Page 14 of Bountiful
“Evening. What can I get you?” I asked him, as if I’d never seen himbefore.
He turned his gaze on me, and there was humor in it. “What’s tastyaroundhere?”
“Vermont beers,” I said firmly. “I recommend Sip of Sunshine from Lawson’s Liquids. Bright, hoppy IPA. Beer snobs drive a thousand miles totasteit.”
“Is that right?” he asked, his eyes hot on mine. The only thing he seemed to want to orderwasme.
And right now Isodid not have the time for that. I tapped the bar impatiently. “You need a minute to thinkaboutit?”
“Nah. The Lawson’ssoundsgood.”
I poured his beer and set it in front of him withoutaword.
“Thank you, beautiful,” he said, his voicegravelly.
Yowza. The things that man made me feel. Even so, I left him alone with his beer. Mopping down the bar, I tried to monitor the tense situation which continued to brew between JimmyandJill.
“Sorry to hear about your marital troubles.” Jimmysnickered.
“Not sure you know the meaning of the wordsorry,” Jill’s friendpipedup.
Jill and I flinched at the same time. Fights at The Mountain Goat were rare. Fights between an ex-cop and a soccer mom were rarer still. But it was possible that I was about towitnessone.
“You ladies need anything?” I asked, my glance taking in all the free tables in the room. If my marriage were imploding, I’d probably want a little privacy at one of those tables. But what the hell would I know? Nobody had ever asked me tomarryhim.
And probably nobody everwould.
“Why aren’t we still friends?” Jill asked now, her eyes in a drunkensquint.
“Oh, honey.” I sighed. “Just differentpaths.”
“We had so much fun together back intheday!”
Sometimes we did, and sometimes it was awful. “You’ll have fun again,” I said with false cheer. “Don’t take on the whole world at once, okay? One problem at a time. You can’t change your whole life in onenight.”
“I can change your life in one night.” Jimmy chuckled. “Could show you a fewthings.”
“Nothing I haven’t seen before,” Jill’s mouthy friendputin.
My blood pressure went up anotherpoint.
“No man strays if you keep him satisfied,” Jimmy taunted. “Get on your knees for him sometimes, you know? I bet youdidn’t.”
“Jimmy,” I warned, finally too pissed off to be afraid of him. “Keep your nose outofit.”
But he only sneered at me.Shit. I’d already set my phone out on the bar in preparation for calling the police if things got too heated. Not that it would help diffuse things. Jimmy would hate getting a lecture from the police department that had fired him forgraft.
This was already the longest Tuesday shift inhistory.
Dave waved at me from the other end of the bar. His glass was empty. “Another?” I askedquickly.
His gaze traveled down the bar. “Everythingokay?”
“Sure,” I groundout. “Beer?”
“Love one,gorgeous.”
I met his gaze and got an unexpected jolt. Apparently I wasn’t too distracted to remember what it had been like to look up at him as hispowerfulbody—
