by Penny Reid
“Gee. Thanks.”
“You’re in a rut, Abby.” Now her eyes turned soft. “You do the same thing every day. You wear the same thing every day. You eat the same thing every day. The only thing you change is the color of your nail polish and your hair cut.”
“And look how happy I am.” I glanced toward the door to count the newcomers, but found only a single, solitary man, already sitting in a stool at the far end of the bar closest to the door.
A huge, enormous, colossal mammoth of a man. He was so big and tall, the rest bar seemed to shrink in comparison.
Great. Just . . . great.
"Who is that? Is he a regular? Why do you look so irritated?” Kaylee glanced between my face and the man, keeping her tone hushed even though we were too far away for him to overhear our conversation.
Even so, I also lowered my voice. “It’s just, we’re less than an hour until closing and he’s not a regular. Convincing non-regulars to finish up and head out can be . . . annoying.” And he was big. And he was male.
This wasn’t always the case, but—in my experience, maybe nine times out of ten—a big, burly guy coming into the bar so close to closing didn’t typically want a quick drink.
Her gaze stayed on him, assessing. “He’s hot though, right?”
“Is he?” I grumbled, putting back all but one drink menu and one cocktail napkin.
“Uh, yeah. Very. And he looks familiar.” She placed her elbow on the bar, narrowing her eyes as she leaned an inch toward him, as though to see him better in the dim light. “I thought you had owl vision? Who does he look like?”
The truth was, other than noting this person’s size and gender, my vision was blurry with visions of my future and tonight’s likely unpleasant conclusion: Ingrid and I coaxing him to leave, failing, and then having to either call Walker at home or the security company.
I didn’t care if this stranger was objectively the hottest man in the world. After tonight I had three nights off. Anyone making me work late my last shift prior to three nights off was a blobfish.
“Whatever.”
My voice must've hinted at my thoughts because Kaylee tore her attention from the man, her eyebrows raised expectantly. "Why do you always sound so irritated when there’s a hot guy? Why do you dislike hot guys?"
"Hot guys have hot guy problems, which are like first world problems on steroids," I mumbled.
"Come on, everyone likes hot guys. It's biological. There's nothing you can do about it. You have no choice."
I would've argued with her, told her that I had nothing against hot guys in general, but she made a sound of protest before I could speak.
"Abby.” Her eyes were full of sympathy. “Eventually you're going to have to date someone."
Ugh. Not this again!
“Do I, though?"
I’d tried dating. In fact, I’d even tried marriage. Everything about it was a disappointment, on so many levels. This topic was why Kaylee and I currently shared just a car instead of a car and an apartment.
"Yes.” She looked so earnest and concerned. “You can't let one bad experience—what? Eight? Nine years ago?—dictate the rest of your life."
"Can't I, though?" I tucked a drink menu under my arm.
"You can't. You must get back on the horse."
"Must I, though?” I tapped my chin.
"Yes you—" Finally recognizing my attempt at deflection, she snapped her mouth shut and gave me a flat look. "Your dense barrier of sass notwithstanding, you know getting out there, putting yourself out there, would be healthy."
“Why can’t you let me live my best life, Kaylee?” I tossed her words from earlier right back at her. “Maybe my best life is pulled pork and video games.” Legit, I loved both pulled pork and video games.
She scowled but her words were teasing, “This is a good time to tell you, I, and others, consider your contentment with life a personal attack.”
I laughed. "Here, let me go serve this hot guy real fast and then you can continue to beat this dead horse that you still insist I take for a ride."
Utilizing her cherry-snatching-ninja skills, she grabbed my wrist before I could move away. “Wait. Wait.” Her eyes darted to the end of the bar and then back to me, whispering, “What if, instead, you flirt with the hot guy?” Kaylee indicated to the man with her chin, like I wouldn’t know to whom she referred. The man’s presence felt like it inhabited one tenth of the available space in the bar, there was no missing him.
I blinked at her. “Why would I do that?”
She seemed to search my face. “If you flirt with him, I won't bring up dating again for—for . . . a month.”
Typical Kaylee. Life was one big bargaining session. She was only happy when she was negotiating or arguing.
"One flirting encounter buys me a month?"
"I promise." She drew a finger in the shape of a cross over her heart.
"Make it three months and we have a deal."
"Deal,” she said quickly, her eyes brighter, happier, like my agreement was a victory for her. “Three months. And maybe unbutton the top button of your—"
I twisted my arm from her grip. "I can flirt without showing my boobs."
"Yeah, but you have really nice boobs and they deserved to be admired by someone other than me."
“So noted.”
“And take off that ring!” she loud whispered.
Grunting, I did remove my grandmother’s diamond ring from my third left finger, my shield against handsy and aggressive patrons. But I did not adjust the buttons of my shirt as I slipped the antique ring onto the middle finger of my right hand and walked down the long galley to the giant stranger. If he was perturbed by my lack of attentiveness thus far, he showed no outward signs. The man's eyes were on the screen of his phone, his arms braced on top of the bar, dress shirt shirtsleeves rolled up, broadcasting some seriously tantalizing forearm action.
Hmm. Maybe I should’ve unbuttoned the first few buttons of my shirt.
Exposed male forearms, in my opinion, were the equivalent of exposed female cleavage. Tits for that, er, tat. I meant, Tit for Tat. Right.
"Hey, what can I get you?" I asked, placing a drink menu and the square napkin on the bar while studying what I could see of his features.
Dark blue or dark gray shirt, the top three buttons undone, tie loose and slightly askew to one side, a bright white undershirt beneath. He’d pulled off a coat and it hung on the back of his stool. His hair was short on the sides, longer on the top, and either light brown or dark blonde. The color was impossible to tell given the dimness of the room and the reddish glow of the Christmas lights decorating the liquor shelf behind me.
He had a nice forehead, what I could see of it, but his face and focus remained fastened to the screen of his phone as he responded in a monotone, "Beer. Amber. Whatever you've got on tap, please."
"Sure thing. You want a pint or--"
"Pint is fine, thanks."
Polite. I'd say he had a nice voice except it remained monotone.
Stepping to the side, I grabbed a pint glass and positioned it under the tap of our most popular amber.
Somewhere to my right I heard the distinct and obnoxious sound of Kaylee clearing her throat, an Uh—ahem—ahem—ahem. Sliding my gaze to the side, I found her eyes wide with meaning. Sensing her dissatisfaction with my lack of flirting, I shrugged, like What can I do?
She waved an exasperated hand toward her chest, then the big guy, her eyebrows high arches, and then tugged at the neck of her already lowcut top, mouthing a word that looked like ‘buttons’ but it might have been ‘boobs.’
I pressed my lips together, removing my eyes from hers. Again, what could I do? The guy was into his phone way more than the idea of flirting with a female bartender. I wasn't currently, and never had been, in the habit of crowbarring men into noticing me. Live and let live, I say!
The glass filled, I placed it on the napkin near his elbow. "You want to start a tab?"
"Please." Still without looking up, he set down his phone, pulled out his wallet, and placed a credit card and his driver's license on top of the bar. I swiped up both, my brain telling me to look at his birthdate even as my eyes strayed to his photo and the name beneath it.
"Be right b—ba—ack." My mouth fell open as I stuttered, ending my sentence with a silent gasp, my eyes bolting to the stranger who wasn’t a stranger at all. I gaped, stupefied, caught within a snare I’d fashioned years and years ago.
Oh dear Lord in heaven.
Rex.
I gaped. I gaped and gaped and gaped, stared and stared and stared, my mind reeling. But how? And when? And how? And—
“Uh ahem, uh ahem, UH ahem.”
Kaylee’s obnoxious throat clearing snapped me out of my stupor and I quickly turned before Rex spotted my shock-trance. I stared blankly, not sure what to do next, not remembering whether I was coming or going, my breath tight in my lungs, my heart racing. Hells bells.
Rex McMurtry.
Yes, before you ask, he was that Rex McMurtry, the star defensive end for the Chicago Squalls, philanthropist, and sexiest man alive according to all the lists. Here. In my bar. Technically it wasn't my bar, but it kinda was my bar because I'd worked here since my junior year of high school as a dishwasher, then busser, then server, now bartender. Therefore, I liked to think of it as my bar.
Anyway. I wasn't dumbfounded because I'd just come face to forehead with a bonafide A-list celebrity. I was shooketh because I'd just come face to face with my elementary, and middle, high school crush. And it had been a brutal crush in the same way the cocktail of teenage hormones and inexperience are brutal.
Rex was the only boy’s name I’d ever doodle next to mine in notebooks, the only guy I’d ever had sex dreams about—sorry if that’s TMI, but here we are—and the sole reason I’d gone to football games or any other optional school related event.
I’d joined Girl Scouts in sixth grade because his mom was the troop leader. I’d started drinking coffee my freshman year so I could sit in the diner across from where he washed and detailed cars during his spring and summer after-school job. Recalling now about my actions then did not fill me with nostalgia.
I hadn’t been boy-crazy. I’d been Rex-crazy.
And now, there he was.
** END SNEAK PEEK**
Pre-Order Homecoming King Today!
Coming December 14th, 2021
Other books by Penny Reid
Knitting in the City Series
(Interconnected Standalones, Adult Contemporary Romantic Comedy)
Neanderthal Seeks Human: A Smart Romance (#1)
Neanderthal Marries Human: A Smarter Romance (#1.5)
Friends without Benefits: An Unrequited Romance (#2)
Love Hacked: A Reluctant Romance (#3)
Beauty and the Mustache: A Philosophical Romance (#4)
Ninja at First Sight (#4.75)
Happily Ever Ninja: A Married Romance (#5)
Dating-ish: A Humanoid Romance (#6)
Marriage of Inconvenience: (#7)
Neanderthal Seeks Extra Yarns (#8)
Knitting in the City Coloring Book (#9)
* * *
Winston Brothers Series
(Interconnected Standalones, Adult Contemporary Romantic Comedy, spinoff of Beauty and the Mustache)
Beauty and the Mustache (#0.5)
Truth or Beard (#1)
Grin and Beard It (#2)
Beard Science (#3)
Beard in Mind (#4)
Beard In Hiding (#4.5, coming 2021)
Dr. Strange Beard (#5)
Beard with Me (#6)
Beard Necessities (#7)
Winston Brothers Paper Doll Book (#8)
* * *
Hypothesis Series
(New Adult Romantic Comedy Trilogies)
Elements of Chemistry: ATTRACTION, HEAT, and CAPTURE (#1)
Laws of Physics: MOTION, SPACE, and TIME (#2)
* * *
Irish Players (Rugby) Series – by L.H. Cosway and Penny Reid
(Interconnected Standalones, Adult Contemporary Sports Romance)
The Hooker and the Hermit (#1)
The Pixie and the Player (#2)
The Cad and the Co-ed (#3)
The Varlet and the Voyeur (#4)
* * *
Dear Professor Series
(New Adult Romantic Comedy)
Kissing Tolstoy (#1)
Kissing Galileo (#2)
* * *
Ideal Man Series
(Interconnected Standalones, Adult Contemporary Romance Series of Jane Austen Reimaginings)
Pride and Dad Jokes (#1, coming 2022)
Man Buns and Sensibility (#2, TBD)
Sense and Manscaping (#3, TBD)
Persuasion and Man Hands (#4, TBD)
Mantuary Abbey (#5, TBD)
Mancave Park (#6, TBD)
Emmanuel (#7, TBD)
* * *
Handcrafted Mysteries Series
(A Romantic Cozy Mystery Series, spinoff of The Winston Brothers Series)
Engagement and Espionage (#1)
Marriage and Murder (#2)
Home and Heist (#3, coming 2023)
Baby and Ballistics (TBD)
Pie Crimes and Misdemeanors (TBD)
* * *
Good Folks Series
(Interconnected Standalones, Adult Contemporary Romantic Comedy, spinoff of The Winston Brothers Series)
Totally Folked (#1)
Folk Around and Find Out (#2, coming 2022)
* * *
Three Kings Series
(Interconnected Standalones, Holiday-themed Adult Contemporary Romantic Comedies)
Homecoming King (#1, coming Christmas 2021)
Drama King (#2, coming Christmas 2022)
Prom King (#3, coming Christmas 2023)
