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I needed another drink. And it was only Monday.
“How am I supposed to do this? Be in the same town with him? You know full well I never really got over him. It’s pure torture.”
“Well, the way I look at it, you have two choices. You can either keep trying, since judging from tonight he won’t be pursuing you anytime soon. Or give up. Wave the white flag and move on. My vote? Option two.”
“Option two is not an option.”
Natalie sighed dramatically. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” Her face scrunched up as it always did when she was either frustrated or concentrating on something. “Okay, so what’s the plan? I know you, and there’s definitely a plan already forming in that pretty little head of yours.”
“Simple,” I said, knowing this was going to come out a bit stalker-ish. But also knowing there was no way in hell I’d be simply letting this drop. “I’m gonna manifest the shit out of another chance meeting. And another. And another. Until he breaks down and talks to me.”
Natalie didn’t believe in manifesting or the universe at work or anything she couldn’t measure. So naturally, she rolled her eyes.
“Great plan. Maybe while you’re at it you can manifest a pair, reach down, and grab ’em, because it’s game time, Ms. Donovan.”
I tried to decipher her meaning. . . until suddenly I could smell him, well before I saw him. Some guy’s colognes just activated a part of the brain that was a girl’s ho-mode. His was one of them.
“Can we talk a minute?”
His voice at my back was unilaterally one of the sexiest sounds I’d ever heard in my life.
“Charlee?”
Before I could even answer, I swiveled on my stool and looked up into one of the most magnificent, piercing gazes of my life.
Shit. What had I been thinking to poke this particular bear?
“Yes,” I managed to answer. “I would like that very much.”
CHAPTER SIX
lucas
Before I enlisted in the Army, before I was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, before sniper school, before being deployed to two combat zones, before Italy, before “the incident”. . . I would have taken Charlee home tonight. I’d have finally learned what it was like not just to kiss her or feel her glorious tits or even that wet pussy of hers, like when we dated.
Tonight, I’d alternately fuck her and make sweet love to this beautiful, passionate woman who’d only grown more so in my absence.
But I wasn’t that same man hoping for scraps at the pretty, rich girl’s table.
Know thyself.
I did a lot better job of that now than when I was in high school. Which was why I would have a conversation with Charlee—not apologize, mind you, since that wasn’t something I did. Atone? Sure. Say I was sorry for my behavior? Nah. But I would soften the blow of my rejection.
“Hi, Lucas,” her friend Natalie said.
I’d always liked Natalie. “Hi, Natalie. Good to see you.”
“You too,” she said. “And thank you for your service.”
“Just doin’ my job,” I said, the automatic response one I wished I had to say less often, since it was true. I’d signed up for it, so thanks weren’t really necessary.
“Oh, look. Lusanne DeLuca just came in. I’m gonna go chat with her for a bit. Lucas, feel free to take my seat.”
With that, Charlee’s blonde friend bobbed off the stool and made her way to the bar.
Charlee looked at the empty seat. No way in hell I was sitting down. The only way to avoid getting tangled in this web was to avoid it, along with the one who wove it, as much as possible.
“Thank you for the welcome,” I said.
