by Meghan March
My declaration sends the crowd into another roar.
Banner’s eyes widen. “And here I thought you didn’t want anyone to know about that little problem of yours.”
Everyone in the bar quiets to hear us.
“It’s only a problem if I can’t have the woman I want.”
“I guess you’re going to have to wait and see what she wants.” Banner pushes out of my arms to land on her own two feet.
“I know what she wants, but we’re both too hardheaded sometimes.”
“Hardheaded? Is that another way of saying you were an asshole?” she asks as she turns away to walk toward the bar and pick up another round of drinks.
I follow her. “Yes. I was an asshole, and I’m apologizing for it.”
“Is that why you couldn’t manage to reply to me all damned day?”
The vehemence in her tone takes me by surprise, but instead of following her again, Nicole distracts me.
“You have any fucking clue what you just did?” she asks.
“What are you talking about?”
“This whole town thinks you and Emmy Harris are going to end up getting married and having babies, and you just told an entire bar full of people that you’re after this girl from New York. The gossips are going to have a field day with that.”
I didn’t exactly think about my words before I spoke them, but I’m not taking them back. Do I feel bad that Emmy is going to hear it secondhand from someone else approximately five minutes from now? Yes. She’s a good woman, and she deserves to hear it from me that my interests lie elsewhere.
Nicole is filling pint glasses under the tap and waiting for an answer.
“It’s not like I planned this.”
She raises an eyebrow. “When does a man ever plan anything?”
Banner returns with an empty tray and reaches over the bar to grab a cocktail and take a sip. “I’m not leaving until this crowd clears out, so you can either wait or we can talk tomorrow.”
“Since when do you work here? And if you work here, why the hell are you drinking on the job?”
“Who would work here without perks?” Nicole lifts a shot glass to catch my attention and tosses it back.
Banner jerks her head toward Nicole. “What she said.”
“Then I guess you better get me a Coke, because if you’re drinking, I’m driving you home.”
Banner cocks a hip and stares me down. “You think I can’t get myself home?”
“I think it’s a miracle that you even know how to drive after living in New York your whole life.”
“I drove outside the city sometimes.”
“Either way, you’re not a regular behind the wheel, and the last thing I want is to see you wrapped around a tree somewhere because neither your skills nor your reaction time is up to par.”
“Listen to the man. He’s not an idiot all the time.” Nicole points at her throat. “Besides, an asshole drunk driver ran me off the road on my bike a couple years back, and I got tangled up in a barbed-wire fence. I thought I was going to bleed out right there, but the asshole’s fucking OnStar shit automatically called 911 and an ambulance came. So basically the driver almost killed me and saved my life at the same time. Don’t be that guy.”
Nicole’s story has a sobering effect on Banner, who pushes the rest of her cocktail away. “I’m officially done drinking. Maybe forever. Jesus. If y’all just had cabs or public transportation, everyone could drink and get home safely.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Y’all? You’re saying y’all now?”
Banner narrows her eyes at me. “I’m trying it out.”
“Try it out all you want. I’ll be waiting right here. We’ve got a hell of a lot to talk about.”
* * *
I’m right about at least one thing tonight—Banner won over a chunk of the townspeople, and as she works the room and delivers drinks to the stragglers who aren’t yet ready to go home, Ben finds me at the bar and takes a seat.
“You think that city girl has enough money to buy me out?”
Nicole freezes with her hands in the sink. “You said you’d sell this place to me.”
He nods at her, but it’s dismissive. “How are you ever going to get that much money, Nicki? You’re hustling your ass off everywhere you can, but I can’t afford to finance the sale of this place and let you pay me off over a few years. I need a lump sum from someone so I can retire and not worry about it going under and losing my retirement fund.”
“It wouldn’t go under.”
I hate that I’m caught in the middle of this discussion, but there’s no easy way to extricate myself from it other than to mention one thing.
“I don’t think Banner’s looking for this kind of investment. She’s got her own stuff going on.” To myself, I add that she hasn’t even told me details about.
Ben looks from me to Nicole, who I know he’d love to see take over Brews and Balls, which is what the locals call Pints and Pins, but unfortunately he doesn’t have the means to just give it to her.
“I guess it’s good to know where we all stand,” Ben says awkwardly before he slides off his stool and shuffles toward the office.
Nicole watches him leave. “He’s never going to believe I can raise enough money to buy this place, but goddammit, I will. I can’t spend the rest of my life working in that factory.”
Determination takes over her expression as Banner steps up beside me. “What’s with all the serious faces? What did I miss?”
Nicole looks down at the glasses in the sink. “Nothing important.”
Chapter 31
Logan
It’s almost two o’clock by the time I finally drag Banner out of the bowling alley. She decided that since I wasn’t letting her drive either way, she might as well have another drink with Nicole. It was almost like she could tell Ben had just crushed the girl’s dream, even if she wasn’t present for the conversation. But given how long Banner dragged it out, I have to wonder if she was trying to avoid leaving.
I lift her up into the passenger side of the truck and shut the door before heading around to climb into the driver’s seat.
“You afraid to be alone with me now?” I ask her.
“No. Of course not.”
“Then what’s going on?”
Banner stares down at her hands in her lap. “This morning sucked balls, and now all of a sudden you don’t care if people know you’ve got a thing for me. I can’t keep up with you. I get that this is your town and I don’t fit in here. Trust me, that was very clear today at the grocery store.”
“You don’t think you made some headway on that tonight? Half the town was in that bar, and they’re on your side.”
Banner shakes her head. “The male half. That’s not the problem. All the women still think I’m some big-city skank coming to steal one of their prime men, and they have no problem showing it.”
“What happened?”
When Banner fills me in on her grocery store experience, I try to hold back my laughter, but it’s a lost cause.
“Your G-spot, your clit, and the back of your throat? I wish I could’ve seen their faces when you said that.”
She glares at me from the passenger seat. “At least now they know I’m a skank for sure, and they don’t have to gossip about it.”
I come to a stop at the edge of the bowling alley parking lot and give her a hard look. “You keep referring to yourself as a skank, and we’re going to have a hell of a problem.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because you’re probably going to be pissed when I put this truck in park and drag you over my lap to spank some sense into your ass.”
Her eyes widen with shock. “You wouldn’t.”
I tilt my head to the side. “Wouldn’t I? No one gets to talk shit about you around me, including you, and I’ll do what it takes to make sure you understand that.”
When she goes quiet, I have a choice to make. I can either take her back to Holly’s gran’s
house and drop her off, or I can take her back to my place. If I give the choice to Banner, I know what she’ll pick, but I’m not ready to let her go tonight. Even if she chooses not to sleep in my bed, I still have a strong need to see her in my space.
I turn right instead of left, and Banner, even in her buzzed condition, picks up on it.
“I thought my place was the other way. I know I came from that direction. I think.”
She cranes her neck to look behind us, but in the darkness, there’s not a single landmark for her to see. The county can’t afford to keep this road lit up, so all the streetlights have been dark for years.
“We’re going to my place.”
She whips around to face me. “Why?”
“I want to show it to you.”
She goes quiet. “What are we doing, Logan? We barely know each other. A couple weeks of texting and two one-night stands don’t make us a couple.”
My hands tighten on the steering wheel because her words are the truth, even if I don’t want them to be.
“There’s a reason you came running to Gold Haven, even if you won’t admit it.”
“It was a free place to stay,” she says.
“There was a lot more to it than that, Banner, and we both know it.” I look across the cab of the truck at her. “I’m pretty sure Greer would’ve put you up in New York for as long as you wanted. The fact that you chose to leave and walk into my world might not mean anything to you, but it means something to me. I could be reading into shit all wrong here, but there’s something between us that’s bigger than texts and one-night stands. Do you really think I needed to come to New York to deliver that car myself? No fucking way. But there’s been something about you from the very beginning that called to me, and I had to follow my gut.”
Her voice is quiet when she speaks again. “So, where do we go from here?”
I slow for a stop sign and meet her stare. “We’re going to get to know each other. I’m going to take you out on dates and show you what we’ve both been missing. You’re gonna fall in love with me, Banner. That’s where we’re going from here.”
Her eyes widen again and go glassy for a moment before they break away.
I drive through the intersection and go straight toward my house.
“I’ve never fallen in love with anyone, so you’ve got your work cut out for you.”
I let a smile stretch across my face. “I’m man enough for the job. There’s no doubt in my mind about that.”
* * *
Bringing Banner to my house has me looking at it through new eyes. It’s not fancy, but I bought the place as a heap and turned it into a home I’m proud of. It’s a long way from the rusted single wide I grew up in as a kid, and I know I’m lucky to have it.
I’ve seen Banner’s apartment—or her former apartment—so I know she’s used to more, but when we pull up in front of the cedar-sided house with a covered porch along the front and the motion light kicks on, she sucks in a breath.
“I love it.”
Relief fills me at her declaration.
“You haven’t even seen the inside.” I turn off my truck and hop out.
She doesn’t wait for me to get her door, though, but meets me in front of the truck as she stares up at the house set back amongst a stand of trees. The gurgle of the creek running along the back corner of the yard breaks through the otherwise quiet night, even though the lights don’t reach far enough for her to see it.
“Did you build it?”
I shake my head as I thread my fingers through hers and walk up to the front steps. “No, but I gutted it down to the studs and redid the entire inside. It was a foreclosure, and I picked it up cheap from the bank. It sits on five acres, so it’s pretty private back here.”
“Five acres?”
There’s a certain amount of wonder in her voice, and I forget that she’s a Manhattanite, and that kind of property is unheard of.
“Property’s a lot cheaper in Kentucky than New York City.”
We climb the stairs onto the porch and I push my key into the lock to take her in through the front door, flipping on the lights as we step inside. Normally, I’d come in through the back, but I wanted her to see the house this way instead.
I point up at the vaulted ceiling lined with tongue-and-groove pine. “That ceiling was a bitch to install by myself.”
Her eyes widen. “You did that?”
I nod. “Every piece of this house has my blood, sweat, and cuss words wrapped up in it. The stacked-stone fireplace took forever to get right, but it was worth it. I’d come here after a long day at the shop and work until I was so tired, I couldn’t trust myself with power tools.”
Banner does a slow circle, taking in the room.
A gray couch and chair face the fireplace, and the TV hangs over the mantel. There’s not much in the way of knickknacks because I’ve got a dick.
“I love it,” she says again, and I swear I’m puffing up from the pride now. She hesitates before stepping on the refinished pine floors, looking to me and down at her boots. “I don’t want to track bowling alley nastiness all over your beautiful home.”
“Your choice,” I say.
She wobbles a little as she pulls her boots off, and suddenly she’s three inches shorter.
I kick off my work boots as well, and lead her into the kitchen. It’s open to the living room, and while it’s not gourmet, it’s pretty damn nice. “I picked out the remnant of granite myself, and traded out car repairs with a buddy to build the custom cabinets.”
“I don’t even know how to cook, but I’m definitely impressed.”
“Luckily, we know I can cook, so you’re not going to starve in the morning.”
Before she replies, Banner zeroes in on the key rack by the back door. She walks over to it, reaching up to touch the Hulk key chain from the arcade in New York.
“You kept it.” She turns to look at me, surprise in her eyes. “I figured you would’ve tossed it out the window as soon as you hit the highway. Especially after . . .” Her words trail off.
I shake my head and cross to where she stands. “I thought about it, but then I realized it didn’t matter whether I kept it or not. There was no way I’d ever forget you.”
I don’t mention the panties that are still in my toolbox. A man has to have some secrets.
Banner bites down on her lip and swallows. “I’m glad you kept it. It’d be sad if I were the only one carrying something around from that night.” She digs in her purse and pulls out the keys to Holly’s gran’s house, and sure enough, there’s the Wolverine key chain I won her.
“It was a good night.”
She nods. “The best.”
“Ah, Bruce.” I give her a smile. “We can do better than that. Just wait.”
My words hang between us, and even though I want to say more, I change the subject.
“You wanna see the rest?”
She nods, and I lead her up the hallway, showing her the second bathroom, a guest room, and a bedroom I turned into an office. Finally, I push open the door to the master. It’s clear a man lives here by himself. There are only enough pillows on the bed to sleep, the comforter is a little rumpled where I tossed it over the sheets in an attempt to make the bed, and a pair of jeans and a T-shirt lie over a chair in the corner.
“So this is the famous bed of Logan Brantley.”
I look at her sideways. “Famous? Not exactly.”
“But half the women in this town want to say they’ve been in it.”
“They haven’t, and since I’ve got no plans to change that, they’ll have to live with the disappointment.” I nod toward the doorway across the room. “The master bath is through there. More showerheads than one man needs, but after I’ve been up to my elbows in grease and oil all day, I appreciate being clean.”
Banner turns around to face me. “I really do love it. You did an incredible job, Logan.”
Silence falls between us, and I find my plans for tonight
aren’t what I anticipated. As much as I want to spend the rest of the night inside Banner, right now what I want even more is to fall asleep with her in my arms in my own damned bed.
She’s the game changer.
And now I’ve got my work cut out for me to make sure I win the game.
Chapter 32
Banner
Where am I?
I blink and take in the slate-blue-colored walls, and wood trim that looks nothing like anywhere I’ve ever been. The weight of an arm is wrapped around me, and heat presses against my back.
For a second, I wonder if I made a huge mistake, but then my mind kicks into gear.
Logan.
Logan’s bed.
Logan’s house.
And we didn’t even have sex last night.
I have absolutely no idea how to navigate the waters, especially since he told me I’m going to fall in love with him. I’m so out of my depth.
“I swear I can feel your brain flipping on,” Logan’s deep voice rumbles in my ear. “Your whole body tenses like you’re not sure whether you should bolt.”
“It’s creepy that you think you can read my mind,” I whisper.
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
“I’m thinking I have no idea how to handle this non-relationship of ours.”
I find myself flat on my back, and Logan’s big body hovering over me a moment later.
“This is a relationship, Banner. Have no doubt about that.”
I wonder if my eyes bulge as big as they feel when he says it. “But—”
“No buts about it. We’re dating. And we’re going to have our first official Kentucky date tonight.”
“We are? And why are you so bossy all of a sudden?”
“I’ve always been bossy. You just didn’t mind because it was all in bed.”
True story.
Logan lowers himself to his elbows, and his heavy erection presses into my thigh.
“I guess this qualifies because we’re still in bed,” I murmur.
His lips quirk into a smile. “We are, but unfortunately, I’ve got to get to work, which means we both have to get up so I can drop you off at your car so you’re not stranded here all day.”