Right now.
CHAPTER 11
Daphne
I rush to work, almost getting in a traffic accident as I catch my mind wandering as I daydream about him.
I swear the man is sculpted from marble and I would love to feel that chiseled jawline of his with that five o’clock shadow in-between my thighs. I remember reading somewhere in Cosmo that the perfect shoulder to waist ratio for a guy is 1.6. I have no idea what his is, but I also have no idea how I could even consider math when he was standing there in front of me. My mind was absolutely blank, my thoughts completely primal.
And that V-shaped cut in the lower abdominal region that goes from both sides of his obliques muscles and funnels down at angles that point right to what I want inside me even more than his tongue…yes, please!
I surprised him when I told him I got a job at The Ladder. I’m not sure if it was because I’m working at a bar or that he saw me there the other night looking at the help wanted sign, but regardless he didn’t seem very happy about it. He even told me that they have openings for administrative positions at the station sometimes and that as the sister of a firefighter I’d be given first priority.
So the only thing holding me back about staying here was the fact that my job wasn’t exactly something I wanted to focus on long term, despite the money. And now he goes and hints at a desk job close to him.
He’s making skipping town way too hard.
And skipping is just what I do as I push open the door to the bar and enter.
“Somebody’s in a good mood,” Enes, the bar owner says.
“Just happy to be working here, boss.”
He shoots me a crooked eyebrow and then smiles. “Got a rowdy group coming in later from out of town. I’ve hired an extra doorman tonight who will also keep a close eye on the floor. You get a whiff of anything you don’t like you just tell me or him and we’ll straighten it out right away. Comprende?”
“I got ya. What kind of rowdy group we talking about?”
“Navy sailors on leave.”
“Oh.”
“They serve so they’re definitely welcome here, but being that they’re on leave for the first time after six months at sea…well, there’s no telling what they’re liable to do.”
“Makes sense.”
I move around to the back and check out the menu for the drinks and the laminated placard we keep behind the bar that shows all the ingredients that go into them. My eyes move from the bar to the the placard to the menu. If I pick this up quickly enough maybe I can pivot into working behind the bar. That’s a skill that could get me a job on a boat where I most definitely would feel safe and away from the world. Plus, maybe it would buy some time for things to blow over and I could come back and do a different kind of blowing with Jonah. Good grief, my mind is in the gutter.
I’m looking back and forth so long and before I know it an hour has passed. The only reason I looked at the clock is because I had to look up when the front door opened and one sailor after another walked in in their uniforms.
The two doormen are carding them as fast as they can, but there’s still a line as they flood in. There must be a good hundred of them, and being that this isn’t a local event we can’t let them spillover out front.
I step out back and survey the line. Holy cow. There’s not a hundred, there’s more like two hundred.
“Get back inside and serve these boys some drinks,” Enes says as he walks past me. “I’m going to get some extra kegs and when I come back I’m opening up this back parking lot. I hope you’re ready to see your first four figure tips night.”
“Four figures?”
“If you get your booty back inside and get to work.”
“Yes, sir!”
The second I step inside our bartender lifts his palms as he grabs a margarita mixer. “Where were you?”
“I just—“
“These five gin and tonics are for table three. The six Bud Lights are for seven and the Coors Lights are for table twelve.”
“On it.”
The next two hours absolutely fly by and I’ve never been so happy to have on a pair of tennis shoes in my life. I feel like Andre Agassi as I move through the crowd, extending my arm this way and that, placing the drinks on table after table and hearing my new three favorite words… “keep the change.”
My pockets get so stuffed I grab an empty Smirnoff bottle from under the bar and wedge wad after wad of bills into it, pointing it out to the bartender so we don’t accidentally toss it out.
As busy as I am and as much as my head is trying to process everything my thoughts are still on Jonah. These Navy sailors are nice, and generous, but I hear their conversations more often than not and I can’t help but notice their body language.
Some are cocky, for sure, and some look like wolves that need feeding yet they have the manners and training not to stare at a woman too much. But as the drinks flow they start to loosen up more and no amount of training can stop a group of young men who work out religiously and probably haven’t seen female flesh in the entirety of their six-month float.
“Four Coronas with limes,” I say, serving a table that seems a little louder than most.
“Are you gonna squeeze the limes for us?”
“Sixteen dollars please.” It’s better just to ignore those kind of comments entirely.
“Limes are cool, but do you have any apples?” one of the guys says pretty calmly. Apples? What the heck?
“Apples wouldn’t work with Coronas.” My face almost sours thinking about it.
“Oh, because I see an apple bottom right here and I grew up on an apple farm and I can’t help but wonder if I squeeze hard enough if I’ll get some juice out of it.”
What the…? The guy is completely drunk, able to disguise it I guess as he’s sitting down and not slurring his speech. I just ignore it and wait for the payment.
“Let’s see,” he says, just as I watch all his buddies start laughing as I feel his hand grab a hold of one of my ass cheeks…hard.
“Yep, boys. That’s a perfect apple bottom all right.”
I freeze up, wanting to hit this guy and remembering what Enes said. I also remember telling myself I’m never going to be a victim again, not in the slightest. Just because they’re extremely generous tippers and this is an amazing night for the bar, that doesn’t give this one asshole the right to do what he did. Scratch that. Still doing.
His hand is still plastered to my ass as I see all the eyes on the bar fixate on us. I grit my teeth and my free hand goes into a white-knuckle fist as the guys looking at us must realize I’m about to clock this drunk jerk.
Suddenly his hand comes off my ass and my hips jerk to the side as I prepare to get some space if a fight is about to go down.
But there is no fight.
Goosebumps cover my body as I see Jonah, his hands underneath this guy’s armpits, as he’s just lifted him straight up toward the ceiling.
“Jonah,” I mouth, the words not even audible to anyone, including me…and the place is so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
“What in the fuck do you think you’re doing putting your hands on my woman?”
I swallow hard and my eyes open wide. His woman?
I must be hearing things.
He’s claiming me right here and now in front of everyone. And he’s standing up for me in a situation where two hundred young testosterone filled guys who do nothing but lift weights all day on a ship would love nothing more than to blow off some of their aggression in a two-hundred against one fight?
There are men with balls. There are men with courage.
And then there’s Jonah.
I’m not sure if what he’s doing is completely crazy, foolish, or even stupid.
But what I am sure of is that my panties are absolutely and instantly drenched as I watch this man stand up for my honor.
“Get ‘em, boys!” the drunken jerk yells, but Jonah keeps him held high and Jonah’s eyes scan th
e room while his nostrils flare as if he’s challenging everyone. Everyone.
“You’ve made two mistakes already. One more an you’re out, and this ain’t baseball but I do have a bat underneath the seat in my truck…and believe me when I say I’ll hit a homerun with that oversized melon head of yours.”
You can literally see this kid’s Adam’s apple move up and down in real time as the crotch of his pants turns from Clorox white to a completely different shade.
The thing I still can’t process is that this guy, probably twenty-two or so, looks like an NFL linebacker. He’s at least six foot one and well over two hundred pounds…and it’s all muscle.
The guy gave my ass a one handed death grip seconds ago and Jonah just lifted him up like a sack of potatoes.
“Now,” Jonah continues in no uncertain terms. “You’ve been trained to respect women. I know the Navy instills that in their seaman.”
“Yes, sir!” he says, reverting back to his basic training he’s so scared.
“So you turn and face the woman you just disrespected and you apologize.”
His head turns, but I’m almost completely behind him at this point. Jonah does nothing to move him, making him do all the work as he remains well off his feet, and high off the ground.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Jonah growls.
“For disrespecting you in front of all these people, ma’am.”
“You’re damn right you are. Now promise her it’s never going to happen to her, or any other woman, ever again. And mean it.”
“I promise. I’ll never disrespect another woman again so long as I live.”
Jonah’s steely gaze turns to me. “You accept that?”
“Yes. I’m okay. Let’s just end this.”
“It’s your lucky day,” Jonah says, looking back at the back of this guy’s head just before he slowly lowers him down to his seat. “And quit being a pussy and drinking fruity beer.”
Jonah grabs me by the hand and leads me back behind the bar.
“I don’t like you working here.”
“What the hell was that? I can handle myself.”
“I’m sure you can, but I’ve got your back and I felt it was time to step in.”
“Step in? You could get me fired. I need this job.”
“You don’t need anything other than me.”
Now it’s my turn to swallow hard.
“You walk out of here right now and I’ll give you however much money you’d make here tonight and the rest of the week. We can go straight to the ATM. And I’ll give you a job at the station.”
“You poaching my employees, Jonah?”
“Enes,” he says out of respect. “I don’t want her here.”
“Shouldn’t we let her decide what she wants?”
Enes is right, but damn…Jonah is too. I do want to work here, but I’d rather be closer to him. He makes me feel safe, and not just because of what went down.
“Can we talk about this after?”
Jonah says nothing for a second and Enes turns and gives us some space. He’s not the kind of guy to gloat that I decided to keep working, or at least finish my shift. These are men of honor and it’s not about that.
“You see those two empty seats way over in the corner that nobody wants?”
I nod.
“I’ll be over there until your shift is finished. I’ll be keeping an eye on you and if any of these little punks tries something you best bet that they’re gonna wish I let them off just as easily as that last boy.”
I look over and see him rubbing his armpits, chest, and upper back, knowing Jonah must have squeezed his ribcage pretty tight to hold him up like that.
“But,” he continues. “You won’t have to worry about that because nobody’s foolish enough to try anything now.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You heard me and they did too. Everybody knows who you belong to now. You’re mine.”
CHAPTER 12
Daphne
Two days later
I check myself one last time in the mirror and make my way to my car.
Tonight is my first official date with Jonah. We’d planned to meet last night but a big fire broke out and he spent the entire afternoon and well into the night battling it. Luckily he was able to send me a quick WhatsApp message just before he left the station letting me know he might not make it, and to check the news.
And that’s exactly what I did. The regional station picked it up and even broadcast some of it live. It was a huge wakeup call for me.
I’m about to get involved with a man, whose career while beyond noble and exciting, cancelled a date with me and then I had to watch the news to see if he even survived.
In absolutely no way do I fault him for cancelling or anything like that. If anything, his job as a fireman and the responsibility that comes along with it just makes me admire him more.
And reminds me of the seriousness and the severity that such a job entails.
Am I really going to go down a path with a man, the only man I’ve ever wanted and who two days ago I was ready to offer up myself to like a virginal sacrifice, only now to see that I could become a widow one day just like that woman from the memorial the first night we quote unquote met?
The answer is a resounding yes.
I may be young, but I’ve always been told I’m old for my age. Twenty going on thirty-five, although now I’m twenty-one. I’m so old-fashioned I didn’t even tell anyone it was my birthday except the bar owner, who I didn’t exactly tell. My brother called and wished me a happy birthday and told me we’d have to go out for dinner, but he has the same job as Jonah of course. Predictability isn’t exactly the name of the game, and if I’m being honest with myself that’s part of the excitement.
And honesty is what tonight’s all about. I remind myself that I need to open up to him and let him know what my real plans are. It’s not right of me to have one eye on a future that takes me out of here when he’s very firmly rooted in the community after four years in this town.
Tonight is important not just because it’s our first date, but because it’s our first one-on-one adult conversation about us.
I pull up to the restaurant he recommended and see he’s standing outside the front door like he’s waiting on me. I look at the time on my phone and see that I’m ten minutes early. If I’m that early when did he get here?
I appreciate it, and also appreciate that he didn’t push it when I told him I’d rather drive my own car than get picked up. I’m still a little sketched out and the last thing I need is my car parked on the street where someone who knows where I’m staying can tamper with it. It’s a long shot, but I do lean a bit toward the paranoid side…plus Geoff is still in my head way too much, although all my thoughts about Jonah have done a great job of pushing Geoff out of the picture.
But that’s the problem. I need to remain vigilant and not let my guard down.
I step out of my car and Jonah’s eyes are immediately on me. He takes me in from a distance, watching me walk his way, which makes me a bit nervous. I don’t want to trip and fall. I am a bit of the clumsy type.
“You look…incredible.”
“So do you.”
I allow my eyes to rake over him with no shame, taking in his suit and very nice shoes. “You clean up…very well.”
“Amazing what a trip to the mall can do for a former bachelor.”
“Former bachelor?”
“I told you you were mine.”
He opens the door and my face blushes, but that red that was a result of my innocence turns to a red that’s a product of anger as the first thing I notice is how many women are checking him out without any respect to the fact that I’m with him.
I turn to him, preparing to put my hand on his chest or something that shows them he’s off limits, only to find that he already has his arm out to escort me.
“True gentlemen do still exist.”
“Because prin
cesses still exist…or at least there’s one left in this world meant specifically for me, that’s for sure.”
I slide my hand in his and we’re quickly seated.
“A little different than The Greasy Spoon, huh?”
“Just a bit.” I laugh, taking in the ambiance which includes a chandelier and a piano player.
Brother's Fireman Friend (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 106) Page 6
