“I missed you too. Sorry my head’s been up my ass.”

“No big deal. I know you’ve had a lot of stuff on your plate.” She shrugged. “We both have.”

I pulled her into a hug and forgot about the weight on my shoulders. She wrapped warm arms around me, and I wanted to stay just like that, feeling comfort for the first time in years. When we pulled away, she tilted her head at me, reached up, and swiped at my eyes.

“Are you okay?” Chelsea whispered. “You’re…crying.”

I quickly dragged my arm over my eyes and made the tears disappear. Fucking embarrassing. Tilting up my beer, I drained the rest of it. Maybe this was why I didn’t hang out with my friends anymore. They made me vulnerable where I’d built a wall around myself to protect me from all the crap in my life.

“Long day,” I answered shortly. “Now, what about the bartender? How do you want to do this?”

Chelsea searched my face, and I saw the way her eyebrows drew together. The concern on her face made me shift from one foot to the other. I prayed she would let it die. Something must have made her come to the conclusion to let it go because she didn’t press me.

“I want to talk to her, but she’s working.” She frowned. “Do you think it’ll be enough if I stare at her all night and wait until she gets off?”

I groaned. “You can’t pick someone else to go after? There’s a ton of other women here.”

“Yeah, but I’m already staring at her.”

I grinned and shook my head. “Fine, we’ll wait around. Okay?”

Chelsea lit up, her big eyes sweeping to the bar and back. She glanced up, and then her eyes settled on me. “Um, I think someone’s staring at you.”

“Me?” I asked. “No thanks, I’m not into it.”

She nudged me. “He’s still staring.”

I turned around to see what she was going on about and froze. Standing above me was Enzo Vitale. The look on his face wasn’t the calm, collected expression I’d seen last time. It looked like he was getting ready to burst a blood vessel. Our eyes locked, and he didn’t glance away even for a second.

Something inside of me stirred.

“Let’s get out of here, Chel,” I said as I turned back to her. “We’ll come around another night. Hopefully, it won’t be as busy, and you can talk to the bartender.”

She sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s crowded as shit in here.” Her gaze flickered up to Enzo and back to me. “Sure you don’t need to take care of that?”

I grinned. “I thought I’d want to, but you know what? It’s better to leave it where it is.” I draped an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go to a little hole in a wall somewhere and get fucked up. Tomorrow’s my day off.”

She rolled her eyes. “You just want free work.”