Page 101 of Raised On It

He wraps his arms around me. “You really don’t know the ending yet?”

All I’m brave enough to do is shrug.

“Hmm…well, how about we go have a beer and see if we can figure out the ending and maybe even a name for the damn book.”

“Don’t you have beer here?”

“Sure do. But it tastes better when Beau pours it.”

Very true.

Fifteen minutes later,our butts are on barstools and full pints of EBC are in our hands.

“Cheers to Katie for getting her gig on Broadway and sending you my way.”

“Cheers to that, indeed.”

We clank our glasses together and take our first sips.

“Here you got a little something right here…”

His tongue finishes his sentence licking the foam off my toplip while his lips write the rest of the paragraph, telling a story of lust, love and forever.

“Thought I wasn’t going to get any sugar until I told you the ending to Tucker and Camille’s story?”

“Baby, how could I not give in to you when we’re here at the scene of the crime?”

“I don’t believe I’ve committed any crimes, Mr. Montgomery.”

He turns my stool so we’re knee to knee and eye to eye.

“City Mouse, the night you walked into this bar, you stole my heart and still haven’t given it back.”

“You probably say that to all the girls you meet in this place.”

“Nah, I usually start by telling them I’m going to marry them one day.”

The sincerity in his eyes speaks volumes, and my stomach does somersaults at the thought that there may be more going on than just a beer at The Verdict.

And with impeccable timing, his phone vibrates on the bar, breaking the vulnerability of the moment. He reads his message, his leg bouncing up and down, and throws back the rest of his beer. When he takes a twenty out of his wallet and throws it down where his phone had been lying, I can’t help but think something about his text message upset him.

“Hey, everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s great, why?”

“Are we leaving?” I ask, tipping my head toward the money on the bar.

I see him notice that I haven’t really put a dent in my beer yet and he relaxes a bit.

“Um, no…take your time. Whenever you’re ready. We just need to head over to Granny’s when we’re done.”

“Oh, well, you should have said something.” I toss back my beer in one long chug. “Ready.”

“You're a freaking unicorn, you know that?” he says in awe.

“Nah, just a fan of Granny and EBC. Shall we?”

We’re halfway through the bar when one of the songs we danced to the night I agreed to come out with the girls comes on, and he redirects us to the dance floor.

---