by Rita Sawyer
She was so tired, it was hard to keep her eyes open. Her friends’ voices grew softer, though she knew they were all still right there. Too worn out to fight it, Karen let the darkness claim her. There would be plenty of time to cry later. Right then, she wanted to sleep.
Chapter Nine
“Are you guys sure you don’t want to join us?” Lainey asked as she, Amy, Dianne, and Karen grabbed their coats and purses.
Slade, Jace, and Gage exchanged similar looks before Jace said, “No, thanks.”
“We’re seeing that new action flick,” Dianne cooed as her fiancé Gage pulled her into his arms.
“Yeah, the one where the guy goes undercover as a male stripper to keep his eye on the sexy bartender.” He pressed his lips to hers in a quick kiss. “You can tell me all about it when you get home.”
“Besides, this is supposed to be a girls’ night out.” Slade gave Karen a wink as he headed over to help Amy with her jacket.
Karen watched this all go down with the sense—though no one had come right out and said it—that they were worried about her. It was nice to know they all cared, but there wasn’t any reason for them to worry. She’d come to the realization as she settled back into her staid-spinster-teacher mode that she just hadn’t been ready to meet a great guy like Blue. Just thinking about him made her stomach drop. For the past two weeks since she left Blue’s house, she’d felt like she was on a roller coaster filled with a couple highs and a lot of really low moments. She was sick to death of her own moping and was ready to get back to living her life, as boring and lame as it was at that point. Karen didn’t want them coddling her anymore.
Tonight was just what she needed. Pizza, a movie that might possibly have hot, naked guys, and time spent with her best friends. A girl couldn’t go wrong spending a night like that. Hopefully it would make her forget all about Blue, at least for a little while.
Amy looked at Slade with a narrowed gaze. “What are you gonna do while we’re gone?”
“I’d say nothing, but I’m not going to lie. We are working on a secret project.” Behind Slade, Gage and Jace nodded in agreement.
Her friends just shook their heads and walked out the door. They didn’t even make it to the car before Amy groaned.
“Project, my ass. They’re up to something.” She glanced back at the house. “I’m pretty sure it’s not gonna turn out good, either.”
“I know.” Lainey opened the back door and slid into the car.
Amy got in behind the wheel and looked back at her. “Well, tell us what it is.”
“I don’t know that, but there have been a lot of hushed phone calls between those three this past week.”
Dianne held up her hands and gave them a little wave. “Don’t look at me. I’ve tried everything I could to cunningly get the information out of Gage.”
“Since you’re usually as subtle as a two-by-four”—Lainey patted Dianne’s arm to soothe the insult—“we can assume they know we know, and they don’t want us to know any more than we already know.”
“That’s a lot of knowing going on.” Karen paused and waited for everyone’s laughter to stop. “And I feel very out of the loop.”
“I guess there’s nothing we can do but sit back and wait for one of them to crack and give up the others.” Amy pulled out of Lainey’s driveway. “It’ll happen sooner or later.”
“On a different note,” Dianne said, and pressed a few buttons on her phone, “Sadie sent me a text a few minutes ago. She’s on her way to pick up Jillian, and because we stalled in there, they are probably going to be at the restaurant before us.”
“I hope they order. I’m starving.” Karen hadn’t been eating well, and it had finally caught up with her.
“Mmm…I could go for some fried zucchini sticks.” Lainey’s plan to eat healthier seemed to be a little flawed, since most of the stuff had thick sauces or was deep fried.
* * * *
Blue wiped down the bar, avoiding anyone who looked like they wanted to talk. He figured most people could tell he wasn’t interested in making chitchat, but every so often, someone tried. He should just go upstairs and let his sisters run the place. Hell, it wasn’t like he was being much help. But the place was busy, and he felt guilty letting his personal life, which had gone straight down the tubes, get in the way of business.
“I’m taking five,” he told Tanya. As he started to duck into the office, he spotted a group of three well-to-do-looking guys he’d never seen before walk in and head straight for the bar.
Tanya could deal with them and probably make herself a hefty tip. Blue closed the door behind him and leaned against it. It was damn hard to get Karen out of his head when everywhere he looked something reminded him of her. He walked over and dropped into the chair behind his desk. A thousand times he’d picked up the phone to call her, but he had no idea how to fix what happened.
The first move would be to apologize. He could have taken the coward’s way out and called while she was at work and left her a message. After the things he accused her of, she’d probably just hang up on him anyway. He dropped his head to the desk. There was a loud thunk, yet not enough pain to knock any type of sense into him. The door opened and closed. Blue didn’t even bother to look up.
Tanya wouldn’t leave the bar unmanned, so it had to be either Debbie or Paula coming to give him some shit he didn’t need. “In case you hadn’t noticed, we are busy tonight, so get out there and help Tanya.”
“I’m assuming Tanya is the amusing young lady behind the bar.” The voice was too deep and masculine to belong to one of his sisters.
Blue shot to his feet and looked at the three guys taking up most of his office. “Who the hell are you? And what the fuck are you doing in my office?”
“We’re friends of Karen,” the smallest of the three said from his position leaning on the door.
“Well, she’s not here, so you can go.” Blue didn’t actually think it was going to be that easy to get rid of them, but he could hope.
“We know she’s not here. That’s why we are.” That didn’t sound good.
They were all around his size, so he could probably take them one at a time. Three against one, he didn’t stand a chance. If he was lucky, none of them would want to throw the first punch so they could claim beating him to a bloody pulp was done in self-defense. Blue might deserve Karen’s wrath, though he never expected her to sick a bunch of goons on him. He’d hoped she’d do it herself so he could try to work things out with her.
Obviously that wasn’t going to happen. “Fine, you have three minutes to say whatever you have to before I have to get back to work. Otherwise, you’ll have to come back another time.”
“Hopefully we can make our point quickly,” the human doorstop said.
“Before we go any further.” The guy who hadn’t spoken yet stepped forward, and Blue was surprised when he extended his hand. “I’m Jace, Lainey’s husband.”
Blue clasped it in his own and gave it a shake. “I’m Blue.”
“Yeah, we know. This is Slade, he belongs to Amy, and that’s Gage.”
“I’m Dianne’s.” The guy was clearly proud to be claimed by her.
Blue felt a stab of jealousy. Not long ago, he couldn’t wait to tell everyone Karen was his. Damn, these guys weren’t going to have to lift a finger to hurt him. He was doing a fine job of causing the pain himself by thinking about losing her.
“I have to say, you’re not what I expected. When Lainey came home and said Karen hooked herself a guy, we were all a little surprised.”
“He fits Dianne’s description perfectly, but I’m not judging his ass.” The three of them laughed at Gage’s comment, but Blue was still trying to catch up.
“So you’re here to—” He figured they could fill in the blank.
“See, here’s the thing. Karen is pretty miserable. This in turn has the other ladies waffling between wanting to kill you and wondering if there’s anything they could say to smooth out whatever
little wrinkle you two have fallen into.” Slade walked over and sat on the edge of the desk.
“So you came to take care of me?”
“Sort of.” Jace checked his watch. “Right now the girls are out trying to take Karen’s mind off of you. We decided to come and either give you some advice on how to best deal with your issue when it comes to them, or kick your ass.”
“The night is still young, so we decided to play it by ear.” Gage’s smile wasn’t as friendly as Blue would have liked.
“At this point, I’m willing to take some free advice.” Blue knew most guys wouldn’t admit they needed help, but when it came to Karen a little embarrassment was worth it.
“So since we need to make this quick, give us the CliffsNotes version of what happened.” Slade waved toward the chair, and Blue sat down.
He started with the incident at the warehouse store, which they found hysterical if their laughter was anything to go by. By the time he went through some of their conversations that week leading up to their blowout on Sunday morning, Blue was even more pissed and confused. On one hand, he could see he was the bad guy for accusing her of slumming and not respecting him. On the other, why the hell had she led him on? If she didn’t think things between them would work in the long run, why the hell didn’t she just fucking say so from the start?
He listened as Gage and Slade tossed out questions and did his best to answer them. Jace stood stoically, just listening, as if he was absorbing everything before he commented. If one of them didn’t come to some kind of conclusion soon, Blue might have to figure this shit out on his own.
“Man, you fucked up.” Slade’s tone didn’t sound promising.
“Big time.” Gage shook his head.
“Great. So you all came here to tell me what a fuckup I am. Thanks, but I already knew that.” Blue started to get to his feet so he could go sulk behind the bar, where he belonged.
Jace’s hand landed on his shoulder and shoved him back down. “You are an idiot, but so are they.”
“Hey!” Gage protested.
“Well, you are.” Jace smiled at him and turned back to Blue. “Karen never actually complained or said anything negative about you being a bartender, did she?”
“No, but—”
“And when you accused her, did you give her a chance to dispute it?”
“No, though she had—”
“Did she cry or throw anything before she left?”
Blue just shook his head this time knowing he wasn’t going to get to speak. “This all happened the day after Amy announced their engagement.”
“Shit.” Gage slapped himself upside the head. “Dianne told me all about Jillian and Sadie’s meltdown that night. They were all worked up about losing their freedom by falling in love.”
“Then you started introducing Karen as your girlfriend to anyone who would listen.” Slade smiled like this was all magically supposed to mean something. “And you said she was halfway out the door before you even realized there was a problem.”
“I said she was sneaking out. There was a note, but I was so pissed I tore it up without reading it. I tried, with Tanya’s help, to piece it back together, but ‘it just wouldn’t work’ was the only line that made any sense.”
“Don’t you see she was already running scared, and she let you push her the rest of the way.”
“Whoa! So you think she left me because deep down, she wanted to stay?”
“And she was probably scared shitless. Women think they are smarter than men, but when it comes to love, we’re all fucking stupid.” Jace’s confidence was starting to spread.
“So what are you going to do now?” Gage asked. “It’s not like he can just go to her and pretend none of this happened. She may have acted badly, but his accusation must have cut damn deep if she hasn’t come back. That’s probably why she’s been crying.”
“She was crying? A lot?” Blue hated to even think about it.
“Like we said, you really screwed up,” Slade said with an uneasy shrug.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” Blue had to find a way to work this out. “If there is even the slightest chance she loves me, then I can’t just let her go.”
“Damn straight.” Jace said, “But you can’t let anyone know we were here. If it comes up, you figured this out all on your own, which is why it took you two frigging weeks.”
There was a knock on the door, and it opened before Blue could even say come in. Paula carried a tray of wings and onion rings over to the desk. Debbie was right behind her with a round of beers.
“Tanya said to tell you, just because this is a bar, you don’t have to curse and shout. Pick one or the other. You’re distracting her customers.” Debbie shoved Paula through the doorway, closing the door behind them.
“To my future groveling.” Blue held up his bottle, and the guys clinked it with theirs.
“A man who knows when to grovel is a man who will have a long and happy love life.” Jace took a swig of his beer.
Blue knew he was damn lucky Karen’s friends had hooked up with such great guys. He hoped that one day he’d be able to call them all great friends. For now, though, he had something more important to think about. He needed to find a way to win his woman back.
Chapter Ten
Blue turned down the radio and pressed the button on his cell phone to accept the incoming call. “Hello.”
“Where are you?” His sister Tanya’s voice filled the cab of the truck. “And why do you have Lyle’s new truck?”
“I needed to get out for a while and clear my head, and he’s been bragging about how great his truck is, so I decided to try it for myself.” He had to admit his brother was right. The truck handled like a dream. “Why are you looking for me instead of taking the opportunity to sleep in and enjoy this lovely Sunday morning?”
“I can never sleep past eight, and you were supposed to drop off that paint for the upstairs bathroom.”
“Shit. Honey, I forgot. It’s in my trunk over at Lyle’s. He has the keys.”
“Blue, you’ve been forgetting a lot of things lately. Karen really messed up your head.”
“Don’t blame her. We both made some mistakes.”
“And you’re both too stubborn to work things out. Will you be home in time to come to dinner?”
“I’m not sure.” He drove off the highway still weighing his options.
He’d considered every possible way he could apologize to Karen and decided the best thing for him to do was go and see her. Thanks to Jace, who had called him first thing that morning, Karen and her friends were all supposed to be meeting at his house for breakfast at nine thirty. If he timed it right, he could intercept her. Blue knew this might be one of only a handful of chances. With how close she was to her friends, given the chance, they probably wouldn’t let him get close enough to talk to her.
The next hour or so would dictate how a lot of his future, including tonight’s dinner plans, would go. “I’ll give you a call later and let you know.”
“Okay, just do me a favor and drive careful.” She seemed easily pacified by his answer.
“Always.” He disconnected the call and turned the radio back up.
He spent the rest of the drive to her house planning what he was going to say. Or more like how he was going to get her to talk to him. When he steered the truck onto her road, he spotted her coming out of her house, and his pulse jumped. She walked to her car, and Blue made the snap decision that she wasn’t going anywhere. He pulled the truck to a stop at the end of her driveway, completely blocking her in.
Her horn blared for a few minutes. He assumed her neighbors wouldn’t be happy about the loud, harsh noise so early in the morning. Blue, however, didn’t care, because he wasn’t moving. She could sit there and honk all day, or until someone called the cops. Suddenly she got out of the car and started striding toward him. Good lord, she looked pissed. Her cheeks were reddened, and she had a fierceness about her that made her even more gorgeous than
normal. Thankfully, with his brother’s fondness for tinted windows, she couldn’t tell it was him behind the wheel.
Caution kept him from getting out of the truck, since there was a good chance she might turn and run at the sight of him. Once she was close enough that he had a good chance of catching her, he’d get out. He killed the engine and tucked the keys into his pocket along with his phone. When she was almost at his door, he opened it and stepped out.
* * * *
Karen had decided late last night that for all her posturing, she wasn’t ready to give up on her and Blue. The only thing she could do was go to him and try to explain what an idiot she was. She tightly held onto the hope that Blue would forgive her. The chance was so slight most people wouldn’t bother trying, but if she didn’t do it, she’d never forgive herself. He was probably over her already.
She needed to do this, she thought as she walked to her car. Even if he turned her away, it would be worth it to see him one more time. With a quick turn of her wrist, she started the car and put it in reverse. She’d stepped on the gas pedal and had only gone a few feet when a large, black truck parked along the back of her driveway.
“Un-fucking-believable.” She figured the asshole must be a friend of one of the three guys that recently moved in down the street.
She pressed on the horn hard and long, but the driver didn’t move or get out of the car. Three times in the past week alone she’d had to go down and bitch about them blocking her in. The young guy had apologized and swore it wouldn’t happen again.
“Obviously, he was wrong.” She shut the car off and yanked the keys from the ignition.
This time she was going to the source. She got out of the car and headed for the truck. This guy had chosen the wrong day to fuck with her. Her emotions were already dangerously close to being out of control. She fisted the keys in her hand to keep from throwing them at the truck and scratching its pristine paint job. Before she could say anything or knock on the door, it opened.
