Chapter 5
Chapter Five
I t took Rafe a week to work up the courage to return to town.
Unfortunately, he still hadn’t worked up the courage to enter the bar.
So far, he’d gotten a week’s worth of laundry washed and dried at the laundromat while an older woman who introduced herself as Dolores repeatedly commented on his size.
Then he spent far too long nursing a cup of coffee at Gert’s Diner in the center of town and stocked up on groceries at the cramped market next to the bar.
He’d run into Dolores again in aisle six, her cart filled with cat food and cans of beef stew.
She’d cackled with delight at seeing him, squeezing his arm with her arthritic fingers like they were old friends.
Maybe around here sharing laundry detergent counted as friendship?
Rafe wouldn’t know. He’d mostly avoided the town since he’d left his?…
family just over a year ago. Sometimes he’d go into one of the bigger towns nearby and stock up on supplies at a wholesale store, one big trip to avoid too many small ones, as strolling down the main street in Maple Hollow had felt too intimate, too dangerous.
And he’d been right. He’d already accidentally befriended an old lady.
He still didn’t feel quite ready for so much human interaction, but Ruby happened.
Ruby .
He felt like her name had been etched onto his soul, written in permanent red ink. Or lipstick.
He hadn’t stopped thinking about her in a week.
He’d been consumed by her. By thoughts of her.
Her moonlit skin and blood red lips, the rest of her like dark pools of shadow, black hair and black clothes.
And that spicy cinnamon scent. Christ, he’d nearly reached out across the bar that night.
The urge to touch her had been so strong.
And for a minute, he could have sworn she wanted him to.
He ran a rough hand down his face, the ever-present stubble scraping against his palm. He needed to get a grip.
It was dark now and he was standing out in front of the bar, loitering like a creep. He’d already received several questioning looks from the locals as they headed inside. He needed to go in or go home.
Home to the safety of his cabin in the woods. There was a reason he lived out there on his own. He wasn’t fit for civilized life. He wasn’t fit for a woman like Ruby.
He’d hurt enough people in his life, and he had no intention of adding her to the list.
But he did need to talk to Macy. Life on his own required cash, and Macy’s order was a big one. He took a deep breath, stealing himself, before opening the door and entering the din of the bar.
He was hoping he could slip in and find Macy without causing too much of a stir. But his hopes were immediately dashed when every head in the bar turned to look at him.
Well, fuck.
He considered turning and fleeing but someone at the table to his left filled with three grizzled old men called out to him before he could move.
“Hey, bub,” one of the men said, with a nod.
Rafe gave him a silent nod back, hoping that would be enough to get him in the door. No such luck.
“You from around here? Haven’t seen you before.”
The two other men at the table sized him up from under their trucker hats.
“New to town,” Rafe said. “But I’m born and raised in the County.”
The man’s wrinkled face cracked into a smile.
“Ah, I thought so!” he said as though he could tell where Rafe was from.
As though being from the County could tell him anything important about Rafe.
“I knew you weren’t one of those flatlanders coming up here to pretend to fish!
” He cackled and the other old-timers joined him.
“Come join us,” he went on. “I’m Tom, and this here is Kev, and Gil.”
The way he said it, patting the booth beside him, Rafe understood he didn’t have a choice. Not unless he wanted to piss off the townies. Which he definitely did not.
“Ruby, sweetheart!” Tom hollered. “Bring our new friend here a beer! On me.”
Ruby.
She looked up from where she was pouring a pint behind the bar and her gaze crashed into his. Her eyes widened; her red lips popped open in surprise.
Fuck.
Rafe’s entire body responded. He had to grip the bench beneath him to stop himself from striding over to her. He needed to be next to her immediately.
What was happening to him?
Ruby shook herself like she needed to recover from the shock of seeing him again. He watched as she composed herself, as she finished serving the customer she was with, as she came around the bar and walked toward him.
He couldn’t look away.
She was dressed in a black tank top and black skirt; black tights covered her shapely legs, and he imagined what it would be like to peel them off.
She’d probably kick him in the shins with the black boots she was wearing before he had the chance. He almost smiled at the thought.
Almost.
But then she was in front of him, a hand on her hip.
“Ruby, this young man…” Tom said, patting Rafe on the shoulder. “What’s your name again, son?”
“Rafe.”
Tom smiled. “Rafe here is new to town.”
“We’ve met, actually,” Ruby said.
“Is that so?”
“Yep. Just last week. Wasn’t it, Rafe?”
Christ, his name from her mouth was too much.
He cleared his throat.
“Yeah. Last week.”
Ruby’s lips twitched like she was fighting a smile.
“So, what can I get you, Rafe ?” She did it again, like she was purring it. His name rolling off those ruby red lips was nearly enough to kill him.
And she looked like she’d enjoy it.
“Whatever you have on tap is fine.”
Ruby’s smile grew. “We’ve got a fun local one this week. Sexy Chaos.”
Sexy Chaos . He would have laughed if he wasn’t losing his grip on reality. His grip on the seat, however, tightened. The vinyl creaked.
“Sounds good.”
Ruby smirked as the old men chuckled. “Coming right up.” She spun on her heel and headed back toward the bar, her little black skirt taunting him with every step.
Rafe slumped back in his seat.
Gil eyed him from across the table. “Our Ruby can have that effect on people.”
“What effect?”
Gil shrugged. “She’s a good girl. But a feisty one. Doesn’t take no crap from anyone.”
The three men were staring at him like they were worried he was planning to give Ruby crap.
He held up his hands. “I’m not here looking for trouble. Just came to talk to Macy about a job.”
“Bartending? I didn’t know she was looking to hire.” Gil said, taking a slug of his beer.
“No, I’m a woodworker. Uh?… Macy wants the tables redone.”
Tom raised his busy brows again. “Big job.”
“Yah, bub,” Gil said with a nod. “Big job.”
Kev sat silently, alternating between looking Rafe over and sipping his drink. Rafe wondered if the other two men always did all the talking.
Ruby was back with his beer before the men could quiz him any further.
“Thanks, sweetheart,” Tom said with a wink and Ruby scowled at him.
“I don’t let Sal call me that, and I’m certainly not going to let you,” she said.
“Sorry, sorry. I forgot.” Tom’s apology didn’t seem overly sincere to Rafe, but his smile was.
Ruby just shook her head like she was more than used to this nonsense.
“Thank you,” Rafe said, drawing Ruby’s attention back to him. His breath caught in his throat when she looked at him.
“You’re welcome. Enjoy your Sexy Chaos . Macy’s in the back office when you’re done!” she called over her shoulder as she walked away.
Tom chuckled. “See, feisty.”
It was already late by the time Tom and friends let him go.
They’d insisted on buying a few more rounds, and their questions about his history were getting harder and harder to dodge. But he finally managed to extract himself, telling them he really needed to talk to Macy.
He made his way to the bar, mostly ignoring the looks he was getting from the other patrons, although most of them seemed to have softened after his talk with Tom, like he’d passed some kind of test. He was hoping to get one more word in with Ruby before finding the back office, but she was busy serving.
“Do you know where I can find Macy’s office?” he asked the gray-haired man sitting at the bar, but before he could answer someone else’s fingers were wrapping around his bicep. He prickled at the touch.
“Did you need help with something?” the woman asked when he turned around. She batted her eyelashes at him.
“Just looking for Macy.” He gently tugged his arm from her grip.
She smiled at him, undeterred. “You’re new around here.”
“I am.”
She stuck out her hand. “Well, I’m Sierra. You can consider me the welcoming committee.”
The man behind him laughed. “Oh, she’s welcoming , alright.”
“Shut up, Sal,” Sierra snapped and then turned her smile back to Rafe. “Ignore him.”
“I planned to.”
He could hear Sal’s chuckle behind him. “Smart kid.”
“Anyway,” Sierra went on, “I overheard you talking to Tom. Did you say you’re a woodworker?”
“I am, I just really need to?—”
“Because I was thinking I might need some work done on my back deck…”
“That’s not really the type of work I do. Now if you’ll excuse me?—”
“What type of work do you do? Rafe, was it?”
Sierra, the welcoming committee, apparently had an amazing sense of hearing. She was also looking at him like she wanted him for her next meal.
She was maybe in her late fifties with big blonde hair and a tight top that looked out of place in this dingy old bar. She looked out of place here, like she never imagined she’d be here, like she’d imagined her life going differently.
Rafe knew the feeling.
But he also knew he wouldn’t be doing any work for Sierra.
“I mostly build furniture.”
“You do! That’s incredible. I love a man who’s good with his hands.”
Another rough laugh from Sal, and Sierra shot him a look around Rafe’s shoulder.
“Leave the man alone, would you?” Sal said. “He’s new to town and he doesn’t need you drooling all over him.”
Sierra gasped. “I was not drooling, you old coot.”
“Not much older than you, darlin’.”
Oh, that made her really mad. Red blotches appeared on her cheeks and her hands fisted at her sides.
Rafe was wishing he was anywhere else besides stuck in the middle, when Ruby appeared.
“Cool it, you two,” she said. “You’re scaring the new guy.” She winked at Rafe and he couldn’t help his laugh.
“I don’t need to take this crap,” Sierra said and stormed off to a nearby table.
“Thanks for saving us, Ruby,” Sal said with a grin, and Ruby shook her head.
“I was saving Rafe, not you.”
“You were saving me?” Rafe said and when Ruby’s attention was on him, he felt it again, the need to reach out, to touch her, to feel her skin beneath his fingers, under his teeth…
What the actual hell was wrong with him?
“Of course. I had to. You’re new and you don’t know how dangerous Sierra can be.”
“I was getting the idea.”
Ruby laughed. “She’s not very subtle.”
“No, she’s not.” He glanced over at her table where she was watching him with her friends.
“But if she’s your type, by all means…” Ruby swept out a hand, inviting Rafe to go after Sierra if he wanted.
“Not my type,” he snapped and Ruby grinned.
“Okay then. Noted.”
She didn’t ask him what his type was, thankfully, because then he would have had to answer you and that would have sounded crazy.
He didn’t even know this girl. He’d just met her.
Even though every fiber of his being was screaming that that was the truth.
His type was Ruby. He could no longer imagine a world in which that wasn’t true.
“Did you hear Gil spotted a wolf the other day when he was out hunting?” Sal asked.
A wolf.
Rafe waited for Ruby’s reaction.
She raised an uninterested brow.
“Oh really?”
“Big one. A little too big, if you know what I mean.”
Rafe’s gaze stayed on Ruby even as his heart rate crept up.
“And how big was he?” she asked like she was reading from a well-worn script.
“Bigger than a normal wolf,” he leaned over toward Rafe. “There are strange creatures that prowl around these woods.”
“Is that so?” Rafe asked, his words carefully measured.
“Oh yeah, have been for years. My grandad was nearly killed. Attacked by some kind of creature, he said. A wolf far bigger than anything normal. Plenty of folks around here have stories like that.”
Ruby scoffed. “That’s all it is. Stories.”
“Are you calling my grandad a liar?”
“No, of course not.” Ruby softened, patting Sal’s hand. “Let me get you another one. Rafe, what can I get you?”
He couldn’t bring himself to utter the words Sexy Chaos, so he ordered a Sam Adams and pulled up the stool next to Sal.
By the time he was done listening to Sal’s theories on the thing in the woods , it was really late. The bar had nearly emptied out when he made his way to the back office to finally talk to Macy.
He left Ruby wiping down the bar top after Sal stumbled out for the night.
Maybe if he made this meeting quick, he could catch her before she left.
It felt imperative that he did.