He shook his head and lifted a bushy eyebrow at me. “How is Avett doing? Tell me the truth, Asa. Rome doesn’t want me to worry, says he can handle her, but I raised that girl. I know all the kinds of headaches she can be.”

I sighed under my breath. “Her attitude sucks. She doesn’t listen. She fights with Darcy. She hates it here, which is a shame because she’s one hell of a good cook.” She really was. When she wasn’t just throwing together the bar food the joint specialized in, when she made something for herself or was playing around, the girl was obviously talented. I told Darcy once that someone should tell Avett to go to culinary school, to which Darcy had sighed and looked like she was going to cry. Turned out Avett had just flunked out of regular college, so any kind of expensive specialty school clearly wasn’t in the cards. The girl was on a downward spiral. I could see it clear as day, mostly because it was a ride I was all too familiar with.

Brite swore under his breath and raised a hand to stroke his beard. “You feel comfortable firing her if she crosses a line?”

I dipped my chin down, thinking about the beer in her purse. “I will do what I have to in order to keep the Bar and Rome safe.”

He nodded grimly at me. “That’s what I wanted to hear. She’s driving Darce nuts. The girl is going to be the death of us both.”

I made a noise of agreement. “Rome in the office?”

Brite nodded and again flashed me a grin that had to fight through his facial hair. “You look nervous, son. Don’t be.”

I was annoyed that my typical mask of indifference and carelessness had slipped, so I struggled to put it back in place as I walked down the hallway where the restrooms, storage, and tiny back office were located. I knocked on the door before pushing it open and noticed Rome was on the phone when I walked in. I sat in one of the ratty chairs that was up against the wall while he continued to grunt and reply in one-word sentences to whomever he was talking to. There was paperwork on the desk, cases of alcohol were piled up on the floor, and Rome’s gym bag took up the space on the other available chair. His chair squeaked as he leaned back heavily in it, said, “I love you more,” meaning the person on the end of the call had to be Cora, and finally hung up and looked at me.

I wanted to grin at him, to play it all off like whatever was about to go down didn’t mean shit to me, but instead I felt my spine stiffen and my eyes narrow. “What’s up?” I didn’t really know what to do with the fact that this somehow mattered so much to me. The only things I had ever cared about before were materialistic and my sister; this was so foreign, and I hated how uneasy it made me. I wanted to squirm but I forced myself to stay still.

He rubbed his palms into his eyes and pressed down on the scar that bisected his eyebrow.

“Cora’s pregnant.”

I rolled my eyes and crossed my leg so that my ankle was resting on my knee. “You don’t say?” Sarcasm was as thick as Kentucky grass in my tone.

He blinked at me for a second and then blew out a breath. “What do you mean?”

I snorted. “I saw her at the hospital. I saw you at the hospital. If it was the flu or just a cold, you wouldn’t have been all over her like a mother hen, and I doubt Cora would’ve looked so happy.”

His blue eyes widened a fraction and then a grin split his stern expression. “Yeah. She just hit a little over two months. She wasn’t as sick with RJ, but she was a hell of a lot moodier.”

“I didn’t know you were trying to have another baby.”

His big shoulders rose and fell. “We weren’t. But we weren’t not trying either. I got a fiancée and a new baby all within a few months of each other and that makes a man start to think about what’s next.”

That made me laugh. I was genuinely happy for him. “Congratulations.”

“We wanted to wait until Rule and Shaw got to take Ry home and had a little while to bask in the new-baby awesomeness before we said anything. Rule as a daddy is a miracle that needs to be appreciated fully for a while, and I don’t think my mom can handle any more Archer good news without exploding. So you and Brite are the only ones that know for now.”

“Got it. Is that what this little powwow was about?” If so, all my muscles could unclench and the breath I was holding could finally escape my frozen lungs.

I gritted my teeth when he shook his head in the negative.

“No. I need to talk to you about the Bar.”

I didn’t want to give away the fact I was sort of falling apart on the inside, so I just stayed silent and waited for him to keep talking.