Since Last Time

by Danes, Ellie

I didn't get to where I was at by getting kicked in the teeth and going down. I was also pissed. Not at Taylor or Eric, by any means. From what I could see from the paperwork at the bar, someone was messing with the books, payments, taxes, and it wasn’t just someone being nasty. Egging a house is nasty. Tearing down a business that a family has worked hard on and grown from a little cozy to an outstanding pub was just plain evil. I needed to get to the office and see what I could do about what was going on.

  Henry came back in. “Oh, I didn’t know you were still here.” He took the disc out of the TV and gave it to me. “For safe keeping. I have a copy, however.”

  “Henry, do you know anything? Any rumors, anything below the surface that we aren’t seeing about why someone would want to sabotage Pops’ place?”

  He shook his head. “I told Pops the same thing. Everything was paid off and fine until a couple of years ago.”

  “Thanks, Henry.”

  We shook hands, and I walked out to my newly rented car. No reason to use the limo, and it really cramped my style. I looked down at the Viper. Costly for a few but it would get me around in style and quickly.

  I saw Kris finish strapping down the little wooden box to the rack on the back of the bike. I started the car up just to hear it roar and took off on a tour of Asheville. I needed to clear my head. Everything that had happened at the lawyer’s had my mind running wild, and I needed to rein it in before I saw Eric. Or Taylor, for that matter. She could raise my temperature in a good way with just a smile. I prayed she’d forgive me.

  As I drove around until it got dark, I took another look at all the great shops, buildings, and restoration that was being done in the town I loved and grew up in. It was great for business, and of course, the whole Asheville weird was not the same as Austin weird, but it gave a nice unique personality to the city. After about an hour of driving in circles, I felt my mind had straightened out, and I found myself back at The Boar and Brew. I parked in the back and saw the bikes and Taylor’s pickup.

  As I walked in through the back door, the first person I saw was Peggy, with her cigar, by the back door.

  “Boyo, he is in a bad mood. I can only guess about what happened at the lawyer’s. Lots of glassware was swept off the floor in the back. I take it he knows now about the bar.”

  I nodded. “You knew, Peggy?”

  “Pops didn’t keep much from me. But it wasn’t for me to say. Now Eric knows. He needs to put on his big girl panties and work with you as a partner and a friend. It’s always the boy’s damn pride that gets in the way. I’d hoped he would have outgrew that.”

  “He was going to find out sooner or later. I just wish Pops had told him. It just makes it seem like I was being deceptive and doing something behind his back instead of just waiting so Pops could explain it in his way.”

  Peggy gave me her grandma hug. “You came back to make things right. To watch after them. That's what you told me, and I told Pops. It gave him some peace. Now you need to go and make that happen. Be the man I know you are.”

  I nodded gently.

  “And maybe you can knock some sense into his stubborn pig head,” she said with a nod toward the office.

  I gave her a hug back and walked into the bar to see all the staff giving me the evil eye. Apparently, they liked me being part owner as much as I did.

  I shored up my spine and walked down the hall to his office. I knocked on the door.

  “Eric.”

  No answer.

  “Eric!”

  I opened the door.

  He swiveled in his seat behind the desk. Still pissed, if the crease between his brow told me anything. “I don’t even want to look at you right now. I most definitely don’t want to talk. I thought I knew everything about this bar. From the woodwork to the cellar to the odd noises it makes. For weeks, I looked over all the books, his paperwork, and not once, not once, did I find anything saying that you were now a partner in our family business. Nothing. I also didn’t find the issues with the billing or anything. Now, you stroll into town and in a couple of hours, find the issues. That just seems real convenient.”

  I leaned against the door. “I’m only a partial owner. Pops made me owner right before he died. I didn’t plan on coming back here. I didn’t even know he was ill. I have a life of my own. All I want to do is to make sure I can keep whatever is going on at bay, fix the issues, and go back to my life. That’s all I want to do.”

  What I was going to do about Taylor and how I felt about her was best shelved for the day. Just one fire at a time to put out.

  Eric slammed his hand on the desk. “All I want is for you to get out of here right now. Go back to your life. Nothing would make me happier. But guess what? You’re a damn partner now. Our partner. Taylor and me. So, you better have just as much stake in the bar as we do. But today… today’s not the day I want to talk with you. I need to think.”

  He ran his hand through his hair. “Just go, please.”

  I took a step toward him.

  He shook his head. “Go, damn it!” he yelled, pointing to the door.

  I knew when to leave someone to their own thoughts. I went through the bar and all the staring faces. It was the lull time before it began hopping tonight. Friday night, all the college kids come out.

  I walked out to the back door, not running into Taylor, Kris, or Peggy. Maybe that was a good thing. Could anything go right for me here? Luck just wasn’t with me.

  Taylor’s pickup was here but I hadn’t seen her in the bar, and she hadn’t come out when I was talking to Eric. Or he was yelling at me, I should say.

  I just wanted to find Taylor and hold her, and I had no idea where she was. To feel her with me and to know she was okay. I wanted to lose myself in her scent, that musky vanilla that drove me nuts, and take away all her pain.

  I strode over to my Viper and leaned back against it while I decided what I was going to do. In the back of my mind, I heard a faint clicking sound. It seemed to get closer and then it stopped behind me.

  A throat cleared.

  I turned and found Courtney a few feet away from me, standing in those higher-than-hell stiletto heels and wearing what should be lingerie, but I guessed it was the latest clubwear. She gave me her come-hither smile and sashayed over to me.

  “I heard you and the Prices are not speaking right now. A lot of drama in that family. Seems to all be around you.”

  As she said this, she walked her fingers up my arm. She never really had appeal to me, except for that one fateful night, and today was no different. I glanced around and tried to move by her to get in the car. She blocked me in by placing her hip up against me.

  I glanced around. “Where’s your husband?”

  She shrugged. “You mean George? I’m sure he’s off doing something important. Usually involves his family money. And, of course, all that tweeting. Must be tiring for him. He does his thing; I do mine. It makes a nice arrangement.” She started stroking my arms. “Feels like you work out quite a bit. You sure have… grown… haven’t you?”

  Courtney leaned into me, grinding her bony hips against me. I’m sure she was trying to be sultry, but she held no candle to Taylor. Having Taylor back in my life had changed my very idea of what I wanted from a woman.

  Not any woman. Her. Taylor. She loomed large in my thoughts, and I knew if I wanted her, I would have to go all in. All or nothing. A dangerous play but what I felt with her buried any fling I’d had in the past. Courtney was nothing nine years ago, and she sure as hell was nothing now.

  “Baby, come on now. You had me once. We could keep the home fires going and with you here in town, we could start something again. George won’t mind. He has his own playthings. Let’s just pick up where we left off.”

  As I went to tell Courtney to hit the highway, she leaned in and pulled me down to her, thrusting her tongue in my mouth and kissing me with everything she had. I pushed her away but not before I heard a gasp.

  “Dalton.”

  I tu
rned toward the door to see Taylor, horror in her eyes, as she ran back inside.

  I looked down at Courtney. “Courtney, there wasn’t anything to start with and there’s nothing about you that would make me ever look at you twice. And as for picking up where we left off, it will never happen.”

  With that, I firmly pushed her away from me and ran into the bar to find Taylor.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Taylor

  As I stepped out of the bar, my eyes needed a second to adjust to the darkness. I had heard Dalton and Eric talking, yelling I should say, and I wanted to give them some time before I talked with either of them. Eric was moping, but I had seen Dalton head out as I brought some of the wine up from the cellar. I put the wine down on the bar and hoped I could catch him before he left.

  The night we’d spent together was wonderful, and I wanted Dalton to be back in our lives. If Pops thought Dalton could help us, I wanted to give him the chance to do so. Everything was such a shock, but I was glad it was all out in the open now. Except for Dalton and me. I wasn’t ready for the light to shine on us just yet.

  The door closed behind me with a click. I heard some talking. Probably the staff on a smoke break.

  Looking beyond the boxes at the back door, I saw Dalton’s Viper. I loved that car. I wondered if he would let me drive it. I was really looking forward to going back to his hotel with him to talk. I hoped we could figure out how to help Eric get on board with having Dalton as our partner. I knew it would be super successful when we all worked together and stopped having our egos get in the way.

  I blinked my eyes for a second and then again because what I was seeing was not really going with what I’d been thinking. There was Dalton leaning back against his car and that bitch, Courtney Knight Harris, was dry humping him. Her tongue was so far down his throat, he was probably going to choke on it. If I didn’t kill him first.

  Fury flamed through me. If that was what Dalton wanted, then he didn’t want what we had together. I thought it was something in the making. Hoped. Now it was a childhood dream that had been washed away. Burned. Obliterated. The give and take of two people wanting each other and taking their time with each other and coming back to a relationship that was bigger than just one of us was a pipe dream.

  What I was witnessing was nothing less than sloppy seconds, and it made me embarrassed to watch. It made me feel dirty, like we had nothing special, like I was nothing special. How could we have something that shattered my world like we did last night, and now he was playing grinder in an alley? My gut flinched from the emotional punch. Tears filled my eyes and the only thing that came out was one word.

  “Dalton.”

  I turned and walked quickly back into the bar. Right into Peggy. I swear the woman just hovered by the back door with her cigars.

  “Girlie, are you okay? You look like you just…”

  I heard the door close behind me, and I guessed Dalton was standing right there.

  Peggy shook her head. “It’s that type of problem. I’ve got tables to take care of, so you all just hang out in the kitchen over there and away from all the lookie loos. Do what you need to do, but not in front of the guests.”

  I slammed into the kitchen as much as you can slam a swinging door. The staff stared at me, open mouthed, as Dalton walked in behind me.

  “Take five,” I said.

  Like children, they grabbed their cigarettes and ran off outside, sidestepping Dalton.

  I turned and faced him, my hands folded across my chest. “Dalton, don’t say anything. If that is what you want, something you need to go and get out of your system for old time’s sake, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.”

  He took a step toward me, and I stepped back.

  I waved a finger at him. “Looking all good and trying to get me to see your way of things is not what this is about. You get angry with the Price family and you go back out and do something stupid again.”

  He grunted. “I am not angry with you, Taylor. I’m not attempting to hook up with Courtney; she came on to me and I put her in her place. I promised I wasn’t going to hurt you, and I meant it.”

  “Right. Meant it.”

  “I do.” He ran his hands through his fine ebony hair. “Jesus, I can’t seem to do anything right today.”

  And he looked utterly pathetic when he said it.

  I took a step back and started to see it through his eyes. He came all the way back home, due to the death of probably his closest and only friend. The family he was cast away from because he was being such an ass hat. He tried to make it right with everyone and then everything fell apart.

  And he didn’t do anything. Well, except for when he made me… As soon as I remembered last night, I wanted it again, and I wanted him now. What was wrong with me? At the same time, my emotions were all over the place. I had to deal with having a partner and a lover, keeping it from my brother, and having Kris run referee.

  I started to feel a little sorry for him. Just a little.

  “You are telling me that the gorgeous Courtney Knight Harris trapped you against your car, kept you from getting away, and tried to have her way with you.”

  “Yes!”

  I couldn’t keep a straight face anymore. The laughter just came out. “I can’t help it, Dalton. You look so lost and pitiful.”

  He shifted back and forth, and he even made being uncomfortable and exposed look good. At least, he smiled back. He walked over to me and this time I didn’t walk away or step back. Dalton ran his hands up my arms and pulled me against him. I felt his strength feed into me. He cupped my face in his hands. I put my hands over his. He leaned down and kissed me softly and thoroughly. My heart jumped in my chest.

  “I mean it. Someone like Courtney is not the type of woman I’ve been interested in for a very long time.” He leaned away from me. “Before you ask, I have not been a monk, but I don’t go out of my way to hurt people. I liked companionship and women, but no strings, no hurt feelings. It was safe.”

  He leaned back in. “When I saw you again, it put my world in a tailspin. And I feel…”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “Excuse me.”

  “You don’t get to tell me what you are feeling. Right now, I don’t know what to do. My brother is a wreck again. We have possibly lost our paycheck, if the bar closes, and I’m nowhere near in a good mood, especially with Courtney out hunting again from the looks of it.”

  I needed time. Space. Some distance to stop my own mind from not being able to form a complete that didn’t include Dalton.

  “What I need you to do right now, Dalton, is to go. Let me clear my head, let me find out how I feel, then I can listen to what you are feeling.”

  He leaned over, rubbed my arms, and kissed me again. “I can wait. I’ve waited this long. I have business in the area. I’ll be gone about a week. I was going to put it off while we worked on us and helped out at the bar.

  “There’s an us?”

  “I hope so.” He smiled.

  “Let us be one of those things I think about. After what I just saw, I’m not sure what an ‘us’ means.”

  “I’ll see you in a week.”

  His smile as he turned and left melted my heart. The way his tight ass looked as he walked away melted other parts of me.

  I walked back to the bar as the kitchen staff came back in. A couple of minutes later, I heard the Viper roar away. I wiped down the bar just to give myself a release while I calmed down and figured out what to talk to Eric about.

  “Hey, Taylor,” said Rhonda, the bar maid. “Can you bring over another box of glasses?”

  “Why?”

  “Your brother busted quite a few when he came back from the lawyer’s. Anything you can dish? We hate seeing him like this.”

  I gave her a weird look because this was probably the only time she had ever talked to me. Even when I worked the floor, she stayed as far away from me as she could. Out of the blue, she just wanted me to tell her ou
r issues. What was in those cigarettes she was smoking? College kids.

  “Yeah, I’ll grab a box.”

  I set out for the storeroom. I opened the door and walked down the middle aisle to where we kept the boxes of glassware. About halfway back, I heard someone gently weeping. I really wasn't in the mood to deal with anybody at the bar hiding in the storeroom, so they could have drunken cry fests.

  I walked around the shelf, about to give someone a kind but firm piece of my mind.

  What I didn’t expect to find was Kris.

  She was sitting in the corner, gently crying to herself.

  “Kristina, oh, my God! What is wrong? Did you hurt yourself?”

  Kris shook her head.

  “Is it what happened at the lawyer’s office?”

  Kris shook her head once again and stood up. She wiped the tears from her eyes and steadied her breathing. “I went and took the box back to my house and I came down to talk to Eric. To see if I could help.” She grabbed some napkins off the shelf and swiped at her nose. “I hate crying. It makes me so red in the face. I waited a bit, as I saw him talking with Dalton and I got caught up talking to one of the bar girls, Rhonda. So, after I had a beer, I got up my nerve and walked down to see him. The door was opened so I just pushed it a little bit. I stopped to see Courtney, that freaking bitch, all up on Eric. I don’t know what he was thinking. I just turned away and came in here. What is wrong with him that he thinks that miserable woman has something that he can’t find with me?”

  “You’ve have got to be kidding me. I just caught her trying her wiles on Dalton.”

  The look in Kris’ eyes changed from hurt to pissed off. Just like that. It was like a switch had been pulled down. In a way, I was glad to get her mind off things, but in another way, I was hoping she would get pissed enough to go for Eric. Let him know. If he never knows, he might want someone like Courtney. However, looking at the fire in her eyes, I was definitely not going there. First, she tries on Dalton and then she tries for Eric. What the hell? I hear she is the woman about town, even being married, but come the hell on.”

  Kris dragged me out of the storeroom. She pointed to balding George sitting in the corner.