When the Music Stops (Mason Brothers Book #2)

Chapter 41

JOLIE

“Soooo…..guess what?”

I leaned over the bar to bug Toni. We were working the Tuesday late shift, Tuesday was one of the slower days and there were just a few stragglers, some of the older people in the town, they didn’t need much service, they just didn’t want to go home. Toni was working on the glassware and I was restocking some of the liquors so everything was ready for the lunch shift. 

“Hmm...okay what?” Toni sets down her towel to listen to me.

“Parker asked me to move in with him.”

Toni gasped, “No way! Did you say yes?”

“Of course, I said yes! We have to figure out what to do with my apartment. I guess I could still pay for it until October, but that feels like a waste of money.”

“School is going to be out soon, maybe one of the high school kids dying to move out would be willing to take it over.”

“That’s not a bad idea. I’ll mention it to Parker.”

“You should talk to Carly. Her husband coaches the baseball team, I’m sure he knows somebody.”

I slap my palm against the bar and point at her, “See, this is why we’re friends, you’re the smartest person I know.”

“Ha!” she laughs, “I love you, but we both know that isn’t true. God, I’m so glad that you’re back.”

“I’m glad to be back. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Toni walks around the bar and pulls me into a hug and then kisses the top of my head, “You were thinking that we are so fucking awesome that it was too good to be true.”

I laugh and then jokingly push her away and go back to prepping for tomorrow. Toni tops off the guys and lets them know that it's last call. I look at my phone and Parker sent me a text saying that he was heading to bed and then followed it up with a picture of him topless in bed. I caught looking at it too long when Toni came up from behind me.

“Oh my god, stop looking at your boyfriend's porn while we’re at work.”

I quickly turn the screen off and put the phone back into my pocket and push her away once again. “Oh stop it, like you’ve never seen Parker without a shirt on.”

“Yeah, but the Masons are like brothers to me.”

“Like brothers, not actually brothers. I’m sure you can acknowledge that they’re all good-looking.”

“Oh for sure! Cade’s got that little almost dimple thing going on when he smiles big. Oh man if we met in some club somewhere, I’d totally let him charm my pants off.”

“Pretty sure a lot of women would say the same thing.”

The last of the customers wraps up his tab and as Toni goes to grab the key, the door opens. “Sorry, we’re closing right now,” I say with my back facing the door.

“Jo…” I recognized the male voice immediately. When I turned around to see my dad standing there, I froze.

“Dad…”

Toni comes back around the corner at the same time and sees me in shock. I look at her and start to open my mouth to say something when she quickly speaks up. “I’m calling Parker.”

She pulls out her phone and disappears down the hallway again. My dad walks over to the bar and takes a seat. Still in shock, I just stand with my back against the back of the bar. “Do you mind if I sit?” He asks, even though his already sitting. I just nod my head, not sure what else to say.