Page 5 of The Devil in Blue Jeans
She glanced back and grinned, all teeth. “Let’s not make it too soon.”
He smiled after her. He’d never been shut down so fast.Oh, hell, who is this woman?
“You weren’t expecting this, were you?” Eli asked when she was out of hearing distance.
Jaxon raised an eyebrow at him. “The state of my bar or the woman who looks like she wants to stab me in the eye?”
Gunner laughed.
“Both,” Eli said, his mouth twitching.
“Both are surprising,” Jaxon admitted. “But one is more unwelcome than the other.” Taking a sip of his scotch, Jaxon found that at least they had chosen top-shelf alcohol.
Gunner knocked back his glass in one go and then asked, “What are you going to do?”
Jaxon just shrugged. “What can I do? They own the bar now.” He never expected that whoever took over his bar would change it so drastically. The bar looked plucked out of New York City. The residents of Timber Falls lived there for its rustic roots, not modern luxuries.
While Jaxon had catered his bar to the needs of everyone in town, the hardworking ranchers held a special place there. He’d grown up around the men and women who worked the land and cattle for generations. His father had close ties to every rancher in the area, and Jaxon had seen they had lacked a place to get together and enjoy some beers and laughs.
His bar meant something to the people of Timber Falls. It meant something to him. And these big-city ladies seemed determined to make sure the favorite weekend spot and after-work hangout was transformed into a place where the only people who would feel welcome there were out-of-towners.
With a thick taste of disappointment in his mouth, he scowled at the glitter and feathers. “What could be their motive?” he questioned. “They’re pretty much alienating all their beer-drinking customers.”
Eli said, “Big cities have cocktail lounges.”
“This isn’t a big city,” Gunner said.
He felt an ache in his chest as he considered what they’d done to his bar. “This won’t stand,” he said eventually. “For years, this bar belonged the people of Timber Falls who want a rugged experience that included great beer, not...this.” He scraped a hand across the scruff on his face. “I need to fix this.”
Eli had his glass halfway to his mouth. “How do you plan on doing that?” he asked.
Jaxon glanced at Charly talking with another customer he didn’t recognize—a tourist he’d bet—and took a sip of his scotch. He savored the flavor of the oak barrels it was aged in before answering, “We need to show them what this bar means to Timber Falls.”
Gunner snorted. “And you think you’re going to be the one to show her that?”
“Who better is there?” Jaxon challenged confidently.
Eli burst out laughing and shook his head in disbelief as he gestured toward Charly. “Anyone, Jaxon. Absolutely anyone would be better than you. She looked ready to cut you.”
Not deterred, Jaxon threw back the remainder of his drink. His gaze followed Charly’s movements as she headed to the other end of the bar. As if aware he was speaking about her, she turned her head and their eyes met. Hers narrowed.
An amused grin spread across his face. “She isn’t so bad. Even if those claws are sharp.”
“Sharp?” Eli snorted. “I’d say they’re downright deadly.”
Gunner agreed with a nod and asked, “What will happen if you fail to convince her to bring beer back?”
“I won’t fail,” Jaxon declared with conviction. He winked at his friends and leaned across the table to add, “You know I’m always up for a challenge, especially one that’s a pretty brunette.”
Two
The following morning, Charly was cozied up on a small patio out front of the breakfast hot spot Sparrow Catching. Her nose crinkled at the exhaust from an old Ford truck driving along Main Street. She gazed out at the two-laned road, reminded how different this small town was compared to the bustling city. The towering skyscrapers and honking taxis were replaced with friendly neighbors waving to one another, cowboy hats adorning most heads and barely a single high heel in sight. The nightlife was nonexistent. Nevertheless, it was easy for her to fall in love with the rustic town square, just like she had all those years ago.
The buildings were a blend of stained wood and stone, with towering mountains at the end of the road. Scattered among the stores was an ice cream parlor, a coffeehouse and a sweets shop. Every Saturday, part of the road was blocked off to make way for the bustling farmers market.
In comparison to her former life in Michigan and, more recently, Arizona, Charly was still adjusting to all the differences in small-town life. Over the last seven weeks, since they’d all packed up their lives and moved to Timber Falls, she’d stopped missing the rowdiness of the bar she’d left behind in Phoenix and the hustle and bustle of the city. In Timber Falls, life seemed to move at a different pace. People here appeared to appreciate one another in a way that she had never seen anywhere else.
But she still couldn’t help but feel her entire life was back in Phoenix. Not that long ago, her life had been all planned out. Until Marcel, the man Charly once planned to marry and had owned a successful bar with in Phoenix, broke her heart by cheating on her with their head bartender, Hannah, destroying any future plans for the two of them.
