Even though he’d been able to get the car fixed in time, Will still showed up at The Firehouse. He was completely ignoring me, though. With Trey still not back out in the real world and Owen and Sean both busy serving drinks to the surprisingly large crowd, I was so bored.

Maybe I need a change of venue?

But the closest place worth considering was in Atlanta. I would have to sell my house if I was going to go that route for more than just a temporary gig.

Looking for some kind of distraction, I started playing a game on my phone, but got annoyed when it kept showing me ads between each level.

I was excited when a text interrupted the game until I saw that it wasn’t from James. It was Mom, asking me to confirm that I was coming home in the morning to spend my birthday weekend at their house. I couldn’t imagine why they would want me there unless they had some kind of intervention planned.

Refusing to answer right away, I sat on my stool. My heel tapped the ground at a much faster beat than the wild techno song I was playing. Even the thought of a conversation with my mom set my nerves on edge.

They all deserved for me to bring James home and make out with him right in their living room, but I wouldn’t subject James to the torture that was my family.

After deleting my third angry reply before hitting send, I shoved my phone back in my pocket. She could wait.

Maybe I should just go and get it over with for another few months.

Getting away from The Strip didn’t sound like the worst idea with all the recent crimes, and it wasn’t like James had bothered to invite me anywhere. If I went, at least I wouldn’tbe sitting around my house all weekend hoping that James would decide to ask me to do something.

I was just silencing the voice that said that I could ask him instead of waiting when I looked up and saw James walk into the club like some slow-motion movie star. The way he managed to wear a simple pair of jeans and a white tank top and still attract everyone’s attention was uncanny. But I certainly couldn’t pull my eyes away either.

That glowing smile and playful twinkle in his eyes. Those shoulders and arms covered in tattoos that I still hadn’t properly explored yet. The tight jeans, barely able to contain the treat that waited inside. Even those silly cowboy boots that he wore with no sense of irony. Everything about him was perfect.

He looked great in his uniform, but he looked amazing in his regular clothes.

And even better naked.

I was mesmerized to the point I couldn’t stop staring until the crowd started booing when the song ended and I failed to start the next.

He waved at me with one hand. A box of some sort was pinned against his side with the other.

A present for me? Does he somehow know my birthday is coming?

James hurried through the crowd straight to my DJ booth and held out the plain white box, saying, “Just a little something for you.”

“Aww. You didn’t have to.” But it was certainly nice that he had. My excitement was short-lived, though. Disappointment replaced it when I opened the box and saw the donuts inside. At least Trey wasn’t there to point out that he had been right about all cops loving donuts.

But that’s all he was right about.

Still, I frowned at the donuts. “Thanks. I mean, a sweater would have been nice, too, but thanks.”

“Have one,” James said, fortunately not noticing the snark in my tone. After all, he couldn’t have actually known it was my birthday.

He was facing the dance floor now and dancing in place, kind of shifting back and forth with his hands held up in front of his chest.

“I just ate,” I lied. “You look like an accountant when you dance like that, you dork.” I had no idea why I was being so crabby, but I blamed it on Trey.

Fortunately, James didn’t call me out on it. He went into some Saturday Night Fever moves. He had the grace to pull it off, but I didn’t have the perkiness to appreciate it.

“So, thanks for stopping by—”

“Yeah, sure. Hey, do you mind if I go dance for a few minutes? I had a crappy shift and need to burn off some frustrations.”

“Knock yourself out,” I mumbled, turning my attention to my laptop, and hoping I would get my head out of my ass by the time he came back.

“I’ll be back in a couple songs.”

Before I could respond, he rushed out onto the dance floor.

Along the way, he grabbed Sean and pulled him along in his wake. As the two danced, a circle opened around them. James’ body moved faster and smoother than it had any right to move. Unlike when I watched him dance to YMCA the other night, he actually moved around the dance floor with Sean, spinning and dipping him perfectly in beat with the song which I was pretty sure he had never heard before.

Sean was flirting it up, knowing that the attention would help with tips from other guys later, but he made sure to make eye contact with me as if to let me know there was nothing happening between them. He didn’t need to do anything to convince me, though. James was constantly glancing my way and pretending to kiss me from across the room.

His silly attention actually made me smile. At least I didn’t have to worry about being jealous over Sean. I wished that James was twirling me around the dance floor like that, but knew that if I tried to cut in, I’d just end up stepping all over James’ feet. I was better off bobbing my head in the DJ booth and making plans to kiss James when he returned.

Over at the bar, Owen was wiping the counter and frowning. I looked around to see if someone was bothering him, but the bar looked pretty quiet. The frown seemed to deepen when he looked at James and Sean.

I did not know what to make of that. Owen clearly liked both of them and had to be able to tell that James was not making a move on Sean right in front of me.

Thinking back to how my mom’s text had bothered me just a few minutes earlier, I decided that Owen was probably just having a bad day, too. Who wasn’t recently? Fortunately, James did not give me much of a chance to dwell on it.

Standing in the middle of the dance floor, he waved for me to join him.

I shook my head and pointed at my equipment, happy to have an excuse to not embarrass myself in front of the crowd. It always blew everyone’s mind that I could be a good DJ but also a terrible dancer.

Still dancing, he slowly made his way through the dance floor back over to me, his hips jerking to the beat hypnotically.

As he got closer, I wiped my hands on my pants. James still made my heart flutter and my hands sweat more than any high-school crush had ever managed.

“Have plans for tomorrow? I want to take you out somewhere nice.” he asked.

I thought of my mom’s text. I really did need to get back home eventually. As stupid as it sounded, it still felt like I owed them a couple of trips a year and my birthday seemed like a completely obvious one.

Even as my head started to nod, though, I said, “Nope.”

James laughed. “Should I listen to your head or your mouth?”

“Which one takes better care of you?”

James bounded up the stairs and pressed me against the wooden railing on the far side of the booth. I bent backward against his unrelenting passion as he dipped me over the wall and pressed his lips against mine.

I quickly lost track of the crowd, the room, or even the music as I gave myself over to him. My hand rubbed his cheek, feeling the roughness of his end-of-the-day stubble.

Why would I ever think of leaving his side to visit my shitty family? James was all I needed.

The railing wiggled as James tipped me back further.

“Whoa. Hold on. I think this rail’s gonna break.” I said.

James pulled me back upright and tucked my loose hair behind my ear. I needed more.

The crowd was cheering about something. It took me a few seconds to realize that the music had long since stopped, and everyone in the club had turned their attention to James and me. We’d been kissing for a couple minutes, and I hadn’t even noticed the time passing.

Blushing, I pulled myself back up, smoothed out my hoodie, and approached the microphone. “Sorry about that.” Whistles and catcalls from several of the men filled the room. “Why don’t I just get another song started for you guys?”

James’ warm breath tickled the back of my neck as he growled from behind me. “Stop by after work.”

Just as quickly as he had arrived, he hopped down from the booth, gave Sean a quick hug, waved at Owen, and marched out the front door, leaving me alone with the crowd and my music.

After selecting a song and sitting down on my stool, I let myself wonder where James would be taking me and what I would need to wear.

Shit. I hope it isn’t somewhere too fancy. I don’t have clothes for anything like that.

Sean brought me a soda. “Really? That song? You’ve got it bad. Congratulations.” With a smile, Sean sashayed back through the bar, looking for his next tip.

Turning my attention to the laptop, I saw that I had picked the sappiest pop love song that I owned. Instead of feeling bad about it, I took a deep breath and told myself that I deserved someone like James, for once, and just hoped I would be able to make him feel the same.

I considered sending my mom a text, rejecting her invitation, but decided I did not want her reply to ruin my fun.

Most of the night passed in a series of daydreams and awkward shifting to hide the occasional erection when the daydreams were too good.