Just One Spark: A Black Alcove Novel

by Jami Wagner

  Beer sloshes over the side of the glass in my hand and I shake all current thoughts from my head. Maverick and I just work together and had sex once, that’s all. Just because I’m attracted to him physically doesn’t mean I have to think about what might happen. It doesn’t matter what happens.

  I know what I need to do and, no matter what happens between Maverick and I in the meantime, I can’t let myself forget that.

  Maverick

  It’s been only a week since we slept together yet I feel like I’m going to combust if I don’t see Beth outside of work again. And I don’t mean just see her. There’s something about this girl. I don’t want to go as far as to say I need her because we hardly know each other, but whatever it is, it’s damn close to need.

  I step into the BA where she mentioned she would be working tonight. She never said to actually come see her—she just said she couldn’t work on the project because she was busy. Working. At a bar. This bar. And I decided I need a drink. I also called Tyler and invited him to meet me here.

  My heart is racing like I’m a damn fifteen-year-old all over again. And it’s so dumb because I see her every day and we’ve had sex, so I shouldn’t be as nervous as I am now. If I were coming here for the reason I want, to hit on her and take her home after her shift, maybe my palms wouldn’t be so sweaty. But since I’m coming here to explain why I’m in the new hire program and that a romance of any kind should wait till after the summer, because we are both professionals, this is the way it is.

  Pushing my nerves aside, I head for the bar. A quick scan tells me that Tyler isn’t here yet, but there are plenty of barstools open for me to pull up a seat. A blonde, Sky I believe, steps up to grab my order. I saw her the night Beth and I were here but never actually met her.

  “What are you having tonight?” she asks. She smiles and makes eye contact, but the moment Beth steps out from a door behind the bar, all my focus moves to her. The way her hair shines, braided to the side. The way she’s got on a pair of shorts where the hem ends right under her ass cheeks. The way her legs look in their black tights and the way her chest hugs her t-shirt. When she takes a step toward me, my eyes fall to the tears in her tights and I smile. Just the flash of her milky soft skin peeking out sends every idea of what I want to do to her racing through my mind.

  I swallow back the images and think of a drink order to give the bartender.

  “Maverick, I presume,” the bartender says, and I lean back in my seat.

  “Have we met?” Maybe we did.

  “Just once and it wasn’t a formal introduction. I’m Sky.” She offers me her hand and I shake it.

  “You going to order a drink, man?” A guy steps up to Sky and snakes his arm around her waist as he stares me down.

  “Luke, this is Maverick,” she says. I don’t miss the way she slowly says my name as if he is supposed to know all about me.

  “Oh, hey.” His attitude takes a one-eighty and he shakes my hand too. Maybe he does know who I am. I start to grin. Does Beth talk about me to her friends? “I’m Luke. I was—”

  “Maverick!” Beth pops up next to Sky. She looks panicked. “What are you doing here?”

  Well, I came to tell you that we need to remain strictly coworkers, but looking at you now, I know I don’t stand a chance in hell of sticking to my own words.

  “Just came out for a drink” is what I say instead.

  “Oh, of course,” she says quickly. She glances to Sky and Luke, who are beaming smiles at her. “I’ll take care of him.” Sky nods, walking away.

  “I bet you will,” Luke says and follows behind her.

  “So what can I get you?” Beth asks me, her hands fidgeting together as she watches me.

  “Is everything okay?” I ask.

  “Great.” That’s a fake smile. “Beer?” she asks and then turns to pull one from the fridge behind her. She seems almost as nervous as I do.

  “Hey man, sorry I’m late. I had to make a stop on the way here,” Tyler says, pulling up the seat next to me. “I’ll take a Bud bottle,” he says to Beth’s back.

  “Find a new bar, Maron,” Abby says, now coming into view behind the bar. She slams the small round tray in her hand down on the bar top as she glares at Tyler. I bet their story is a good one, but I also bet it’s not one he can tell me about over one drink, so I’ll ask him about it another day.

  He doesn’t reply to Abby the entire time she’s staring him down.

  “Are you guys still taking the Brian’s family boat out tomorrow?” Tyler asks Beth as she places our beers in front of us.

  “Yeah, you should come, Maverick,” Luke answers for her.

  “No,” Beth says.

  All of us—me, Tyler, Luke, Sky, and Abby—look at her.

  “I mean,” she starts and looks at me, “you probably have more important things to do on a Saturday.”

  “Actually, I don’t,” I reply. If I hadn’t been watching her so closely I would have missed the way the right side of her lips tug up just slightly before she captures her bottom lip with her teeth. Fuck. Every time she does that, it sends a zing through my groin.

  “Okay.”

  “Awesome,” Sky says.

  “We’ll meet out front here. Say ten thirty?” Luke says.

  “Yeah, I’ll be here,” I say, my attention still locked on Beth.

  After a minute, she licks her lips and shakes her head, stepping toward the other end of the bar. I can’t see it, but I know she’s smiling.

  “So you and Beth, huh?” Tyler asks.

  “We work together,” I say, but even I don’t believe it is the short story as I say it.

  “I’ve known Beth for quite some time, and I have to warn you, she’s never had a boyfriend before.” He takes a drink of his beer while mine almost sprays out of my mouth.

  “What?” I emphasize the t.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. When her parents divorced, I think it did a pretty good number on her and her outlook on guys.”

  I’ve known many people with divorced parents, but Beth would be the first I’ve ever known who has let that keep her from a relationship.

  “Don’t get me wrong—she’s had a few flings, but no man has ever won her over enough that she kept him around as anything more. Just wanted you to have a heads up,” he adds and then signals to Beth for another beer.

  She pops the top off more bottles for him and for me. She’s still at my end of the bar when Tyler excuses himself to use the restroom.

  “If you don’t want me to go tomorrow, I won’t,” I tell her.

  She shrugs. “You can do whatever you want, Maverick.”

  “You keep saying that, but if it were true, I’d have a whole different type of day planned for us tomorrow.”

  Beth’s eyes light up as she holds back a smile.

  “So you’ve said before,” she says and then winks at me.

  “I only speak the truth.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, and please try to keep your hands to yourself,” she says.

  “I’m not making any promises,” I say. When it comes to Beth Moyer, I have low self-control.

  Chapter Eleven

  Maverick

  I’m beginning to think that my 95 percent success rate is turning into 95 percent of the time I have no idea what I am doing. Like right now, waiting outside the bar to meet Beth and, of course, all her friends. We work together, she gave me a lap dance, and we’ve had sex, as I keep reminding myself, yet Beth and I haven’t exactly hung out. We’re doing things completely out of order, but on the plus side, at least she’s still willing to spend the day with me doing something that isn’t work-related.

  “So, your family owns the company where you and Beth are working?” Conner asks. Luke introduced me to him last night before I left the bar. It’s his boat we are taking out today.

  He’s inside the boat, which is still hooked to his truck as Luke and another guy I haven’t met yet hand him coolers to put inside.

  “Yea
h, my father is the president and oversees the Colorado branch,” I answer. “Thanks for inviting me. It’s a great day to be on the water.” Work is the last thing I want to think about today. I spot Sky pulling bags from her car and rush to grab them from her before someone can ask me another question.

  “Thanks,” she says. “You just earned that sandwich I made for you.”

  I laugh. I hadn’t even thought about packing food. I was so focused on the fact I am hanging out with Beth that I barely managed to grab the one bottle of water I brought.

  “Thanks for that.”

  I follow behind her to the boat and hand Conner the bags. Another couple shows up; they hug each other in greeting and talk about how excited they are for a kid-free day. Everyone is paired off as a couple. Is Beth the only single woman in their group? I know Tyler told me last night she isn’t a relationship type of person, but people change, right?

  “Oh, there they are!” One of the girls points across the street where Beth and Abby are walking toward us. Beth is carrying a cooler and looks uncomfortable while Abby is on her phone, arms flailing in the air and brows together. I’d hate to be on the other end of that line.

  I jog across the street. Beth’s hair is down today, shining in the already seventy-degree weather. She’s wearing a plain white t-shirt, a navy-blue swimsuit noticeable underneath, and a pair of torn jeans shorts cut so high a guy doesn’t need sun on his face to start sweating. A cool breeze would be really nice right about now. Her legs are long and slender down to her flip-flops. Judging by the way she’s grinning at me, we could skip the lake and I’d be just as happy, as long as I could be tangled up in bed with her and those legs.

  Without a word, I lift the cooler out of her arms.

  “Thanks,” she says. “For a moment there I thought you were going to just stare at me.”

  “I can do both.”

  She bumps my shoulder as we cross the road.

  “I’m glad you came today,” she says.

  “Are you?” I ask and laugh at the same time. Last night at the bar, the idea looked like it freaked her out.

  “Yes, I really am.”

  She’s looking down, but I still see the side of her lips pull into smile as I watch her.

  “So, where’s Tyler? I thought he was coming with you.” I ask. Beth slaps her hand over my mouth so quickly I almost drop the cooler from surprise.

  “Shhh, if Abby—”

  “I already heard him. Tyler isn’t coming,” she says loudly into her phone and then taps the screen, dropping it into the bag hanging off her arm. “Don’t act so surprised,” she says to me. “This is Tyler we’re talking about.”

  Beth’s hand is still on my mouth. She’s got a tight-lipped smile going as she shakes her head. Is she going to laugh?

  “I take it he bailed?” I ask in a mumble behind her hand.

  “Ugh, Maverick, really? My hand was there for a reason.” Beth rolls her eyes at me and walks off. I can’t help but smile. She’s damn cute when she’s irritated with me.

  “Tyler doesn’t bail. He gets uninvited. By me,” Abby answers.

  I nod, not sure if I should pursue it or make this moment even more awkward by changing the subject to sports or something.

  “Maverick,” Beth calls my name. I glance to her direction and she waves for me to join her in front of the truck. And I do, without another word to Abby.

  “All right,” Beth starts, “I’m going to do a quick rundown of everyone here.”

  “Sorry, man, I thought you’d already met everyone,” Luke says before Beth can go on.

  “Not a problem,” I say.

  “Okay, you’re going to get lost and probably forget someone’s name, but here it is. You know Sky and Luke.” She points to them, then she points down the line of people, “Conner; his girl, Alexis; Logan, who is Alexis’s brother; Sara, who owns the BA and is married to Logan; Kelsey, who is Conner’s sister; and Ethan, who is married to Kelsey but is also Sara’s cousin. Oh, and of course you know Abby.”

  She wasn’t kidding. I got lost in there on the relationship part, but I think I’ll be good to remember all the names. How are we going to fit eleven people on this boat?

  “Who is riding with who and who is going to swing by the marina to grab the jet skis?” Conner asks. Twenty minutes later, Beth and I are in the back of Conner’s truck and headed to the lake.

  * * *

  “How often do you guys come out here?” I ask. I’m sitting in the back of the boat with Luke and Conner while the girls are at the front. Logan and Ethan are off somewhere on the jet skis.

  “Not as often as we would like, that’s for sure,” Conner says. He and Luke then go into a discussion about a bookstore and something about fire damage. I listen for a bit, but my attention immediately shifts when I catch Beth watching me. She smiles, not even trying to hide the fact that I caught her staring. The same way she did when I first saw her back in the bar in Colorado. If I had known then that this woman was going to make me do things I had no control over, would I have followed her outside that night?

  One of the girls must have said something funny because Beth’s head falls back and her mouth opens with a big laugh. The sound pierces my heart, and I know right then that I would have done anything to be in this woman’s line of sight.

  “Who’s up for tubing?” Conner asks the ladies.

  “No, no, I don’t want to get my hair wet today,” Sky says, the other girls nodding in agreement.

  “I’ll go,” I say.

  “We have wakeboards if you would rather do that.” Conner points down to the nook in the hull of the boat.

  But the tube is already aired up and ready.

  “This will be fine.”

  “It’s big enough for two people, if ah … if you want someone to go with you.” Luke’s eyes dart to Beth. He leans back in his spot and smiles.

  “Funny thing is, about this time last year, this guy would have been telling you to run.” Conner laughs and smacks Luke’s back.

  “Oh, I would not have,” Luke argues, popping the top to a soda and handing it to Sky.

  “True, you wouldn’t have even come today.”

  Luke’s head tilts as he shrugs and then nods. “So, alone or doubles?” he asks me.

  “Beth.” She looks up at me. “Want to join me?”

  “No thanks,” she says simply.

  “Scared?”

  “No.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “I just don’t want to get in the water.”

  “I can bribe you.” I grin and wink at her.

  She copies my grin, crosses her legs, and leans back against the cushion of her seat. “You don’t know me well enough to know what I could want that badly.”

  “You can take the lead in the radio presentation,” I offer. I’m aware at this point that everyone is watching. After my last comment, even the boat slows to a stop.

  Beth just stares at me, her lips puckering and her eyes narrowing. I’m as shocked as she is that I said that. Taking the lead is a sign of where you stand against your peers, so letting her do that will give her the upper hand. I’m no idiot; I know she would be thrilled to have the spot.

  “I get the left side,” she says, standing. The girls do the same so I can lift the seat and hand out our life jackets.

  “I have to get a picture of this.” Sky digs around in her bag until she had her phone in her hand. Everyone is busting around now to get the tube ready and in the water as we strap on our jackets and decide who gets to hold the flag and who keeps an eye on the rope. “Beth, where’s your phone?”

  “I left it at the apartment,” she says. In the same way everyone went silent a minute ago, they do it again.

  I’m still looking at everyone, confused as shit to what’s going on, when the jet skis pull up.

  “What’s everyone—why do you all look like that? What happened?” Logan asks.

  “Beth didn’t bring her phone,” Sara says.

&nb
sp; Logan’s brow peaks and that’s when I finally ask, “Is that a bad thing?”

  “No, it’s just, I could show you pictures and pictures of group gatherings and every single one would show Beth on her phone. So, the fact she forgot it …”

  Now everyone is looking at me. I’m about to turn to Beth for clarification when her red hair flashes out of the corner of my eye and the next thing I know, she’s shoving me over the side of the boat.

  The water is chilly when it hits my body, and as I swim up to the surface to catch my breath, I hear the tail end of a very firm “got it” from Beth. Then she jumps in right next to me.

  Beth

  For fuck’s sake, friends. Can’t any of you just act normal around Maverick? I swear, each time I do something out of the ordinary, they must point it out. I know I’m not being normal. Maverick makes me not normal. There is absolutely no need for anyone to bring this to his attention. Ever. At least until I figure out what to do about him and work. I really, really don’t want to do anything that would cost me my job, and the last thing I want is for people to think I got this job because I was sleeping with the boss’s nephew.

  I climb on to the tube as Maverick holds it for me with one firm grip, his muscles wet and flexing.

  A quick dip in the water wouldn’t be the worst idea right now.

  “Have I told you yet how glad I am to have you do this with me?” he asks. He’s staring at my ass right now. I just know it.

  “Well, you did give me an offer I couldn’t resist.” I adjust my swimsuit top as I settle onto the lime green and white tube.

  The tube jerks to the right and my grip tightens as Maverick pulls himself up.

  “This thing is going to flip to your side on the first wake. Your weight compared to mine means we are doomed,” I say.

  “We’ll see about that.”