Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jake
“Big sis!”
“Oh, shit.” Erica scrambled off me and flew around the back of the bar.
Sweet Jesus, my dick was still wet from her, and she’d already moved so far across the room it seemed as if she was in a different state.
She crouched low to button up her dress. “Would you put that thing away?” she whispered frantically.
My thing didn’t really appreciate the new nickname, but I hitched up my jeans and tucked myself behind my zipper. I was pulling my shirt over my head when Erica’s youngest sister, Gina Ramos, came around the corner.
She paused on the threshold between the entrance and the main part of the bar before she looked my way with a raised brow. Then she scanned the rest of the room and crossed her arms with a sly smile. “Well, hello, Chief Mills.”
I blew out a breath. Great. Lunch at the diner was going to get a little weird. “Gina.”
Freckles popped up from behind the bar, her buttons semi-straight save for the ones holding in her magnificent breasts.
Gina pressed her lips together, glancing from me to her and then back again. “How’d the meeting go?”
I tucked in my shirt and grabbed my jacket from the floor. “As well as can be expected.”
“I bet.” Gina cocked her hip. “So, did you convince my stubborn big sister to stick around for more than a few days?” She tucked her tongue in her cheek. “Maybe you used some of your persuasive talents?”
I wasn’t going there.
“I have to head back to the city today.”
My gaze swung to Freckles. Funny how she hadn’t mentioned that earlier. “Is that so?”
“It’s called work. You might have heard of it. Just as you may have given me a three-page list of things to fix thanks to your job.”
“Freckles—”
“Stop calling me that.” She shoved her hair out of her eyes. “How did you actually think this bar would get fixed? Sharkey didn’t leave me with much more than the land itself and a few thousand dollars to fix it.”
“I told you we’d help you.”
“No, actually, you really didn’t.” She stormed across the bar to stand in front of me and jammed her finger into my chest. “You’re too busy telling me exactly what’s wrong with my bar.” She heaved out a breath. “The bar.”
I swallowed a smile. Now was definitely not the time to grin down at her. Mostly because I wasn’t entirely sure she wouldn’t rip my lips off my face. Or worse. But that little slip—my bar—gave me way more hope than was probably wise.
Because she was right. I had only been giving her a laundry list of problems. Riding in to save her wasn’t the right way to go at all. We weren’t seventeen anymore.
“I can help.”
She seemed to finally register that her sister was in the room as well. Well, beyond the shocked and naked deal. She tipped her head toward Gina. “Why?”
Gina’s eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean why? You’re my sister.”
That was a very good question. My family was very small. Just me and my sister were left. I’d literally hand her my arm if she asked for it. The Ramos family had always seemed much the same.
“Manita, of course.”
“Don’t start that. Yes, you’re my big sister and I love you, but if you’d just let us come down and help you, this could be done without a ton of money. Sei così testardo.”
I never knew if they were speaking Spanish or Italian or a bastardization of both, but I knew that one. Every single Ramos woman—and man, for that matter—were stubborn as hell.
“I don’t want Damien and Papa coming in here fighting.”
“The guys want to come in to help.” I held up my hand before the women had a chance to dismiss my offer. “This has become the fire station’s favorite bar. In fact, we had intended to help Sharkey before he got sick.” I moved to Freckles and took her hand. “Let us help you.”
“I don’t even know if I want to keep the bar. I don’t want you guys to spend money and all that if it’s just going to get torn down.”
I rocked back on my heels and dropped her hand. “So, Maitland has contacted you.”
“Of course, he has.” She paced away from me.
I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket. “And your answer?”
“My answer is I don’t know.” She widened her arms. “This is a ton of work and I have a job already.”
“So you keep saying,” I muttered.
“I have a life in the city.” She put her hands on her hips. “I haven’t lived here in years, Jake. I’m just supposed to uproot myself and move back?”
Yes.
That was exactly what I wanted her to do.
There was nothing to stop her—stop us. Danny was part of our past, but he hadn’t been a factor in my life since freshman year of college.
I’d had no intention of sticking around to wait to see when or if he would propose to the woman I loved, and he hadn’t done much to prolong our friendship.
Made me think he’d probably done the same with their marriage.
I had no patience for waiting her out. But that was exactly what I needed to do. To show her that this place was exactly where she was supposed to be. “Then come back next weekend, and we’ll work on the place together.”
Her cheeks heated, and her gaze dropped to my mouth. I nearly groaned with the need to cross to her and show her all the reasons to stay, but my dick was going to have to take a backseat right now. I had to play the long game.
“I’ll round up the guys.” I turned to Gina. “You get your family to come down here, and we’ll see just what we can do with it.”
I stepped in front of Freckles, dragging my thumb over her swollen lower lip. I wanted more of her. I needed to make her see just how good we were together, but that kind of power play wasn’t the way to go.
Dropping my hand, I stepped away from her and her seductive scent. “Then you can make your decision.”
And I’d do everything I could to change her mind about Crescent Cove and this bar.
And us.