WhiskeyBottleLover

by Robin Leigh Miller

  “You could wish to learn how to cook,” he suggested, scraping his plate clean.

  “And where would that talent come from?”

  “Excuse me?”

  She laughed at his confused face. “I read everything a master wishes for has to come from somewhere. Even if I did wish for that it would mean stealing it from someone else. That would leave them like me. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.” Not that she had complaints about her life but others probably wouldn’t want to live as simply as she did.

  “Where did ya read this information?” he questioned, pushing his plate aside and picking up his coffee mug.

  “On the computer. I notice it isn’t information you were willing to share and that makes me nervous.” Chance cleared the table, shoved the dishes in the sink and picked up her coffee mug. “I have work to do so I need to get moving. Excuse me.”

  “Chance?”

  She turned on her sock-covered heel. “Yeah?”

  “Thank you for sharin’ your meal with me again. I can’t explain what a treat it is.”

  “My cooking a treat? Buddy, you have been locked up in that bottle too long.” As she dressed she noted he didn’t comment about not sharing information with her. It could be part of the rules he had to follow, or it could be his own decision. Either way it didn’t matter.

  Right now she had more important things to do. She wanted to finish a few projects out in the barn before heading in to The Treasure Trove. Items she sold on her internet site needed to be shipped out and other items listed. No rest for the weary. If she wanted to eat, sales needed to be made. The next few weekends would be tourist days. Visitors coming to see the fall foliage were always sure to stop in and make a purchase.

  Chance slipped on her sneakers and headed back into the kitchen to fill her travel mug with coffee. She noticed Hayes had cleaned the dishes and put them away again. Having a genie around did come in handy.

  “Where ya headin’?” he asked.

  “Out to the barn.” She stepped out on the porch, took a bracing breath of crisp morning air and smiled. Oh she did love this time of year. The unique fragrance, the sparkling frost, the bright sunshine, it was heaven on earth. Maybe she’d stop and buy a pumpkin today. That would top off her natural fall décor.

  Chance hurried to her barn, opened the heavy wooden door and rushed in. Before she knew it she had two projects finished and ready for sale. The next one she wanted to finish up was the floor lamp. A few hours twisting the metal and welding and she could wire it up.

  “Where did you learn to do all this?”

  Chance jumped, startled at the sound of Hayes’ voice. “How long have you been in here?”

  “I followed you in. I’ve been sittin’ up there watchin’.” He pointed to the rafters and grinned.

  He really needed to stop that. Every time he smiled she found it took her longer to look away and only reinforced this weird feeling of knowing him. A one-hundred-year-old man shouldn’t look that good. “Um, I taught myself,” she answered, forcing her attention back to her project. “I see things differently than most I guess. This metal,” she said, picking up a piece and showing it to him. “It was thrown out. I saw potential and brought it home. Now it’ll be a lamp and hopefully sit in someone’s living room.”

  “Impressive,” he replied, shaking his head and jamming his hands into his pockets.

  “I don’t know about that,” she mumbled. Chance turned on the gas to her torch and heated the metal. A few gentle twists curved it perfectly. She moved on until she had them all exactly the way she wanted them.

  Next she welded the strips to a base and then screwed in a pipe that would hold the wiring. The actual construction of the lamp didn’t take long. Polishing it until it shone would take forever. But quality pieces never happened overnight. Chance grabbed her polishing cloth and began the tireless work.

  “Can I help?”

  “No, no hocus-pocus on my work. I take pride in the blood, sweat and tears I put into this. Thank you but no thanks.”

  Hayes knelt down beside her. “I didn’t mean magic,” he said carefully. “I got two good hands and it’s been a while since I’ve used them properly. They’re at your disposal.”

  A shiver raced over her flesh and a strange fluttering hit her stomach. She looked at his hands. They were large with long fingers and were slightly calloused. They felt heavenly on her bare flesh, able to stroke her into sheer pleasure. Whoops, where did that come from? Had she lost her common sense? Since when did she get all girly around a man, especially one she didn’t know? And that was the key point. She didn’t know him. No matter how familiar he seemed she didn’t know him. It would serve her to remember that.

  “Okay, sure.” Chance heard the strangled sound of her voice and tried to clear her throat. “Here.” She tossed him a polishing rag, showed him how to stroke the metal and quickly returned her attention to work.

  Every few seconds she glanced at his hands. He gently rubbed, not too hard, but used enough pressure to get the job done. He had a good rhythm going, slow, careful strokes that brought out the raw beauty of the metal. The buffing made it shine and gleam.

  “Am I doin’ it right?”

  “Yep.” The way he held the strips with one hand, cradling them with loving care while working them with the other, it made her heart race. She bet in his time he seduced many women with those hands.

  Cursing herself for thinking such things, Chance focused on the lamp but with him so near she couldn’t seem to concentrate. “If you don’t mind finishing that for me, I have other things to do.” She needed some distance. Her brain seemed to fog with him so close.

  “Not a problem. I’m enjoyin’ this. It’s been too long since I used my hands.” Hayes looked up at her. “Some things a man shouldn’t go so long without doin’.”

  Or a woman, she almost said aloud, but clamped her mouth shut tight. Yeah don’t go there. He didn’t mean it the way she took it, and what if he did? “Gotta finish something,” she mumbled and then turned and all but ran to the other side of the barn.

  Every once in a while she would glance over and check on his progress. He’d made significant headway but for some reason that didn’t impress her as much as the way he moved. Those old jeans, fabric from the eighteen hundreds, hugged his muscular thighs and when he turned she noticed how perfectly shaped his ass was. The muscles in his back worked as the black shirt tugged across his shoulders.

  Did all the men look like him back then? Of course they’d be muscled, but so perfectly? Every once in a while he pushed his hair back, tucked it behind his ears, only to have to repeat the process a few seconds later. Chance looked over on her workbench and found a thin leather strap. It would work nicely to hold his hair back.

  She picked it up, rubbed her thumb across the worn leather and then looked back at him. “Hayes, would you like to use this to keep your hair back?”

  He turned, ran his fingers over the top of his head, pulling the hair out of his face. “Sorry?”

  “Your hair, it keeps getting in your face. Would you like to tie it back with this?”

  He glanced at the leather strip in her hand and smiled. “Thank you. I’d appreciate that.”

  She walked forward, he reached out and when his fingers touched the palm of her hand a current of tingling warmth raced up her arm. The same thing she felt when she picked up his bottle. Even Hayes noticed it this time, jerking slightly and blinking rapidly like he didn’t understand what happened. A few ticks of the clock passed as they stared into each other’s eyes. A hazy vision flickered in her memory, one of him standing before her, naked, hard and ready to please her. She could smell him, not the musty whiskey odor, but the pure male musk of a man ready to rut.

  Even his name rang in her ears. When the vision faded she stood there, holding his gaze. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say he’d experienced the same thing. His lush lips were parted and he breathed heavily, causing his chest to heave. Simultaneously the
y jerked their hands back. Hayes gripped the strap of leather tight in his fist and she rubbed her tingling hand on her jeans.

  They both ignored it, pretending it didn’t happen. Hayes pulled his hair back in a ponytail.

  “That should work. Thanks.”

  Chance couldn’t look away from his broad chest. If just a few buttons popped she could see what he looked like beneath that black shirt. She bet he was all planes and angles, hard as concrete.

  “Chance?”

  “Huh?” Finally her gaze snapped to his face. “Sorry, what?”

  He took a deep breath, causing his chest to rise and fall like a breathing mountain. Those dark of eyes of his, was it her imagination or were they darker now, and why were his nostrils flaring?

  “I said thank you.”

  His voice rumbled, not loud or menacing but soft and erotic. Her eyes did a quick roll back in her head as she swayed. What the hell was it about this guy? Did he cast some kind of spell on her? Had to be. She never acted like this with men.

  “You’re welcome,” she quickly replied and then turned and made a hasty retreat back to a safe distance.

  The next hour they both worked quietly. It appeared the lamp would be finished in time for the weekend tourists and a few of the knickknacks were all ready to go. She looked around for the old hand-carved horse she’d found at the bottom of a junk box she purchased. The instant she picked it up she knew it had been hand carved and was at least one hundred years old. A piece like that needed to be preserved.

  Chance searched around the workbench, beneath it, turned and scanned the floor as she slowly moved. It had been lying on the workbench for weeks. What the hell happened to it? She intended to put it up on her website.

  The moment her gaze settled on the little wooden figurine lying on the ground against the far wall, her heart broke. Frantic, she ran, knelt down and gently picked up. “No, no, no,” she whined as the front leg separated from the rest of the carving.

  “Chance? Everythin’ all right?”

  “I don’t understand. How did this happen?” It didn’t matter that she couldn’t sell it like this. The money didn’t matter. She loved the piece, the careful detail and time put into creating it. It was priceless. “Damn it, I bet an animal got in here and carried it around.”

  Hayes came up behind her, looking down over her shoulder. “That’s a nice carvin’.”

  “It used to be. Now it’s broken.”

  “What’s that stuff you put on broken things to fix ’em? Ya know, a sticky concoction?”

  “Glue?”

  “That’s it. Glue it. It’ll be right as rain.”

  She could glue it but it would be obvious and ruin the look of the piece. “This is all natural, old and a lot of time put into it. Slapping glue on a work of art like this would be so disrespectful.” Chance inspected the broken leg, pushed the two pieces together and frowned. She could glue it but it didn’t feel right. “I’ll worry about it later.”

  She carried it back to her workbench, put it inside a plastic tote and sealed the lid so nothing else could come in and run off with it. Now all she had to do was load her car and get to the shop. Jenny would be expecting her soon. Filling her arms with the finished pieces, she pushed through the door and headed for the car.

  “Where ya goin’ now?”

  “I need to take these to my store and do some work there.” She had pieces that needed to be shipped out and some rearranging to do inside the shop.

  “We’re goin’ into town?”

  “We aren’t. I am. You are staying here.” That’s all she needed. She could barely keep her mind focused as it was. Add in the game of twenty questions from Jenny and she’d be useless.

  “Ah, how far is it?”

  Chance laid her pieces in the backseat and closed the door. “About fifteen miles, why?”

  “That’s stretching it,” he muttered.

  “Stretching what?” She watched him rub his jaw as deep furrows set into his brow.

  “The thing is, I can only be so far away from you.”

  Not liking the sound of this, Chance crossed her arms, popped out her hip and scowled. “Come again?”

  “You’re my master and until you’ve made your wishes I can’t get too far away from ya. Understand?”

  “No.” Not at all, what did this mean, she had to tote him around everywhere? Nope, that wouldn’t work.

  “I don’t think you’re tryin’.” Hayes crossed his arms over his chest and returned her scowl.

  Oh no, he didn’t get to be frustrated with her. He’s the one who popped into her life uninvited. He’d simply have to do things her way. “I’m going to work. You are staying here. I don’t need people looking at me funny and asking questions. I have a business to run.”

  “Chance.”

  She threw her hand up. “Nope. End of discussion.” She opened her car door, slid behind the wheel and started it. After pulling the door closed, she stole a quick side glance at him still standing there with his arms crossed and a slightly ticked-off look on his face. Too bad.

  She needed some time away from him to think. Regardless of how comfortable he seemed to be with this genie business, she wasn’t there yet and probably wouldn’t be ever. Chance put the car in reverse, backed up and drove a little too fast down the lane. Each passing mile helped clear her brain.

  It didn’t matter how handsome, sexy or handy and polite the man appeared, it all boiled down to her perfect, peaceful life being interrupted. She had a rhythm going. Work, sleep, eat when she remembered to, more sleep. Damn it, she liked it like that. Maybe today she could come up with a few meaningless wishes that would end this bizarre twist in her life and everything would go back to normal.

  As Chance pulled up to the first red light entering town, she noticed more people walking down the streets. It looked as though people were getting an early jump on their weekend. Damn, she should have been in the shop earlier.

  When the light turned she drove a little faster than normal, hoping to make the next light. No such luck. She sat there drumming her fingers on the steering wheel, her mind racing with all that needed to be done, when BAM! Hayes appeared in the seat next to her.

  Chance screamed, jumped, pushed back into the seat and hit the horn. The sheer fright of the man materializing out of thin air had her heart hammering against her ribs. Ten years of her life slipped away in that moment.

  “Damn it!” She fought to catch her breath as her muscles quivered and adrenaline filled her bloodstream. “I told you to stay home!” Why?

  “If you woulda given me a chance to explain,” he spoke in a deep, dark voice, “I woulda told ya, I have no choice. You can only go so far before I’m pulled to ya.”

  “Are you kidding me?” He had to be kidding. “This isn’t going to work.”

  Hayes turned his head and gave her an “I’m not amused either” look before staring straight out the windshield with his arms folded across his chest. What the hell was he pissed about? She didn’t scare the living daylights out of him.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll make myself invisible. No one has to know I’m around,” he told her in a flat tone.

  “You can do that?” Well, in that case. This bit of news helped quell the panic rising inside her. The light turned and she eased out into the intersection. Her shop sat only two blocks up. “Can you do it soon?”

  “Of course, Master,” he replied in that monotone voice and in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

  Chance gave a relieved sigh, pulled up along the curb and parked her car. Jenny sat out in front of the shop in that stupid, broken-down chair. The woman must have dragged it out of the dumpster this morning. That did it, she was taking it home and throwing it on the burning pile.

  “I was hoping you’d show up soon,” Jenny shouted as Chance crawled from the car. “Already sold a dozen items. People are in a hurry to spend their money today.”

  A dozen? “It’s your gorgeous, smiling face that does it, Jenny.”
Chance unloaded her car and carried the items inside. “I’m gonna burn that chair tonight and you won’t be able to recover it.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with this chair. It’s just old.” Jenny came in behind her. “I thought you liked old things?”

  Jenny had a way of turning her words on her. Chance grinned, turned and shook her head. “That’s not going to work.”

  “Does that mean I’ll get thrown out soon? I’m old and my parts aren’t working so well anymore.”

  Chance gave a heavy sigh, emptied her arms and then gently placed her palms against Jenny’s cool cheeks and smiled. “I love old things, yes, but that chair is going to hurt you and that would break my heart.” Deciding some concessions needed to be made, she dropped her hands and jammed them on her hips. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take it home tonight and see what I can do to fix it. If I can’t it gets tossed. I’ll get you another one.”

  “Suit yourself. That chair has good miles left on it though.”

  The front door opened, ending the chair conversation. Jenny proceeded to do the friendly meet and greet, leaving Chance to put out her new items. Another couple entered, followed by a male couple. After a few easy chats and sales, Chance took a moment to pop back into her small office to check her online store.

  Sales were going well today. If business stayed like this she’d actually have a little money in her savings before the snow started falling. Things only got better when she saw five sales pending on her webpage. A few clicks of the mouse and Chance had the shipping information sitting in front of her.

  “People seem to like your store.”

  Chance kicked back in her chair with a jolt, papers flew and a strangled squeak emitted from her throat. As her heart skipped, hammered in double time and skipped again, she struggled to catch her breath. Giving Hayes one of the nastiest scowls she could twist her face into, Chance sat there until she could pull herself together enough to speak.

  “Stop doing that.” He’d give her a blooming heart attack if he didn’t quit with the sudden appearances.

  Hayes grinned, a sort of lopsided, mischievous smirk that pissed her off and made her stomach flutter all at the same time. “My apologies. I forget myself sometimes.”