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"Yes ed his hat off his head

"Good" She gave theoggle-eyed waitress and barehalf to each of them with a pitcher of ice water That'll soak up soment"

Releasing them, she stepped back With only a brief shift in expression, sheQuinn watched in amused disbelief as the stubborn cowhand and du for their wallets

Then he had bigger concerns As the crowd started to wander back to their tables and own conversations again, her gaze caht back to him

He knew he had features that ed physique, thick brown hair and brown eyes One wo into a vat ofchocolate However, this wo molasses meander down his naked body It was the first ti she was literally considering eating

That disturbing thought should have given hi as he drew closer Since he'd been getting worried about its lack of interest in anything lately, he was kind of glad for the proof otherwise But noas time he took hold of himself Mentally, that is This was his bar and she'd just handled so that was his job to do Or his worthless, nowhere-to-be-seen bar er

"Thanks, I could have taken care of that You shouldn't get in between tboys in a tussle"

She shifted to one hip Thethey had an enviable view of her ass working that deni his throat "You could have been hurt"

"I' fro Or the old cooking grease in your food"

She had the voice of a black-and-white ue like they tasted sweet She'd taste sweet, for sure Thank God he'd pulled his shirt out of his jeans while doing paperwork, but as she criticized his bar, he had to resist the urge to tuck it in, try to lookwould be real professional Best to leave the shirt out

What the hell? He'd worked a full day and didn't have time for this shit "Thanks for the customer feedback," he said coolly "We'll cover the pizza Tell Maria the house owes you a free drink Watered down so you can handle it"

She arched a brow, blue eyes sparking Taking a side step, she picked up a full shot of whiskey off one of the tables The patron sitting there, a gruff ranch hand froan to protest, but shehis protest as she tossed it back in one s No cough, no eye watering

When she put the glass doith a decided thunk, a wave of whistles and catcalls came from the other three men at the table and those around them, but her face remained impassive She never took her eyes off Quinn

"Put that one on my tab," she said

As thelook By the tiaze back to her, she'd stepped in front of hih their conversation was just between them

"Your biggest probleer is a drunk," she continued as if the interruption hadn't happened "I can s out of his pores from across the room, and he eyes the bar like a kid who can't wait for the candy store to close so he can take his fill He's also not ringing up a good percentage of your sales, so he's stealing fro and after hours"

Quinn's brow creased, his eyes flicking up to find Artie He still didn't see hiiven the asshole the only chance at e his chain

"But let ainst her full bottoure anything he screwed up, you could step in and fix, because you're the kind who thinks he can handle anything"

Quinn set his jaw He wasn't going to respond to any of this He should just walk away before he said so down his place, he wanted to keep watching her, being near her His exhaustion was obviously affecting his better judgment

Her gaze slid over hi to run both places" Stepping even closer, she laid her paliven Howie While Quinn was absorbing the impact of the intimate touch, she went from a discreet ive up control"

Then she pivoted on her booted heel and left hi there

Quinn let out the breath he'd been holding Aware of people staring at him, he scowled "Show's over, folks Anyone else who thinks about brawling in here better think twice She asked them nicely I won't Next asshole who tries to break up ht into the sheriff's car You can spend the night in his little hotel for drunk and disorderly"

There were soeain They knew he ht da out a couple drunks was as easy as pitching hay

Forcing hione, he turned his attention to getting up the glass that had been broken, because it hadn't occurred to Maria to do it He'd have told her to get her ass out from behind the bar, but Artie still wasn't around and she was serving drinks Plus, Quinn found hiusted with all of it to even bother He was tired and needed a drink hi anytime soon

Righting the table, he went to find the broom and dustpan Despite his irritation, he realized the past fewinteraction he'd had with a woman in quite a while How pathetic was that? Ever since he sent Annie, his last real relationship, packing, his life had been unrereat deal of that had been his choice, because he'd just plain lost interest Every wo

"I don't understand," she'd said, tears in her eyes "We're good together, Quinn Really good And I love the ranch"

Yeah, she loved the ranch as much as she loved rattlesnakes What she really loved was all theabout redecorating the house Making changes They hadn't been good together, no ht

At forty-two, he ought to be thinking about settling down What good was building up this ranch, doing everything he was doing, without a wife to share that life with hi to?

Quinn filled the dustpan as full as he could and carried it over behind the bar to duh the tables, he noted none of them had been bussed in quite a while Every surface was filled with es The overturned one probably hadn't been an isolated incident Didn't Artie or Maria ever think to clean the daht?

Probably not Quinn had cleared tables at closingArtie when he said they were overworked But in reality, the people he hired were just lazy Artie was nowhere to be seen, and he was supposed to bethe tables Whereas Maria had brought some drinks to a table but now just stood there, arms crossed beneath her breasts to show them off and one hip twitched out in a jaunty ht bitterly she probably figured flirting was her reward for having to do two jobs