“He’s cramping our style is what he’s doing,” Flo said, wiggling in her chair.
Sid raised a brow in Lucas’s direction, as if he were the problem.
“I’m trying to keep order here.”
“This isn’t a courtroom, Dempsey,” she whispered. Then louder so the group could hear, “He’s just a natural born flirt. We never can keep him away from a table full of hot women.”
That got cheers from the geriatric set. The dirty looks coming his way stopped, but the looks that replaced them made him feel dirty.
Sid tapped him on the arm. “Take your time heading back to the bar so these ladies get a good show for their trouble.”
A woman next to Maggie, who looked to be pushing the century mark if she hadn’t hit it already, said, “I’d better put on my glasses.”
Lucas knew not to argue in front of customers, no matter what. So he did as ordered and tried not to feel like a side of beef on display as he crossed the room. Sid had it coming for this one. Distance shmistance. He’d get her back.
CHAPTER NINE
Sid figured if the old ladies could enjoy the show, so could she. Tray pressed against her chest, she watched the play of Lucas’s firm ass beneath his Dockers until the derriere disappeared around the bar. How did he manage to look that good in such sissified pants?
“You’ve got a hot one there, honey child,” said the woman she’d overheard called Maggie. “I bet he’s a killer in the sack.”
Sid’s turn to blush. “He’s not my boyfriend.” She unclenched the tray and cleared three empty plates off the table. “We just work together.”
“Couldn’t prove it by the way he’s been watching you.”
“What?” Sid nearly dropped the plates on the floor.
“That boy has been undressing you with his eyes ever since we sat down at this table. And I’d wager since long before that.”
Sid grabbed a chair from the next table over, which was thankfully empty, and sat down next to Maggie. “He has?” She glanced over her shoulder toward the bar. Lucas had his head down and was filling a glass. “How can you tell?”
Maggie chuckled and leaned back in her chair. With sharp eyes, the older woman sized Sid up from head to toe, making her squirm. “Flo,” Maggie said, keeping her eyes on Sid. “This little thing doesn’t know her own power.”
“With that centerfold body?” Flo said. “I don’t believe it.”
Centerfold? Sid? Maybe it was time to cut these ladies off.
Flo leaned so close, Sid could smell the whiskey on her breath. “Every woman has the power, but you’ve got more than most. You could have any man in this room with one crook of a finger.”
“Bullshit,” Sid said, bolting from the chair and adding three empty glasses to her tray. “You ladies have had way too much to drink.”
Maggie nudged the ancient woman next to her. “Tell her, Frannie.”
The octogenarian looked nearly asleep, but perked up at the sound of her name. “What?”
Maggie raised her voice. “What do you think of this one?” she asked, motioning toward Sid.
Frannie put on the glasses she’d removed once Lucas’s derriere had gone out of range, and squinted through lenses that made her eyeballs look three times their size. Now Sid knew what those chicks on magazine covers felt like. Who would volunteer for this kind of scrutiny?
“Little short, but those tits are perfect. Curves in all the right places.” Frannie nodded in what Sid assumed to be some kind of approval. “Hef’d like her. She’s got enough vavavoom to light up Atlantic City.”
This woman was on something way stronger than alcohol.
“See there?” Maggie said, looking pleased with herself. “Frannie worked for Hugh back in the sixties. If she says you’ve got it, you’ve got it.”
She might have something, but not what Maggie was insinuating.
“Look, ladies, I appreciate the effort. But that man,” she motioned toward the bar, “has known me since I was fourteen years old, and until five days ago, barely acknowledged my existence. Whatever I’ve got, he’s not buying it.”
“Darling,” Maggie drawled. “That boy is buying, investing, and dreaming about what he could do with the inventory. You just have to let him know the store is open for business.”
Sid gnawed her bottom lip, and looked back to Lucas again. What if these ladies were right? What if she could have him, even for a few weeks?
Snagging the last two empty glasses from the table, Sid avoided Maggie’s direct gaze. “I’ll think about it.”
And she thought about nothing else until the moment she joined Will at Opal’s for their Tuesday night treat, a standing appointment instituted when Beth had moved to the island. Curly had wanted the three of them to get to know each other, something about her not having had a lot of female friends, but tonight was a duo since Beth was working at Dempsey’s.
“What’s up with you?” Will asked, sliding Sid’s favorite cupcake and a sweet tea across the table.
“Nothing,” Sid lied, dropping onto the metal seat. “Why?”
“Because you have that look you get.”
“What look?” She kept her head down, hoping Will would drop the interrogation.
“The one you get when you’re debating something.” Will unfolded a napkin and draped it over her lap. “You had that same look the night Beth suggested we have these little meet-ups, and again when you wanted that new sanding thingy but couldn’t decide if it was worth the money.”
“The orbital sander.”
“Yeah, that thing,” Will said. “Spill it.”
This is why Sid had never minded her own lack of female companionship. Damn nosy wenches. She debated how much to tell. For a bartender who doubled as a barista and worked at nearly every business on the island, Will didn’t gossip much. And she seemed comfortable in her own skin. Maybe talking to another woman, one less than sixty years her senior, would help.
“Do you think I’m hot?”
“Whoa,” Will said. “Didn’t see that coming. I know I haven’t dated much since I got here but I don’t—”
“Knock it off. You know that’s not what I mean.”
“Right,” Will chuckled, then cut into her usual, rhubarb pie. “You’re probably the hottest chick on this island, but you know that.”
“Not really.”
Will froze, fork in midair. “You own a mirror, right?”
Sid shifted in her chair and pulled the wrapper away from her cupcake. “Curly asked me that same thing once. I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“A lot. What do you see in the mirror?”
“I don’t know,” Sid shrugged. “Brown eyes. Round face. Normal nose. Brown hair. What am I supposed to see?”
Will set down her fork. “You remember that night at O’Hagan’s? What did you see that night?”
“I was smokin’ that night,” Sid said, sliding a fork through the cupcake. “But that was the dress and makeup and whatever Curly had done to my hair. A bunch of artificial stuff.”
“Are those boobs artificial?” Will asked.
Sid tilted her head and raised one brow. That didn’t deserve an answer.
“I’m just saying. It’s what was under the dress and makeup that had all those guys drooling and emptying their wallets to buy your drinks.”
She had felt pretty good that night. Maybe there was something to what the old ladies said. “Remember when you came into Dempsey’s the other day? When you met Joe’s brother for the first time?”
“You mean when it was obvious you have a thing for him? Sure.”
Her fork slipped. “How could you tell?”
Will swirled her straw. “For one thing, he called you sweet cheeks and you didn’t slug him.” Leaning her elbows on the table, she pushed her pie to the middle. “But mostly it was on your face. You were trying to look all bad ass, like usual, but when you thought he’d been flirting with me, I saw the hurt in your eyes.” She shook her head. “That’s how I knew.”