4. Olive
olive
“What’s up with you?” Raven asked. I blinked slowly.
“What?” I asked, sounding crankier than I’d meant to.
“I asked what’s up with?—“
“I heard you.” I rolled my eyes and shook my head, my shoulders slumped slightly. “Sorry. It’s just…” My sister watched me expectantly. “The heat.” My voice cracked with the half-truth.
“Heat?” Her brows rose in suspicion.
Fall might have arrived in our sleepy little mountain town of Moonlit Pines, but we’d had a bit of a heatwave last week.
“Since when does the heat bother you!” my nosy youngest sister, the baby of the family, asked.
“I don’t know.” I sighed. “It’s been hard to sleep.” She nodded as if she understood. But my sweet, somewhat innocent sister had no idea. Not a clue about what had kept me up late at night the last three nights.
I had a feeling if I so much as mentioned the way-too-nice sheriff, she’d grin and say I told you so . She had it stuck in her head Sheriff I-Play-Games and I were meant to be. Meant to be… Pfft! I hadn’t believed in those kinds of things for a very long time.
Luke.
Luke and his blue eyes and big hands. Hands that probably knew how to properly use a pair of handcuffs and inspect your body from head to toe. He was also the one man who had turned me down. My face felt like it burned with shame and rejection at the thought. Has it only been two nights ago?
“Earth to Oli!” Raven waved her hands, and a brow rose.
“What?”
“Are you really not sleeping well?” she asked, just as my sister Scarlett sat next to her.
“Not sleeping well?” Scar’s lips twitched. “Because you’re having incredible sex with someone or….”—she took a good look at me—“the opposite. I got it.” I rolled my eyes at her. “You know what fixes that?” She wagged her brows, and Raven giggled.
“I have a feeling Oli hasn’t had someone put…” My eyes widened wondering what the hell Rave was going to say. “…her to bed in a while.”
“Really?” Scar’s attention moved to me. “Are we mad at someone? Wait, who are you seeing?”
“No one,” I muttered.
“I don’t know about that.” Raven grinned, and I gave her the most annoyed expression I could muster.
“Who?” Scarlett asked.
“Who what?” Coral, the oldest of us, asked behind me. I didn’t have to glance at her as she took the seat next to me.
“Olie is seeing someone. Or maybe she’s not seeing someone now since she’s, you know…“ Scarlett made a cranky face that made me want to laugh out loud.
Instead, I rolled my eyes and huffed under my breath. “You’re all ridiculous.”
“What is it you always say?” Scarlett pretended to think. “Best way to get over someone is to get?—“
“On top of someone else,” all three sisters chimed in.
They weren’t wrong. It was a motto I had wholeheartedly lived by.
Especially after I had my heart stomped on and obliterated to smithereens by my high school sweetheart.
Like a stupid schoolgirl, I’d thought love was all that mattered.
Andrew had said all the right things, making me think we would be this sweet, little family.
When I’d been accepted to a culinary school in New York, he’d talked me out of going.
Telling me what was the point of getting all those school loans if I was going to stay home to raise our kids and already knew how to cook?
Stupidly and naively, I’d gone along with it. Let go of my dreams and goals for him. For us, I’d thought.
My parents had never liked Andrew, something that had only pushed me closer to him.
That was until I decided to surprise him at his college for Thanksgiving break after he called to tell me he couldn’t get time off from the local restaurant he worked at.
I’d driven four hours there, and to my surprise, after his roommate let me into their dorm as he was leaving, there was my boyfriend, the guy I’d thought I’d marry, the one who had named our kids, in bed, snoring with some girl I’d known in high school.
I shook away the thought before I got pissed. Getting angry at my dumbass ex was a waste of time and energy. I’d quickly learned that men came and went. Like a bus you missed, you only had to wait for a little bit to catch the next one.
I wasn’t a blushing virgin or inexperienced. I wasn’t ashamed about my body count or the notches on my bedpost. I was honestly proud of them. I was comfortable in my body and sexuality, and figuring out how to get those needs taken care of was fine by me.
Life is too short for mediocre sex and faking orgasms.
As long as I was safe and not playing with anyone’s feelings, there was nothing wrong with what I was doing.
I liked dating. Or you used to , a voice quipped in my head.
Lately, I’d been so busy with my baking and thinking about the guy who was all about protecting and serving, I hadn’t really tried to put myself out there.
“Best way to get over someone is to get on top of someone else,” I mumbled and forced a smile. For the first time since deciding that was the easiest, safest way to live my life, the idea of hooking up with some random tourist didn’t call me in the least.
You should at least try, the realistic, jaded part of me said while the hopeless romantic who had struck her interest in the sheriff shook her head.
“You know what…” I said, feeling my sisters’ gazes.
“You’re right.” Their eyes widened, and two tilted their heads.
“Or wait, does that mean I’m always right?
Since it’s my motto?” I asked with a grin I plastered on my face.
Fake it till you make it. “I think I am going to go get someone to buy me a drink.”
“Wait, what about Luke?” Raven asked. Disappointment shimmered in her eyes. And I hated it.
“Luke? Who’s Luke?” Scarlett asked.
“Luke is the sheriff,” I explained, “and our baby sister?—“
“I’m not a baby,” she argued like she always did any time we called her that, but I ignored her.
“Thinks he would be the perfect guy for me,” I shared.
“I never said he’d be perfect. No one is perfect,” Raven argued.
“No shit,” I muttered and took a deep breath.
“He’s also not interested,” I shared, pretending his rejection didn’t still sting.
And because I couldn’t help myself when I needed to prove a point, I kept sharing.
Too much. “I showed up at his place Friday night… well, early Saturday, wearing a very cute dress and red lipstick, and he told me to go home.” I shrugged but avoided their eyes.
I could only imagine the pity in their gazes.
“Does that mean you’re interested in him?” Coral asked. I opened and shut my mouth. What would be the point of admitting that? None. None at all, the realist in me chimed while the romantic rolled her eyes.
“Babe, if you’re interested—“ Coral kept talking, but I shook my head.
“It doesn’t matter. Who is driving tonight?
” I asked, about to set my keys in the middle of the table but changed my mind last minute.
“Never mind.” I faked a grin as I eyed my sisters, who were looking at me like they had no idea what to expect from me.
Not that I took it personally. I was the wild child.
“I’ll get a ride with whoever I hook up with tonight.
It's been fun!” I got up and walked over to the bar.
Two of them called after me, but I ignored them. I might have felt my sisters' eyes on me, but I didn’t turn around even though for the first time, I was tempted to. I could only imagine what they were saying.
That I was crazy.
That I needed to settle down.
Just because all my siblings but my brother and I were hooked up, married or getting married and having babies, that didn’t mean I needed that.
It felt like the new year had rung in, and one by one, my sisters were all knocked out cold by Cupid.
As if I’d ever let that little weird cherub get near me!
I scoped out the guys at the bar seeing what there was to work with.
Best way to get over someone is to get on top of someone else, I reminded myself even though it was the last thing I wanted to do.
Luke’s face flashed before my eyes, and I mentally shook it away.
Focus, Oli. This wasn’t the first time I’d picked up a random guy for a one-night stand.
It was honestly easier than women thought it could be.
My eyes moved to the busy bar in the middle of the brewery.
It was packed with people. At the far end, there was a group of three guys.
Decent looking, but it wouldn’t work. I’d gone to high school with one, kind of knew the other two.
That was the issue of living in a small town.
But that wasn’t why. It was because all three guys were focused on the game playing on the big screens. Too much work.
Next to them was a guy with dark hair, wearing an impeccable suit.
Dark tattoos peeked beneath the unbuttoned collar of his crisp shirt.
His face turned slightly, making it possible to check out his profile.
Strong nose, great jaw, and slight scruff with a hint of silver in it.
I loved older guys. They knew what they were doing.
When he lifted a dark double shot of something to his lips, a gold Rolex gleamed.
My eyes roamed to his hand, and a brow rose.
No ring, but there was a slight tan line on it.
My guess would be recently divorced. Or worse, a cheater.
Either way, it could make him a possible clinger. No thanks.
Three couples at the other end and next to them a bachelorette party. Shit.
That’s when I saw him. A familiar face with all too familiar gray blue eyes already set on me. The smile grew on my face as I walked right to the center of the bar, taking the barstool right across from him.
“Uh-oh, I know that look. What are you doing, trouble?” Austin Hart, my brother’s best friend and co-owner of the brewery, said, leaning forward and giving me a bright white smile.