“Dude, Sara looks smoking hot tonight, don’t you think?” Logan asks me. We’re leaning against the bar, resting back on our elbows as we watch the crowd. More specifically, the girls as they dance together on the dance floor, capturing everyone’s attention. My face wrinkles up and I feel like I’m going to be sick.
“Yeah, no…that’s my cousin. Nothing hot going on there, my friend.” I push myself off the bar, set my beer down, and then head for the dance floor. I watch Kelsey as she moves her hips to the song and laughs with my cousin.
I pause, debating my actions one more time, but one glance in my direction and everything that isn’t Kelsey disappears. She jumps when I come up behind her. My hands shake as they rest on her hips and she turns around slowly, wrapping her arms around my neck. She continues to move her hips from side to side until we have a rhythm together. I can’t imagine a moment when I’ve ever been happier than I am when I’m around her.
“It’s hard to do the right thing when what I want most is what I need most,” I say into her ear.
Her body stiffens. “It’s hot in here, right?” She fans herself with her hand, pulling away but leaving her hand in mine.
“Let’s go cool off,” I suggest, lacing our fingers and tugging her toward the bar where the crowd is thin. I lift my hand in the air to get Lucas’s attention and ask for two waters. He sets them in front of us and Kelsey immediately starts to chug hers. There’s a glow off her skin from hours of dancing, and her hair is now pulled up. She turns, leaning her left arm against the bar, and smiles up at me. I reach up to place a stray hair behind her ear.
“I have two things to say to you, Ethan Connelly,” She is slurring her words only slightly. I chuckle.
“And those are?”
“I just want you to kiss me already.”
I grin and lean closer. “The other?”
“I’m really glad Sara chose you to run her bar while she’s gone.”
And just like that, reality returns. When Kelsey finds out the real reason I’m here, she’ll hate me.
“Oh, you two are sooo cute.” Sara comes up quickly on Kelsey’s other side, almost running into the counter, then leans away from the bar, holding on with one hand to look around Kelsey to me. Logan comes up behind her to steady her. “It’s such a good thing your dad picked you to come help me and not one of your brothers,” Sara says, winking at Kelsey and looking back to me. “Before you know it, you’re going to be marking the schedule so all your shifts can be together. You better be a good boss to her, or Logan will beat you up.” She slurs a few of her words worse than Kelsey did, but I heard them.
Like clockwork, my phone buzzes in my pocket. Pulling it from my pocket, I glance down to see my father’s name. I excuse myself to use the restroom, but I don’t go there. Instead I leave. Until I figure out what I’m going to do and can stick with it, the farther away I am from Kelsey, the better. For both of us.
Chapter Fourteen
Kelsey
Sara’s been gone for a couple weeks and I’ve hated not having someone to talk to. Especially with the whole Ethan fiasco. I pretended like things were fine when she left because I don’t want her to worry.
The first part of her trip she said would still be in the United States so she promised to make at least one visit back home before she flies to Paris. Lucky. Here I am, lying on my parents’ couch with a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies, watching reruns of Friends, avoiding the homework I have for class, and dreading the shift I have to work tonight.
After Ethan’s disappearance at Sara’s going-away party, I’ve officially decided to cut him off of any chance he may have with me. Who cares if he’s too good looking for his own good and has a great smile? I don’t play games and Ethan has shown pretty damn well that he is great at them.
For the most part, we have kept our distance at work. I’m pretty sure he scheduled it that way, which has resulted in fewer shifts for me. He irritates me to no end these days. Some days he is nice to me and other days he is a complete jerk. I thought he liked me, but I was extremely mistaken. He made that clear when he stopped showing up for breakfast and when he left me at Sara’s party. Not that I was thinking clearly that night anyway. Come on, Kelsey. He isn’t a trustworthy person. Once a cheater, always a cheater, right? That’s probably why he disappeared. Damn it. Why am I still thinking about him?
At least at work, it’s not just me. Things are off to a rocky start with everyone else at the bar too, and have only grown worse. Ethan is taking this temporary takeover way out of control. He told Beth to save her personal problems for off the clock when she was explaining to me why she needed to trade a shift. Logan showed up two minutes late one day and Ethan was ready to fire him on the spot. Logan, his one and only friend. The guy who, after everything, still invites Ethan to shoot hoops twice a week.
His behavior isn’t the only crap thing we’ve got going on—it’s his rules on our dress code, too. We’re no longer allowed to wear jeans or casual clothing to work—black dress pants and black shoes only and girls must wear their hair pulled back. I accepted that last one, but the rest is just crazy and the list just keeps growing. I understand looking professional, but this is a bar. It’s supposed to have a laidback feel to it.
His rules and attitude have been so bad, the others have been coming to me, asking me to do something about it. What can I do? Sara didn’t leave me in charge. She picked Ethan and now we’re all suffering. I kind of miss the nerdy boy who was sweet to me. He was kind, funny, and cared for others way more than he should have. Now, I can sum him up in one word. Jackass.
The sound of my phone vibrating on the glass coffee table startles me. I point the remote to the TV to put it on mute and grab my phone with the other hand. Logan’s name flashes across the screen.
“Hey, Logan, what’s up?”
“Okay, so I had this idea,” he says.
“Why are you whispering?” I ask. He ignores me and goes on.
“Tonight when it gets dark out, like dark enough you can’t see anyone, you sneak out of your parents’ house and slash his tires then hammer a note to his front door that tells him to ‘get out of town or else.’”
Oh geez.
I can’t help but laugh. We would never be that fortunate.
“Even if I thought this idea was a good one—which I don’t, by the way, but I have to say you’re ideas are getting more creative—what happens when he wakes up to my hammering on his door?”
“You run, Kelsey. Duh.”
“Right. You do remember what happened the last time he caught me sneaking around someone’s house? It didn’t end well for him,” I point out.
“Exactly!” Logan shouts into the phone.
“He isn’t that bad. We don’t need to threaten his life. Besides, aren’t you still friends with him.” I say.
“Outside work, yeah. But at work … come on, you’ve seen him at work. It’s like working for that Bain guy in Batman, Kelsey. We’re all scared to screw up. I know you are too.”
“Stop acting like such a girl, Logan.” I push myself off the couch and catch the sight of myself in the mirror at the bottom of the stairs. Whoa hair, calm down. “So, what is the real reason you called?” I ask as I try to fix my fuzzy hair while holding the phone with my shoulder.
“Oh. Uh…that was my real reason for calling.”
“Yeah, ok.” I catch myself rolling my eyes in my refection. “You call me every day that you don’t see me in class. Sara told you to check up on me, didn’t she? Typical.”