Chapter Three
Shipwrecks was a brewery with a rustic, dark-wood ambiance inside. It was a small bar with a loft and second set of bartenders upstairs with a pool table and dartboards up there. Thursday nights were hit and miss. Sometimes it was dead in here, and sometimes, like tonight, the bar was hoppin’.
Nory and Alese had snuck out the back of the apartment complex and walked the long way around out of view of Jackson’s window. So far, he had never caught them and showed up at Shipwrecks, and so this place had become a little bit of a safe haven.
Nory did best with familiar places, and she’d been here a dozen times already with Alese.
The bartenders recognized them and were always friendly, and she even knew a couple of them by name.
The best part about Shipwrecks? On the far side of the downstairs bar, there was a smaller side right against the wall where Nory could sit and comfortably eat and drink, while people-watching as Alese worked her magic chatting up anyone who paid attention to them.
It was her favorite spot, and tonight, it was open.
Grinning, Nory motored her way over to her bar stool and ordered an orange soda and food.
Alese always drank, but it wasn’t as much her thing, and here was why—drinking made her sloppy and emotional.
It was a fast downward spiral too. One drink, and she started overthinking every awkward conversation she’d been involved in over the past week, and so truly, it was easier being the sober one at the bar.
Hannah, the bartender, never judged her for it either, and Nory adored her for that.
“So, what’s up?” Alese asked as she set her menu down and stirred her margarita.
“Well, this week I bought myself two new plants, one of which is considered a fern, and—”
“No, I mean why are you randomly smiling to yourself? And what is the reason for your outfit tonight?”
“What’s wrong with my outfit?” she asked, looking down at her sparkly maroon tank top. She’d paired it with black skinny jeans and a pair of high heeled boots she’d bought two years ago but had always been too chicken to wear out in public.
Alese’s question made her feel exposed, so she reached for her cardigan, but Alese grabbed it off the back of Nory’s chair and threw it behind the bar. “Hannah, confiscate that. Tell Nory she looks hot and should not cover her hotness up with a grandma cardigan.”
“You’re done,” Hannah teased, stooping to pick up the cardigan. “Grab it at the end of the night, gorgeous.”
Her? Gorgeous? Ha. She had tried to camouflage her awkwardness with heavier eye make-up than normal, and a darker shade of lipstick.
She’d even curled her hair, but most of the curls had already fallen, and now her hair hung limply in frizzy beach waves.
She moved to pull it back into a ponytail, but Alese yanked the hair band off her wrist and threw it to Hannah.
“I’m four percent mad at the both of you right now,” Nory complained.
Hannah and Alese exchanged grins, and then the bartender made her way to the other side of the bar top to take orders.
“What’s gotten into you?” Alese asked.
“Well…” Nory frowned, trying to decide how she would explain the new hot guy at her apartment complex without Alese making it some huge deal about it. “Maybe today I talked to a guy.”
“Gasp!” Alese exclaimed. “Tell me more. Is he rich?”
“What? No. I don’t know. That’s not at all something I would care about.”
“Oh right that’s me. Okay, is he hot? Does he smell like cologne? Does he have a big wiener?”
“Alese! Don’t say wiener,” Nory whisper-screamed.
“Tell me every sentence you exchanged.”
“Well, he just moved into the complex. He’s the next building over, and he made Jackson go away when I was cornered by the mailboxes—”
“You need to pepper-spray that dude. It’s like cats and getting on the kitchen counter. One spray from a water bottle and they will learn to stay off the counters.”
“I don’t think that’s how that works.”
“Sure it is. Squirt squirt in the face and Jackson will associate bothering you with burning eyes, and your problems will be solved.”
“Right. Anyway, I gave Liam some of the dinner I made as a thank you.”
“Liam. Hot name. And you fed him? I’m shocked right now. You must really like him.”
“No, I don’t even know him,” Nory explained shyly. “I was just grateful that he gave me an out in an uncomfortable moment.”
“What does he look like?” Alese asked.
And at that exact moment, the front door opened and in walked Liam just far enough to hold the door open for the most beautiful goddess of a woman Nory had ever seen.
Her hair was platinum blond and hung down in perfect waves down to her waist. She wore tight, shiny leggings and strappy high heels, and a royal blue top that hugged every one of her perfect curves.
Her make-up looked like it had been done by a professional, and she had to be five foot ten, at least.
She and Liam looked like the most stunning couple she’d ever seen, as if they were from another world completely.
He still wore his dark blue t-shirt that clung to the curves of his muscles, but he’d removed the baseball cap and sunglasses. His icy blue eyes locked on hers as he held the door open for his date, and a spark of recognition lit up his expression. Hey, he mouthed.
She pursed her lips into a disappointed but polite smile.
What did he look like? “He looks like he has a girlfriend,” she murmured to Alese, who was still waiting on a description.
Alese frowned and looked at the door, then back at her. “Is that him?”
Nory really wished she had her cardigan about now so she could cover up her damn cleavage. Why she’d worn a pushup bra tonight with this much of her upper shelf exposed was beyond her. This little wardrobe move would be her biggest regret for weeks to come. She felt so silly right now.
The blonde waited for Liam to pull out her chair at the table right near the window and looked around the small bar with an unimpressed expression on her face.
That beauty didn’t belong in a little hole in the wall bar, and she knew it. She belonged in some mansion with a private chef.
Holy moly, Nory felt so dumb for giving that man food and thinking there had been a moment between them. He’d said he didn’t have a girlfriend, but men lied all the time, and this one was no different. That woman’s lip filler and highlights alone probably cost more than Nory’s entire annual salary.
She took a bite of the fried green tomatoes that Hannah had just set in front of her, but they were hot as fire, and Nory spat out the bite and winced. Classy. When she looked up, he was sitting at the table across the bar, eyes on Nory.
“That man is so hot,” Alese said.
“Stop staring,” Nory advised her.
“I can’t.”
His eyes were such a light blue, they seemed to be glowing.
“Is he…” Alese frowned and leaned forward, staring at him. “Is he—”
“No,” Nory interrupted her. “They’re contacts. He told me earlier.”
“Phew,” Alese said, pretending to wipe sweat from her brow. “We don’t need werewolf drama around here.”
Nory huffed a nervous laugh and agreed. “Yeah, that would be the worst.”
She’d lied. She never lied to Alese, but she had just lied. He hadn’t said he wore contacts. She’d suspected him earlier when he reached for the falling food that fast, but now? As she saw his glowing blue eyes? She thought the same thing Alese had suspected.
So why had she lied?
He had looked up from his conversation with the goddess, and confusion was etched onto his face.
He’d heard her, hadn’t he? Werewolves could do that. They could hear a heartbeat from across the street, so she’d heard.
That thought had Nory dropping her gaze and trying to slow her pounding heartbeat. “I’m going to the bathroom. Will you watch my food?” she asked Alese, who had struck up a conversation with the couple beside them.
“Yep, I’ve got you.”
Nory excused herself and made her way down a short hallway to the women’s restroom, where she stared at herself in the mirror for a full minute just trying to settle down her nervous system.
He was a werewolf. She hadn’t been imagining it earlier.
A werewolf with a girlfriend, and Nory had stupidly dressed up like this because she had been motivated by talking to a nice man, and everything was awful.
“No,” she murmured, standing up straight. Nory pointed to herself in the mirror. “You are awesome, and you look nice, and you didn’t do this for a man. You did it for yourself.”
The door swung open, and in strode the goddess herself, Liam’s girlfriend. She looked at the mirror, and to Nory, and back at the mirror. “Talking to yourself?”
“Pep-talking myself, more like it,” she said, feeling very short all of a sudden.
The woman pulled a tube of lipstick from her purse and began applying it in the other mirror while Nory washed her hands. “Who are you?” the woman asked.
“Me?” Nory asked.
“Yes,” the woman said, leaning against the wall beside the sinks.
“Um, you shouldn’t lean on that wall. It’s dirty and your clothes are way too nice to have bathroom germs on them.”
The woman narrowed her too-bright green eyes. “My date keeps looking at you, so I’m wondering what is happening here.”
“Oh, I’m no one. I met Liam earlier today at my…” She frowned. Wait, she didn’t have to tell this woman anything. “You look very pretty,” she said, changing the subject. “Have a good night.”
The woman watched her walk out, and when Nory aimed for her seat at the end of the bar, she noticed someone was sitting in it. Jackson.
Her heart sank to the floor. He was even eating her food, and Alese was nowhere to be seen. Wait. There she was, hanging out across the bar with a trio of regulars that they’d met before.
“That’s my food,” she said softly to Jackson as she approached.
“Our food now,” Jackson said easily. He pulled out Alese’s chair for her. “You sure were in the bathroom for a long time.”
“That’s my food,” she repeated, clenching her fists at her sides.