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It was still early enough that I didn’t have to be home right away. I could pay the nanny extra for her time which she was used to. My little guy was fast asleep by now and it was only eight o’clock. She would understand I had to work late as she did when she accepted the job, and she never complained about the three times her usual rate I would normally give her for the extra hours.
I needed to do something before I went home. This had become a bit of a ritual for me, a way to unwind at night. I found when I didn’t do this I would pace around at home until late hours unable to sleep. This little ritual would keep me grounded enough to get me unwound enough to sleep that night.
I pulled into the parking lot of The Sand Bar, a bar I frequented several nights a week. There was nothing inherently special about this bar, and I preferred to drink at home alone. I had never been a social drinker. I didn’t get that aspect of life really. It seemed to be a waste of money, even if I did have some money to burn.
No, the real reason I stopped at this bar was because of Laney Chapman. Laney was the main bartender there. She was beautiful, sweet, fun, and sexy. I’d first met her about three months when I had decided to stop in for a few beers. We started talking and just kind of hit it off. Since then I had made it a point to stop in at least two or three times per week to chat with her.
Yet, I hadn’t found it within myself to ask her out. I wanted to and I thought she might be interested, but I wasn’t sure it was the right time for me. The reality of it was, I was still so damn wounded. I’d been wounded by Jack’s mother, Tiffany.
Tiffany and I had been together a few years and were on the verge of getting married when I found out she was cheating on me. I had my suspicions because of a text message I’d found on her phone while she was in the shower. I’d stepped into the bathroom to grab something and her phone had buzzed. On instinct I just glanced down at it and I caught a quick flash of a message that popped up on her screen.
I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but as I started to observe more closely I noticed Tiffany deviating from normal routines and so I had a private detective friend of mine tail her for a bit and he came back with the incriminating photographs.
That was all I needed to see. I showed her the evidence and she still tried to lie out of it. I kicked her out and she had tried to make my life hell since then, but she eventually realized it wasn’t going to work. She was out of my life. And she would stay that way.
Since then my heart had been so guarded, so tightly protected that I was afraid to trust again. I thought what Tiffany and I had was real, but it turned out it was just not what I thought it was. You could never really know what was in someone’s heart. And this was what kept me from pulling that trigger and just going for it when it came to a woman I really felt a strong connection with.
But Laney… she was quite amazing.
I slid into my usual seat in the bar and waited for Laney to realize I was there. The bar was not too busy. It was a Wednesday and Wednesday’s were usually pretty dead. Still it was busier than I thought it would be. That was fine. I’d still be able to chat with Laney without too much interruption I thought.
Laney finished waiting on another patron and she looked up to notice me right then. Her beautiful green eyes locked on mine and she smiled widely. Then she made her way over with that sexy walk of hers. She was wearing a tank top with a flannel that was opened and tied in the front over a pair of tight, ripped jeans. This was her usual attire. She was a bit of a rocker chick, which I loved. It reminded me of the nineteen eighties, which I was a small child at the end of, but was still my favorite decade. The music, the fashion, the movies, –it was all awesome.
“Hey, stranger,” Laney said as she leaned over the bar in front of me. I had to fight the temptation to look down at her cleavage. It was beautiful and I’d snuck a peak several times before. It was almost involuntary at this point. She was exquisite in every single way. Damn, I had it bad for her. Why couldn’t I just ask her out already? This was becoming stupid. I’d never had a problem with asking a woman out, but ever since the thing with Tiffany, I could not allow myself to go out with any woman that I felt any type of real connection with. And so far, the only woman that had applied to was Laney. It was something I felt the moment I met her. There was this kinship there that I couldn’t explain right from the get go. And judging by the way she interacted with me, she felt it, too.
