Hustle Me (Bank Shot Romance #1)(23)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Still, after finding the picture and hearing what she had to say at lunch, there was no way that I could tell her my real name. Aside from lying about it at first, now I was even more involved. Clearly, I needed to get to the bottom of things before I told her anything else. Maybe it was a coincidence that Joker and my father were in that picture, but the fact that it was in his album was enough for me to wonder what was going on.

My hair was still wet when I got downstairs and since Tippy hadn’t brought me my bag of clothes, I had to wear what I had on the night before. Luckily, Charlie hadn’t cleaned out the cabinet under the sink. After five years, some of my things were still lingering around. I found an old bottle of cologne and sprayed just enough to freshen up. Even though I found some of my old clothes, they needed to be washed and I couldn’t tell her where I had found them.

I headed downstairs and saw her at the bar. She was on the phone and signing a work order for a beer vendor. I think I almost saw a smile lingering on the corner of her lip when she spotted me.

I walked right up to her, just as the beer guy was leaving. “Hey, you’re just in time. Shaun just left for the day and no new customers have come in for dinner.”

I looked around and noticed that it was pretty quiet. "Are you expecting a big crowd tonight?"

She shook her head. "It’s usually really slow during the week, but there is pool league tonight. They drink a lot and order food. Normally they don’t come in until around seven. Do you want me to show you around, so you know where everything is?"

I kept forgetting that she didn’t know I’d been here before. "Yeah, that would probably be helpful."

For the next twenty minutes I followed Charlie all around the bar while she told me where I could find everything, and I’m glad she did, because some things were different than I remembered. As I listened to her talking, I couldn’t help but check her out. Everything about the girl was hot. Boyfriend or not, I wanted to see her naked. She bent over in front of me to pick up a pen and her ass was all up in my face. I licked my lips and tried to gain composure when she turned around to face me. "So, you think you can handle it?"

Oh, I could handle it alright…I could do more than handle it. I could make her forget all about that boyfriend. If I was going to have to stick around, I may as well take advantage of the perks. Charlie was definitely a perk.

"Yeah, I think I will survive."

I felt something grab at my leg and I jerked back, but it was just the kid hiding under the counter. "Where did you come from?"

"He likes to hide under there. Apparently he did it before I met him." Charlie giggled and handed her brother a cookie. "Ry, you need to stay out of Jammer’s way. He’s going to be helping us until we can find someone else."

He poked his head out and looked at me. "You mean he can’t stay forever?"

She squatted down in front of him. "He’s just here to help me until I can find someone else. Jammer can’t stay forever. He has a life."

Really I didn’t. I would hardly call drifting around hustling people "a life".

"Don’t worry, kid, I’m going to teach you to shoot pool before I leave."

"But I can already shoot pool. My daddy taught me when I was littler."

"You mean smaller." Charlie corrected.

"It’s okay, I got what he meant." I looked down at the kid. "Maybe you can teach me a few things then?"

"Okay." He seemed genuinely excited.

Charlie made her way into the kitchen and Ryan followed behind her. When people started coming in, I was concerned that someone would recognize me, but the two teams shooting were all new faces to me. Most of them drank bottled beer, which was a piece of cake. A few people wanted mixed drinks, but nothing too complicated. Charlie worked hard making the food in the kitchen and by eight, she was taking Ryan up to bed. She came back down about a half hour later, but I’d already run back in the kitchen and filled an order for a turkey club. I probably put way too much meat on it, but the customer seemed happy about it.

At ten the kitchen was officially closed. With the baby monitor on her hip, she came to the front of the bar and started counting the register. I leaned in beside her. “Don’t trust me?”

She raised her eyebrow and kept counting. “I never said that.”

“If I wanted to steal from you, I would have just taken the money and walked out. I know I can be…difficult, but I’m not a thief.”

She shut the register and turned around to face me with all of the money in her hand still. “I take out all of the money except forty dollars and keep it upstairs in the safe. If someone comes in to rob the register it is never full of cash. As far as you being a thief, again, I never said that.”

I finished wiping down the bar and helped Charlie get the lights turned off and double check that everything was locked. I gladly followed her upstairs, watching her perfect ass the whole way. She had to know that I was looking, but never hinted that it annoyed her. When we got inside the apartment, she locked the door behind us and accidentally brushed against my chest. We both realized it at the same time and stood there facing each other. I cleared my throat and looked down at her little mouth. “It’s too bad you have a boyfriend.”

She didn’t move her eyes from mine. “Why is that?”

I scratched my head. “You know why.”

I moved a couple inches closer and honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t come onto girls like this. I most certainly didn’t move into their place or want to spend more than a day with just one girl. This wasn’t me.

She didn’t back away from my advance. “No, I don’t.”

I took my hand and brushed the back of it against her cheek. She closed her eyes as I did it, showing me that she trusted me enough to touch her. I got closer to her lips, so they were almost touching mine. “I want to kiss you.” I grazed my lips over hers.

Charlie grabbed my bottom lip in between hers and kissed me one time. She pulled away and opened her eyes. “We can’t. I can’t do this with you. I don’t know anything about you.”

I tried to grab her hand, but she started walking away from me. “Charlie, it was just a kiss.”

“If you are only helping me to get into my pants, you can go right now.” She put her hands on her hips and got all serious.

I put my hands back behind my head. There was no sense in arguing with her. “If that was all I was here for, I can promise you that we’d be in your bed right now. Goodnight, Charlie.”