“Give me those.” She removed the potential weapon from her friend’s hand. Ellis didn’t really have time to be a witness in a murder trial, but she was glad she had a friend willing to maim for her. “He’s gone now. He won’t be back.”
“He better not be.” She turned to face Ellis, her expression saying a thousand words. “What did he want?”
“To get back together.” Ellis never thought that Jack would come crawling back. She never thought she would hear him apologize, either. Throughout their two-year relationship she’d often wished she could hear him say he was wrong. He finally did. It was just a little too late.
“How do you feel about that?” Belinda asked warily.
“There’s no freaking way.” Ellis shook off her lingering anger. “He’s the same asshole he always was. He thinks I’m playing a game. That I opened this store just to get at him.”
“But this is your dream. You worked too damn hard to get it.”
“I would die before I gave this place up.”
“Hey.” Cherri walked in for her shift nearly an hour early. “What’s going on?” she asked after seeing the look on Ellis’s face. “Have we been robbed?” She, too, looked around the store to see if anything was out of order.
“No. It’s worse. Jack showed up,” Belinda informed her.
“No way.”
“Yeah,” Ellis said. “I’m feeling somewhere in between murderous and bummed.”
“Well then, I have the perfect solution for that.” Cherri smiled. “Tonight is trivia night down at Bagpipes. We can get tipsy, show off how smart we are, and bad-mouth Jackass all at the same time.”
“That sounds like fun. I think we all deserve a little downtime.” Belinda looked at Ellis. “What do you say?”
Ellis hadn’t been out anywhere with the girls since she’d opened the store. It was time she went out and let her hair down. It was time she forget all about her little encounter with Jack.
“I say Bay Breeze me.”
Chapter Five
“When the hell did you start going to trivia nights?” Mike asked his best friend Colin O’Connell over the loud music and dozens of conversations at Bagpipes Pub.
It was the first time they’d hung out since he’d moved back to Durant. He hadn’t seen Colin for almost a year, which was not the norm for them. The two of them had been inseparable in college and before that … Mike didn’t have a lot of friends. He had his mother, his sisters, a few girls here and there, and the flower shop.
His father had walked out on the family the day before Mike turned thirteen. The day Mike ceased being a kid. He became the man of the family, waking up at four in the morning to help his mother and two sisters out at the shop while his older sister took a job in a nursing home to help make ends meet. When Mike’s father left he didn’t just take himself. He took most of the money in the bank account, leaving his wife with only five thousand dollars to raise four kids.
It was flower shop, school, and home for Mike until he turned eighteen and his mother made him go away to college. It was there he met Colin, who had moved from Ireland on a student visa. They were both slightly homesick, had similar childhoods filled with work and single parents. Of course, they immediately took to each other and spent every day of the next four years doing things they shouldn’t have. Colin had come home with Mike on breaks when he couldn’t get back to Ireland, which was most of the time. He had worked in Mike’s family’s flower shop over the summers, broke bread with them on Thanksgiving, and till this day still sent Mike’s mother, Margie, birthday presents. The two had been more like brothers than friends, which was why Mike felt guilty about not seeing Colin as often as he should. Yes, they were both busy. Mike was up to his neck in crime while Colin worked as a restoration expert specializing in antique furniture. Mike always thought it was funny that his big, profanity-spewing friend had such a love for dainty old furniture, but his love showed in his work and he had the extensive clientele to prove it. Still, going nine months without seeing his best friend was far too long, and so when Colin suggested trivia night Mike agreed.
“When I hit thirty,” Colin responded to Mike’s question in his slight brogue. “One day I turned around and all the girls at the bar were babies. And instead of wanting to take them home I wanted to tell them to put on a goddamn sweater.” He took a long swig of Guinness. “My sister is twenty, for fuck’s sake. I feel like a pervert.”
“You’re getting old.” Mike grinned at his friend. He was beginning to understand what Colin was talking about. They were about to be thirty-three. Staggering home after last call didn’t seem so appealing. Waking up next to a girl who was barely out of her teens, even less so. “But why trivia night?”
“You see, my friend”—Colin playfully slapped him on the back—“on trivia night you’ve got more of a variety for people-watching.” He pointed at a gaggle of middle-aged women sitting at the bar. “Soccer moms. They’re a fun group, come every week, usually spend their days up to their elbows in shit and driving the carpool. So when they get a chance to come out they get raunchy. They’re loud. They flirt like slags and they know more useless shit than anybody else here. I try to get on their team at least once a month.”
Mike shook his head at his friend’s perceptive evaluation of those women. Colin had mellowed out a lot in the past few years. The man who was never afraid of a bar fight was now hanging out with soccer moms and limiting his alcohol intake. When had his friend grown up?
“So whose team are we going to be on tonight?”
“Well.” Colin scanned the room. “Those frat boys over there are out. They don’t know shit and are usually drunk off their asses before the fourth round starts. See if you can find some elementary school teachers or something. They know almost as much as the soccer moms, and they hate losing.”
“What the hell do elementary school teachers look like?” Mike searched the room, passing his eyes over multiple groups of women. All he could picture was his fifth-grade teacher Mrs. Larson, who wore cat-shaped earrings and had a mole on her chin with a hair growing out it. He shuddered. He didn’t think he could spend the whole night on a team with women like that. But he would if he had to. Colin, it seemed, played to win, and Mike owed him this.
“Look for girls in their twenties that look kind of sweet but serious. They usually aren’t the ones with their tits hanging out.”
“You should have been a cop.” Mike glanced at his friend before he continued to scope out possible elementary school teachers and potential teammates. He saw lots of women, but a flash of red caught his eye. Something, a pull, he couldn’t describe it, forced him to focus on the woman who was wearing it. Ellis. She was sitting on the other side of the bar with a pink-colored drink in her hand. “I should have known.”
She looked up at him as if he’d called her. Her eyes widened with surprise as they connected with his. He wanted to turn away, pretend like he hadn’t seen her. The woman irked him but he just couldn’t look away. She kept popping into his mind, every day, and he was sure that attraction had nothing to do with it. He found her sexy—but he found a lot of women sexy. It was the fact that he couldn’t recall where he knew her from. If he knew, he could then put her out of his mind and focus on something else. Somebody else.
Not wanting to be rude to the woman who had been nothing but rude to him, he nodded his head in acknowledgment, expecting her to do the same.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
“Brat.” He found himself smiling, knowing that his earlier thoughts were wrong. She wouldn’t be so easy to put out of his mind. He had made that mistake already.
“Huh?” Colin asked, looking in Ellis’s direction.
“Ellis.” Mike shook his head at her immature gesture. She was next to the same redhead and blonde she’d been with the day of the robbery. Both her friends were staring at him with interest. It made him wonder what exactly Ellis had told them about him. He quickly thought back four years ago to the women he had
dated. Michelle, Dina, Rachel, Kara. He remembered them all. Not one of them lasted more than two months. There was no woman in between. He had never been with Ellis.
“Who?”
Mike didn’t return his attention to Colin. He was too distracted by Ellis, who was giving him that impish grin of hers.
“The brunette in the red.” The only woman in the world who could irritate the hell out of him and yet make him want to get closer. He turned to Colin, thinking that his friend might be able to help. “Do you know her? She says we met four years ago but I don’t remember her and now every time I see her she busts my balls about it.”
“Her?” Colin took a long look at Ellis. “I’ve seen her around town a couple of times but I don’t have a clue who she is.”
“Neither do I. But I know her from somewhere.” He grimaced before taking a sip of his beer. “She knows what kind of underwear I wear.”
Colin shrugged. “You probably slept with her.”
“I didn’t.” Ten years ago that might have been true, but now he knew it wasn’t.
Colin studied Ellis the same way he appraised a piece of furniture, with his head tilted to the side. “I guess she’s a little on the chubby side for you but it’s possible. Those soft girls are good for a tumble once in a while and she looks like she’d be a good one to tumble with for a couple of hours. Very fuckable.”
“Watch your mouth,” Mike warned his friend, immediately wishing he hadn’t. What did he care if Colin made a comment about her? Mike barely knew her, and the little he did know was a big pain in his ass. But she still deserved some respect.
“You got a thing for this girl, Edwards?” Colin raised a brow at him and then looked over at Ellis once more.
Mike’s eyes unwillingly followed. She was laughing at something one of her friends said, enjoying the company of the two women he’d barely noticed last week. Even across the darkened bar he could see how brightly her face was lit up. Her head tilted backward, her mouth slightly opened. It made him want to be in on the joke.
“I don’t have a thing for her,” he denied, although the image of her in nothing but red panties appeared in his mind more often than he would like to admit. “I barely know her.”
Colin placed his hand over his heart. “I, Colin O’Connell, never thought I’d live to see the day that Mike ‘Lady Lover’ Edwards would be sweet on a girl. I’m bloody well touched.”
“What man talks like that?” Mike shook his head. “You sound like your grandmother.”
“I love my granny.” Colin finished his dark beer. “And don’t change the subject. You always talk about your conquests with me, and now your mouth is shut tighter than a nun’s legs.”
“There is nothing to talk about.” Mike was getting slightly irritated with Colin’s sudden inquisitiveness. It made him wish he’d never said anything about Ellis in the first place. She was just a woman. A woman who didn’t even like him.
“Fine. We won’t talk about your girlfriend anymore. But the blonde sitting next to her is fair game. Come on.” He stood up. “Let’s go be on their team.”
Mike knew that spending the next undetermined amount of hours with Ellis was a bad idea, but his brain couldn’t stop his body from getting up and following his friend across the pub.
*
Ellis watched Mike get up from his seat across the bar. He was probably here to pick up women. Do men still do that? Do women still let that happen?
With Mike they probably did. He had that way about him, that smile that made him seem like a badass and good guy at the same time. She tried to keep her attention on her friends but like a magnet he drew her eyes wherever he went in the room. This was supposed to be girls’ night out. She was supposed to be relaxing, forgetting about men altogether. Forgetting about Jack. She hated that after six months the sight of her ex still bothered her. It wasn’t because she still loved him. It was the fact that she’d spent so long with a man who built himself up by putting her down.
Mike passed the bar. He passed the gang of hot skinny girls. He passed the bathroom. Frick. It was like she was watching him in slow motion, like this was a scene from a movie and she was the fat nerdy girl in love with the quarterback who would never notice her. Except this was no movie. She definitely wasn’t in love and the hot guy was heading directly toward her, his blue eyes never leaving her face. Frick!
“Don’t let me do anything stupid,” Ellis said grabbing hold of Belinda’s hand.
“What? Seriously, Ellis it’s just trivia. We aren’t going to stone you if you answer wrong.”
“Belinda!”
“What?” Belinda asked, following Ellis’s gaze. “Oh, the hot cop you were making goo-goo eyes with is on his way over and he’s bringing that sexy Irishman with him.”
“You know his friend, Belinda?” Cherri asked, clearly interested. Ellis hadn’t even noticed the man leading the detective but there he was, just as tall dark and handsome, with that same bad-boy gleam in his eye.
Hunks for sales. Two for the price of one.
“Yeah. He restored my mother’s old antique chest and believe me when I tell you that man is good with his hands.”
Cherri looked toward the two approaching men. “I bet he is,” she said softly.
“That’s riveting,” Ellis interrupted, “now back to me. Don’t let me do anything stupid. Mike’s looks seem to affect my brain cells. I need you to remind me that I don’t like him.”
“But you do like him,” Cherri pointed out.
“I can’t like him. I’m off men, remember? And he’s like junk food on a Tuesday. Strictly off limits.” She let out a frustrated sigh as Mike drew closer. There was no mistaking where he was heading. His eyes were still on her. She wished she’d never stuck her tongue out at him. “He slept with my sister,” she reminded them at the same time she reminded herself. “Don’t leave me alone with him.”
“Why not, Ellis?” Belinda asked grinning. “I think you’re pretty capable of handling yourself.”
“You’re wrong there. I’m a stressed-out basket case with an unstable future and Mike’s the type of guy who could—who could … Holy crap, you guys, I haven’t had sex in a really long time.” Ellis spoke faster, trying to get it all out before Mike reached her. “Just be good friends and save me from myself. You know I would do it for you.”
“Do what?” Mike asked.
Whoa Nellie.
Ellis took a breath and composed herself. She never got so worked up over anybody before but he looked good tonight, really freaking good in a black T-shirt and a pair of low-slung jeans. He looked equally good in a suit and in only a pair of Calvins.
“Nothing.” She forced herself to make eye contact and not stare at his chest. She wondered if she could bounce a quarter off it. “What are you doing here, Mikey? Looking for new conquests?”
“Nope.” He sat next to her on the booth, his big body pressing into hers and invading her space. He smelled good. Not like cologne but like shampoo and clean skin. It was much different from Jack’s expensive scent. It was damn near refreshing. “This is my friend Colin.” He pointed to the tall man still standing. “We’re joining your team.”
“What if we don’t want company?” Ellis said feeling the need to rib him. “What if we want a girls’ night out?”
“We don’t really care.” Mike’s eyes locked with hers. “Now mind your manners and say hello to my friend.”
“Hello, Colin.” She didn’t want to say hello to his friend. She wanted to say Go away, go away, go away but her mischievous side reared its ugly head. “I must not be memorable.” She looked at the Irishman with mournful eyes. “I guess you don’t recall who I am, either.” She glanced at Mike and then back at his friend. They exchanged a glance.
“No, love, can’t say I do.” He slid his long body into the seat next to Cherri. “Can you tell me what kind of underwear I wear?” He grinned at her.
So Mike had told his friend about her. Ellis wasn’t sure if that was a go
od or bad thing. Probably bad. It was never good when men spoke to each other but she looked on the bright side. Mike didn’t remember her, so he couldn’t have said much to his equally charming friend.
“Oh, Colin, we both know you don’t wear any,” Ellis shot back.
Colin’s grin melted away and both men stared at each other for a long moment and then looked back at her. Mike did not look happy. Aha! She’d gotten them.
“That was a lucky guess, I swear!” She laughed.
“Brat,” Mike said under his breath, shaking his head at her naughty behavior.
What was wrong with her? She was a Harvard Law grad, a business owner. A grown-up, for God’s sake. Why was it that every time she got around Mike she acted like a hormonal thirteen-year-old? There was just something about him that made her want to act up. And it was fun.
“I’m sorry, Colin.” She did some head shaking of her own. “We’ve never met before and I didn’t know that you enjoyed going commando but now that I do, I know what not to get you for Christmas.”
“I like her,” Colin said to Mike with a grin before he turned back to her. “It’s nice to meet you, Ellis. Introduce me to your lovely friends.”
Ellis made the introductions and didn’t fail to notice the extra attention Colin gave to the too-young-for-him, very mild-mannered Cherri. Oh Lord, Ellis thought. Cherri would be no match for the sexy grinning Irishman.
“Did you guys order any food yet?” Mike asked as his eyes passed over the menus sitting before him on the table.
Ellis pulled her attention away from her friend and back to Mike. She was about to answer when Belinda beat her to it.
“We can’t.” Belinda pouted. “Ellis has a no-junk-food-on-weekdays rule and she sort of resembles a starving puppy when we eat it in front of her. We’re not sure if we should feed her or send her to the pound.”
“What?” Mike slowly perused Ellis’s figure, which immediately caused her to shrink back in her seat and get goose bumps all at once.
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