this is yours.”
She held up the small, white napkin with a phone number scribbled across the center.
“Ah, that's right. Candace.” I took it from her, folding it in half and slipping it into my back pocket.
Nina slumped onto the bar with a groan, her red hair splaying over the wood.
“Are you even going to call her?”
I made my grin extra-wide as she looked at me with that droll expression of hers. “Of course I'm gonna call her.”
“Yeah, for a booty call!” Frankie jumped up onto the stool beside his foster mother and chortled.
“Frankie,” she scolded and turned back to me with a glare. “See the example you're setting right now?”
“Oh come on, Nina.” Frankie rolled his eyes. “You don't think I'm good with the ladies?”
Nina squashed her grin between tight lips and turned back to the boy. “You're fourteen years old. Let me assure you, you have a very long way to go before you score yourself a decent lady. Now back to bed, mister. You've got school tomorrow.”
“Malachi said we could play another game.”
Nina's green eyes rounded. “It's getting close to midnight, and Malachi is not allowed to say those things to you without my permission. Now, bed. Sleep. Grow!”
With an impish grin, Frankie slid from his stool and bustled past his foster father. Malachi scruffed the boy's hair as he walked past, putting on an innocent face. “What's he doing up then?”
Nina gave him a hard glare before turning to check the pub doors were locked. “That kid does not understand the concept of sleep, and you letting him play pool after closing does not help, Mal. He should have been in bed hours ago. If the place hadn't been so busy tonight, I would have been up there with him. I feel bad when I can't look after him properly.” She turned back with a frown.
Her soft heart was her undoing...and the reason every foster child who had ever been in her care fell madly in love with her.
“You remember what I was like when you first got me. Sleep's hard for a foster kid.” I threw the dishtowel back over my shoulder. “Besides, trying to beat Malachi at pool is probably keeping that kid from running away.”
Nina gave me a soft smile. “I just hope the state will let us keep him. I feel like we can really make a difference with this one. If we're lucky enough, he'll turn out as brilliant as you.”
I grinned as she patted my arm. She'd never be my real mother, but she certainly treated me like her son, as she did every boy who'd been dropped off at her door. “Frankie's a good kid. He'll be fine.”
“Yeah, as long as we can keep him away from that psycho mother of his.” Malachi's eyes bulged, his Irish accent growing thick with the late hour.
“Mal,” Nina chided.
“What? I only speak the truth.”
“I know.” Nina looked toward the door that led up to the three-bedroom apartment above us. “But he doesn't need to hear us talking that way. A boy will always love his mother, no matter how messed up she is.”
Nina picked at the counter
, and I couldn't help leaning over the bar and kissing her cheek. “You're the world's best mother, Nina. He'll fall in love with you, too. In fact, I think he already has a little bit.”
“Well, it's impossible not to, Boy-o. Look at the woman, she's the most beautiful creature on this earth.”
Nina blushed and rolled her eyes as her husband captured her from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and nuzzling her neck. “Malachi, stop it.”
Finally relenting, he grabbed the broom from the closet and started sweeping up the floor, giving her neck a raspberry as he walked past her. I chuckled with Malachi as Nina yelped and slapped him on the back. The three of us continued packing up, each knowing our jobs without having to say a thing. I'd started working weekend shifts here when I was sixteen. Five years later, I felt like a pro and couldn't wait to start doing this on my own.
“Speaking of falling in love.” Nina sat down at the bar, her perfect nose crinkling.
“When were
we speaking of falling in love?” I tipped my head. She always did this to me.
“We are now.” She slapped the counter and I bit back my smile, reaching for a short glass and popping the cap off her favorite bottle of whisky.
She took the glass with a little smile and raised it in the air before taking a delicate sip. “When are you going to stop collecting all these random phone numbers and actually start dating a girl, Cole Reynolds?”
“I date.”
“No, you don't; you charm, you swoon, you sleep with and then you don't commit.”
“Hey, I don't sleep around like that, okay
?”
“You're telling me you haven't had sex with any of the girls who practically throw their phone numbers at you?”
“That's not what I'm saying either.”
“Then what are you saying?” Malachi slipped into the seat beside his wife and tapped the counter.
With a scowl, I pulled up another glass and slapped it down. “You're making me sound like a jerk.”
Malachi chuckled while I filled his glass a third of the way with the amber liquid.
Nina took another sip and placed her glass down with a grin. “You're not a jerk, Cole. You are a gorgeous guy that girls fall all over themselves to get to. I'm just wondering when one of them will actually get under your skin.”
“I don't know if one ever will.” I shrugged, hating this conversation. I had plans, and a committed relationship was certainly not on the agenda.
“What? You don't want to fall in love and have babies?” Malachi looked incredulous. “You'd be such a great father.”
“I'm twenty-one. Are we really having the parenthood discussion right now?” I put the bottle away and turned back to face them.
“We're not saying we want you to be a father now, we're just wondering if it's a dream you have for the future.” Nina's eyes sparkled.
I pressed my arms against the bar and got in her face. “You know the only dream I have for my future is to own a pub like this. I want to give indie bands a place to play, and people a place to dance, sing, and have a little fun in. Your gig here is awesome and I want to do it too. I got one year left until I graduate
, and then I can focus all my attention on making it happen.”
“You gonna be my competition, Boy-o?”
I chuckled. “You know I'm gonna set it up on the South Side. I could cater to all the college students. There's nothing like that for us near campus. It'd become like a student watering hole.”
“An alcohol-free one?” Malachi's bushy eyebrows rose.
I looked him straight in the eye. Blue on blue. It was always the best way to have a serious conversation with him. “If I need it to be, I will. Students will come for the music and the cheap food, not the booze.”
“Highly unlikely,” Malachi scoffed.
“I love your dream.” Nina ran her hand over my messy curls. “You remind me so much of what Malachi was like when I first met him. He had such grand plans.”
I shifted away from her, my back cramping from leaning forward so far. I crossed my arms over my chest and nodded. “See? And he made them happen.”
“No.” Nina shook her head. “
We
made them happen. Together.” She caught Malachi's eye, and they shared one of those moments, both their expressions turning mushy.
“I can tell you, boy
, it's a lot more fun that way,” Malachi stated. “You have someone to stress with. Someone to celebrate with...and then of course there's the sex-breaks.” His cheeky grin accompanied Nina's gasp. “Oh you know you loved it, you little minx.”
“Malachi Quigg, if you ever want sex again you will stop talking right now.” She gave him a stern frown, hampered with giggles, before draining her glass and passing it back to me.
I took it with a laugh, holding out my free hand for Malachi's. “I know one day I'll probably fall in love with a very nice woman and we'll be happy together, but I just can't imagine wanting that more than my plans right now. I don't know if everyone finds their soul mate like you two did. I think there are many contented, happy couples in the world, and I think it's possible to love lots of different people.”
Nina's nose wrinkled.
“Come on.” I spread my arms wide. “I kind of like the idea that if my spouse died, I'd have the chance to fall in love with someone else.”
“Okay, fair point. You might never find your soul mate, but you can't dance with a bar, and a bar will never wrap its arms around you and make you feel more loved than anything else ever can.”
Nina's green eyes bored into me and I had to concede. You could dance on a bar, but it certainly wouldn't be kissing you goodnight.
“I'm not going to stop praying for you, kid. I want you to find that girl. I want you to build your dreams together.”
“You do that, Nina.” I forced a small grin.
“Oh I will.” Jumping down from the bar, she blew me a kiss and headed for the stairwell. “I'm gonna go check on Frankie. You have
a good day tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I better get going. My first class is at eight-thirty.”
She stopped at the door, pride shining in her expression. “Good luck. And say hi to David for us. Tell him he has to stop by for a meal.”
“Will do.” I waved them goodbye and slipped out the back, hearing Malachi lock the door behind me. The evening air felt fresh on my face. Man, I loved this time of night. The city still had a buzz to it, but it was softer and less intrusive.
I caught a cab easily and was soon handing over my cash and taking the stairs two at a time to my dorm room.
I couldn't stop thinking about what Nina had said. The whole falling
-in-love thing irked me. I didn't want to need it. I didn't want to see how happy my foster parents were together and then yearn for the same thing. I'd been on my own since I was ten, fending for myself; I was used to it. But Nina and Malachi had really picked away at my barriers. When I'd first arrived on their doorstep, I was a messed-up fourteen-year-old, and the first thing to really break through my stone wall was the loving way they treated each other. The way they laughed together, danced together, sang around each other as they cleaned up the bar. Or the way Malachi would sometimes just sit there, watching his wife. She was oblivious to his gaze in spite of the love emanating from it. I couldn't help wondering what that felt like.
I opened the door quietly, knowing David would already be asleep. He'd moved in with me my sophomore year and swiftly become my best frie
nd on campus. He was a good guy—intelligent, funny, easy to be around—but he was also super-studious and got a little pissy with my work hours sometimes.