Chapter 7 #2
Trivia night always guaranteed a full house at Buck’s Roadhouse, the only bar in Hunt, and tonight was no different.
As he walked in, Brodie noticed the groups of people getting ready to participate.
When he came in the past, he watched but never joined in.
Sometimes he sat with some of the guys from the VFD, but most normally he bugged out before it got too intense.
There were some people who took it very seriously and others who were simply there to meet up with their friends.
And then there was Cerise. He hadn’t expected to see her but there she was, sitting at the table with a group of people he didn’t know.
Where was Finn? Surely Poppy hadn’t decided she wanted her nephew back again. Without thought he strode over to where she sat and brushed a hand down her silky, midnight-colored hair.
She jumped and turned around, eyes wide with surprise. “Brodie, give a girl a warning, will you?” She softened her words with a wink.
He stuffed his hand in his pocket when all he wanted to do was twist a lock of hair around his fingers and give her head a little tug so that he could lean down and kiss her. He blew out a breath. Yeah, not the place for those thoughts. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t scare me. Just surprised me.”
While Cerise may have been okay with him touching her, a look around the table had him taking a few steps back.
The people she was with were sending him daggers.
If he were in their position and a person he didn’t know came up to a female companion and touched her without asking, he’d knock them flat on their back before they could say “howdy doody.”
“Well, I . . .” he shifted back on his heels. “I just wanted to say hi.” He took a step back to head to the bar.
“Hey,” her hand grabbed his. “Don’t go. It’s good to see you.
” Her smile was open and friendly. Like it had been when she’d come to ranch, glitter highlighted her cheeks and the bottom of her eyelids.
Even her lips glittered from the gloss she’d put on.
Would it be flavored? He wouldn’t mind finding out.
Brodie immediately squashed those thoughts.
But he couldn’t really forget them. During the last week, since the day he’d spent with Cerise and Finn, she hadn’t been far from his mind.
He cursed the fact he didn’t have her number to call and check in with her.
No way was he going to ask Mitch. The guy had already given him a hard time when he’d found out about Cerise’s visit.
“Would you like to join us?” she asked.
He chanced another look at the people seated at the table. There was not one welcoming smile. Cerise was completely oblivious to what was going on with her friends.
“No, but thank you. I just wanted to see if you were okay. Where’s Finn?”
Her smiled softened at the mention of her foster son. “He’s spending the night with a friend from school. Apparently, this sleepover was arranged before he came to live with me. No way was I going to tell him he couldn’t go.”
“I’m glad. I was worried, because . . . you know.” He didn’t elaborate because her friends were not doing a very good job at eavesdropping discreetly and he had no idea if they knew the full situation surrounding Finn and Cerise.
Her hand squeezed his forearm and heat coursed through him. “Thank you for being worried. I appreciate it.” She gave his arm another squeeze before dropping her hand.
He clenched his fists to stop himself from reaching down and taking hold of it again. “Always. Anyway, I’ll let you get back to you friends.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to join us?”
“It’s fine. But I know there’s dancing after the game is over . . . save me one?” Where the invitation came from, he had no idea, but now that he’d asked it, he was glad.
“Definitely.” She went up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.
The urge to place his hand over the place where she’d kissed him was strong, but he tempered it, especially with the group watching them.
He nodded to the table, turned on his heel, and headed to the bar, his hand digging into his pocket and pulling out his dice again. He sat on the stool, rolling the plastic squares in his hand.
“What can I get you, Dice?”
He smiled at Buck, the owner and namesake for the bar he was in. “I’ll have whatever pale ale you’ve got on tap.”
“Coming right up.”
Brodie swiveled his stool to face the room, keeping his gaze firmly off Cerise and her friends.
As he looked around, he spied a couple of ranch hands he recognized from the other dude ranches surrounding Hunt.
In the corner, he saw Mitch and Nadia, their heads close together, while their entwined hands rested on the tabletop.
They were oblivious to every other person in the room.
What would it be like to be so in love with someone that nothing else mattered but them?
Of its own volition his gaze travelled back to the table where Cerise sat and found she’d swapped seats so that she was facing him now. If he turned his stool around to be able to rest his arms on the bar, all she’d see would be his back, and that was the last thing he wanted.
Behind him he heard Buck set down his glass. Damn he’d have to turn around now.
“Thanks, Buck,” he said.
“Not a problem.” He narrowed his eyes and Brodie sat a little straighter, sensing Buck was about to say something to him. But then the man blinked and the look disappeared. Whatever he’d been tempted to say, he’d clearly had second thoughts about it.
Interesting. Why would he do that?
Brodie lifted his drink to his lips and took a swallow, knowing if he turned around, he’d be gazing directly at Cerise again. He really wanted to because, clearly, she’d changed her seat for a reason.
“I think someone wants your attention,” Buck said quietly.
“Yeah?” He tried for casual, but wasn’t sure how successful he was when Buck’s bushy eyebrows almost hit his receding hairline.
“You kids playing hard to get? Cerise is a good sort. She was badly hurt when that tornado ripped through here last year. We both were,” he finished quietly.
Brodie was about to tease Buck on his comment about Cerise being a good sort, but he heard the pain in his voice as he talked about the tornado.
“I know. Mitch told me. He said this place was wrecked.” Oh, way to go. Just mention how he not only almost lost his life, but also his livelihood.
“There wasn’t much left. When I got out of the hospital I was tempted to cut my losses, but the town, and my wife, convinced me that they need this place.” The older man looked around the room, taking in the laughter from the patrons. “I’m glad they did.”
“Me, too, Buck. Where else can I come for trivia night?”
Brodie’s body stood to attention when he heard Cerise behind him. His dick flexed behind his zipper and he shifted to alleviate the pressure.
Buck’s lips quirked in the corners as if he could sense Brodie’s discomfort. “I’m sure there are trivia nights in Kerrville you could go to. Places that are much closer to your home than here.”
Cerise moved so that she was standing beside Brodie, her sweet floral perfume hitting his senses. He’d never be able to smell flowers again without thinking of Cerise. “True, but they all don’t have the atmosphere that your place does.”
Brodie watched the byplay between the two of them. He guessed when you were caught in a life-and-death situation, relationships were forged. Relationships that couldn’t be broken.
“Not much atmosphere here now,” Buck grumbled.
“Pfft.” Cerise waved away his comment with a flick of her hand. “The place has lost the new building smell. It lost it a week after opening when the Rafferty twins decide to have a beer fight.”
Brodie was almost too afraid to ask, but he couldn’t resist. “A beer fight?”
Buck laughed, a deep-seated one. “Yeah. Ted and Jed argue over just about everything. I have no idea what set them off that time, something about Ted having more beer in his glass than Jed, which is a crock of shit because when I pull a beer, I pull even beers. Anyway, the next minute, they’re tossing the beer over each other and grabbing all the nearby glasses and doing the same. ”
Brodie’s mouth hung open, not believing what he was hearing. “Are you telling me two grown men threw perfectly fine alcohol over each other?”
“Yep.” Cerise confirmed the bartender’s story. “And they ruined my favorite pair of glitter flats. I made those suckers buy me three new pairs as compensation. And I wasn’t even sorry.”
Brodie laughed at Cerise’s comment. “Nothing comes between you and your glitter, huh, Sparkles?”
“You know it,” she said. “Now are you sure you don’t want to join us for trivia? One of the guys had to leave. His kid started throwing up, so his wife wanted him home. We’re one man short.”
He looked over to Buck, who held up his hands. “Don’t look at me, Dice, I got a bar to run.” With that he wandered down toward the other end to attend to someone else.
“So how about it, Dice? You going to dazzle me with your brains?”
There was no point denying he wanted to spend time with Cerise. He could sit at the bar and wish he was close to her, or he could be close to her. “Okay, you twisted my arm.”
Cerise fist pumped the air. “Yes. You won’t regret it.”