Chapter 4 Elizabeth
elizabeth
Living a little… Well, it kind of sucked.
Maybe I wasn’t good at it? Because when you were trying to live a little, there was no way you could find yourself bored, right?
A local nurse friend of mine called and asked me to get a drink at the brewery in town.
I’d been there more than a handful of times.
It was a fun place to be. But it was also where Austin Hart worked.
Well, he co-owned the place that had helped boost the economy of our small mountain town in the last year since it opened its doors.
Jackie, my influencer sister, had not only told me all about the amazing things the brewery did but had shown me.
From a haunted maze to a Santa’s workshop for a toy drive, the brewery had been the background of quite a few different fundraisers.
Now I was getting ready to go there.
All while I thought about the guy whose number I’d still not deleted from my phone. Nor had I texted or called him. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t want anything to do with the man who kept following me, running behind me on my daily runs. Liar, a little voice inside my head whispered.
I was woman enough to admit I’d scrolled down my contacts and had hovered over his number multiple times on a daily basis. And I might or might not have even typed out a couple of texts only to immediately delete them.
There was something about the guy who had been following me around town.
I wasn’t stupid. It wasn’t like he could blend in just anywhere when he was out and about.
The first two times I’d noticed him while I was at the gym or on a run, I’d totally chalked it up to coincidence.
Small-town living stuff. And if I was being honest, my ego had been a little bruised at the fact he never came up and spoke to me. Or acknowledged our night together.
“What night, Liz!?” I groaned at my reflection. “We danced. That was it,” I had to remind myself. He hadn’t even tried to kiss me. Because if he had… I would have let him do that and so much more.
But when I started to notice him almost daily? Every morning, no matter where I was in town for the last two weeks, I stopped believing it was a coincidence. Not when I walked around town and he was usually across the street or even in the same stores I went into.
But he never walked up to me again like he had at the little biker bar on the outskirts of town. My very own little stalker, I mused as I stared at my reflection in the mirror and rolled my eyes. Stalker. I smirked.
Austin Hart was too tall and too handsome to blend in.
I had no idea what he thought he was doing when he followed me around.
At six two and at least two hundred and twenty pounds of lean muscle, with reddish brown hair and a closely-trimmed beard and freckles that gave him grown man air with light blue eyes that made me want to drown in them, he was born to stand out.
Freakishly handsome with a smile that made any woman of any age or backgrounds knees wobble.
I couldn’t help but notice the man who happened to be everywhere I turned.
Or at least it felt like he was.
Even late at night, I felt… him around me. His attention. His gaze. Which was ridiculous.
Not that I had been stalking him back or anything. Pshh… God, that was exactly what I had been doing. I had to be bored and lonely if I had shamelessly deep-dived into social media accounts to find out more about him.
Two days ago, Jackie noticed I’d been checking him out on Instagram, when she stopped by my place for brunch.
Instead of teasing or shaming or questioning the hell out of why I was looking up one of Moonlit’s most eligible bachelors, he had shown me even more places to look him up on, including our town’s page.
Everything I learned about him intrigued me.
Made me wonder more and more about him. And it annoyed me.
I shook my hair out and looked at my reflection in the mirror. Tonight was not about him. It was about me hanging out with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while.
Red lips and a little black dress that had pockets but left little to the imagination with how it hugged my curves were just the pick-me-up I needed. Not to mention the fact I’d be seeing him.
I looked good and knew it.
I found myself walking into the brewery less than twenty minutes later. The place was as busy as it usually was, bustling with people. I glanced around at the usual small table Kate and I usually shared when we got together, but it was taken by a group of women that looked a little familiar.
Maybe if you stayed home more often, you’d know more of the community and have more than one or two friends outside your sisters, a voice perked up.
The same one that hadn’t stopped chiming in whenever I thought about work.
Maybe my travel nursing days were over? I glanced around the brewery for a glimpse of Kate but couldn’t seem to find her.
My phone buzzed, and a knot tightened in my belly.
I glanced down and the screen and somehow held back a wince.
Kate: I’m so sorry! I got held over at work. Raincheck?
Shit! This was the last thing I needed, but who understood a nurse more than another nurse?
Me: Don’t worry about it. Be safe and try to be patient. We will get together soon.
That was if I didn’t take a job in Florida before Valentine’s Day.
Which was something I’d been contemplating while I was supposed to be learning to be still.
God, I was hopeless. It would be a three-month gig, one of the longest I’d commit to in a long time, especially after my sister’s apartment caught fire, but what was here for me in Moonlit Pines?
I glanced around the busy brewery. Semi-familiar faces were all around me.
Everyone was enjoying themselves, some even tipped their chins in my direction or waved, but none seemed friendly enough or close enough for me to approach.
When was the last time I hung out with someone who isn’t one of my sisters?
I was sure if I looked hard enough, I’d find one of the Trejo sisters. They were always nice and approachable. Shit, I would bet money Jackie was probably there hanging with her friend from the flower shop and library.
But how lame would that make me?
Having no one else but my little sister to hang out with.
That’s when it hit me. That bout of loneliness I’d been trying to ignore. I felt so… small. All dressed up, makeup perfectly done, surrounded by what felt like literally half the town, I was alone.
So damn alone.
This wasn’t what tonight was supposed to be.
I was supposed to be catching up with a friend while trying to sneak peeks at the man who had been driving me bonkers since getting under my skin. Get out of here, a small voice of self-perseverance whispered. But what would that help? I’d just be alone at home. No. I couldn’t do that.
I lifted my head, squared my shoulders, and started to make my way towards the bar. I’d enjoy a good strong drink, maybe something to snack on while I pretended to watch whatever they had playing on the big screens by the bar.
We did that, and you ended up slow-dancing all night long with Austin Hart, of all people! that little voice reminded me in a bit of a shrill tone. Now you’re pining over the impossible.
Impossible. Was it so much of a challenge?
Maybe tonight, I could sit in his area and find a way to talk him into giving us a shot?
For one night. Hell, at this point, even a half-good screw against the building in the back wouldn’t be something I’d shrug my nose at.
It wasn’t like I was in town often. Not if you keep running away.
I shook my head, and just as I was about to reach an empty barstool, I felt it.
The air behind me changed, and a strong hand suddenly covered my bare forearm.
The touch was gentle yet firm with a warmth I felt all the way down to my toes.
I didn’t have to look behind me to know who it was.
Not when I’d dreamt of that touch every single night since we’d danced.
It didn’t surprised me when I turned around, and his fingers slid down to mine.
Austin Hart.
Standing in front of me, his baby blue eyes blazing with something I couldn’t name, wearing black slacks and a black button-down that fit his lean muscular frame perfectly and made his reddish-brown trimmed jaw stand out against his creamy yet lightly tanned skin.
Before I knew it, without even a hello, he led the way to the dance floor.
“What do you think—“ I started to argue because I was me and couldn’t help myself but didn’t finish saying. How could I when he pulled me back into his arms much like he had at the hole-in-the-wall bar a few weeks ago, when everything in my world suddenly made sense?
“It’s about time you came here,” he muttered into my ear. I rolled my eyes. Old habits die hard and all that.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I clipped, knowing just how catty I sounded.
“Your sister comes in every other day. Your other sister is usually here with her man every other week. Figured you’d stop by eventually with one of them, but two weeks is a long time.” He knew how long it’d been since we’d last danced together?
“Maybe I don’t like this place?”
“Everyone likes this place,” he countered with a charismatic smirk. “Maybe you’re trying to avoid me? Why you haven’t called or texted even though I know my phone number is in your phone.
“Oh? Is that why you stalk me around town after my runs?” I asked blatantly, putting it out there. “You know stalking is against the law.”
“Stalking?” He chuckled darkly. “Me? Stalk you? Man, Lizzy, you have a really high opinion of yourself.”
“Elizabeth,” I corrected. “So, you’re telling me it’s just a coincidence? That we have a similar schedule?”
“Sure.”
“You don’t follow me around Main Street after running behind me every morning?”