Blaze: A Small Town, Nerdy Girl, Opposites Attract, Protector Romance (Ghost Ops Book 1)

Chapter 8

“I’m sohappy you’re home,” Rory said for what seemed like the thousandth time that night. “I’ve missed you, Emma Grace.”

Emma sat at the bar while her friend worked behind it, mixing drinks, pouring beers, and sorting out any snafus with the kitchen. Rory kept up a steady stream of chatter, which was good for Emma because it didn’t require her to spill her guts about anything.

Not that Rory wouldn’t get around to digging deeper about why Emma gave up her job in Chicago to come home, but so far she’d seemed to accept the answer Emma gave everyone, which was she’d missed home. Since her dad had recently decided to retire, taking over the Sutton’s Creek Family Practice was a natural choice to make.

“I missed you, too.” She took a sip of the white wine Rory had poured for her and smiled. It wasn’t quite as forced with Rory as it had been with Blaze Connolly, but it wasn’t entirely natural either.

Emma hadn’t been inside a bar in months, and it made her nervous. Not that she’d ever spent a lot of time in bars with her job, but there had been times when she went out with some of the doctors and nurses on her shift. She’d stopped when Simon didn’t like it.

Her gaze darted around the Dawg when Rory had to go take care of a table.

It was an old habit. Looking for Simon. For his disapproval.

He hadn’t ordered her not to go out with her friends, but he’d made his displeasure known. Coolly, calmly, without anger or overt manipulation. Little had she realized just how much he was pulling her strings.

She’d always thought she was too smart to be an abused woman, but it wasn’t like abusers wore signs and waved their control flags proudly before you got involved. They built a wall around you brick by brick until you couldn’t see over it anymore. Then they bricked over the top until you were trapped.

Emma took another swallow of wine and let it burn its way down her throat. Simon was history. She didn’t have that tickle on her neck tonight. He wasn’t there, and she was going to learn to defend herself. Not because of him, but because it was a good idea.

“Sorry about that,” Rory said as she popped back over to where Emma sat.

“Not a problem. You had beer to pour for the guys at the pool table.”

A loud beep sounded. “Son of a bitch,” Rory said, pulling her shirt up to peek at the glucose monitor on her abdomen.

“What can I do?” Emma asked, instantly alert.

Rory reached for the insulin pump clipped to her belt and tapped it. “Stop your hovering, Doctor. I’m just a little low on glucose. Don’t worry, I pay attention to all the alarms and do what I’m told if the pump doesn’t do it for me.”

Emma pulled in a breath. Rory had been a type 1 diabetic since they were teenagers. She’d gone through hell as a kid with a life-altering diagnosis, but these days she wore a glucose monitor and an insulin pump and seemed to be in tune with her body.

Rory was the kind of person who never let anything stop her for long. She exercised, ate well, and paid attention to her levels.

Still, Emma’s training kicked in when the alarm sounded. She wasn’t Rory’s doctor, but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying to take care of her friend in the moment. The beeping stopped, and Rory sighed.

“It’s still a pain in the ass, but at least I don’t have to inject myself all the time anymore. And it’s sooo fun explaining what these things are on my skin whenever I get hot and heavy with a guy. Not that that’s happened in forever. It’s been so long I think there are cobwebs in my hoo hah.”

Emma snorted. They were alone in their corner of the bar, but that wouldn’t have stopped Rory from saying it anyway. “Cobwebs, huh? I can give you a cream for that.”

“Nah, just need some vitamin D. Have to find the right guy, though.”

“Are you looking for hot sex or a relationship?”

“Hot sex, of course. But you’d be surprised how territorial some guys get. They start coming around and glaring at every dude who talks to me while I work. I don’t have to tell you how much that pisses me off.”

Emma suppressed a shiver. She knew exactly how territorial a man could get. “Ain’t nobody got time for that,” she teased.

“Nope. I just want a good shag from a hot guy every now and then. Is that too much to ask?”

“A shag, huh? What are we now, British?” Emma couldn’t help but grin. Rory was a hoot without intending it sometimes. Or maybe she did intend it, but she was damned good at making it seem natural.

“I’m classing shit up around here. Is it working?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.”

“Oooh, don’t look now,” Rory said, her brown eyes lighting up. “We’ve got a Hottie Alert.”

“What kind of hottie?”

“Three sexy military men. Former military men. They work at One Shot Tactical, that new range over on the old Jackson farm.” Rory’s tongue was going to hang out any second as she stared. “Damn, I wouldn’t mind climbing that like a tree.”

“No fair, I can’t turn around and look.”

“You’ll get a chance. I’ll let you know when they’re sitting down. You already know one of them. Blaze.”

Emma’s heart decided to start thumping like a drum. “He’s definitely easy on the eyes.”

“Girl, have you looked at his butt in those jeans? So fine.” Her eyes sparkled. “Seth and Chance are the other two with him tonight. They’re also gorgeous—but Chance is a prick. Not a fan.”

“What did he do?”

Because Rory liked everybody, so he must have done something to piss her off.

She shot fresh club soda into her glass and took a sip. “He thinks he’s God’s gift. Flirts with every girl that passes his table, flashes that cocky grin at everyone. He had the gall to tell me Ole Miss is better than Alabama even though Alabama played in the championship game and his team did not. He’s also bossy, telling me how to pour drinks like I don’t know what I’m doing. He’s just an arrogant jerk.”

Emma suppressed a snort. Rory went to the University of Alabama where she got her business degree, and she took her Crimson Tide football very seriously. She wasn’t just a fan by virtue of living in the state. She’d spent four years in Tuscaloosa. Bear Bryant sat at the right hand of God in her not-so-unbiased opinion. Nick Saban would surely join him when the time came.

Emma was a fan because she’d grown up with Alabama football on TV every Saturday in the fall, and her parents had met at a game when they were students. But she didn’t get pissed off about it the way Rory did.

“Could be worse,” Emma said dryly, tracing the rim of her glass. “He could be an Auburn fan.”

Rory put up a hand, palm out. “No, no, I can deal with that. Usually. Okay, you can look. Over near the pool tables.”

Emma twisted the bar stool. Blaze sat at a table with two other men who had that same sexy intensity he had. But neither of them made her palms sweat the way Blaze did. His head swiveled her direction. She spun around before he saw her.

Which was dumb because she’d told him where she was going when she’d talked to him in the hall earlier. If their gazes happened to meet across the room, so what?

“See what I mean?” Rory said. “They look like the kind of men who could rip a grizzly bear apart with their bare hands if it threatened you. Yum.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

“You know what I mean. Tough, masculine. Sexy as heck.”

Definitely those things. She had a mental picture of Blaze disarming and taking down the gunman at the Gas-n-Go, and her belly tightened.

“I’m going to sign up for a self-defense class. You should take it with me,” she said.

Rory blinked. “You are? I thought you were a pacifist, madam doctor. When I told you I bought a gun for home defense, you lectured me on gun violence and how most shootings happen by accident with legal weapons.”

Warmth bloomed beneath her skin. “I am a pacifist for the most part. And I still think guns are dangerous. But knowing how to defend yourself is important. Besides, I’m pretty sure you don’t have to have a gun for basic self-defense. It’s knowing how to fend off an attacker, how to protect yourself.” She shrugged. “I just think it’s important.”

Rory nodded. “Agreed. I was planning to shoot an attacker, but I see what you’re saying. I’m still surprised you want to take a class though.”

“Did you forget I walked into the middle of a robbery a few days ago and almost got my head blown off?”

She said it teasingly, but it still made a shiver roll down her spine.

Rory patted her arm. “Of course I didn’t. I’m so sorry that happened, babe. But glad you had Blaze there to take care of the situation.”

“Me too. I still don’t know how he did it, but Blaze turned the tables on that guy so fast it was unreal. I want to know how he did it, so that’s why I’m taking the class.”

“I completely understand and agree. But you do realize that self-defense for women is usually about gouging out eyes and stuff, right? You already know how to do that.”

“I know the weak points of the human body. But I don’t know what to do if someone grabs me from behind or drops a bag over my head. Or, heaven forbid, points another gun at me.”

Being on the wrong end of the robber’s gun hadn’t been fun, but it wasn’t the first time she’d had a weapon pointed at her. Yet another reason she really wanted to know how Blaze had done it.

Rory’s brother emerged from the kitchen where he’d been cooking up comfort food such as meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

The Salty Dawg was more than a bar. It was a restaurant with bar food and hearty dinners, too. Fridays they had prime rib, but that wasn’t until tomorrow. Today was meatloaf.

“Emma Grace!”

“Theo!”

Emma jumped off the bar stool and ran to greet him, throwing herself into his open arms. There’d been a time when she’d had a major crush on Theo, but that had been over for years.

He lifted her up and spun her around, and Emma laughed as she clung to him. It’d been a long time since she’d seen Theo. She’d gone to see Rory at home the day after she’d arrived, but this was her first trip to the Dawg. He set her down and raked his gaze over her.

“You’re looking good, honey.” He looped an arm around her and hugged her to his side as they went back to Rory and the bar. “We missed you, didn’t we, Ror?”

“We sure did.” Rory was pulling beers from the taps for Amber, the waitress who stood at the end of the bar, waiting for the order she’d collected from Blaze and his friends. Amber was pretty, with red hair and big boobs, and Emma felt a pang of jealousy when she slid her gaze over to the table with the three men.

Blaze looked right at her, and Emma glanced away. Or maybe she’d imagined it. He could have been looking at Amber. She let her gaze slide over to him again. He didn’t look away. This time he nodded. She nodded back then shifted her gaze to Theo, who was saying something she hadn’t paid attention to.

“I’m sorry, what?”

Theo grinned down at her. “You and Ror, both distracted by our One Shot Tactical guys. They come in here, and she trips over her tongue.”

Rory stuck her tongue out as she finished the last beer and set it on Amber’s tray. Amber winked and said, “Honey, we all do,” before she sashayed away from the bar to deliver the drinks.

“Maybe Amber does, but I do not,” Rory said. “Do you trip over your tongue every time some gorgeous woman with big boobs walks in the door?”

“Yup.”

Rory rolled her eyes. “You do not. Stop making things up.”

“In my defense,” Emma said, “I was in a scary situation when Blaze Connolly saved the day. I was just giving him a nod. I can hardly ignore him.”

“Thank God y’all weren’t hurt.” Theo gave her shoulders a squeeze. “The sheriff was in yesterday. He said the guy was a meth head from Decatur. Thought he’d cross the river and make a quick score.”

“Seems like Sutton’s Creek changed more than I thought when I was away.”

“It’s changed some, but we’re essentially the same. Huntsville and Madison are growing this direction though. Bound to bring more crime as more people move this way.”

“They keep putting up subdivisions and apartment buildings in what used to be farmers’ fields,” Rory said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we get swallowed up in the next five years or so.” Her gaze slid over to Theo. “We get approached about selling the farmland and this building all the time. I keep saying no, but I can’t deny the money is hard to turn down.”

“We aren’t selling.” Theo looked angry for a second. “This building’s been in our family for three generations. Same with Emma Grace’s. None of us are selling. Unless the Tennessee overflows its banks and starts flooding us out on the regular, we’re staying.”

“I know we aren’t selling. You can’t deny there are days you don’t think about it, though.”

Theo gave Rory a look that put a lump into Emma’s throat. “Honey, if selling everything would get you a cure, I’d do it in a heartbeat. That’d be the only reason I’d do it.”

Rory smiled at her brother. “You’re a big sweetie pie, you know that?”

“Don’t tell anybody or I’ll deny it.” He kissed Emma on top of her head. “Gotta get back to the kitchen. You want some meatloaf? I’ll send out a plate.”

“No, I’m fine. Rory already offered.”

“She microwaved a dinner,” Rory said with a grimace.

“Ugh, no. Emma Grace Sutton, you know better than that. You’re a doctor for heaven’s sake. Didn’t they teach you anything about salt and preservatives in medical school?”

Emma laughed as she pushed him away. “I don’t eat it every day, Theo. Sometimes the convenience is worth a little risk.”

“Not on my watch, hon. Now that you’re moving in practically next door, you’ve got no excuse. You can come over here for dinner or let us send somebody with takeout.”

Emma couldn’t stop the goofy smile that appeared. “Y’all are the best. I’m glad you’re my friends.”

She’d missed the comfort of being around old friends who’d known her back when she’d still been sitting in a highchair to eat. You couldn’t replace that kind of history.

“Always will be, babe,” Rory said. “We’re both here for you no matter what. You can tell me anything, but I’d probably think twice about what you tell Theo.”

Theo snorted before heading for the kitchen with a wave. Emma climbed back onto her stool while Rory went to fill a drink order. She was truly happy for the first time in days. Relaxed. It’d been so long since she’d been at ease in her own skin.

Maybe coming home wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

She picked up her drink and took a sip. The back of her neck prickled with warning. A chill shot through her and she spun on her seat to glance wildly around the room.

The Dawg wasn’t crowded tonight, and she could see most of it. Simon wasn’t there.

Emma closed her eyes as she turned back to her drink. Was she paranoid, thinking something was wrong when it wasn’t?

The moment she felt good about something, the fear roared to life. He wasn’t there, but her mind wasn’t going to let her stop fearing him.

As if she knew, deep down, that he wasn’t finished with her yet.