Love On the Rocks

by E. E. Marino

  Love On the Rocks

  On the Rocks, Book 1

  E. E. Marino

  Published: 2016

  ISBN: 978-1-62210-382-9

  Published by Liquid Silver Publishing. Copyright © 2016, E. E. Marino.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  Manufactured in the USA

  Email support@liquidsilverpublishing.com with questions, or inquiries about Liquid Silver Books, Liquid Silver Publishing, or Ten West Publishing.

  Blurb

  Sergeant Aaron Samuels is a soldier returning to Long Island for a fresh start after more than a decade in the service. After the horrors of war and the loss of a friend, he’s left with demons that make adjusting to civilian life almost impossible. He lucks out and lands a job bouncing at Gypsy's Bar and Grill, a local place summer tourists flock to. Unsure of where life is going, numbed by the past twelve years, he’s resigned to his misery until he meets Keela, Gypsy's sexy manager and bartender. Suddenly Aaron sees a bright future, and it all involves Keela.

  Keela Harper sees relationships and love as a dangerous gamble not to indulge in for more than a night, but when Aaron stumbles into her life and heart, will she finally be able to bury her past and take a chance on love? Or will a blast from the past threaten to take away everything she’s worked for?

  Dedication

  I'd like to dedicate this book to my love, my best friend and my husband, Andrew. Because of our love, Keela and Aaron are able to exist. Thank you for supporting my crazy dreams and putting up with my long writing process. When you have love, you can write about love! I love you!

  Acknowledgements

  I’d like to thank the staff of Liquid Silver Books for taking a chance on my little idea and helping to turn it into a lifelong dream. I’d also like to thank my husband, Andrew, for supporting all my crazy dreams, even the most impossible ones. Thank you for being the Mad Hatter to my Alice. I’d finally like to thank my family for always inspiring me to follow my dreams and to never give up. Thank you for making me the woman I am today. 

  Prologue

  HER long, wavy, dark brown hair was in a messy ponytail with loose mouse-tails sticking to her forehead, and her strategically painted makeup was all but smeared and sweated off. The atmosphere at Gypsy’s Bar and Grill wasn’t particularly busy tonight with only a handful of people, but Keela was tired and wanted to shower.

  Behind the bar, Keela Harper was in her element, mixing and flipping cocktails for the seasonal citidiots that frequented the bar each summer. However, today it was a scorching ninety-five degrees, and the old air conditioning unit was doing little to stifle her sweat.

  Ugh, she thought to herself as she stared at the tables of Sex in the City citidiots that sat sipping their cosmos. Another day, another dollar, another reason why I hate citidiots in the summer time, but this is my life.

  At twenty-six, Keela was the manager and bartender at Gypsy’s Bar and Grill, one of the best at what she did. She could flip bottles and mix some of the best drinks anyone ever tasted.

  Born to an Irish immigrant mother and Long Island father, she’d been named Keela, not a common name, but her mother wanted her to have a powerful Irish name. Keela, when translated from Gaelic to English, implied “a beauty that only poetry can capture.”

  “Yeah, right,” she snorted to herself as she caught a glimpse of her sweaty self in the window. “Beauty, my ass, I’m a mess right now!”

  While she loved her job, for Keela, three a.m. couldn’t come soon enough.

  The phone rang again for what seemed like the hundredth time, but when she answered it, all she could hear was breathing and then a click. Hanging up, Keela shrugged. Probably a wrong number.

  “Excuse me,” said a nasally voice behind her. Keela turned to see one of the Sex in the City wannabes from Table 4 standing in front of the bar with a menu in her hand. Fan-freakin-tastic, she thought.

  “My girlfriends and I want to try real authentic Long Island drinks. What can you recommend?”

  Keela groaned internally as she plastered on a fake smile. This girl is kidding, right? This isn’t Jamaica. It’s not like we’re any different from the people in Manhattan. “Well,” she began, trying not to stare at the woman’s obviously fake boobs, injected lips, and bad dye job, “have you ever had a Long Island Iced Tea?”

  “Oh, I’ve never had one of those before.” She looked at the menu. “Seems like a lot of alcohol. Will it be bitter? I don’t like the taste of alcohol.”

  Then why drink? Keela thought. Having been a bartender and having a love for good whiskey and scotch, Keela had never cared much for the sugary drinks she made for the patrons.

  “Actually, it’s really sweet. You won’t be able to taste anything. Do you want that now or with your next round?”

  “I’ll take it now.” She smiled a fake smile while taking in Keela’s appearance. Nicky Lacomo, the owner and boss of Gypsy’s, was super cool with letting his employees wear whatever they wanted to work so long as they wore one of the bar’s T-shirts. Today Keela had decided to wear her favorite black gaucho capris and a hot pink Gypsy T-shirt.

  I’m sure Ms. Manhattanite isn’t very impressed with either my attire or the tattoos I have on my body, but this is Long Island, not Manhattan, sweetie. Most of us don’t care about high fashion, Keela thought as she added the schnapps to the concoction.

  “So do you go to school here, or are you an Islander?”

  Keela rolled her eyes, hating that phraseology. To Keela it was ridiculous because it made them sound so exotic. “I’m a townie. Grew up here, live here, and will probably always stay here.” The woman’s eyes got wide, and Keela knew the question she wanted to ask next was coming, and she hated it.

  “Really? You ever consider going to the city? Your drinks are very good, and you could make big money in the city. Long Island is fun and all, but I couldn’t image living here in the winter. There’s nothing to do.”

  Keela chuckled and placed the drink on the bar top while the girl pulled a twenty-dollar bill out of her purse. “Well, we townies have lived here our whole lives, so we know how to keep ourselves entertained. Plus, there are quite a few treasures only we townies know about.” Keela rang in her thirteen-dollar sugary concoction and smiled as the customer left a two-dollar tip and went back to her coven of Manhattanites.

  Keela signaled to her co-worker, Shannon, that she needed a break and made her way to the loft office where Nicky was going over invoices. Climbing up to the loft, Keela took inventory of her friend-turned-boss. Nicky was young, thirty, and was what a lot of women would consider handsome, tall and muscular with blue eyes and a blond surfer haircut that got him laid more often than not most nights. Many of their friends had tried for years to get them together, but she’d always considered Nicky a brother, and the two had been working together since she was seventeen. Besides, Keela knew that Nicky was secretly in love with their friend and roommate, Kristi Morgan, but he’d never admit to it, even though Kristi was never far from his mind.

  The two had been servers at a local seafood place before Nicky decided some years later to open his own bar with the money his father left to him in his will. When Nicky had asked Keela to come on as his manager and mixologist, he knew he had a winning combination. Six years later, they were still going strong and getting bigger eve
ry year.

  “Jesus, fuckin’ Christ, Nicky,” Keela said, plopping herself on the sofa. “I hate those girls down there. I love how they act like Long Island is such an exotic get-away where they must try everything Long Island.” Nicky looked up at her and smirked, getting out of his chair and pulling out the twelve-year-old scotch he kept in his desk and two glasses. Nicky kept the really good liquor in his office away from the patrons because the group liked a good drink.

  “Like honestly, Nicky, I just want to scream sometimes, like let’s get one thing straight. I live on Long Island, but I am not one of those girls. My daddy has never given me a credit card with an unlimited balance, I don’t drive a BMW or a Mercedes, and I sure as shit don’t care about the Hamptons and high-end stores. Nope! Those ding-a-lings on the Jersey Shore are not a valid representation of us Long Islanders who are just regular, blue-collar people.” Keela played with her lighter as Nicky poured them a drink.

  Keela screwed a Marlboro Menthol Ultra-Light between her lips and lit it up. Nick looked at her and shook his head. “You know smoking in a bar is illegal in New York State.”

  Keela shot him a look back. “Well, lucky for me this isn’t a bar. This is a loft where my best friend practically lives, when he’s not showing off doing shirtless pushups in my living room or eating my peanut butter out of the jar.”

  Nicky smirked as he handed her the drink, and they toasted. Keela relaxed as the smooth, amber-colored heaven slid down her throat.

  “That bad tonight?” Nicky always had sympathy to the complaints from his workers because citidiots were annoying, but they usually tipped well and spent a lot of money, so he couldn’t complain too much.

  “Girl just told me that she couldn’t imagine living here in the winter and that I should go be a bartender in the city because I’d make so much more money.” The two laughed and snorted. “I wanted to tell her that wouldn’t happen because her ass, like every other Manhattanite and winetard, would still be coming out here.”

  “So when do the siblings land?” Nicky asked as he finished off his scotch and poured himself another drink.

  Keela rolled her eyes and flicked the ashes of her cigarette into the ashtray on his table. “Well, the demon spawn known as my perfect sister, Sandra, lands in three weeks, and oh, joy, I get to pick up her and the douchebag at Islip because the princess doesn’t want to take a cab and the douche is too cheap to rent a car.” She downed her scotch but declined a second glass, as her shift still had four more hours to go. Sandra, who was two years Keela’s junior, was the most annoying pain in the ass in the world if you asked Keela, and the thought of seeing her again made Keela’s anxiety go up.

  Her twin baby brothers, though, were a completely different story. “Jameson comes home at the end of the week, but he’s hitching a ride with some football friends so I’ll just see him at my parents’ house, and I’m picking up Jake at Islip Saturday.”

  All the Harper siblings were coming in for a huge family reunion in a month to celebrate their parents’ thirtieth wedding anniversary, so it was a big deal they were all coming. Mr. and Mrs. Harper had always considered Gypsy’s their family, which was why Nicky and their roommate had been invited to go to the reunion with Keela.

  While she was a normally a content and confident person and loved her life, whenever her sister came around, Keela became insecure. Keela considered herself the odd one out in the family, having chosen to go to Suffolk Community College’s culinary program instead of out-of-state schooling. It wasn’t until Nicky had come to her with the idea of opening his own restaurant that she felt as though she’d finally fit in.

  “Feeling better now?” asked Nicky. She shrugged and took a long drag of her cigarette before snuffing it out.

  “You know you shouldn’t let your sister get to you,” encouraged Nicky as he finished his second drink before putting the bottle away. “You know you are smoking hot, and you are a lot more fun that her anyway. Just remember that and know you’re never the odd one out with this bunch, okay, Kee Kee?” She smiled at the nickname he had given her nearly nine years ago.

  Keela smiled and stood up, giving him a quick hug, and made her way downstairs to finish up her shift. Seeing her reflection in the glass once again, she took some inventory of herself. She was a modest five feet five inches and had a curvy but strong 150-pound build. She had several tattoos hidden on her body and was more at home at a bonfire on the beach with a six-pack than a fancy dinner at some dignitary’s house. Keela sighed. She knew she was different from her siblings. It usually didn’t bother her, but she would be thirty in a few short years, and the idea of marriage and settling down would be on everyone’s tongue. They just didn’t get it, not after Ryan.

  Keela shuddered and began refilling drinks as her brain filled with thoughts of her ex. Ryan had been her world for four years. They had dated all through culinary school and afterwards, and she’d thought they would have been at least engaged by now. She had thought he was going to propose until he landed a job at a fancy restaurant in the city and decided that screwing the hostess at his new restaurant was more fulfilling than coming home to his bartender girlfriend every night. He’d left her with a newly purchased house and almost no money in the account they shared because he needed money to take Amber away to the Poconos.

  Can’t believe that was three years ago! she thought, stilling her motions. Had it not been for Nicky and Kristi coming to my rescue and splitting the cost with me, I would have been screwed.

  Since that day, she’d lived day-to-day and never got close to anyone romantically. To Keela, sex was sex, and that was fine, but relationships were a no. She never wanted to be so vulnerable again. Like the tattoo on her wrist read—Be your own strength—Keela made sure to not rely on anyone but herself ever again. She had given up on the dream, years ago, of happily ever after. She knew her parents weren’t the norm. Most people got divorced and never made it to their golden years, and that frightened her. If a boyfriend leaving after four years was rough, Keela couldn’t image a husband walking out after more. Everyone knew she was tough, but even tough girls had their limits. Love wasn’t in cards; it couldn’t be. It was far too dangerous, and her heart had already been shattered.

  Chapter 1

  “WE’RE taking fire. Get down, get down.”

  “It’s a sniper! Does anyone see him?”

  “Johnson is down! Johnson is down!”

  Sergeant Aaron Samuels felt himself being jerked out of his dream as the plane touched down after being in the air for too many hours. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he heard the flight attendant announce over the loudspeaker that they had landed at MacArthur Airport in Islip, New York. He looked out the window and sighed.

  It has been such a long time since I’ve set foot here, but a change in my life is needed, so here I am, starting with some familiarity, and a new beginning, he said to himself as he reached his arms above his head to relieve the stiffness in his body.

  Having recently left the Army after being in the service for twelve years, Aaron knew he just didn’t have it in him anymore. Not after Iraq and not after his friend Johnson’s death. After twenty-five minutes of sitting on a parked plane, he was finally able to set foot on his home. Long Island. It had been a long time since he had been here, but it still felt friendly and familiar and would, hopefully, help him to forget the nightmares of war.

  “I doubt it,” he mumbled to himself.

  Getting off the plane and into the airport, Aaron lugged his carry-on over his shoulder and made his way to the baggage claim. Being a soldier, Aaron didn’t have much in the way of possessions, but he never needed a lot. Aaron had gotten on a plane in Germany with only his carry-on and his military-issued duffel bag to start a new life. Getting to the baggage claim, Aaron looked around to see other passengers being greeted by loved ones. Not wanting to admit it, it made his heart sting a little. He didn’t have any loved ones besides his brother, Gavin, and he had to work today. Their parents were
long gone, and Aaron hadn’t had a serious girlfriend in years. His life had been solitary and lonely at only thirty years old.

  Aaron had leaned up against the pillar and shut his eyes, listening to his surroundings, when he heard a small, almost whispered voice singing. Opening his eyes, Aaron looked around to find the voice until his eyes settled on the form of a woman. She was petite compared to him, maybe five-four with her long brown hair hanging loosely down her back. She wore big aviator sunglasses and was very tanned. With her headphones on, she made her way to the baggage claim but didn’t seem as if she was passenger. She was curvy, as her tight jeans and T-shirt showed off her round ass and D-cup breasts, but it wasn’t until she took off her glasses that he began to feel a stirring in his groin. Her eyes were a deep emerald green, which popped from the purple eye makeup she wore. On any other girl that makeup would have seen cheap and tacky, but on her it seemed to make her eyes sparkle as she made her way to the turnstile.

  As she got closer, Aaron saw she began singing to herself, so lost in her own little world she didn’t notice blue eyes following her as she strutted around the baggage claim.

  Aaron noticed the song she was singing was “Photograph,” one of his favorite songs. She intrigued him as she looked around and pulled out a cell phone, punched a few numbers, and pressed it to her ear.

  It was when she spoke that Aaron’s groin tightened even more. Her voice was light and almost sang when she spoke. “Jakey! Where are you? I’m here,” she cooed into the phone.

  Aaron slumped his shoulders slightly and turned away. Of course, a girl like that would be taken, he thought to himself as he continued to listen to her speak. She laughed at the voice of “Jakey” on the other end.

  “Oh knock it off. I will always call you Jakey. Even when you’re married and have a beer belly at forty, you’ll be Jakey because you will always be my baby brother, and for that, it is my life’s goal to humiliate and torture you and Jameson the rest of my life.”