Page 1 of Stunner (Whiskey Dolls 3)

1

ASHER

The last place I expected to be on my wedding day was in some no-named roadside bar that catered to a pretty rough and tumble crowd. And bypretty rough and tumbleI meant half the men in the bar looked like they picked their teeth with the sharpened bones of their victims and the other half probably knew the best places to bury bodies so they’d never be found. By the silence that greeted me upon arrival, I figured these hardcore biker types weren’t exactly used to seeing a woman in full-blown bridal regalia swooshing through the door like something out of a strange fairy tale, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.

Around the time I should have been walking down the aisle, I was bellying up to the long wooden bar scarred with age and use—and probably more than a few barstools during full-on brawls—struggling to heft myself up on a stool with the extra several pounds of lace, silk, and organza weighing me down. It took some serious effort, but I finally managed to get myself centered on the stool, my skirts puffed up around me like white clouds of cotton candy.

The tough, grizzled man standing behind the bar looked at me with mild curiosity and a whole buttload of concern. His skinwas weathered and tanned from years upon years in the sun. If I had to guess—and if this dude was anything like his patrons—he favored his time on a motorcycle. The lines around his eyes were deep with age, but also from smiling. I could see kindness in the old man’s pale, glassy blue gaze. It ran deep, along with that concern, as he stopped in front of me and tucked a white hand towel that had definitely seen better days into the waistband of his jeans. The man had a spare tire around his gut, and then some, but there was no missing the fact that he was sturdy as hell too. He was just as rough and tumble as the rest of the people in the joint, and I was sure he’d been part of a fair amount of bar fights in his time.

“Afraid you might’ve taken a wrong turn or two on the way back to your castle, princess. This ain’t the place for you.” At my look of confusion, he jerked his chin up. “Can’t say I’ve had many women come in here wearing a crown before. Figured you gotta be a princess.”

Reaching up, I traced a finger along the headband of crystals and pearls tucked into my hair. It had taken forever to find the perfect headpiece to go with my gown, but after several painstaking months, I’d finally found it. It was so delicate and beautiful, and I remembered worrying I’d break it if I wasn’t careful enough. But that was before. Now, well, now I really didn’t give a shit. I ripped it off my head, disheveling the beautiful chignon the hair stylist had worked for an hour and a half to curl and braid and tuck behind my left ear, and tossed it aside like a piece of garbage. “Not a princess,” I said sullenly. “And if you serve booze here, inanyform and the stronger the better, then this is most definitely the place for me.”

Taking pity on me, he placed a shot glass on the bar in front of me and filled it with whiskey. I didn’t hesitate to snatch it up and throw it back, wincing against the fire licking down mythroat as I slammed it back down and demanded, “Another,” on a cough.

He hesitated a beat before pouring again. “You know, I won’t be too happy if some white knight comes charging in here on his horse, looking for you, and starts some shit in my bar.”

I shot and slammed, pointing to indicate I wanted yet another as I let out a derisive snort. “What’s your name?”

“Name’s Judd, darlin’.”

“Well, Judd, I’m Asher, and you have nothing to fear. There is nowhite knight.” I used finger quotes on those last two words, the action causing me to teeter on my stool. The liquor was hitting me fast, given that I hadn’t had more than a handful of candied pecans the entire day. Judd’s big, hairy arm shot out and fisted the lace at the front of my gown at my belly to keep me from toppling off my seat. “Thanks for the save, man.”

“Not a problem.” He poured another shot.

“Like I was saying. No white knight. Hell, I don’t even have a stable boy on a lame, half blind donkey.”

He crossed his arms over a burly, barrel chest. “I get the feeling this day didn’t go how you planned.”

I threw my head back on a deep belly laugh, my head feeling nice and floaty now, my limbs growing heavy. “You could say that again. I mean, what kind of man sneaks out of a bathroom window just to get out of getting married, huh?”

Judd’s lips pulled into a thin line beneath his scraggly beard, his caterpillar eyebrows creeping high on his forehead. “Ouch.”

I lifted the glass Judd had just put in front of me in salute. “Hell yeah,ouch.” I chased the straw with my tongue, sucked back a healthy gulp, and let out a disgruntled, “Ugh! What the hell? That’s not alcohol!”

“It’s water. You’re a tiny little thing, I don’t need you keeling over in the middle of my bar from alcohol poisoning.”

Even in my rapidly deteriorating state, I could appreciate the sound logic, so I drank even more. “Smart,” I declared just as my stomach let out a rumble loud enough to shake the ground. I winced in embarrassment. “I don’t suppose this place serves food? With all the chaos of today, I didn’t get much of a chance to eat.”

Judd gave me an endearing grin, chuckling as he wiped down a glass before stacking it on a shelf behind him. “How’s a chili cheeseburger and fries sound?”

My belly let out another rumble. “It sounds like you just became my favorite person in the whole wide world.”

His eyes did a scan of the dress puffing up around me. “That sure is a fancy dress you got on, and that burger can be a bit messy. Hate for you to ruin something that had to have cost a pretty penny.”

It was then I knew the kindness I saw in him earlier was the real deal. I was a virtual stranger and the furthest thing possible from his usual clientele. Yet there he was, concerned for the state of my wedding gown when it came to hot chili and gooey melted cheese.

I looked at the clouds of silk and lace that surrounded me. It had taken me six months to find theperfectgown for my big day, and the moment I set eyes on this one, it had been love at first sight. I should have seen that as a glaring red flag: I’d been more excited about a stupid dress than I had been about the idea of saying my vows to my fiancé.

The truth was, I wasn’t sitting in the middle of a dive bar after Jackson had taken off on me because I was heartbroken... not even close, which was something I really wasn’t in the frame of mind to contemplate just then. After he dove through that window and took off at a dead sprint—according to the extortionately expensive wedding planner I’d hired who had seen the asshole firsthand while on a smoke break—I hadn’tbeen devastated; I was pissed. First, because he’d thought up an escape plan before I had, and second, because him taking off the way he did meant I was left to tell our guests the wedding was off. The thought of standing in front of two hundred people—most of whomhisparents had browbeaten me into inviting—and telling them that the groom had gone AWOL was downright humiliating.

I hadn’t been able to do it. Just thinking about it made my throat close up, so I left. I’d made the excuse that I needed some air and just... kept walking. I didn’t have a particular direction or destination in mind, just anywhere but that goddamn venue. I trudged along the side of the road in my expensive dress and glittery stiletto sandals until I stumbled on this place.

I picked at the intricate pattern that had been embroidered into the lace on my skirt. “This was my dream dress, you know.”

Judd’s eyes glinted with sympathy. “It’s a real pretty dress, darlin’.”

“It is,” I murmured, pulling harder until a thread snagged. I pulled and pulled until the pattern grew distorted. Then a thought hit me. “Judd, do you have a pair of scissors?”

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