Chapter 10 Gwendolyn
Gwendolyn
“Uh oh, look what the cat dragged in.”
“Trouble.”
Piper and I saddle up to the bar, squeezing between patrons too engrossed in their conversations to care. Connor and Daisy—the owner and namesake for our local watering hole—are pouring beers and mixing drinks without spilling a drop.
“Oh, whatever. You love us.” Piper taunts with a flip of her curled hair.
“Something like that,” Daisy purses her lips against a grin. She hands over the drink in her hand to a customer a few feet down, who hands over his card in return. “What are you two up to tonight? Mayhem, I assume.”
“Ms. Daisy, you make it seem like we are absolutely no good.”
She grins at me finally, the wrinkles around her eyes prominent as it takes over her face. “That’s the best way to live, if you ask me. Now, what can I get started for y’all tonight?”
“Rum and coke, please.”
“Make that two.”
Daisy moves naturally behind the bar. I guess that’s what happens when this has been your life for the last twenty years.
“Want to open a tab tonight?” She asks, putting the drinks in front of us.
I look over my shoulder, checking the corner table I know will occupy our friends.
I grab Jackson’s attention with a flick of my wrist in the air.
When he raises his brows in question, I point toward the bar.
I can’t see his eyes from so far away, but I know they roll before he heaves a deep sigh and nods his head in defeat.
Turning toward Daisy with a big smile, she just laughs knowing what I’m about to say.
“I’ll put it on Jacks’ tab.” She taps her hand on the bar as she moves to help the next customer. “I’ll come back to chat with you girls later.”
We turn to move out of the way, but I don’t make it any further before my name is called from the bar again.
I share a look with Piper. Her expression turns into a cringe when she sees who is calling my attention.
A quick thumbs up and she continues on toward our table, leaving me no choice but to lie in the bed I made.
“Hey, Connor,” I say as sweetly as possible. “How are you?”
Connor rolls his tongue over his lip ring. There was one time where I was enamored with the bad boy look he had going on. The casual move he does as he fidgets with the piercing used to send butterflies through my stomach as I wondered what else he could do with that tongue.
You know how they say never meet your heroes?
Well, in this case, never sleep with the small town bad boy because, wow, was that a letdown.
Unfortunately, I didn’t learn from my mistake the first time.
Or the second. I don’t even think I learned it the third.
No, it took a few times before I realized it really wasn’t a timing thing and it was totally that the two of us didn’t mesh well together.
The chemistry I thought was between us was simply a friendship I craved to be more than it needed to be.
Which led me to where I am now. Instead of doing the right thing and letting Connor down nicely after realizing it wasn’t going to work out between us, I took the coward’s way out and just avoided him at all costs.
“I’m good. Not a lot going on these days, unlike you, it seems.”
I cringe. “Yeah, between the shop and the festival, things have been a bit crazy.”
He nods, tossing the rag he was using on his hands over his shoulder.
Looking around us to make sure no one was listening, he leans forward across the bar to speak a little lower.
“It’s been a while since we have… hung out.
Looks like you have the night off. I get off at ten tonight.
We could go back to your place and get reacquainted. ”
I know the wink he sends my way is supposed to come off sexy, but all it does is make me feel slimy. I force myself to hold back the shudder that my body wants to release.
I’m scrambling for an excuse. Reminding myself this is exactly why I have avoided Daisy’s lately, so I wouldn’t get stuck in this situation. And I’m about to give in, to tell him yes so I don’t have to let him down, when I feel a hand land lightly on my lower back.
“There you are.” Logan’s smooth voice is like a tonic for my nerves. I can feel my shoulders relaxing just knowing he’s by my side. “Jackson was wondering where you were. Hey man, can I get another one?” He holds up a beer bottle for Connor to see.
Connor narrows his eyes on where Logan’s hand clearly is still resting on my back and how his body is turned to me.
I can feel the warmth radiating off the front of him, seeping into my entire right side.
I have to keep myself from leaning into him, something I was dying to do this morning as well when we shared the couch in my office.
Not removing his gaze from our connection, Connor reaches into the cooler below the bar and pops the cap off before slamming it down on the counter.
“Thanks, man.” Logan tips it toward him as he takes the bottle, turning fully toward me now. “You ready to head over to the table? Piper said something about signing you up for karaoke if you were gone too long, though, so maybe we should take a detour around the room.”
His eyebrows pump up and down suggestively with so much flair I can’t help the giggle that bubbles up. Logan’s lip turns into a full -grin as I watch his gaze snag on mine before meeting my own again.
Forget butterflies, this man sends a damn flock of birds through my stomach with just a look.
The moment is interrupted, though, when Connor butts in.
“Gwen, are we on for tonight?” I don’t want to look too far into the tone of voice he has going on, but the irritation is too heavy to ignore. It sends my spine straight as I take in the glaring annoyance in his eyes as they move from Logan to me.
“Actually, tonight isn’t good.” I paste on a smile I hope doesn’t look as annoyed as I feel. “Maybe some other time.”
Connor scoffs quietly. “Sure, Gwen.”
I don’t have a chance to respond before he is walking down to the other side of the bar.
A low whistle has me turning toward Logan, my face morphing into the glare I was holding in. “Something to say, Spencer?”
He holds his hands up in surrender. “Nothing at all, Prescott.” But he continues to speak as I break into a brisk pace away from the bar and toward the corner of the room. “Do you often leave a trail of broken hearts where ever you go?”
I roll my eyes. “I did not break his heart. He will be just fine.”
“If you say so, Gwen. But you know you can bail on all of us if you want to. Don’t feel like you have to abstain from fun to entertain the new guy.”
“You’re not new, you’ve just been missing for awhile.”
He chuckles. “If you say so.”
“Did my brother really send you over to get me?”
“Actually,” he starts, “I might have felt your call for help through the universe and decided now was a great time for a refill.”
“I did not send a call for help.”
“Tell that to your big eyes.” He widens his dramatically to show exactly what he means.
Slapping the back of my hand across his chest, I try not to think about how firm his muscles feel against my skin. “That’s not true.”
Logan throws his head back laughing as we walk up to the table. Jackson and Matthew sit on one side, both with weary looks on their faces, while Piper animatedly tosses her hands up in the air. No doubt adding a flair of dramatics to whatever story she is telling them.
“Pipes, what are you traumatizing the boys with tonight?” I ask, popping up on the vacant stool beside her.
Logan stands in the empty space at the end of the table. It doesn’t escape my notice how he favors my side of the table as he leans on his elbows. The way his biceps strain against the sleeve of his tee doesn’t either, and I have to rip my stare away to look back at my best friend again.
“Just reminding them how inferior their gender is.”
“A casual Friday night then,” I raise my glass to clink it with hers before we both take long sips.
Matthew snorts. “All I asked was if she had been on any dates recently.”
Jackson shrugs. “After listening to her, I have to say the crash out was valid, if I’m being honest.”
“She told you about the ear thing, didn’t she?”
Matt’s eyes widen. “Ear thing? What ear thing? She told us about the guy who has zero furniture in his house. Now I learn there are ear things? Actually, never mind. I don’t want to know.”
Piper scrunches her nose in disgust. “We vowed to never bring that up again.”
“What about you? Any tales from your time away?” Matt switches the focus to Logan who just shakes his head.
“You’re going to be sorely disappointed to hear I have absolutely nothing. I was too busy working to have anything else going on.”
“Ah yes,” Jackson claps him on the shoulder. “You were building that mayoral resume, weren’t you?”
Logan sheepishly scratches at the back of his head. “Something like that.”
“Speaking of,” Piper leans around. “How does it feel to be back here?”
Fidgeting with the paper label on the beer bottle, Logan takes a second to think before answering. “Honestly, I’m not completely sure yet. Part of me feels like I never left. But the other part of me feels like an outsider. Willow Grove is still the same, but it’s also completely different.”
“Doesn’t feel too different to me,” Jackson grumbles before take a sip of his beer.
“Last time I lived here, you weren’t a veterinarian. Matthew didn’t have his company. And Gwen definitely didn’t run the best coffee shop I’ve ever stepped foot in.”
I feel my cheeks warm at the praise.
“Huh,” my brother says. “When you put it that way, you’re right.”
Piper sighs to my left. I know exactly what is going through her mind as I reach under the table and give her thigh a reassuring squeeze. She tosses the rest of her drink back, then jumps down from her seat. “I’m going to grab another round, anyone else?”
But she’s already headed toward the bar before we can respond.