by Jami Wagner
We made the decision to live in Wind Valley permanently. Rockland isn’t too far away, but knowing it’s in Liam’s hands gives us peace of mind. He’s a great manager and overall a person whom I’ve grown to trust.
The life I have at this exact moment couldn’t be any better. Yes, a part of me will always wonder what it’s like to have family who shares the same blood, but as long as I have Sara, nothing else matters. One day, I may search for Alexis again, but right now I’m happy with where my life is. Besides, she could still very well show up one day.
Sara’s laughter from the dance floor catches my attention. I’ll never get over the way she makes me feel. Like I’m important, proud, loved. She makes me want to be a better man. I told her all of this when I read her my vows, but I’ll more than likely spend the rest of my life reminding her how amazing she is.
“Married life is the best life. Cheers, man.” Ethan takes a seat next to me and sets a beer in front of me on the table. He tips the spout of his beer toward the dance floor. Sara is dancing with Beth and Kelsey.
I turn to tell Ethan he’s right when a loud crash comes from a table behind us. Kelsey’s dad is standing at the dessert table with a broken plate at his feet and a screaming baby in his arms. Ethan laughs, “Parenting, on the other hand, is beautiful but unpredictable and testing.” He moves quickly to help his father-in-law. Clara cries until Ethan has her in his arms. Then it’s as if nothing happened and life is good again. I want that. I want it soon, and I hope Sara does, too.
“Congrats again, Logan,” Conner says, taking the seat Ethan left empty. “It’s crazy how my sister and my best friend are both married now. Next thing you know, you’ll have a kid.”
“I sure hope you’re right. If it happens sooner rather than later, maybe they can grow up with your little guy. How’s he doing, by the way?”
“He’s good. He’s getting more comfortable with me. His mom is still being awful about all this. She now says she has no problem letting him stay with me from time to time under the condition that I get my own place. But that isn’t the first thing she has asked me to do.”
“What’s wrong with Kelsey’s place?” I ask. Until he can find his own place, Conner moved in with his sister and Ethan after Sara moved in with me.
“Nothing. Every time I do what she asks, she has another stipulation. At this rate, I’ll never get him one on one.”
“Things will work out. Keep your head up. Maybe what you really need is to find a woman, marry her, and then create a family that she can’t say no to. A woman who also gets along with Sara and your sister would be nice.”
Connor laughs, and squeezes my shoulder as he stands. “We can’t all have a woman like Sara.”
I grin at his words and silently pray he meets someone to help turn things around. He really is a great guy, I wish there was a way I could help, but I got nothing. This is definitely an area that could use a woman’s advice.
“Logan.”
I look up and can’t stop my lips from the massive, all-teeth smile that takes over. “Yes, my wife?”
“Do you want to come dance with me or keep gazing at Ethan and Clara with jealousy?”
The chair I’d been sitting in shoots away from the table and I rush around it toward her. I wrap my arms around her and lift her into the air before I kiss her.
“I’ll never be jealous of anyone as long as I have you.”
“Logan Parker, there’s no reason to make me swoon over you now. I’ve already married you.”
“I’ll make you swoon every day for the rest of your life,” I say, placing another kiss to her lips and guiding her to the dance floor.
As I hold my wife in my arms, I give a silent thank you for the life I have and for the luck I’ve had in love. One thing is for sure, I’ve never loved someone so hard in my entire life.
THANK YOU for reading Just One Night, the second book in the Black Alcove series. Sara and Logan’s story was a fun one to write. I hope you enjoyed it.
The third book in the Black Alcove series releases soon. Go to www.jami-wagner.com for more information.
Acknowledgments
I will never forget the amount of support and encouragement that went in to writing Sara and Logan’s story.
Mom, Dad, and Holly: You are my biggest fans, and I love you more and more each day. Thank you for believing in me and being there when I need you.
Dana Volney: In the time I’ve known you, we’ve come a long way. You motivate me, you push me, and because of you my goals actually happen. Thank you for keeping me on track.
Mary Billiter: I miss you. I wish you were here to share all these happy moments, because I know without you and the push you gave me in the beginning, my life would be so much different.
Grant Rogers: You are a trooper and I will be forever thankful to have you in my life during everything I’m going through.
Mallori Roth, Kate Maxwell, and Megan Phillips: My beta readers rock! You’ve all helped me and made me a stronger writer. Thank you!
Alyssa Navarro and Trisha Butcher: Thank you all for being the best girlfriends a girl could ask for and for understanding when I can’t make every girls night out.
Julie Sturgeon: I love working with you. You take away stress like it’s nobody’s business. Thank you for working with me!
Christa at Paper and Sage Design: Again, you amaze me with the bright and beautiful covers you’ve made for me. This one is more than perfect!
And finally, thank you to the readers, bloggers, and social media fans who have read Just One Night and are spreading the word. Your support is the best thing I could ask for.
Did you miss Just One Kiss,
the story of Kelsey and Ethan?
Read on for the first chapter of
Just One Kiss: A Black Alcove Novel
Chapter One
Kelsey
There’s no point in making a plan because somehow it always manages to fall apart.
“I’m sorry, could you please repeat that?” I ask, even though I heard her loud and clear the first time.
Sara Connelly did not just tell me that in less than thirty days she’ll be leaving on some “extended” vacation to finally travel the world — those are the exact words she used. Throw in the fact that she isn’t sure when she’ll be back, she isn’t leaving me in charge of the bar while she’s away, and someone else will be making my schedule, this doesn’t look good for me. I can’t decide whether to be relieved that she isn’t adding to my newfound stress or hurt by her choice, seeing as a huge piece of my plan just went to shit.
“Any particular reason you made this choice?” I ask.
She just shakes her head.
After Sara graduated college at twenty-one—thanks to early college classes she took while still in high school—her father gave her The Bar. Sara hated that name, so she had a reopening and renamed it The Black Alcove. Except everyone refers to it as the BA, which is fitting because it’s been a year since she took over and the entire place is pretty badass.
That also means I’ve been the bar manager for the last year. I know my way around this place better than I do our apartment. I can do anything she can do, and sometimes better. A new boss could and more than likely will ruin my already polished class schedule.
I stop slicing the lime in my hand, set the knife calmly on the bar top in front of me, and focus on her. Sara hasn’t made eye contact with me once since she shared her announcement. She’s not telling me something. She’s sitting on one of the high-top stools at the other side of the bar, planning the next week’s work schedule. She looks up from her papers and her long, blonde curls fall around her guilty face. Big, blue eyes look everywhere but at me before returning to the calendar lying in front of her. She clicks her pen twice before she says anything.
“Come on, Kelsey, this is your final semester of college. Do you really want to be running a bar and going to class?” She glances up. “Besides, we both know you hate working in general, and if I c
an’t rely on you to show up on time to bartend the 3:00 p.m. shift, there’s no way you can manage this place for a whole a year while I’m gone.”
A whole year! I thought she didn’t know how long she was going to be gone.
I let out a small huff, grabbing the knife and cutting into the green ball in front of me a bit more harshly than I should, all while cursing at how well she knows me. It’s true. I hate being told what to do and when and where I need to be somewhere. I hate working. Correction – I hate working on a schedule someone else has made for me – even if it works around my classes – and rules are my enemy.
Yet here I am, about to graduate with a degree in accounting, which has nothing to with writing, my dream job. Writing would let me be anywhere at any time and be happy. Accounting will do nothing but give me a job where I’ll have to work eight to five behind a desk. I’ll probably work harder than I do as a bartender while making half the money. And that says something, because life as a bartender can be pretty intense work. What was I thinking?
Make Daddy proud. Maybe an accounting degree will get him to notice you. That’s what I was thinking.
“I’m only late because I get lost in my studies.” My voice is cheery and exaggerated.
“Ha, yeah okay, studies. I wasn’t aware you were majoring in how to take the longest naps ever,” she says, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
I give her my best sad face, bottom lip out and all. I can’t help it when I fall asleep from a boring textbook. Hand me a romance novel or some suspense, and I’ll pull an all-nighter.
“But the main reason I’m not leaving you in charge is because you stress easily. I don’t want you becoming too overwhelmed this semester. It’s your last one. Enjoy it.”
That’s sweet of her. But I still think she’s holding back information.
The idea of new management terrifies me. I admit I need someone who can cut me some slack— college isn’t as easy as some people make it look.
“Who is your replacement, and what if they fire me while you’re gone because they don’t know how I work? They don’t know me like you, and they won’t ‘let it slide’ on account of the best friend rule.”
It’s quite simple: We always forgive each other no matter what and we don’t judge each other or do anything that would cause the other to fail in life. Hence, if she fired me, I would fail in helping pay our rent.
“My cousin is coming to take over. I promise I already told him about you and that no matter what happens, he can’t fire you.” She shrugs, continuing to write out the schedule. Just like that. Problem solved. “Those weren’t my exact words, but I run this place, not him. Technically he has to do what I say even if I’m not here. So you can stop having whatever huge mental freak out your having, because it doesn’t look good on you.”
I try not to smile. I was not having a huge freak out. Minor, possibly.
It’s the first week of my final semester of college and everything should be going exactly the way I’ve written in my planner. A day shouldn’t go by without having at least one item checked off. Even if it’s as simple as watering the plants on Friday.
The main focus of my plan is the fact I’m housesitting for my parents for most of the semester, which means I’ll have plenty of alone time to study and pass the last of my dreaded accounting classes. I still can’t believe I left payroll accounting and tax income for the last semester. If I were smart, I would’ve taken them earlier. Scratch that, if I were smart, I would have enrolled in a degree for creative writing and taken a full credit load every semester to finish college earlier. But no, I didn’t do that and now I’m graduating in the fall with a degree that means more to my father than me.
The next piece that makes my life so easy right now is working for Sara at the Black Alcove Bar. She’s my best friend and my boss. It has its perks, such as my free-flowing schedule to work around homework and class. This bartending shift is defiantly a key player that’s holding me and my perfected plan together. All my friends work here and it feels like home. We’re a team that wants to succeed, and we do everything we can to help each other whether it’s at work or not.
Another piece keeping me happy: the fact my cheating ex-boyfriend lives on the other side of town. And thank god for that because I throw up just a little in mouth every time I lay eyes on him. All summer he’s been finding reasons to “bump” into me. He feels like he needs to explain himself, but I understood the girl underneath him just fine. I’m ready for space to focus on me and what I want. To finish college and find a job writing before I find one in accounting.
The last and best part of my plans, there’s still one more month to enjoy weekends sunbathing at the lake. In all honesty, I probably won’t make it out there, but knowing I have the option is nice.
That’s the plan. Plain and simple with no room for errors. Those details might not be the ones written down, but they are engraved inside my head and they aren’t going anywhere. This final five months of college should be something I look forward to with a positive attitude. It’s the time in my life when everything is finally coming together. I should be shouting and celebrating.
Unfortunately at this moment, I’m anything but positive.
“Well, maybe I can teach him to do what I say, too.” We laugh at my joke even though a part of me really isn’t joking. “Which cousin is it?” I ask, leaning my hip against the bar and glancing at the cooler behind me.
It should have been stocked last night, but Sara and Logan were closing. This is the third time in two weeks she’s asked me to come in and help open after the two of them shut the place down. After her announcement, I’m starting to think it’s her way of getting in some extra friend time. Either that, or she and Logan aren’t actually working when they’re together. I’m going with option B, but if I say that out loud, they will both deny it.
“Umm, Ethan,” she says.
Ethan.
I freeze, resting my forearms against the counter.
“He was the cousin who used to stay with us over the summers. The same cousin you dumped a bucket of paint on when my dad was redoing the floor in this place.” She pauses to look down. “I’m so glad he decided to go with the whole tie-dye floor thing. It gives this place some color.”
I smirk. I only dumped the paint because Ethan was trying to remind me about our so- called “kiss.” We got lucky when Sara’s dad actually liked the mess I made. He went out and bought buckets of assorted colors, letting us kids go wild coating the cement floor. I aimed for Ethan with every bucket I touched.
“Anyway, his dad and my dad are brothers, so he’s used to the whole owning your own business thing. Plus, he just got a business degree and wants to add this to his experience,” she continues. “He’s only a year older than us; you have to remember him.”
Oh, I remember him. How could I forget? Still to this day no one knows what happened, not even Sara. I should have known geeks were the worst.
“You know he had that stupid mushroom haircut thing going on and glasses.” Sara laughs, but then the giggles fade and she stares off at something behind me. I follow her gaze to find nothing important, and when I look back at her she’s again focused on her papers. “That’s the one problem with this plan. I haven’t seen him in years. I hate to be shallow, but I can’t have a nerd running this place. We have a reputation to uphold and he could ruin it.”
She glances up. “Come on, Kelsey, you have to remember him.”
Oh right, she’s refreshing my memory. I give my head a slight nod as I pretend to remember.
“Yeah, he was the one who was always following us around. I bet we could still make him wait on us hand and foot.” We both begin to laugh again but are quickly cut off.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen this time.”
I jump at the deep voice that echoes inside the empty bar. In the doorway stands the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. Tall, dark, and handsome doesn’t even begin to describe him. Is that…Ethan?
Sara hops off the stool with a giant smile on her face and quickly rushes to give him a hug. The veins that appear in his toned arms as he gives her a tight squeeze send a flutter through my entire stomach. Holy crap, he’s huge. This is not the nerdy boy I remember. His body looks so firm and sexy.
When Sara lets go of him, she turns to me. Her movement grabs my attention, snapping my eyes to hers before he can catch me checking him out.
“Kelsey, you remember Ethan,” she says, and I can tell she’s happy with her decision to leave him in charge. Looks like her bar’s reputation is going to survive. “I was just telling Kelsey how you’re going to take over for me while I’m gone,” she says to Ethan. Although I don’t think he heard her. His eyes are focused solely on me.
Ethan takes a step forward in his black shirt and blue jeans, and I watch him cautiously until he’s standing in front of me. My fingers grip tighter onto the counter, trying to keep myself standing. He’s even more gorgeous now than he was before.
His green eyes are bright against his short, black hair, and when he smiles, I know instantly that I don’t stand a chance at holding my damn plan into place. Not that I ever did. He extends his hand to me, but I just stand there. I don’t move. I don’t do anything. Not even blink.
He lets out a deep chuckle, and my heart races so fast and loud, I swear he can hear it. “You haven’t changed a bit.” He raises an eyebrow, never taking his gaze off mine. “Still keeping quiet, I see.”
I swallow and then break our eye contact. Holy crap. When I look up again, Ethan is glancing over to Sara, who’s standing next to him, leaning against the counter.
“Is she this quiet with the customers too?” he jokes. I think.
“No, she isn’t,” Sara says then looks at me with both eyebrows raised. She’s trying to tell me something. She tilts her head toward Ethan and her eyes grow even bigger as they flicker toward Ethan and back to me.
