by J. Sterling
I sniffed at it before taking a cautious sip, allowing the liquid to caress my tongue before it traveled down my throat with a slight burn.
“This is amazing,” I said, impressed.
Ryan puffed out his chest a little. “Thanks. Are you having a good time?”
“Yes. The company is wonderful.” I sent a glance Grant’s way before asking Ryan, “Are you?”
“I’d be having more fun if you ditched this zero and got with the hero.” He pointed at himself. “But, of course I’m having fun. I love my job.”
Ryan’s pride and genuine joy was as infectious as it was attractive. Seeing him in his element was sexy as hell, the way his confidence radiated from him.
“Is it always like this?” I asked.
“Always,” he deadpanned.
“And you want to do this forever? Tend bar, I mean?” I wasn’t sure why I felt the urge to ask him personal questions about his future plans, but I decided to blame the alcohol. Instead of the tequila making my pants come off, it had clearly shut off all logic and reasoning, and destroyed my filter.
“I don’t know. I guess that all depends. I mean, I enjoy it, but I’m sure one day it won’t fit in with my plans.”
“What do you mean? What plans?” I finished the rest of my drink as I waited for his answer. I’d downed the entire thing in less than a minute, I realized. That couldn’t be good.
Ryan picked up the empty glass and twirled it between his fingers. “I want a family someday. I don’t think I can bartend every night while my wife and kids are at home without me. I won’t want to be here then. I’ll want to be with them.”
My heart shot into my throat, and I tried to swallow around it as he looked at me and then back at his brother tending bar.
“I gotta get back over there.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “I’m sorry. Talk to you later?”
I nodded, unable to speak as his words played in my mind over and over in a loop. He wanted a family someday. He wanted to get married. He wouldn’t bartend while his family sat at home without him.
Oh my God. Ryan Fisher was one hell of a romantic.
“See? He’s different than you thought he was, isn’t he?” Grant asked with a grin like he’d just won the lottery.
“I think he may be,” I said slowly, turning it all over in my head.
Grant might have been right. Maybe I’d been all wrong about the kind of man Ryan was. Maybe everything I thought about him was completely wrong. Had I judged him unfairly before I had all the information?
“There’s a lot more to the boy than meets the eye, Sofia. I wouldn’t say that if it wasn’t true.”
My entire body warmed with more than just the alcohol swimming in my veins. “How well do you know him? I mean, really?”
He took another gulp of his drink before sloshing the liquid around in the glass. “I’ve spent a fair amount of time here harassing him, the same way his brothers do. We’ve had some deep conversations over breakfast in the past. I’d say I know him pretty damn well.”
Waving my hand toward the bar, which still crawled with females vying for both Ryan and Nick’s attention, I said, “This lifestyle . . . it’s just not really me.”
Grant gave me a serious look. “To be fair, I’m not sure it’s really him either. Don’t get me wrong, Ryan’s good at his job. He’s the most talented craftsman I’ve ever met. He’s truly gifted.” He let out a gruff laugh. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a cocktail craftsman before I met Ryan. Back in my day, the bartender either poured you a beer or threw a few things together for a cocktail. Simple, yet effective. Nowadays, it’s a damn art form, and Ryan’s one hell of an artist. But while making these drinks might be right up his alley, I don’t think this scene is.”
I swallowed hard, sitting silent for more than a few minutes, thinking about how wrong I’d possibly been on every level when it came to Ryan and his character. I couldn’t help but wonder how I hadn’t sensed it before now. Had my intuition become so off-kilter that it couldn’t be trusted? When had my gut instincts about people been so wrong?
No sooner had my self-doubt started than it was abruptly cut short. My jaw dropped as I watched the next few moments play out like a scene from a movie in sickly slow motion.
An eye-catching brunette walked behind the bar like she owned the place, not a care in the world as she wrapped her arms around Ryan’s waist. He turned toward her, and his whole face lit up like she was the greatest thing he’d seen all day. When he placed a kiss on her forehead and she grinned up at him, the bile in my stomach pushed up to a threatening level.
They laughed and teased each other, neither one caring who watched. But I stopped watching.
I had to.
Jumping up from my chair, I stumbled to find my words—and my footing. “I need to get out of here. I’m ready to go.”
“Sofia, why? What happened?” Grant peered up at me, confused, but I couldn’t stay in the same room as Ryan for one second longer.
“You can stay. I’ll call a car.” I tried to wave Grant off, but his words stopped me.
“No, no.” He pushed himself out of his chair slower than I would have liked, his car keys jingling. “I’ll take you home.”
I bolted from the bar, feeling like an absolute idiot. I hadn’t been wrong about Ryan at all.
I’d been exactly right.
Disappearing Angels
Ryan
At some point during the chaos, I’d lost track of Sofia and Grant. I swore it had only been a minute, but the next time I looked up, desperately searching for her, both she and Grant were gone.
Hustling out from behind the bar, I practically jogged toward their table, hoping to find some remnants still there. I convinced myself that they wouldn’t have left without saying good-bye as I weaved through the crowd. But as I reached their table, nothing but empty glasses and two one-dollar bills stuck under Grant’s Guy Hater remained. There were no car keys, no sunglasses, no sign at all of them having only stepped away momentarily.
They had definitely left, and apparently weren’t coming back.
Snatching up the money, I shoved it in my pocket before reaching for the discarded glasses and giving the table a quick wipe.
This wasn’t how I wanted the night to go. Granted, I had no idea that Sofia was even coming to the bar tonight in the first place, but once I saw her here, I didn’t want her to leave. In fact, I had the whole night planned out in my head the moment I spotted her.
I was going to ask her to stay until we closed, to which she would have agreed, of course, after a little hesitation. That would have forced the old man to go home at some point, because there was no way he could have stayed up that late. Not anymore. Plus, I was pretty sure that Grant turned into a pumpkin or a fat mouse once the clock struck midnight.
With cock-blocking Grant out of the picture, I would have given Sofia all my attention, getting to know her better with each hour that passed. Even with all the other females in the bar, I would have been determined to make her feel special, like she was the only girl in the room. And after the bar closed, she would have met my brothers and their girlfriends. The three ladies would have chatted, the conversation easy and natural, while us guys cleaned up and counted out.
I would have made her laugh. She would have seen me in my element, surrounded by my family, and when I asked to drive her home, she would have agreed right away. On the way to her place, I would have taken a slight detour, stopping at my favorite late-night eatery and buying her anything she wanted. Taking my time, because I wouldn’t have wanted the night to end, I would have kept ordering food until she called me out on it, her eyes barely able to stay open.
It would have been the first of many dates, and I would have asked for another as I paid for our bill. She would have smiled and nodded, excited at the thought of seeing me again, and that’s why I wouldn’t have kissed her when I finally dropped her off at home, even though every single part of me would have been dying
for a taste of her. No, our first kiss would have happened on our second date. The minute she opened the door, I would have started date two with a kiss, instead of ending it with one.
“Ryan!”
Frank’s deep voice cut through my thoughts like a pesky gnat, and I blinked before meeting his eyes.
“Stop yelling,” I said with a groan.
“What the hell planet are you on?”
“Same as yours, unfortunately.”
Yeah, I was snippy, irritated because the night I’d envisioned had evaporated before my eyes. Sofia had left, and she didn’t even say good-bye.
“What’s the matter with you? You were fine ten minutes ago.” Frank leaned toward one of our customers, listening to his order as he waiting for my response.
“Ten minutes ago, Sofia was still here,” I muttered.
Frank’s head shot up. “Sofia? The girl? She was here?”
“Sofia’s here?” Nick sauntered over carrying two beers. “Here you go, man.” He handed the glasses off to a guy and took his credit card.
“She was. But she’s gone now.”
“Where’d she go?” Nick asked.
“I don’t know.” I knew I sounded irritated, but they were asking me questions I didn’t have the answer to.
Frank gripped my shoulder before he hit it twice. “She’ll be back,” he said with an encouraging smile, and I wanted to believe him.
“Out of the way, ladies and gentlemen.” Nick glanced toward the door and his voice rose above the din of the crowd. “The most beautiful woman in the world has entered the bar.”
He excused himself as he made his way through the crowd to his blond-haired girlfriend who stood in the center of the room, her cheeks a bright red. It happened every time Jess came into the bar. Nick made a spectacle out of her arrival, and she blushed to her hairline as the crowd parted around her to watch the show.
Even in my sour mood, I couldn’t help but smile as he grabbed her and kissed her like he hadn’t seen her in months. My little brother loved his girl like she made the moon and stars shine in the night sky. He had been an idiot when it came to her initially, but he’d made damn certain that his days of making stupid mistakes in their relationship were over. They had some huge hurdles to get over, but once they did, they never looked back. Since then, they’d been solid, respectful and kind to each other. They had the kind of relationship that people in their early twenties aspired to, but had no idea how to make happen. Yet there they were, showing the rest of us up and making it look easy.
Once Nick stepped away from Jess, he kissed her on the cheek and then smacked her ass. She jumped, looking around the room until her eyes met mine. She gave me a wave and a big smile before I pointed at a table near the social-media wall. Jess craned her neck to see where I was pointing, and when she caught sight of Claudia, Frank’s girlfriend, at the table with her best friend, Britney, she slipped through the crowd to join them.
“You want me to make her drink, or you got it?” I asked Nick when he made his way back behind the bar.
He shrugged. “Go for it. You make them better.”
As I mixed Jess’s favorite, a No Bad Days, I asked, “Frank, are Claudia and Britney good, or do they need another?”
He shrugged and headed for the girls’ table to find out. Claudia beamed at her man as he neared, and that familiar pang of envy hit me all over again. My brothers both had standout women, and I couldn’t even get the one I wanted to talk to me.
Finishing up Jess’s vodka cocktail, I swirled an orange peel around the rim of the glass and looked up at Frank as he slipped back behind the bar.
“Britney and Claudia both want an Adios Pantalones,” he said.
“I bet they do,” I teased, biting back a laugh as Frank’s jaw ticked.
My joking that his girlfriend wanted me always sent Frank over the edge. He had a bit of a jealous side that I’d never seen before he started dating her. I couldn’t help but wonder if Claudia’s Colombian temper had rubbed off on him, or if there was something about being with the right girl that triggered us men. Whatever it was, it made me laugh.
“Just make the drinks,” he growled, and I moved Jess’s drink near the back register so it wouldn’t spill or be handed off to someone else.
“I’ll take another one of those stupid guy drinks,” Grant’s rough voice bit out, and I immediately perked up, looking past him for Sofia. “She’s not here,” he said, answering my question before I could ask it.
“Where is she?” I asked, curious why he had come back without her.
“I took her home.”
Although I was still confused, I nodded, then hurried through making Claudia and Britney’s drinks. Once I’d handed all three to Frank so he could deliver them, I turned my attention to Grant while I made the drink he swore he’d never drink again.
As I measured, I glanced up at him. “Thought you didn’t want one of these next time.”
He mimicked me, repeating my words like a middle-schooler. When I didn’t react, he growled, “You want me to tell you about the angel or not?”
My back stiffened. Grant knew damn well that I wanted to know everything, but dividing my time between him and our customers proved to be harder than I’d hoped. It was a Friday night, after all, and the bar was packed.
“Hold that thought, old man. I’ll be right back.” I moved away before abruptly stopping and facing him again. “Don’t disappear on me.”
His hands up in the air, he gave me a nod, a silent promise before tapping his wrist. Apparently, he was on limited time.
After making cocktails for a group of giggling women, I headed back to Grant with a Guy Hater in hand and slid it toward him.
“This place is a damn madhouse,” he grumbled before taking a sip. “At least the drinks are decent.”
“Gee, thanks.” I pretended to sound bored at his weak compliment.
Grant glared at me. “Stop whining and give me your ear for more than five seconds.”
Leaning down, my elbows on the bar between us, I looked him dead in the eye and gave him an expectant look.
“So, what happened earlier?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” I had no fucking idea what he was talking about.
Grant frowned and took another sip of his drink. “Well, you must have done something to piss her off.”
Blinking at him in confusion, I scratched my head. “I didn’t do anything. I just looked up and you guys were gone.”
“Yeah, well, one second she was fine, and the next she couldn’t get out of here fast enough.”
“You said you drove her home,” I said, and he nodded. “She didn’t tell you why she was upset?”
“She only mentioned something about you being exactly the kind of guy she thought you were. I tried to get her to tell me more, but she wouldn’t. She’s hiding something, and I thought that when I picked her up, I’d figure out what it was, But I still have no idea. She’s a tough nut to crack, that one.” Grant finished off his drink and shoved his empty glass toward me.
“Want another?” I asked, and he shook his head. “Look, I have no idea what upset her.”
Honestly, I hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary while Sofia was here. As a matter of fact, I was so aware of her presence, I’d consciously made sure I didn’t do anything that could make her think I was interested in any other woman in the room.
Grant grunted. “I don’t know either, but I wouldn’t bet on her coming back here. I tried to put in a good word for you.”
“You tried?”
“Yeah, of course I tried. I talked you up, and I swore she was thinking that you were a good guy there for a minute.”
“Wow, a whole minute?” I winced at how pathetic that was.
He leaned closer over the bar, lowering his voice. “It’s longer than she ever thought you were a decent guy before.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I’m on your side, you know.” He tried to smack me upside the hea
d, but I ducked out of the way.
“Sure sounds like it.” I pulled the towel from my back pocket and wiped down the bar top out of habit.
“Look, Ryan, I don’t know what she saw, or what she thinks she saw. But something upset her. She barely talked at all on the ride home. It seemed like she was berating herself. Like she should have known better or something. Hell, I don’t know.” He shrugged. “She’s a woman, so who knows what the hell they’re thinking half the time.”
“What do you think I should do?” My rag slowed and then stopped as I gave him my full attention.
“I want to tell you to give her space, but I think if you do that, you’ll never see her again.”
“Then give me her number,” I demanded without a second thought. It was either that, or I’d force him to show me where she lived. Then I’d start not-so-secretly stalking her.
“Took you long enough to ask.”
Grant reached for his phone and pulled her contact information up on the screen. I entered it quickly into my own phone before he changed his mind.
“Thanks,” I said sincerely, all joking aside.
“I think she’s good for you.” He met my gaze and gave me a serious nod. “And I think you might be good for her too.”
I didn’t know if Grant was right, but I knew I wanted to find out. If Sofia and I decided we weren’t right for each other, I’d move on and put her behind me. But she hadn’t even let me try yet.
And as far as this woman was concerned, quitting wasn’t an option.
It Finally Makes Sense
Ryan
As I stared at Sofia’s phone number in my phone from the comfort of my California king bed, I considered sending her a text but decided against it. It was well after three in the morning, and I had no intention of starting a conversation with her at that hour.
I was tempted to delete her number completely since she hadn’t been the one to give it to me in the first place, but my practical side wouldn’t allow it. Sofia was difficult, and I needed every advantage I could get when it came to her. So the number stayed.