The It's Kind Of Personal (Complete 6 Book Series)ies

by Anna Brooks

  The Kelly’s own the pub. The eldest brother, Declan, is my best friend. He has two younger siblings, Pierce and Meara. Pierce works at the door when he can, which is almost every weekend night, and since it’s Friday, he’s here.

  Pierce steps behind the bar and grabs a bottle of OJ. “How’s it going with her?” He nods at Lisa before downing the juice.

  “She’s all right. Kind of uptight.”

  He tosses the bottle in the trash and waves at her. “Doing okay, Lisa?”

  Her entire demeanor changes in a split second. She smiles at him, and I squeeze my fists in frustration that she’s acted like a total bitch to me, but Pierce strolls in and she’s sweet as pie.

  “Yeah, everything’s great,” Lisa responds in an annoyingly fake voice.

  “Good.” Pierce taps his knuckles on the counter before walking off, and Lisa goes back to her end of the bar.

  We work in companionable silence for about ten minutes, but when a men’s softball team arrives, everything changes. Of course, they go to her end of the bar, and as she’s trying to fill all their drink orders, she drops a glass full of beer. “Crap.” She jumps back and leans over to grab the dustpan. Her black thong peeks out of her jeans and two guys lean over the bar to get a better look.

  I step in front of her and tap out a couple of Miller Lites. One of the guys twists his body to the side to look past me. “I suggest you stop,” I warn him.

  “Come on, man, can’t blame me. She’s hot.”

  “No doubt, but don’t be a dick.”

  He slides his credit card at me in exchange for his beer. “Start a tab, yeah?”

  I toss it on the counter next to the register and throw a towel on the floor by Lisa. “Just leave it. We’ll get it later.”

  “I don’t want someone to get cut.”

  “We’re the only ones back here. I know not to step on it and you do too. Let’s just get through the rush, okay?”

  She relents and exhales loudly. “Fine.”

  We work as fast as possible, and in the midst of the commotion, I don’t realize that Oliver, according to his credit card, is back again. He’s propped against the bar and reaches over and touches Lisa’s arm. She pulls it back and twists her fingers nervously, and then shakes her head. Oliver leans farther over the bar and tries to touch her again, but she backs away.

  Her worried eyes find me watching her, and she releases a sigh. For the first time all night, she doesn’t look like she hates me. And I love it.

  Chapter 2

  Lisa

  A YEAR AGO, I’D have been vying for the attention of this guy. I’d probably have had him wait for me to finish my shift so we could go back to my place, but I don’t want that anymore. I just want to work and go home. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe I should just go to a women’s clothing store and work there. Somewhere I don’t have to deal with men. I’ve been under them enough to know I’m over them.

  Except the way Nik scrutinizes me and the situation I’m in right now … damn it, it feels good. To know someone is looking out for me, even though I’ve treated him poorly, isn’t something I’ve had for a long time. I don’t want to like him. I didn’t want to take one look at him and his scruffy face and his dark hair and cocoa colored eyes and know that he was going to be trouble for me. I’ve done a good job of distancing myself from men recently, and I don’t want to go back to what I used to be. I won’t. I refuse to. I even dyed my hair back to my natural color, hoping it would help change the person I was on the inside.

  Nik holds our eye contact and walks over to me, crowding me into the countertop. His tall, muscular frame presses into mine. His musky scent, with almost a sweet hint … like citrus, soaks through my pores. An involuntary shudder passes through my body as his breathing subtly increases. His arm slides over my shoulder, and when he pulls it back, he has a credit card in it. “I’ll get him outta here.”

  Nik steps back and tosses the card at the guy, who decides he wants to cause trouble. He stands, pushes his beer glass over, and shrugs his shoulders as if saying, ‘what are you gonna do?’ Nik takes the threat and begins to walk around the bar, not yet speaking another word to the guy. Apparently, man code is in full effect here. I quickly reach over and grab Nik’s arm, afraid he’s going to get hurt.

  He stops, looks at my hand, and then turns his intensely dark eyes on me. “He’s not gonna fuck with you like that.” Damn. Determined to protect me from someone who doesn’t even matter. Why does he have to do this? Why can’t he just call over the bouncer and have him deal with the guy? I don’t want to have reasons to want him.

  I reluctantly take my hand off his incredibly hard arm, and when he steps next to the guy, the difference between the two men is obvious. Nik is a couple of inches taller, his hair messily hangs around his face, and he appears controlled, but the stiffness in his neck tells me he’s anything but. His jaw is clamped together, causing the sharp line to become more prominent.

  “I warned you.” Nik angles his head at the door. “Get out.”

  “Fuck you. I didn’t do anything.”

  “You touch her?”

  He hesitates to answer, but Nik cuts him off anyway. “She ask you to touch her?”

  When he doesn’t reply, Nik uncrosses his arms. “Out.”

  Before I can scream, the guy raises his right arm and throws a punch at Nik, but Nik ducks and reaches for the back of the guy’s head then pulls it down the same time he raises his knee. An ungodly pop followed by a wail of pain is the only thing I hear before Pierce walks up and helps Nik drag the guy out; literally, they each have an arm and are pulling him through the door.

  Nik walks back behind the bar and washes his hands then rubs the towel on his jeans. “Fucker got blood on me.” Just like that. Not like he just didn’t kick some guy’s ass and now he’s wiping blood off his clothes.

  The female instinct in me comes out, and I worry he’s as worked up as I am, but he’s just hiding it. “Are you okay?”

  “Aww, you’re worried about me?”

  “Well, no, I mean … yeah, but not really, just asking to be polite.” Well played, idiot.

  He tosses the towel in the garbage and pats me on the ass as he walks by. “I’m good, baby.”

  It’s wrong. It’s so wrong. I shouldn’t want to fuck him. I’m not that person anymore. I don’t look for my self-worth by spreading my legs. Even though with him the tingle between my thighs vibrates up through my chest, and I hate that. I hate that after meeting him for twenty seconds, I knew he was going to be trouble. I can’t. I won’t.

  Meara comes out after hearing the commotion. “Lisa, are you okay?” She’s clearly worried about me but doesn’t need to know that the drunk guy is the least of my worries. Rather, Nik is the one causing damage.

  “I’m fine. Nik took care of him.”

  “Occupational hazard, unfortunately.” She shrugs. “You couldn’t ask for a better man to have your back. Nik will make sure you’re safe.” She pats my arm and smiles in his general direction. “He’s one of the best guys I know.”

  Of course, he is. Not only is he incredibly beautiful in a ridiculously hot way, but he’s also strong and confident and nice, and you just know he has that streak in him. Like if the bad boy gets unleashed, you’d better watch out because he’s gonna make it hurt so good. Totally not the kind of guy I need to be around. I’d prefer it if he were an asshole, so it’d be easier for me to stick to my ideals and the new direction my life is headed … as a cat lady.

  Meara hangs out behind the bar for about an hour before she sends me home when it slows down. I grab my purse and take off, saying good-bye to her on my way out. Rudely, I ignore Nik. I hope my shitty attitude makes him want to stay the hell away from me because I don’t know if I’m going to be able to stay away from him.

  * * *

  “Hello, Mother.” I use a mock British accent when she walks into the restaurant, and she rolls her eyes at me.

  “Hello, Daughter.” She leans do
wn to hug me and no sooner does she sit down is the waiter back.

  “Something to drink?” he asks.

  “What are you having?” Her eyes peek over into my glass.

  “Mimosa.”

  “I’ll have the same.”

  “Be right back with that. I’m Cory if you need anything else.”

  “So …” Mom scoots her chair in and sets her purse on the table. “How’s the new job?”

  “It’s good.”

  “Lisa.” Damn, there’s the Mom voice. I’m thirty-three years old, and she still scares me with it.

  “Mother.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” I take a sip of my drink and avoid her inquisitive gaze.

  “Lisa.”

  “There’s a guy.”

  “Oh. Good guy or bad guy?”

  I pause as the waiter returns with Mom’s drink. “Both. I only worked with him one night, and I can already tell he’s a good guy. But he’ll be bad for me and I’m trying to stay away from that.”

  “Let’s get some food.”

  Thank God, she doesn’t lecture me. Ever since my dad ditched us when I was a toddler, it’s just been her and me. My mom is my best friend, but I still respect her as a mother. We go to the buffet, and I load my plate with waffles and strawberries then top them with whipped cream. We walk back to our table together, and after a few bites, Mom sets her napkin on her lap and clears her throat.

  “I know you think you need to stay celibate or turn into a lesbian or something, but there’s nothing wrong with dating as long as you do it in a healthy way. You deserve to be happy, Lisa. Brad would want you to be happy, and if that means moving on with another man—” She pauses to take a drink and then looks over my shoulder.

  “I don’t want another man, Mom. I went from being with Brad since I was sixteen, to losing Brad, to feeling so lonely I wondered what the point in living was anymore, to screwing anything that would give me a minute of attention, to where I am now, which is only surviving because of antidepressants and the hope that one day … maybe, one day, I’ll be able to wake up in the morning and actually smile again. But that starts with me, not a man. I don’t need a man.”

  Mom doesn’t reply right away. Instead, her eyes remain hyper-focused on something else, and I turn around to find none other than the source of my frustration. You’ve gotta be kidding me.

  “Uh, hey.” Nik offers a lame wave, and I hold back a groan.

  “Nik, my mom, Joanna. Mom, meet Nik. He works at the pub.”

  Her wide eyes stretch a little more, but she quickly covers it with a smile. “Hello, nice to meet you.”

  “I was just meeting my dad, so I wanted to say hi. I’ll, uh, see you later.” He squeezes my shoulder. “Nice meeting you, Ms. Scott.”

  When he sits at a table a few feet from us with a man who looks just like him, dark hair but a shorter frame that’s built and compact with muscle, I bang my head on the table.

  “He heard everything, didn’t he?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “I was going to, but then you just started rambling on and he was staring at you and … I’m sorry. It just caught me off guard. So is that him? The good bad guy.”

  “Yep, that’s him.”

  “Hmm.” Mom takes a bite of her omelet and taps her finger on the table. “He’s very attractive, Lisa. Are you sure you don’t want to—”

  “Mom!”

  “Excuse me for wanting an Adonis like him for my son-in-law.”

  Chapter 3

  Nik

  “HEY, POPS.” MY FATHER stands, and I hug him before sitting down.

  “Hey, son.”

  “Who were those women?”

  “The new bartender and her mom.”

  “Lookers.”

  I laugh at his assessment and nod in agreement. “Yeah, they are.”

  As we walk over to the buffet to fill our plates, I replay what I’d heard Lisa say in my head. The skepticism in her eyes makes sense now. It sucks she lost someone, but it tells me more about her and helps to explain why she’s so moody.

  Dad and I both eat two plates, but when I get up for a third, I bump into Lisa at the fruit bar. “Sorry, go ahead.” I motion in front of me.

  “It’s okay. You were here first.”

  “Lisa, Jesus, just fuckin’ go ahead of me.”

  She straightens her spine and rips the plate off the rack so hard the entire stack shakes. “Fine.”

  I grab a plate and follow her in line, happily staring at her legs sticking out of her short skirt. Since my eyes are trained on something else, I don’t notice when she stops, so I accidentally bump into her and she nudges me away.

  “Sorry.”

  “Well, if you’d stop staring at my ass, you would have seen me stop.”

  “I wasn’t staring at your ass.”

  “Really?”

  “I was staring at your sexy stems.”

  “My stems? What, are you channeling your inner ninety’s teenage romcoms?”

  I pull my head back. “I’m clueless here, babe.”

  Her laughter takes me by surprise, and I find myself laughing right along with her. Seeing a smile on her face lightens my entire mood.

  She pulls her plate closer to her stomach and backs away. “See you at work tonight, Nik.”

  “Yeah, see ya.”

  Suddenly, food doesn’t seem appealing anymore … I’d much rather have a taste of Lisa and her smart mouth.

  * * *

  It’s been a couple of weeks since our encounter at the breakfast joint, and Lisa’s still pretending I don’t exist. When she does, though, she acts like I kicked her puppy. After a few days of learning the ropes, she picked everything up really fast. I’m not looking forward to tonight … Freeze Queen is scheduled to come in soon, and Lord knows she’s a bundle of fun.

  “Man, am I glad to see you.” Meara claps when Lisa comes behind the bar. “I can’t wait to get outta here.”

  “Well, I’m here.” Lisa smiles at Meara, and I roll my eyes at how fucking nice she is to her. And to Pierce and to every other person who works here. They all looove Lisa. Don’t mention anything bad about her or everyone will jump down your damn throat. God forbid they believe someone they’ve known their entire life.

  “Yay, Lisa’s here,” I mimic Meara and clap my hands dramatically.

  Meara punches me in the shoulder, and Lisa laughs.

  “Holy shit, was that a smile?” I clutch my chest. “Has hell frozen over?”

  “God, you’re an ass. Stop it.” Meara grabs her purse. “I’m outta here. Play nice, kids.” She points directly at me and narrows her eyes.

  As soon as Meara’s out of sight, I turn my back to Lisa and work my end of the bar. She does the same, and before I know it, it’s closing time. Everyone else has left, and Lisa and I are the only two people here. She disappeared a few minutes ago, and when she returns carrying two large boxes, I rush over to grab them from her.

  “It’s okay, I’ve got it.”

  “No, let me take them.” I grab the bottom one and tug a little, which causes her to lurch toward me.

  “No, damn it. I said I got it.”

  She tugs harder, and I pull against her strength, finally forcing her to release the boxes. Since they’re filled with liquor and beer to restock, I set them over on the floor but then turn back around and point at her.

  “What the fuck is your problem with me?”

  She has the nerve to look shocked. “What? Nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  “No.”

  She stares at me, her ocean-colored eyes bright as she challenges me to keep pushing her. She wants to fight almost as much as she wants to fuck, and I’m getting really sick of the former. “Hurry up and finish what you have to do so we can go.”

  She points at the boxes. “I just need to stock this stuff.”

  My teeth hurt from clenching my jaw so hard. Thi
s woman gets on my last fucking nerve. If she’d just be honest with me, everything would be completely different. Maybe if she acknowledged the damn fire between us, we could do something about it and the heat would go away. Right now, though, she needs to leave before I do something I’ll regret. Like bend her over the damn bar and fuck the anger right out of her. “Just go. I’ll do it.”

  “I can stay.”

  “Lisa, it’s fine. I’ll do it.”

  “I’m perfectly capable of doing it, too.”

  “Just go!” I yell and immediately feel bad when her face falls, but I refuse to show any remorse. I might be a nice guy, but I can only take so much. She thinks I don’t see her looking at me when I’m walking away or glancing at me when I’m talking to a female customer … jealousy looks good on her.

  “Fine.”

  She storms off, and I put my elbows on the bar and rest my head in my hands. I have to take a few deep breaths before my anger dissipates, and while I’m restocking the cooler, I pop the top off a beer and finish the bottle in a few deep pulls.

  I can’t get home fast enough, but as I drive down Main Street, I see her. Walking alone and in the fucking dark like a damn sitting duck. I follow her home and get even more pissed that she has no fuckin’ clue someone’s on her heels.

  By the time I get to my house, it’s almost three in the morning. And instead of being tired, my mind won’t shut off. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Lisa, and it’s driving me crazy that one woman is messing with me so much.

  The only one to ever do that before is Meara. I’ve known her my whole life, and I watched her grow up and become an amazing woman. She’s going through some shit, and she’s been putting on a brave front for everyone else. I’m trying my best to help her without letting on that I know. I’m not sure if it’s just because of her boyfriend, Liam, or if something else is going on. I try to step in and be the big brother and the best friend and the one who looks out for her without being too overbearing. Never have I ever had any kind of romantic feelings for her, but I love the shit outta that girl, and it’s killing me that she’s struggling with something she doesn’t want to talk about.