Chapter 1 #2
“Oh my God, you better not have. Otherwise, I will make you pay, like big time. I’ll take you shopping in the Christmas rush for eight hours, because I know how much you love to shop normally.” Now it’s Autumn’s time to laugh hysterically.
“Look, we both know that’s never going to happen, and that my mom loves you more than me, so as if I would be stupid enough to eat them. Okay, go have fun and I’ll see you in the morning with coffee… strong coffee. Be safe.” It’s the same thing I tell her every time she calls me when she’s out.
“Yes, Mom. Bye.” And then she’s gone and all I can do is sit here and shake my head, thinking about our chaotic friendship. Surprisingly, it’s what keeps me sane, even if there is not one bit of sanity between us.
I love Autumn, but that phone call has woken me up, so I think it’s time to make a hot cocoa and take my book to bed with me.
As I stand at the kitchen window waiting for the milk to heat up, I look out to see a light flutter of snow falling, but it melts before it even hits the ground, and within a minute, it’s just rain.
We don’t always get snow, but I’m praying for a white Christmas this year.
There is nothing like waking up on Christmas morning to see the magic of a winter wonderland.
Stirring my hot cocoa on the counter, I see Autumn’s cinnamon rolls, and I just can’t help myself.
I empty the rolls into another container and hide it in the pantry.
I can’t wait for Autumn’s reaction in the morning when she opens an empty box.
My eyes finally start getting heavy as I read the second last page of the chapter, but I’m determined to finish it because the protagonist is finally about to pull his head out of his ass and see what is right in front of him.
My Kindle is wobbling in my hand, but I push on, trying to fight my fatigue.
“Come on, for goodness’ sake, just kiss her,” is the last thing I remember thinking.
Ring, ring, ring.
“Shit,” I mumble as I jump out of bed, and my Kindle hits the floor. I’m listening for the call from dispatch over the speakers, waiting for the details of the fire we are heading to.
But the ringing doesn’t stop, and when my eyes adjust to the room, I remember I’m not at the station, so now search for my phone.
My favorite photo of Mom appears on the screen, and this sends me into a panic when I see the time is eleven forty-three pm.
“Mom, are you okay, what’s wrong?” My job is to be calm in a crisis, it’s what I do every day. But not when it involves my mom.
“Yes, everything is fine, sorry to scare you. But I need a favor. Well, more importantly, my neighbor, Landon, needs one.” She sounds a bit sleepy but also worried.
“Tell me what’s going on and how I can help.” This is my first visit home since the new neighbors moved in, so I’ve never met them.
“The babysitter’s mom has had a fall, and she needs to get to the hospital, and my little munchkins need someone to take care of them.
Landon is stuck at his bar and can’t leave.
Even if he could leave, it’s in the city, so it would take him a while.
I told him you would go over and sit there until he gets home.
I knew you wouldn’t mind.” When I finally meet this guy next door, I need to thank him, because Mom fusses over them so much it stops her from worrying about me.
“Okay, I’m getting dressed right now. Text me his number, and I’ll call him so you can go back to sleep. I’ll sort it out.” I don’t bother taking off my short Christmas PJs and instead just pull track pants and a sweater on over top.
“You are such a good girl. Thank you, and I’ll talk to you in the morning.” I hang up from her, and then a message chimes on my phone. As soon as I open it, I push the number.
“Poppy?” A deep, manly voice booms through my phone as he shouts over the music in his bar, and I can tell he is stressed.
Holy shit, if that’s what he sounds like, all gruff and raspy, I can’t wait to see what he looks like.
Well, this night just took an interesting turn.
LANDON
Seriously! That’s not happening in my bar.
“John, red shirt, black hair, five-foot nothing at the bar. Remove the drinks. Deal with him,” I grumble into my earpiece to my head of security as I march out of my office from where I’ve been watching the security monitors.
“Already on it, I saw it too.” John’s words in my ear are what I expected. I hired him because he’s the best, and I trust him implicitly.
Just one fucking night it would be nice to eat dinner without an interruption.
I swipe the back of my hand across my mouth to make sure there is no pepper sauce from my steak still stuck in my beard. My blood pressure is rising, as it does every time I have to deal with the scum of society.
This time of year is crazy busy, as we are only two weeks out from Christmas.
Everyone is out at parties then end up here when they’ve had enough of the work crowd, or they’re just here catching up with friends ahead of the holidays.
They call it the happiest time of the year, but I’m not sure who it’s happy for, because there hasn’t been much cheer around here lately for me.
I try to remain calm and take a deep breath before I step through the door at the end of the back corridor and walk out onto the large floor of the bar. I can’t add a lawsuit for losing my cool to my list of problems.
I hear voices escalating from across the room where my security staff are wrestling with the guy they are trying to remove.
“Get your hands off me, I didn’t do nothing. I’m gonna sue you for assault.” The words spewing from his mouth aren’t anything I don’t hear on a regular basis.
I stride over to him and scrunch his shirt into my fist, dragging him close enough to me that I can smell the liquor on his breath.
“You’re lucky they aren’t beating your sorry ass to a pulp right now,” I hiss at him. “So stop fucking squealing and save it for the cops when they get here.”
“I didn’t do nothing,” he grunts again.
“Anything. I didn’t do anything,” I correct him like he is one of my kids. “And I beg to differ, asshole. My video surveillance tells me differently, so smile for the camera, dickhead,” I say, pointing to the camera that he is looking straight at.
The fight in his body drains out of him as he comes to the realization that he is in big trouble.
“You’re stupid if you didn’t think we were watching you.
Women come to this bar because they know they are safe from scum like you.
” My face is so close to his now that his eyes are bulging wide with fear.
“Don’t you ever show your face in Lucinda’s again, or next time, you won’t be walking out of here.
Understood?” The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as rage courses through my body.
I release my hold of him before I do something stupid, like headbutting him, and then I look to John.
“Get him out of here.”
“Yes, boss.” He signals to his security guys to move him to our secure room until the cops arrive. It is fully kitted out with surveillance cameras and microphones so my staff can never be accused of anything from the problem customer they are dealing with.
I run my hand through my hair in frustration and then take another long, slow, deep breath before I step over and speak to the woman whose drink was just spiked. What the hell is wrong with society!
After spending time with the customer and her friend, I learn that thankfully neither of them had taken a sip of their cocktails before John took them away to be tested by the cops so they can charge the guy.
Dropping back into the chair at my desk, I try again to eat my now-cold steak and glance at the photo that sits pride of place next to my computer screen.
Running my finger over my wife’s beautiful smiling face, I stop and linger on her lips.
What I wouldn’t give for one last kiss of those lips.
To see her cuddling our two boys, the way she is in this photo like they are her whole world, because they were.
I can still see her sitting at the end of the bar on the nights we hired a sitter, when she would come to the bar I named after her, have a few casual drinks and the occasional makeout session in my locked office, and then I would put her in a town car to get home to the kids.
Life was perfect until that night. I can remember the feeling of my phone in my pocket ringing over and over again and then seeing the sitter’s number before hearing a voice screaming down the phone at me that Lucinda had collapsed as she walked through the front door and that the ambulance was on its way.
The rest is a blur I don’t want to think about, because none of it matters.
She was dead from a cardiac arrest the moment she hit the floor, and life was never going to be the same again.
I can’t believe that was two years ago, and now I live a life of chaos trying to juggle our six- and four-year-old sons, Nash and Kade, while running Lucinda’s. Bringing my best buddy, Adrian, on board as a partner is the only thing that has kept my head above water.
Knock, knock.
“Unless someone is dying, I don’t want to know.” I take another bite of the steak which is a little chewier now.
The door starts to open anyway because my staff understand my sense of humor, which is surprisingly still hanging on by a thread.
“Sorry, boss, just wanted to let you know that we had to send Jasper home, so we are one man down in the bar. He was getting sicker by the hour,” Charlene informs me.
“And I don’t want to add more drama, but Emile isn’t looking too hot either.
That’s what we get for hiring roommates. ” She rolls her eyes.
“I know, but they’re great at their jobs.” I push my plate away because there is no way I’m finishing my cold dinner now.