We were in for heavy rains, but hopefully they’d hold off until after closing time. I glance at the order. “Because of two rum and Cokes?”
She rolls her pretty green eyes. “No, Tristan. Because the hottest man on the planet just parked his motorcycle and he’s heading in here. All of my female customers are drooling, and I’m sure you’ll see a flock of them coming in any minute now. Meanwhile, I’m stuck outside and soon I’ll have a pier full of empty tables.” She grabs a handful of napkins and waves them at me with a smirk. “Drool rags.”
“Dibs,” Charley says as she whips up a cocktail.
I laugh and hold my hands up. “I’m on a hiatus from all things male, so be my guest.” My ex, Ian, is a self-absorbed ass, and I was an idiot for letting him treat me like shit. Which is why I’m taking a break from men—even if it kills me. It’s been weeks since we broke up and I moved into my buddy Wyatt’s house. Wyatt and his twin sister, Delilah, own the Taproom. They inherited it when their parents were killed in a car accident a little more than a year ago.
“I’m sure he’s straight anyway,” Livi says. “The guy swaggers like a stud.”
“Hey, gay guys can swagger like studs,” I tease.
“I know that.” Livi peers out the pass-through window to the outside seating area and tosses her blond hair over her shoulder. “You’ll see what I mean. He’s a total badass.”
I tend to my customers as the girls discuss the badass hot guy, and when the front door opens, I can’t help but let my eyes drift over. Livi and Charley fall silent, ogling what truly might be the hottest guy on the planet. Linebacker shoulders fill the doorframe. The godlike creature is carrying a shiny black motorcycle helmet in one very large hand. His white T-shirt is stretched so tight across his chest I can see every ripple of his shredded abs, and his deliciously defined biceps are seriously struggling to be set free from his short sleeves. Tear, baby, tear.
He steps inside and runs a hand through his dirty-blond hair. Deep-set, brooding eyes slide over the customers sitting at the bar, sweep over Charley and Livi, and finally land on me. Charley whimpers, and Livi makes a sound in the back of her throat, both mimicking what I’m feeling, though my mouth is too dry to make a sound.
He swaggers, full of hard-core attitude, to the vacant stool at the end of the bar, giving me a clear view of his perfect ass—and catching the attention of nearly every woman, and several of the men, in the place. My cock twitches, reminding me it’s been way too long since I’ve gotten laid.
The pretty brunette seated next to Hot Guy leans in close, says something, and he flashes a crooked smile, which softens his hard edges but doesn’t take anything away from his rough vibe. His hand cruises through his hair again, and he slaps a sketchbook on the bar. Pulling his massive arms up onto the bar, he nearly knocks into the pretty brunette. He apologizes and pushes his stool farther way.
Livi groans and shoves another order pad in the back pocket of her jeans as I finish making her order. “I swear I’m going to go to bartender school.”
“Hands off. I have dibs. Besides, you have that pen pal from overseas,” Charley reminds her.
“Jason is my best friend, not my pen pal. And you don’t sleep with best friends, especially when they’re a million miles away.” Livi lost her mother to cancer when she was fourteen, and although she doesn’t talk about that time of her life much, I know Jason has been there for her ever since. She takes her drinks and heads out to serve her customers.
Rusty, one of the waiters, sidles up to the bar, shaking his head. “The new guy has my female customers’ panties in a bunch. Table four wants to send him a drink with the message”—he speaks in a high-pitched tone—“‘We’d like to take you for a ride.’” He scoffs. “Lucky bastard.”
“Oh, no, they are not.” Charley turns her back to the bar and pushes her boobs up so they practically tumble out of her tight black V-neck shirt. She’s usually a Levi’s girl, but tonight she’s wearing skinny jeans. I wonder what’s up with that. “I’m on him.” Charley waggles her dark brows. “I mean, I’m on it.”
“What is with you tonight?” I have to ask. This pushiness is new. She’s usually the girl who assumes hot guys are all hung up on themselves and barely gives them the time of day.
Charley sets her eyes on the guy who’s got my briefs in a bunch. “Just feeling competitive.”
I serve a few customers, keeping an eye on Charley’s flirting. Harborside is a close-knit beach town, but it’s also a college town, which makes it a party town. We get aggressive and handsy transients from time to time, and more than once Wyatt and I have had to step in.
Charley’s pulling out all the stops, leaning over the bar, touching Hot Guy’s hand. She’s beautiful, funny, and smart, studying marine biology and working two part-time jobs. She has a nose for bullshit, and her patience for stupidity hangs by a very thin thread. Given the amount of time she’s chatting the guy up, I assume he’s got more than looks going for him.
She turns to fix him a drink as I tend to a group of scantily clad women waving me over. I toss my bar rag over my shoulder and flash my own pearly whites. “What can I get you ladies?”
“Your phone number?” the redhead says with a giggle.
Tips are tips and flirting’s the name of the game. “Barking up the wrong tree, sweetheart. But if I were straight…” I say coyly and take their order, ignoring their offers to turn me straight. If I had a buck for each time I’d received that ridiculous offer, I’d be rich.
Charley nudges me as she fills another drink order. “He’s not giving anything up. All I found out was that he just got into town last week.” She shrugs. “He’s no dummy, though. The guy’s got brains and brawn. A wicked combination. He seems nice, but very closed off. It’s yet to be seen how rough he is. He might be lock-you-up-in-the-basement rough, or maybe he’s just sexy-as-sin rough.”
“You can tell that much from, ‘Hey, wanna hook up’?”
“Tsk.” She places her hands on her hips, and with a snap of her chin she tosses her brown hair over her shoulder with an impressive amount of attitude. “You know me better than that. I did not ask him to hook up. I was just checking him out and staking claim. In case I’m interested. But he’s so focused in that sketchpad, I can’t get him to give me the time of day.”
I steal a glance at the guy, who’s watching us intently. “Seems like he’s into you,” I say, and before she can respond, a loud group of girls comes through the door and flocks to the bar. I assume they’re the customers Livi mentioned. The fact that they’re just now coming in means Livi took her sweet time taking care of their checks. Hopefully she has a slew of new customers to take care of. I know she needs the tips.
The rest of the night is a mad rush of keeping up with drink orders and overzealous girls vying to pick me up. I can’t help but notice Hot Guy’s occasional snicker at my dismissal of the girls’ advances.
Livi whips in from the pier for one more glance a few times instead of using the pass-through window, and whispers with Charley. Charley touches base with the hot guy, giggling and flirting, as do several of the women who are standing around him. He smiles, comments here and there, then turns back to whatever’s got his rapt attention in that notebook.
As we near closing time, customers clear out, and Hot Guy is still sitting at the end of the bar in deep concentration. A bearded guy who had parked himself at the bar for the last half hour is standing by the door, watching Charley.
“Char, what’s up with that guy?” I nod to the guy by the door.
She traps her lower lip between her teeth and waves to the bearded guy. “Can you close out the notebook guy for me?”
“Sure,” I say, reassessing the bearded guy. “I thought you hated beards. What’s up?”
“Don’t laugh.” She leans in close, her hair tumbling forward, curtaining her face as she whispers, “Blind date.”
We’ve worked together for a long time, and I know Charley has her pick of guys. “Why? A
nd on a Tuesday night?”
“Why does the day of the week matter?”
I shrug.
“The kind of guys I’m meeting on my own haven’t really been my type.” She smiles at the guy by the door. “Brian has a master’s in natural resources. I think I can overlook the beard for a guy I’ve got something in common with. He seems nice enough, right?”
“I guess, but if you had this blind date set up, why were you flirting with him?” I nod toward the guy at the other end of the bar.
She sighs. “If you must know, ever since my sister fell in love with Sam, I’ve been hoping to find the same kind of relationship. Sam Braden was a bit of a bad boy before he and Faith got together, so I thought maybe…”
She looks back at the guy by the door, who definitely has kinder eyes than the broody biker. “But I’m not sure bad boys are my type. I’m more of a nice, smart, no-skeletons type of girl. And Mr. Mysterious over there”—she nods to the guy with the notebook—“hasn’t cracked under my flirtatious pressure, so I’m thinking his skeletons might be too big to keep contained. But I would never know that unless I tried, now, would I?”
She pats my chest and I set my hand on hers, holding her there while I eye Brian one more time. “Fine, but it’s still a blind date. How’d you meet him?”
Charley presses her lips into a thin line.
“Please tell me you didn’t meet him on Tinder.”
“No! Geez, Tristan.” Her cheeks flush. “He’s one of Brooke’s friends.”
Brooke Baker owns an Internet café on the boardwalk called Brooke’s Bytes. I’ve been friends with her for years and I trust her judgment explicitly. “Okay, but keep your phone on and call me if you need me. In fact, text me when you’re home for the night so I know you’re not lying bloody in an alley somewhere.”
She rolls her eyes. “Ian has no idea how badly he messed up by losing you. Not that he deserved you in the first place.” She reaches up and hugs me. “I’m not leaving until we close, but I promise I’ll text you. Even though I think you should spend less time worrying about your friends and more time finding some new guy to take that jerk’s place. The right guy is going to be very lucky to have you.”
My gut clenches at the mention of my ex. I should be over all the shit he did, but some hurts run too deep to be easily cast aside. Unfortunately, almost everything Ian did was hurtful, from ignoring me to making me feel like an imposition. Man, I sound like a pussy. My self-esteem definitely took a pounding, but I’ll never put myself in that situation again. I shove those thoughts aside for the hundredth, and hopefully the last, time. Charley heads toward the bearded guy, and I make my way down the bar. The blond guy’s still laboring over his notebook. His jaw is tight, and his eyes are narrowed in concentration.
I grab the empty bottle in front of him. “Last call. Can I grab you another beer?”
“Sure, thanks.” He’s too engrossed in whatever he’s drawing to spare me a glance, but he’s got one of those in-control voices that makes me want to thank him.
I bring him his beer, and he lifts intense admiral-blue eyes that connect with mine and momentarily steal my breath. When he flashes that sexy crooked grin, heat flares between us, and I wonder if he’s bisexual. Or maybe just curious. We get our fair share of those around here, too. Straight guys looking to experiment for a night. Not my thing.
“Thanks, man,” he says, and reaches a hand across the bar. “Alex.”
His handshake is firm and his hand is rough, like he does manual labor. My sex-deprived brain moves straight to how those strong, rough fingers would feel wrapped around my cock.
Wyatt comes through the door with his girlfriend, Cassidy, tucked beneath his arm and calls out my name, rescuing me from my ridiculous straight-guy fantasy.
“Be right there,” I tell Wyatt.
Wyatt kisses Cassidy and heads into the stockroom.
Alex knocks back half his beer in one gulp and tears a piece of paper from the back of his notebook. He quickly scribbles on it, folds it in half, and passes it across the bar to me. “I’ve got to go. Would you—”
I snag the note. He’s clearly not gay and looking only for a favor. “Sure, I’ll give Charley your number.”
There’s no mistaking the seductive darkness staring back at me. My entire body electrifies.
“It’s not for her,” he says in that commanding voice that makes every part of me stand at attention. “It’s for you, Tristan.”
Did I tell him my name? He probably overheard it. Either way, it sounds hot rolling off his tongue.
He rises to his feet, our hands still touching. When he reaches for his helmet, our physical connection breaks, but the tantalizing heat remains.
“Call me.” Alex takes a few steps away and looks over his shoulder. That mind-numbing grin sends another blast of heat below my belt. “See ya around, T.”
Wyatt comes back into the bar and sets a bottle of champagne on the counter. “What’s up with Alex?”
I’m still trying to process that Alex isn’t straight. The endearment he used, and the way he said it so confident and casually, as if we were old friends, makes my mind stumble again. T?
“You know him?”
“Wasn’t that Arty’s grandson, Alex Wells?” Wyatt asks. “I only met him once a few years ago, but I’m pretty sure it’s him.”
Arlene “Arty” Bindon was a local sculptor who lived in a bungalow down the beach. We’d met a few years ago when I was out running. Unfortunately, she passed away over the winter. She was a tiny woman, about five feet tall, with frizzy gray hair that always looked windblown. From the moment we met I was drawn to her sassy nature and creative outlook. She reminded me of my own grandmother, who passed away when I was just a kid. Arty and I became close, and I checked on her when we had storms, brought her groceries every so often, and sometimes I drove her to appointments in town. She talked often about her grandson, who was in the military. She used to say, He’s a good boy, like you.
I glance down at Alex’s number, seeing the brooding biker with new eyes. “I thought he was just passing through.”
“Maybe he is.” Wyatt drapes an arm over my shoulder as Brandon comes into the bar, guitar in hand, followed by Delilah and her girlfriend, Ashley, and two of our other friends, Jesse and Brent Steele. Brent’s also carrying his guitar. “Are you done, or do you want to talk about Alex some more? Because I have huge news.”
“Sorry,” I say, shaking my head to clear it and noticing, for the first time tonight, Wyatt’s big-ass grin. “Huge news? Cough it up already.”
Wyatt laughs. “Finally! Cassidy and I got engaged. It’s time to celebrate.”
—To continue reading—
Buy TEMPTING TRISTAN (Harborside Nights)
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BOOK LIST
LOVE IN BLOOM SERIES order (FREE Ebook)
Love in Bloom Series Guide (Detailed Ebook)
Love in Bloom Series Guide (Black & White Print Book)
Love in Bloom books may be read as stand alones. For more enjoyment, read them in series order. Characters from each series carry forward to the next.
SNOW SISTERS
Sisters in Love
Sisters in Bloom
Sisters in White
THE BRADENS (Weston, CO)
Lovers at Heart
Destined for Love
Friendship on Fire
Sea of Love
Bursting with Love
Hearts at Play
THE BRADENS (Trusty, CO)
Taken by Love
Fated for Love
Romancing My Love
Flirting with Love
Dreaming of Love
Crashing into Love
THE BRADENS (Peaceful Harbor, MD)
Healed by Love
Surrender My Love
River of Love
Crushing on Love
Whisper of Love
&nbs
p; Thrill of Love
BRADEN WORLD NOVELLAS
Daring Her Love
Promise My Love
Our New Love
THE REMINGTONS
Game of Love
Stroke of Love
Flames of Love
Slope of Love
Read, Write, Love
Touched by Love
SEASIDE SUMMERS
Seaside Dreams
Seaside Hearts
Seaside Sunsets
Seaside Secrets
Seaside Nights
Seaside Embrace
Seaside Lovers
Seaside Whispers
THE RYDERS
Seized by Love
Claimed by Love
Chased by Love
Swept Into Love
Rescued by Love
SEXY STAND-ALONE ROMANCE NOVELS
Tru Blue (Set in Peaceful Harbor)
WILD BOYS AFTER DARK
Logan
Heath
Jackson
Cooper
BAD BOYS AFTER DARK
Mick
Dylan
Brett
Carson
HARBORSIDE NIGHTS
Includes characters from Love in Bloom series
Catching Cassidy
Discovering Delilah
Tempting Tristan
Chasing Charley
Breaking Brandon
Embracing Evan
Reaching Rusty
Seaside Lovers: Grayson Lacroux (Love in Bloom: Seaside Summers) Page 25
