TWO TAMMY
TWO
TAMMY
The rest of Monday was a whirlwind. Wade and I spent most of the day in the small office of the pub, going over everything. Two detectives also came by to ask more questions.
Vince, Jack, Diego, and Axel, who were great at technology, checked every camera around our entire building.
I wasn’t tech savvy, so I had no clue what they were doing, but they tinkered with those cameras for hours.
The only thing they told me was that the cameras had definitely been tampered with, which was why they’d all gone black.
So, while we didn’t know who did the break-in, we knew it wasn’t an amateur.
By the time the day ended, I was exhausted, both mentally and physically. I had high hopes that I would fall asleep rapidly that night, but my mind simply wouldn’t shut off. Hour after hour I tried everything to fall asleep, but I couldn’t make it work.
That was why I was not only exhausted but also grumpy on Tuesday when I walked in for my shift.
It was also why I ended up making a huge mistake after my next shift.
As much as customers like Donald annoyed the crap out of me, I honestly wished someone like that would come in tonight—if for no other reason than to give me a distraction. A distraction from the thoughts churning in my mind.
The two hours of sleep I had been lucky enough to have managed last night were filled with nightmares. The daytime wasn’t much better. Everywhere I looked, I saw a customer who could be the suspect.
Were they new?
Did they look suspicious?
What if I had been here closing up when that man broke in?
That last thought was the one that gave me shivers.
Every noise rattled me—chairs scraping the floor, glasses clinking in cheers, even the occasional dish that fell onto the floor. Those sounds were part of restaurant life and had never bothered me before.
I had been in the Army, for crying out loud. I had been trained to compartmentalize and stay focused. Apparently, I had lost all those skills the moment I retired.
I’d even dropped a few of my own glasses tonight—six in total, which was more than I’d dropped in all of last year.
“Tammy, you okay?” Axel asked softly from beside me, clearly picking up on my twitchiness.
I nodded and sighed as I tried to get my head back in the game. “Yeah, I’m good.”
It was a lie. I wasn’t good, but I would try to do a better job of faking it.
“You grab your new customer, and I’ll bring in the new rack of glasses,” Axel said, clearly not trusting me to bring them in without breaking them.
I glanced over to my left to see who had sat down on my side of the bar and almost did a double take.
I’d never seen this man before, and I knew I would have remembered because he was gorgeous. Fine with a capital F.
Damn.
He looked a few years older than my mid-forties, but sometimes it was hard to tell.
Wrinkles could be deceiving if you’d had a hard life.
I’d met people in their thirties who could pass for fifty, and I’d met people in their sixties who could pass for forty.
It all depended on how hard your life was, how well you took care of yourself, and possibly how much Botox you’d had.
Though I’d also seen some Botox jobs gone bad that ended up adding years to their life instead of the other way around.
Gray streaked the short hair at his temples and even through some of the longer strands on top, as well as his beard.
The salt and pepper blend gave him an air of distinction rather than an aged look.
His ruggedly handsome face looked like he had some history—a few good stories to tell and a few questionable decisions.
Mine likely looked the same to a stranger.
He wasn’t carved like a fitness model, but there also wasn’t an ounce of softness on him either. Fit, but not chiseled like a Greek god. Toned, but not a bodybuilder.
This man was just what the doctor ordered. Something sexy to look at, maybe even flirt with a little, and give myself the distraction I deserved. Needed.
“Welcome to the Watering Hole,” I greeted him, setting a menu down in front of him, along with a glass of water. “My name’s Tammy. Tonight is half-price drafts and seven-dollar pitchers. I’ll give you a couple minutes to look everything over, and I’ll be right back.”
I gave him my best flirty smile before turning back to go fill up another beer for one of my other customers. The smile came from a natural place, because a quick glance down at his hands showed he wasn’t wearing a ring and didn’t appear to have a tan line there either.
Not even three minutes later, I made my way back over to him, surprisingly eager to return. “What can I get for ya?”
“What do you recommend?” He lifted one brow in question.
“Most popular item on our menu is our wings. We’ve got six sauces to choose from and you can’t go wrong with any of them,” I told him as I leaned closer to point at the wings on the menu.
It was a lame move and I knew it, but the man not only looked good…He smelled divine too, and my body felt a pull to get closer to him.
“But…” I said, moving my fingers to the other side of the menu and smiling up at him, “my personal favorite is the barbeque pulled pork sandwich.”
He smiled back and handed me the menu. “Then I’ll take that with a side salad and French fries and any ale you’ve got on draft.”
Damn, that smile looked good on his mouth. It’d probably look good on mine, too.
“Coming right up.”
Yeah, this sexy man in front of me was just what I needed tonight. Distraction via flirting.
Customers were starting to clear out, as it was nearing ten o’clock. This gave me a chance to focus more attention on my newest customer, since I didn’t have to bounce back and forth between many others.
I set his beer down in front of him before tilting my head to the side, pretending to get a better look at his face. “You look a little over eighteen, so I’m guessing you aren’t a recruit at the reserve base. This means you’re either a lost tourist or my new favorite customer.”
He gave me a small smirk, and I watched a small dimple pop in his cheek. “What makes you think I’ve never been here before?”
“I’ve worked here for six years, and I’m good with faces,” I told him bluntly but politely.
It was the truth. I was very good at remembering faces and names. But also, this man was smokin’ hot, so I definitely knew I’d remember his face.
“That’s a long time,” he said and then leaned forward, his muscular forearms resting on the bar.
“My name is Ray, and no, I’m not from around here.
Just got off my flight from Texas not that long ago.
Glad I decided to come here for a bite to eat instead of grabbing something at the hotel. The view and company are much better.”
Was that a compliment?
I believe we may have just entered mutual flirtation territory.
Alright, Ray. Let the fun begin.
“Texas, eh? What brings you all the way here?”
“Visiting an old friend from the Army for a little while. He’s got a problem he asked me to help with, so here I am,” he said, as if it were no big deal to drop everything and come help a friend.
That was a good quality in a man and brought his sexy factor up yet another notch.
“Ah, so you’re an Army guy. Good to know you’re at least from the smartest military branch.”
His lip twitched at my comment. “You come from an Army family?”
“I do, but I also served myself. I did my twenty and retired a few years ago.”
“Ahh, so you’re not just gorgeous. You’re also smart and a badass, too.”
There was that grin again, those dimples popping right out and beaming like the bat signal, pulling me in closer to him in order to get me to make bad decisions.
Bad, but very fun, decisions.
I had great hair and great boobs, but I was getting older and my face was definitely starting to show it.
I swore I woke up every day to find either a new wrinkle or a new chin hair.
I had Native American and Italian blood in me, so waking up to a few dark hairs on my upper lip was also not uncommon, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed seeing them.
“Gorgeous, huh? Is that what you say to your wife or girlfriend?” I knew there was no ring, but sometimes men didn’t always wear them, especially in the military. Plus, he could be attached to a woman and not married, so before I took this any further, I needed to confirm.
“No wife or girlfriend.” His answer was simple, and he didn’t elaborate, but there was only truth in his eyes, so I nodded.
I was a chatty person by nature, and I loved talking it up with most customers, but this man seemed to bring out a different side of me.
“I’m just hoping I can keep the conversation going as long as possible tonight,” he added.
“As long as possible, eh? What kind of girl do you think I am, mister?”
“A beautiful one.” That slick smile was definitely a dangerous one.
“Oh, you’re smooth. Real smooth, Ray. And a flirt.”
His sexy smile overtook his face. “Is it working?”
It was, but I was going to make him wait.
I tilted my head to the side as if to think about it. “Maybe.”
I smiled and then walked over to my other customer to give him his check and also give myself a breather.
The thrill of the chase wasn’t just a guy thing. Honestly, women enjoyed it too.
So, I mastered the art of the push-and-pull. I might cancel my plans to meet up with a guy but then text him a few days later to reschedule. I might let him go all the way on a first date, but then arrive twenty minutes late to dinner.
It kept things spicy, unpredictable, and entirely on my terms. I not only wanted that, but I needed it.
I hadn’t had a lot of control in most of my life. My father was a good man, but he’d raised his family like an Army captain treated his soldiers. I’d grown up under his thumb—at least until my mom left him and took my sister and me with her.