Two
LUKE
I haven’t been this frustrated since college.
And today as well as then, the object of my desire was Laci Monroe.
The quick success of the pub had caught me by surprise.
I’d been sure this area of the city was the perfect location for the brewery and pub, but the buzz was better than expected.
I know I shouldn’t complain, but the demand on my time was keeping me from her.
I’d heard she got divorced a couple years ago and knew she’d never left Pineville, but I hadn’t expected the girl that got away to walk into my pub and make me wish I was twenty again.
Tonight was my second trip with a group of friends, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
She’d filled out in all the best places a woman could.
She’d been off-limits to me back then, and our tutoring sessions had driven me crazy.
But the good thing about now was I’m free to do and see whomever I wanted.
And I wanted Laci. It was instant lust all over again, and this time there’d be no one in our way.
Our shared glances were a good sign and led me to believe she might want the same. But every time I thought I could take a moment for myself, another patron wanted my attention, or a fan from my football days wanted a story.
I’d just about reached my limit in keeping the customers happy. If one more chance to talk to Laci passed me by before she and her friends left, my employees were going to see a side of me better left hidden.
“Luke, table six says he went to school with you and wants to know if you could stop and see him.” The server took off to take another order before I could ask her to go back to table six with free drinks and an apology.
Dammit. I stepped back into a corner of the room and rolled my head and shoulders, working out the kinks from hours of standing.
It’d been a month since the grand opening, and I still couldn’t get used to being on my feet eight-plus hours non-stop in the pub on top of the hours in the brewery.
My admiration for anyone who had a job where they were constantly on their feet had increased ten-fold, but it had me dreaming of when I could step back from being the face of the business and concentrate fully on the brewing.
The eighteen-hour days were killing me. Really I only had myself to blame since I decided not to take on a partner or hire a general manager so I could focus solely on the brewing.
Shit, I needed a break. And the more I watched Laci, the more I wanted to take it with her.
Over her, under her, and deep inside her.
“Uh, boss. You okay?”
Clay, my lead bartender, handed me a towel.
Looking down at my hand, I swore. I’d been filling a growler or rather overfilling one as I fantasized about Laci.
“Yeah, sorry this one got away from me. I’m going to take five and check the tanks in the back.
” Ignoring several shouts from my waitstaff, I left the pub's noise behind and went into the brewery. I’d made the decision to attach it via a long covered hallway to the pub knowing the winters could be brutal.
I didn’t want anyone injuring themselves trekking back and forth.
Stepping into the main brew room filled me with a sense of pride every time.
I don’t think it’ll ever get old. I’d taken my biology degree that Laci had helped me achieve, and I worked my ass off and used it as my foundation when the microbrewing bug bit hard during my first offseason with the NFL and after I became injured and had to leave the sport I loved.
Walking between the gleaming equipment, I couldn’t help but make the connection between where I was today and the help Laci gave me.
Her enthusiasm for education had bled over to me, and I turned my almost failing grade in biology to a solid B.
It had meant not repeating my last semester of college.
She hadn’t known at the time how important the degree I’d earned meant to my parents and me.
She never finished college that I was aware of after she left to get married to my jerk roommate Kevin.
Man, I hadn’t seen that coming. I knew Kev was hot for her, constantly pestering me to introduce them, but their romance, or whatever, happened so fast, and then she was pregnant, and I’d lost my chance.
Determined to find out if she was open to going out with me, I needed to figure out a way to find some time to talk to her. I couldn’t seem to get Laci out of my head since the moment she walked back into my life.
My cell buzzed, and I let out a curse. “What’s up, John?
” I waited for my assistant to respond then looked at the time.
Yeah, another day got away from me. Every sane person I knew had finished for the day, and here I was, still working.
I gave the closest steel cooker a tap and let out a heavy sigh.
This is what I wanted. Complaining about the hours was stupid.
Others would kill to be in my shoes, given the initial success I’d achieved.
Suppose they only knew the time it had taken to get here—going back to school for a second degree.
In that case, this one in microbiology, traveling to Munich, and completing the masterbrewer program, plus the hit my personal life took.
But it was all worth it, even with forty staring me in the face. Hell, I was ready for more than the occasional hook-up.
“Hye, Boss. That distributor from southern Idaho is here and—”
“Yeah, yeah. Tell him I’m on my way.” I flipped the lights off behind me. Once I handled this last request, I would approach Laci and at least get her number before she disappeared on me again.
When I walked back into the pub, my eyes roamed the crowd till I found the table where Laci and her friends had been sitting.
A new group was now seated in their place.
Shit, it was going to be a fucking long two weeks if she happened to come back in at the same interval as her group’s previous visits.
LACI
Third times the charm right? The last two weeks had crawled by, and I’d toyed with going in to see Luke on my own, but something always kept me away.
And frankly, I let it. I guess I wasn’t quite as confident where he was concerned as I thought I was, but it was the first Friday of the month again, and everyone agreed on going back to Hart’s Pass.
My cell buzzed. It was Audrey making sure I was on my way.
I smiled and took one last look in the mirror.
I’d spent more time fixing my hair and agonizing over my outfit than usual, and I’d finally settled on a short but not too short skirt and a button-down, floral sleeveless top.
I left one more button undone than I would have if I’d been going anywhere else but to go flirt with a man I’ve wanted for twenty years.
A thrill shot through me as I walked into my garage.
Fighting a rush of butterflies, I looked in my rearview mirror and added a swipe of lip gloss, and left to meet up for girls’ night.
I thought about the conversation Audrey and I had at lunch earlier in the week, where I confessed my growing obsession with Luke.
She listened; well, she didn’t interrupt me, but the half-smirk she wore conveyed an “I knew it” look, and I giggled at the memory.
When I’d finished, Audrey went serious on me and grabbed my hands as I shredded a napkin as I told her how just being in the same room with Luke again had stirred up not so dormant feelings. Naughty and so unlike me feelings of desire for a man who’d never kissed me, not once all those years ago.
“You deserve to go after him. Heck, the only good thing that came out of being with Kevin all those years was Jennifer and Emma. And now that they’re on their own paths, you should take this time and explore those feelings.”
And those feelings included an awakening and an increased need for pleasure.
Sex had been nice at best and sporadic and unfulfilling at its worst with my ex.
And I found myself reading romance novels and marveling at the confidence the heroines had in their sexuality and asking their partners for exactly what they wanted.
So what if I’ve put on a few pounds since he last saw me.
I felt secure enough that if my curves were an issue for any guy, then that guy wasn’t for me.
Besides, I’d had plenty of guys hit on me in the past two years since my divorce, so I knew I was still attractive and knew men liked a curvy girl, well woman.
But no one had lit me up the way Luke did when I walked into his pub last month.
I had spent so much time the last couple of years getting my daughters through their final years in high school that I hadn’t dated at all and had forgotten about that quick rush of desire that always hit when you saw a guy you wanted.
I felt lighter after sharing how I felt with Audrey, and she was right.
I was still young…ish, I had a lot of life left to enjoy, and I didn’t necessarily want to get married again, but exploring new interests and what I wanted from a guy was going to be a new priority.
So, I was taking this chance to spread my wings. And I wanted to do that with Luke Hart.
We walked into the pub and headed straight to where Blayne and Deidre had snagged a table. Looking around, it was just as busy as last time, if not more so. My gaze was drawn immediately to the bar where I knew he’d be—drawing beer and entertaining everyone around him.
Lord, he looked better now than he did twenty years ago.
His dark brown, slicked-back hair begged to be tousled.
His rugged good looks and toned and muscular body belied the fact that he was forty now.
The only thing giving his age away was a touch of gray at the temples, which only made him sexier.