Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
I hold the side of her face, bending down until our noses are touching. I close my eyes and calm my thoughts.
“I’m here for as long as it takes to prove to you that you belong home in Tennessee with me.”
“Liam?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“I’m going to kiss you now. I’m not giving you a choice, more of a heads up,” she murmurs, and I laugh.
In the end, we meet each other for the kiss.
Ellie
“Slush, can you get that carton I left on the dolly in my office?” I ask the new daytime bartender. He’s a good kid. Definitely a kid. I mean, I’m not over the hill by a longshot, but he’s barely old enough to serve. His name is Billy, but for some reason he insists everyone call him Slush or Slushie. I shake my head again at just the thought.
Maybe I am older than I want to admit.
“Sure thing, ma’am.”
I close my eyes. Oh my God! ma’am? I am old.
“Darn it,” grumble under my breath. It wasn’t that long ago I was making boys like him beg for my attention,” I grumble under my breath.
“You don’t need a boy, you need a man.”
My gaze immediately jerks to the man that just sat at the bar. I don’t know him, and yet there seems something familiar about him. He’s older, much older than me. If I had to guess, I’d say late forties, maybe even early fifties. He wears it well. He has black hair that is slightly long. It’s a jet black which might not be natural, but is appealing. He also has a goatee, which I always thought were weird, but on him, it’s a good look.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize we had a customer. It’s usually pretty quiet in here the first hour we’re open.”
“Don’t apologize. I’m enjoying the view,” he says and his grin borders on lecherous. He thinks he’s being flirty. With his looks, I’d imagine it works for him often. It doesn’t work on me, however. I’d like to say it’s because I have Liam in my life again, but the truth is something about this guy spells bad news and not in a hot night and regrets in the morning kind of way.
I jump down off the step ladder, wiping my hands on the cut-off jeans that I’m wearing.
“What can I get you to drink?”
“Will you have a drink with me?” he asks, his eyes darkening so much that they cause chills to run over me and again…they’re not the good kind.
“Sorry, don’t drink while at work.”
“All business and no pleasure?” he asks and there goes those warning bells inside my head again. I can’t say why this particular man seems to trip every alarm I have, but he does.
“What can I get you to drink?” I ask again, ignoring his flirting.
“Beer, house tap is fine.”
I grab the one of the glasses we keep chilled, fill it up, sliding it over to him with a fake smile.
“What’s your name?” he asks.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because you’re beautiful and I want to know. I really don’t want to call you ma’am either.”
“That I’d appreciate,” I respond, trying to let my guard down a little—not much, but as manager, I’m supposed to be friendly with the patrons. The last thing I need is for someone to file a complaint against me with Harvey. I don’t think he’d listen to them, but with Harvey it’s always better to be safe rather than sorry.
“So, your name?”
“Where you want these, Ellie? Slush asks, giving the guy my name. I don’t know what I would have said to the man, but for some reason, I don’t like him having my name. Maybe I’ve had too much caffeine this morning and just being silly.
“Ellie, is that short for something?” the guy asks. If nothing else, I could definitely give him points for persistence.
“I’m just Ellie,” I shrug, more or less lying, but it doesn’t matter. “Slush help me get these boxes around the bar and I’ll unpack while you take over.”
“You got it.”
“Ellie is a pretty name, but you look kind of exotic. You deserve a name to match. Your parents did you a great injustice.”
“You don’t know my parents. I’m just glad I didn’t end up with a name like Andromeda.”
“They were into Greek mythology?” he asks and I blink.
“Um…no. Geeky, Sci-Fi television shows,” I respond. For some reason, he laughs. The laugh feels fake, much like everything about him.
“How about you go out with me tonight, Ellie?”
“Sorry, I don’t date customers,” I tell him at once.
“I haven’t taken a drink of my beer yet. We can throw it away, that way I wouldn’t be a customer.”
“It still wouldn’t work,” I tell him. “I’m kind of seeing someone.”
It feels weird to think of Liam like that. I mean it’s not wrong. I woke up curled into him this morning. We’re not having sex, but we’re spending a lot of time together. We’re falling into old habits, which to be honest, I missed more than I realized. I’m laughing more and so is he. It’s early and he doesn’t know…everything, but it feels like we’re finding our way back to each other. Some things haven’t changed, but maybe my outlook has. I shrug away the thoughts. I’ll think about all of it later. I can only take things day by day right now and that’s what Liam asked me to do. This is important and I can’t let my fears keep me from trying.