Her whispered words were part confession, part regret. There was more there than she was saying, but she wasn’t lying to me.
She was a stranger. A beautiful, curvy, enticing stranger, but still a stranger. We’d slept together, and we’d talked for months, but there were truths we’d never shared. Big truths. I had no idea she was the woman who showed up at Valentina’s house last spring. And she didn’t know that I wasn’t just a guy who worked behind the counter of the town’s one and only hardware store.
“Okay, so heavy topics out of the way, how’s your pool shot?” I asked, hoping to see that smile I’d been dreaming about for months.
She looked up at me from under those lashes, a tentative smile lifting the edges of her lips. “Pool?”
I nodded toward the tables on the other side of the bar. “Friendly game?”
She raised one dark eyebrow as a smirk lit her gaze. “Friendly? Does that mean you won’t get upset when I wipe the floor with you?”
I chuckled and leaned back, a little shocked at her declaration and more than a little happy she wasn’t willing to back down so easily. “I didn’t promise that. I’m hoping you won’t pout when I destroy you.”
“Bring it on.” She lifted her brows in challenge and narrowed her eyes. When I slid out of the booth, she took my offered hand and let me help her up. Not that she needed the help, but it was good to feel the spark that was between us the night before.
One-night stand Haley might not have been interested in anything long term, but Book Boyfriends Wanted SingleMenWanted Haley was.
We grabbed our drinks, and she picked up the flower that was so close to the bright color of her shirt I was amazed, and we headed toward the tables. No one paid us any attention, for which I was happy. Not that I was ashamed of being there with her, just that I wanted her to myself for a little while.
One table was open in the back, and we claimed it as ours, setting her flower on the long rail and our drinks on a high-top table nearby. I racked the balls while she selected a cue stick from the rack on the wall.
I removed the triangle and nodded for her to break. She grinned, and damn if the look didn’t go straight to my dick. Confidence lit her eyes and determination drew her focus. She lined up the cue ball and steadied her stick before taking her first shot.
The crack of the cue ball hitting the racked balls was loud and effective. Solids and stripes flew across the table, one of each dropping into a pocket before her triumphant smile lifted her lips.
“Well, damn. I might be screwed,” I said.
She laughed, lining up for her next shot. She stood behind the solid blue number two, tapping gently before it rolled into the pocket.
“I’m solids.” Her smile was intoxicating. Just like I knew it would be but so much more.
I was a sucker for a woman who knew what she could do. Haley had been through hell the last few months, but she was still standing there, destroying me as she sunk one shot after another.
She moved around the table like she owned the damn thing, ignoring everything else in the noisy space. She was focused, and she was talented.
She finally missed a shot, and I had a turn to show her what I could do. I made three shots, during which she nodded appreciatively and moved out of my way in anticipation of where I was going to go. I missed the fourth in a row, and she winked at me, telling me before she even stepped forward she was going to win before I had another chance.
And she did. Gracefully. Without gloating or celebration.
“Good game,” she said, offering her hand to shake.
“Great game. Where’d you learn to play?”
She shrugged. “Cosmetology school, mostly.”
“Yeah?” We both pulled balls from the pockets and rolled them across the table to rack them for another game.
“There was a table in the basement of the community space where I went to church.”
“Your church had a pool table?”
She nodded. “The cosmetology school was near a local college, so they had a safe place for students to hang out. One of the things we had was a pool table. There were also darts, ping-pong, and foosball, but I was never much good at any of those. Pool was my game.”
“That sounds like a fun place to spend some time. Where did you go to school?”
“In Indiana. Not far from Chicago.”
“Where are you from?”
“Kansas City.”
“How in the world did you end up here?”
She looked up at me with a question in her gaze. Asked and answered.
“I mean, this part of the country. You grew up in Kansas City, went to school outside Chicago. Is that where you lived before here?”
She shook her head and avoided my gaze for a minute. She focused on the table and nodded in question to break again.
Watching her play was fun, so I nodded for her to go ahead.
She bent over, her front of her shirt drooping and giving me a view of the tan bra covering her breasts. Her breasts swayed with her movement, and fuck me, I was finding it harder and harder to resist her. Again.
I had no intention of sleeping with her on our first date. I wasn’t going to break the promise I made to myself. But it wasn’t easy when I knew how good it would be.
She was as good in bed as she was at running a pool table. Which she was in the process of doing again.
I chuckled when she sank another ball with a trick shot few people could ever pull off. “Wow.”
She looked up at me with delight in her eyes as she leaned over the table and lined up her next shot.
I stepped back, doing everything possible not to distract her. I wanted to, but we agreed it would be a friendly game, and I wasn’t going to play dirty. That wasn’t my style.
She called her shot and dropped the eight-ball into the side pocket, winning before I took even one shot.
“I think I might need to find something you’re less dominating at, so we can actually play together.”
“We are playing together.” She smirked at me.
I laughed. “If you count me holding up the wall while you clear the table playing together, then I guess.”
She laughed, but her cheeks reddened like she was embarrassed. “You can break this time.”
I shook my head. “That’s not how you play. Winner breaks. And I’ll know if you tank a shot.”
“But you just said—”
“I was teasing, Haley. It’s fun to watch you.”
The smile slid from her face, replaced by a tightness that hadn’t been there all night.
I moved closer to her, not touching her, but close enough that our conversation was more private than public. “I didn’t mean anything by that. You’re talented, and you’re having fun. We all need to have fun in our lives.”
“It’s fine. I get it.” She stepped away from me and lined up. She shanked her shot, barely hitting the target ball. The cue ball rolled to the side and hit the rail, resting a few inches away. Nothing went in.
I leaned my cue stick against the side rail and walked toward Haley. She was still behind the head rail, not looking at me. Her gaze was focused solely on the table.
“I apologize for what I said,” I whispered, not touching her but getting close. “I am having a really good night, and I don’t want to ruin it by saying something stupid. I’m really sorry.”
She forced a smile and glanced at me long enough for me to see the wariness in her gaze. “It’s fine. There’s no way for you to have known Dawson used to say that to me.”
“Say what?”
“It’s fun to watch you.”
“Watch you do what?” I asked, even though I was sure I knew the answer.
She shrugged. “Anything. Everything. He’d pick me up at the salon and watch me cut hair. He would stare at me during dinner. Watching movies, anything. I would catch him just staring at me. At the time, I thought it was sweet. I told myself it was because he was falling in love with me. But everything with him was a lie.”
“Dammit. I’m sorry, Haley. I… I don’t know what to say.”
She smiled and shrugged again, trying to dismiss her emotions. “It’s fine. It’s my thing. I just…”
“Do you still love him?”
“How do you know I loved him?”
Now it was my turn to shrug. “Not a lot of people would relocate for someone they only liked a little.”
She drew in a breath and let it out slowly. She grabbed the chalk and rubbed it over the end of her stick. Buying time. “I’m not sure I know what love actually feels like. Yeah, I thought I loved him. I thought he loved me. But he was playing me.”
“Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean how you felt was wrong. You can be in love with someone who doesn’t feel the same way. Ask Brantley.”
“The one Valentina’s with?”
I nodded. “He’s been in love with her forever. Since they were in high school. Even through her dating Dawson and marrying him and having two kids with him, Brantley still loved her. He never thought he’d get a chance with her, and he never wished divorce on her, but he loved her anyway.”
“Wow. That’s… I’ve never had anyone who felt that way about me.”
“Besides family, of course. But yeah, me neither.”
She pressed her lips into another smile. One that didn’t feel real. “You said you were never married.”
I shook my head and gave her the out she clearly needed. “Nope. Never even close. I had a few serious relationships, but none that ever felt like Brantley and Valentina, or anyone else I know.”
“It kind of sucks, doesn’t it?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but I’m not ready to give up just yet. How about you?”
She looked up at me. Her brown eyes sparkled with the reflection of the neon lights around us. She looked vulnerable and beautiful.
I ached to know what she was thinking, but I didn’t press for anything. Not for answers, and not for more. She’d been torn apart by MacKellar Cove, but she didn’t run away. She didn’t hide. She was out here, at the locals bar, on a date with me.
She was so much stronger than she realized.
“No, I’m not ready to give up yet either,” she finally whispered.
I smiled. “Good. Then I’m going to finally beat you in pool, and we’re going to get something to eat, and then I’m going to regretfully say good night and try to make it seem like I’m a good guy.”
She exhaled a laugh. “You are a good guy, Knox.”
I took her hand and lifted it to my lips, pressing a gentle kiss on the back. I winked at her and said, “I’m trying to be. But it’s tough to keep my hands to myself when I know how good you feel.”
Her eyes dilated with her sharp inhale.
I let go of her hand and lined up my shot, focusing on the game before I went back on my promise and dragged her out of the bar.
Waking up in my bed alone was not a new thing. It was my normal. I’d been doing it my whole life. But it still sucked.
Especially after my date with Haley.
We talked and laughed and shared dinner after she beat me a third time. For all my talk, as soon as I missed a shot, she stepped in and ran the table. Again.
When the date ended, I walked her to her car and kissed her on the cheek. I wanted to kiss her, to claim her, but I liked her. The woman I wanted to take out on a date was not the woman I wanted to screw senseless the other night at my shop. One was lust, the other was companionship. To find out they were the same woman kept me bouncing back and forth with desire and decency. But damn, did I want to say screw it to all the above.
Saturdays were always busy in the store, so I dragged myself out of my lonely bed and into the shower. I dressed quickly, making a mental note to trim my beard later, then fixed a quick cup of coffee and hoped I’d have time to eat before anyone walked into the store.
Almost as soon as I unlocked the front door, someone walked in. For the next hour, it was busy as the weekend warriors started their days. It always surprised me people got up as early as they did on the weekends, but they came to me and bought things, so I wasn’t going to complain. Much.
I found a minute to eat a granola bar and finish my cold cup of coffee when the store was quiet. As the morning rush died down, I braced myself for the regulars who would show up before long.
The first one in was Tony. He was always looking for something to organize his garage. Nothing was ever quite right, and half the time he left without making a purchase. But that wasn’t why he was there.
The second one through the door was Dick. He used to be a brick mason, but he retired a decade earlier when his back started to give him trouble. He preferred being around people who liked to get their hands dirty, so he hung around.
And last was Wayne. He was the ringleader. The one who sparked the conversation. And the ridicule. As much as I loved Wayne, my gut twisted whenever he walked in. Especially when he walked in with a look on his face that said he had something juicy to share.
“Morning, gentlemen,” Wayne said. He eased himself onto the stool on the other side of the counter.
“Morning,” Tony and Dick said together.
The three of them could have been brothers, but they weren’t. Weathered, tan, wrinkled skin was from years of working outside. All had brown eyes and, once upon a time, had brown hair. Tony was the youngest, getting close to seventy, and completely bald. Dick was the oldest and approaching seventy-five, with more hair than the other two. Wayne was in between them in age and hair loss, but as the loudest, he was in charge.
“I heard Genevieve and Teddy are having another baby,” Wayne declared with all the bravado of a man who had the inside scoop.
Except that scoop came out a month ago. Not that I was going to tell Wayne that.
“Oh, yeah?” Tony asked. “Where’d you hear that?”
“Saw them the other day.” Wayne liked to be the one who shared town news. Half the time it was wrong, and the other half the time everyone already knew about it.
When Valentina and Dawson broke up, Wayne said she tossed all his things into the street when he wasn’t home. I told him that wasn’t what I heard, and he lit into me. I’ve learned not to correct him when he’s wrong.
“Good for them,” Dick said. “Kids should be having kids. Keep the town going.”
“Unlike this one,” Wayne said, hitching his thumb toward me. “When are you going to find you a nice woman and knock her up, Knox?”
I shook my head and ignored the question. It wasn’t any of their business, but it also stung a bit. All three of them were married with kids in school by the time they were my age. Thirty-eight was still plenty young enough for me to have kids, but they were happy to remind me it wasn’t how they did it.
“Leave the boy alone,” Tony said.
Wayne chuckled. “Knox knows I’m just picking. Don’t you?”
“Yep,” I said, knowing it was the only answer I was allowed to give.
Tony, Dick, and Wayne had been customers forever. It didn’t matter how much they bugged me, they were staples of the store as much as I was. Every Saturday morning and Wednesday evening, they would saunter in and hold court, sharing gossip and offering advice to customers. I had to suck it up and deal with it, usually offering whispered apologies to the annoyed customers. The three men were friends with my father, and they’d run right to him if I said so much as boo to any of them.
So, I kept my mouth shut and took whatever they dished out, and prayed the customers would keep coming back.
“Knox learned we’re always right when he tried to change things after he took over. Damn near lost the store right out from under him. Thinking he could flip a switch and stop supplying the town with the things we all need. He came back around, though. Finally listened to us. Been smart enough to do it ever since.” Wayne chuckled and slapped his hand on the counter like he told the best joke ever.
I just forced my expected smile and let him take the win. Because as much as I hated it, he wasn’t wrong. I did try to change things. I did almost lose the store my dad built from the ground up. And I did turn everything around and put it all back the way it’d been before.
Just because I hated the twice weekly reminder that I fucked up didn’t mean I could argue against it. He was right, and I was wrong. And if I wanted to keep the store open, I had to put aside my dreams and goals and keep stocking the things the people of MacKellar Cove bought on a regular basis.
Like toilet flappers.
