Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
MARSHALL
Oh hell, I really don’t want my ridiculously large crush on Jasper to mess up this case or Jasper’s summer.
I’ve never had someone get under my skin like this, though. Never felt electric just being next to someone in a bar entrance.
My intention as I enter the bar is to sit a bit away from Jasper, but of course, the only seat is right next to him.
Quinn Mann, the owner of the bar, is here this afternoon, and gives me a hand raise in acknowledgement as he talks to someone else across the room.
Before the drinks arrive, Quinn himself walks over with a large tray of shots. He sits the tray on the table and I stand so he can engulf me in a big hug, which I return. Quinn and his family are cornerstones of Bear Valley.
Penny passes out the shots while Quinn and I quickly catch up. Once distributed, Quinn grabs his as I do mine and we all look at Keith’s picture on the wall over by the stage. The framed photograph is one of my favorites. It’s from the stage here in Black Diamond, the very stage the picture hangs near, and it shows Keith playing guitar during a set with Quinn’s brother, Baylor, who is a successful songwriter and plays Black Diamond from time to time.
This toast is always for Keith. A little tradition that started even when Lin was still at the firm. Keith was from Bear Valley and knew the Manns well. Quinn is a good man to always remember my husband.
The best, Keith agrees.
“To Keith!” We all say, before tipping back his favorite bourbon—Pappy Van Winkle, of course, so it costs me a pretty penny each week, but at least it isn’t as pretentious as Macallan.
Quinn grabs up the empty shot glasses with a grin, expertly placing them on the tray.
“Good to see you, man,” he says as he gives me another hug, arms squeezing quickly.
“Um,” Jasper’s voice asks, his face adorably flushed by the shot, “Who is Keith?”
“Marshall’s husband, of course,” Quinn says scooping up his tray and heading back to the bar, where I can see Quinn’s own husband waiting. Quinn was always a good man, but I’ve never seen falling in love look so good on someone as it does him.
Jasper makes a sound, a cough or something like it, before quickly grabbing the water the server set on the table when we arrived and taking a long drink. He looks mortified and I quickly realize why that is.
Maybe I was an ass that first day, and sure, I’ve been trying to put distance between us, but that’s because I’m worried about my ability to resist him.
Now he thinks he helped me cheat on my husband.
You better clean that up, Keith advises.
Get it together, Marsh. That’s my own voice, thankfully, not Keith’s.
The point is, Jasper’s used to a certain amount of disappointment where men are concerned, that much is obvious just from my casual observation this past week and the look on his face when I was an out-of-line asshole.
The desire not to be one more thing that disappoints him surges strong.
Right on time, the server shows up with our orders and passes them around, providing me a moment to lean into Jasper. It’s a mistake, because I can smell him, feel the body heat rolling off him. Just like in my SUV that always seemed large until he was in the space.
So close.
So much I want.
Still, I swallow down how my mouth waters this close to him. I’d kissed him when we hooked up, but those had been more heat and teeth. What would it be like to really taste him, soft and sweet. Would he fall apart? Whimper under my kiss like he did around my dick?
GET. A. GRIP. That’s Keith. Loud and clear.
“So, Keith,” I gesture to the picture we saluted earlier, “that was my late husband.” I pause, making sure that the words land as they need to.
I have Jasper’s attention and realize it’s not something I want to give up too quickly.
“Keith was a doctor at Bear Valley General. He grew up here.” I gesture over at Quinn, who is back behind the bar. “Quinn Mann and his three brothers—their family that is—sort of own most of Bear Valley. Most of the properties and many of the businesses around here, including this bar. Keith was older than the brothers, they are closer to my age, so they didn’t go to school together or anything, but they got close once he moved back.”
“So that’s how you ended up here.”
I see-saw my hand back and forth.
“Kind of? I knew Bear Valley would be a great place to live and work because I went to undergrad at Rollins University, just down the road in Mirror Lake. So when Lincoln,” I correct myself, “well, Professor Rutherford to you, I suppose. But, anyway, we decided to create our own firm instead of staying on at Smith-Parsons in Denver, and this seemed like the perfect place to land. The other partners thought so too. I was already dating Keith, and it all sort of fell together.”
Jasper looks around as the noise continues on around us. I can tell he has a million questions he won’t ask right now.
“So you and Rutherford go way back. I applied to Smith-Parsons, and he said it was a great place to work.” It’s a comment, not a question.
“It’s a world-class firm,” I tell him. “I met Lin there and the rest is history,” I smile, making the small talk while my mind catalogs the fact that Jasper may only be an hour away after he graduates.