Page 3 of Watch Me
I chuckled, remembering he was there when the customer had asked. “No.”
He bobbed his head again and smirked. “Good to know.”
I balked because he looked young enough that I probably could have been the kid’s mother. “Not looking for one either.”
“Good to know that, too.”
Before the conversation turned any more awkward, I turned and left. What I had told Derrick was true. I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend. I needed to find out who I was before I tied myself to a man again. Though, when I came around the corner and saw the man sitting at the bar, I wanted to change mymind.
He still had the short, dirty blond hair I remembered from many moons ago, but flecks of gray dotted the sides now. I couldn’t see most of his body because he was seated behind the wooden bartop, but I figured he was still in great shape given his shoulders were broader than I remembered, and his arms pulled against the fabric of his long-sleeved, black shirt as he rested his hand against the glass of hisbeer.
With a smile plastered across my face, I stepped behind the bar and moved in front of the blast from my past. “Well, as I live and breathe, Ethan Valor.”
Ethan’s deep blue eyes looked up from his amber-colored beer and met my green stare. A smile curved his lips, one I hadn’t seen in over two decades. “Reagan Hunter, is that you?”
I ran around to where he was sitting and threw my arms around his neck as he stood to greet me. “How are you?” I asked. My last name changed when I got married, but I didn’t bother correcting him because I never changed it back after mydivorce.
“Better now.” He squeezed me one more time before we brokeapart.
“What are you drinking? Let me get you a refill.” I went back around to the other side of thebar.
“Just what’s on draft. Doesn’t matter,” Ethan replied as he slid back onto the barstool. “If I’d known you were a bartender here, I’d have come in sooner.”
I grinned and grabbed a clean pint glass to fill for him. This was my high school boyfriend in front of me, and even though I had only worked at Judy’s for a week and had never given free alcohol away before, I wanted to give the man I’d first loved a beer on thehouse.
Plus, I’d noticed he wasn’t wearing a wedding ringeither.
Nineteen Years Old
Ididn’t want to let her go.
For the past two years, we had been inseparable. It didn’t matter that I was a year older and had already graduated. I didn’t go away to college after my graduation, opting instead to attend a local school to obtain my bachelor’s degree in law enforcement. I’d always wanted to be a police officer like my father, so I knew what my futureheld.
I was destined to be ChicagoPD.
Reagan, on the other hand, was leaving to go across the country because she’d gotten into Stanford. Summer was over, and the day we’d dreaded had arrived. We’d known it was coming for a long time, but neither of us had wanted to admit it wouldactuallyhappen. She was leaving. As the girl I loved stood in my arms, crying because in five minutes her family would drive her to the airport so she could catch her flight to California, time seemed to speed up when all we wanted was for it tostop.
“We’ll talk on the phone every night,” I remindedher.
“It’s not the same,” she sobbed into my chest, her tears soaking through my T-shirt as we stood in herdriveway.
I knew talking on the phone wasn’t the same, but we had no choice. “Winter break will be here before we know it, and then we’ll spend every day together once you’re back home.”
“But I’m going to miss you.”
“I’m going to miss you too, Buttercup.” I squeezed hertighter.
“Reagan, get in the car. You have a flight to catch,” her fatherordered.
Reagan looked up at me. Her emerald eyes were rimmed red with tears running down her cheeks, and it was killing me.
“One second,” I called back, held up a finger, and took Reagan’s hand, leading her around to the back of her house and away from her parents’ eyes.
“What if I don’t go?” shequestioned.
“You have to. You got into Stanford.” I knew Reagan was smart—getting into one of the most prestigious colleges in America proved it. Shehadtogo.
“I know.” She sighed. “But I don’t want to be apart.”
