“I lived in Chicago. If I took the doors off, it would get jacked. I mean… well, easier, I guess, since it got jacked when I had the doors on it,” she mutters the last part, and Tide, who thinks that’s hilarious, laughs. “It wasn’t funny,” she states, resting her hands on her hips narrowing her eyes on him.
“I bet not,” Dad grumbles, seeming as annoyed as I feel about the idea of her car getting stolen.
“How about you borrow my ride? I’ll drive this home tonight and see if I can’t get the door fixed,” I offer, and she looks up at me.
“Or I can just take it to the dealer.”
“Or you can wait to do that after I have a look at it, if I can’t get it fixed.”
“Are you sure?” she prompts.
“Positive. Give me your key.” I hold out my hand, and she looks at it for a second before digging in her pocket and coming out with a key hooked to a butterfly keychain.
Shoving her key in my pocket, I hold mine above her hand. “Do you think you can handle driving my Suburban?” I ask, and she looks past me to my SUV, which has three rows, the added length making it difficult for some people to drive.
“Probably.” She shrugs.
“Probably?” I repeat her answer while frowning.
“Yeah, probably.” She snatches the key out of my hand, shoving it in her pocket. “Anyways, what’s the worst that could happen? I wreck it and you get a new one with your insurance,” she says, smiling a smile that makes my chest feel heavy.
“Are you married?” Tide asks, breaking into our stare down, and Gia pulls her eyes off mine to look at him, making me want to beat the shit out of my best friend.
“No.”
“How do you feel about eloping with me to Vegas?” he asks, pointing at his chest.
“I would, but I kinda gotta work,” she replies, scrunching up her nose and making her already adorable face look even more endearing.
“Bummer.” He tries wrapping his bulky arm around her shoulders, but she ducks before he can.
Jesus, she won over Tide. Then again, I’m not the slightest bit surprised by this. She’s sweet, and obviously funny, and fucking cute. No, actually, she’s gorgeous. God, is she gorgeous. Especially when she’s looking at me the way she is right now.
Pulling her eyes from me, she looks at Dad. “Thanks for having a look at it.”
“Anytime, girl, and I have no doubt Colt will make sure it’s safe for you to drive,” he says, and she peers up at me.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
“I should get inside and help Rose.” She gives us all a smile before turning on her boots and heading for the door. Watching her go, I know I’m fucked, because I have never in all of my life wanted anything the way I want Gia Caro.
“I approve,” Dad mutters, and my eyes go to him. “I get why you were with Lisa when you were young, but she wasn’t the woman for you. She wasn’t the kind of woman you build a life with. She wasn’t back then, and she isn’t now. That girl there…” He lifts his chin at Gia’s back as she disappears into the bar. “That’s the kind of woman you lay all your hopes and dreams on, the kind who will make the struggles you’ve been through worth it.”
“You just met her,” I remind him while trying to remind myself of the same thing.
“No,” he denies, shaking his head. “I’ve been married to a woman just like her for the last thirty years, and for those thirty years, she’s made me happy, given me a family, and made it possible for me to live a dream every day.”
With that, he claps me on the back before heading toward the bar.
“She’s cute,” Tide says, breaking into the millions of thoughts swirling through my head. “And funny.”
“Yeah,” I agree, running a hand through my hair.
“Lucky fuck,” he mutters, starting to the bar then spinning around to look at me. “Come on, I need a beer.”
Pulling in a breath, I turn to Gia’s Jeep, shut the door—or try to, since the shit just pops back open—and after three more tries, I finally get it closed. Heading inside, I find Tide at the bar with his ass planted on a stool, my dad behind the bar, and Gia nowhere to be found.
“She’s helping your mom in the back,” Dad says as I pass him on the way to the office. Ignoring his comment, I drop Gia’s keys to the top of the desk and pick up the ones for the storage room. I don’t know how I feel about my dad or anyone knowing how I feel, when I haven’t even come to terms with it. This attraction came out of nowhere. I wasn’t expecting it or looking for it. That doesn’t mean I’m stupid enough to let it pass me by. I would be pissed off at myself if I didn’t try to get in there, and let some other guy see what I see. Then again, I don’t want to scare her off, since my feelings are so intense. I don’t know what could happen if I’m not careful.
“Earth to Colton.” My mom’s voice snaps me back to reality, and I tip my head down to look at her. “You okay?”
“I’m good.”
“You sure? I called your name three times, and three times you ignored me and stared at the desk like it had all the answers in the universe.”
“Sorry, I was just thinking,” I mumble.
“You sure?” she questions, getting close, or closer than she was just a second ago.
“I’m sure, Ma.”
“All right, honey,” she coos, but I can see she wants to ask at least a dozen more questions. “I’m going to take Gia over to the storage locker and show her around.”
“I’ll do it,” I say without thinking, and her head jerks back in surprise.
“Uh….”
“I’m sure you have other stuff to do,” I interject.
“Okay, sure. Well then, since she’s already in my car waiting for me, why don’t you just drive my Charger?” She hands me her keys.
Giving her a smile, I leave, shoving them in my pocket as I go. “I’ll be back,” I tell Dad as I pass him, and Tide frowns.
“Where are you going? We just got here,” Tide questions after taking a pull from the beer in front of him.
“Gonna take Gia to the storage locker.”
“Is that what we’re calling it nowadays?” he asks with a lopsided grin that turns into a wince when Mom pops him upside his head with her open palm.
“Tide, you better watch it. And you…” She spins around to look at me. “You, Colton Samuel Rust Allyster, better be on your best behavior with that girl.”
“Leave him be, babe,” Dad mutters, and Mom looks at him with squinty eyes.
“Leave him be?” she repeats.
“Yes,” he says, and she must see something in Dad’s look, because she turns her eyes back to me and when they meet mine, they’re warm and knowing.
“Please go in soft. She needs soft,” she whispers, and I lift my chin, letting her know I hear her. Leaving the bar, I head out the back door to where my parents park. As soon as Gia spots me walking toward the car through the windshield, her eyes get big and her lips part.
“I thought your mom was taking me to the storage unit,” she says as I slide in behind the wheel.
After releasing the lever to move the seat back, I look at her. “She was, but she got caught up. Asked me to take you,” I lie.
“Oh.” She presses her lips together then looks away, and I can see her eyes are on the door handle and she’s thinking about bailing. Before she can do what I know she wants to do, I start up the engine and put the car in drive since Mom had backed in when she parked.
“Seat belt,” I say, stopping at the stop sign at the end of the drive, but just like the other day, her look is a million miles away as her eyes stay glued to my hand on the gearshift. “Gia.” I reach around and her body jolts.
“I...”
“It’s all good, but you need your belt. I’d hate to get into a wreck and have your pretty face splattered against the windshield,” I tell her, then instantly regret it when I see her eyes fill with pain. Knowing that her mother’s death isn’t something she shared
with me, as much as I hate to do it, I ignore the look and hook her belt. “There. Now you’re safe,” I say softly, hitting the blinker, looking for traffic, and pulling out onto the road.
Making it to the storage unit on my parents’ property fifteen minutes later, I put the car in park. The drive was made in silence. I could tell by the energy coursing through the car that Gia wasn’t sure what to think, what to say, or what to do with herself. She kept shifting in her seat and messing with the vents. I asked her a couple of times if she was cold, but she would say no, then go about messing with them some more which made me fight back a smile. I make her nervous; that much is clear. But that also means I have a shot with her because she’s at the least attracted to me.
“This is it.” I shut down the engine and unhook my belt. When I turn to look at her, her eyes are on my parents’ house that’s up on the hill above us.
“Did you grow up here?” she asks, and I try to see what she sees. A twenty-five hundred square foot Tudor home, surrounded by trees at the top of the mountain, that looks out over the city.
“I did, but I didn’t grow up in that house.” I nod toward it. “My parents had that built two years before I moved out. But growing up, there was a double-wide in that exact spot. Me, my two brothers, and my parents lived in it,” I explain, expecting her expression to change to one of disgust—the same look Lisa used to have when she would come to our house when we were in school. It was before my parents were able to afford building their dream home.
“It’s still beautiful. The land is beautiful. I can’t imagine waking up to that view every day,” she says wistfully. “Growing up in the city, you don’t get a view like this.” She nods toward the windshield.
“You’ll have to see my place sometime. My parents’ view is good, but I got one of the lake that puts theirs to shame,” I brag, pushing open my door and hearing her open hers.
“I didn’t know you have brothers,” she prompts, meeting me at the hood while putting on a light beige jacket.
“I do, two of them, both older. Cade lives in Nashville with his wife and two daughters, and Carson is right outside of Chattanooga. I’m sure you’ll meet both of them sometime, since Cade brings his girls at least a couple times a month, and Carson is around all the time. What about you? Do you have any siblings?”
“No, I was an only child. I used to beg my parents for a brother or sister, but it didn’t happen. I do have my best friend, Natasha. She’s like a sister to me, since we met when we were five and have been inseparable since then.”
“Is she back in Chicago?” I ask, heading toward the door to the building, unhooking the lock, and punching in the code to send the door up.
“Yeah, we have…” She pauses, shaking her head. “We did have a place together.”
“Are you going back?” My gut sinks at the idea of her leaving town and going back to Chicago. `
“I don’t know. If I do, it won’t be for a while.” She pulls her eyes off me. “My grandma isn’t doing so well, so I won’t leave her,” she states firmly.
I watch her pull in a breath as I fight the urge to tug her into me, to hold her and tell her everything will be okay, even if I’m lying to her in the process, just to get that look off her face.
“So your mom said there were some rules about this place,” she says once she’s gotten herself under control.
“Yeah.” I step inside the metal building and go over to the wall, pulling off the clipboard that’s always there.
“If you come here to do a pick-up, you mark off everything you take, always pull from the front, and always, always, make sure you lock up when you leave. Every month, Mom does a count and places an order so we don’t run out of anything.”
“That seems easy enough.”
“It is. We used to keep all this shit at the bar, but a few years ago, some kids broke in and stole everything, and I mean everything. Over thirty thousand dollars’ worth of liquor. No one knows about this place, not even the other waitresses and bartenders.” Which makes me wonder why Mom was showing her. Then again, I could tell my mom had a soft spot for Gia.
“Other waitresses?” she repeats.
“You’ll meet them both at some point. Dena works at the Rusty Rose and The Post, another bar in town. And Macie just works the Rusty Rose. They’re good people. You’ll get along with both of them.”
“Cool.”
“Any other questions?” I ask, stepping out of the building with her.
“Not right now.”
“Good.” I shut the door then head back to the car, with her following my lead. After getting in, I wait until she’s buckled up to pull off.
“Where are we going?” she asks a few minutes later when I pass the Rusty Rose and keep driving.
“I’m starved. I didn’t get a chance to have lunch.”
“I’m on the clock.” I hear the panic in her voice as she looks over her shoulder at the bar that is now a few hundred yards behind us.
“Me too.”
“I need to be at work when I’m on the clock, not out with you because you didn’t get lunch.”
“It won’t take long.”
“You cannot be serious,” she murmurs, and I turn to look at her. Seeing her worrying her lips, I press mine together so I don’t laugh.
Pulling into the parking lot for Ted’s Burgers and More, I park and get out then bend down to look at her in the car when she doesn’t move to get out. “Come on.”
“Come on? You’re not just running in and grabbing something?” she asks with wide eyes.
“Nope.” I slam the door, hearing her say something through the glass, then watch her jerk her seat belt out of the buckle and get out.
Stomping toward me, she shakes her head. “I can’t even call your mom and tell her what you’re doing because my phone is at the bar.”
“Ma will want me to eat.” I smile, placing my hand at the small of her back and leading her into the restaurant.
“You’re unbelievable.”
“Thanks,” I reply, and she lets out an audible huff of annoyance.
Spotting a table in the back, I lead her there then hold out her chair. It takes a few seconds, but she sits. Actually, she throws herself into the chair like I’m asking her to have lunch with the devil. Sitting down across from her, I don’t look at the menu on the table. I’ve been here so many times that I have it memorized.
“Do you know what you want?”
“I’m not eating. I’m going to keep my hands free so I can shove whatever food you order down your throat as quickly as possible so I can get out of here.”
“Pick something to eat, Gia,” I urge softly, and her eyes fly up to meet mine. “I’m not going to rush through lunch. The bar will be fine without us, mom and dad are both there.”
“You—”
“Please,” I say, and I can see the wheels in her head spinning.
“I don’t have my purse, and all I have in my pocket is five dollars.”
“You think I’d let you pay for our first date?” I ask, and her eyes widen and her body stills, even her breathing.
“This isn—”
“I’m kidding, Dimples. I got lunch. Order whatever you like,”
“Don’t call me Dimples.” She grumbles picking up the menu on the table.
“They’re cute.” I smile and I can tell she doesn’t know whether to yell at me or smile.
“Whatever.” She huffs dropping her eyes back to the menu. After that the waitress comes over and we place our order then sit there and eat lunch. It takes her a while to relax, but she eventually does. And when she does, I know I don’t want this to be the last meal I share with her.
CHAPTER 4
Up In Smoke
Gia
“SO YOU HAD LUNCH with him?” Natasha asks in my ear as I move around the kitchen, putting the leftover roast from dinner into a Tupperware container for tomorrow night’s tacos.
“Yeah.”
“And he joked about
it being your first date,” she repeats what I told her—or what I yelled into her voicemail—as soon as I got off work, since she didn’t answer when I called and I needed to tell someone, anyone, about what happened.
“Yeah,” I reply, feeling my stomach muscles tighten the same way they did when Colton joked about us being on our first date.
“And he’s hot?”
“Very.” I close my eyes and lean back against the counter, thinking hot doesn’t quiet cover what Colton is.
“So what’s the problem?” Opening my eyes, I look at Grandma sitting at the table, trying to put together a puzzle. I came here to take care of her and get to know her again. I didn’t come here to get my feelings mixed up in some guy with beautiful dark eyes and a great laugh.
“He’s my boss’s son,” I answer, and it sounds lame even to my own ears.
“So…” She lets that one word drag out.
Running my hand through my hair, I tip my head back to look up at the ceiling, wondering if the answer is there. “And—”
“Don’t do that,” she whispers, cutting me off, and my back goes straight. “You always do this with guys. You never give them a chance. You make up every excuse in the book to keep yourself distanced. Don’t do that now. I could hear it in your voice that you were excited, happy even. So don’t try to play this off as nothing. I love you. You’re my best friend. And as your best friend, I’m telling you not to let the fact that you’re afraid hold you back.”
“Nat—”
“Who knows what will happen? He might end up being a complete dick. But then again, he might not.”
“I don’t even know if he’s really into me.” And that’s the truth. I have no idea if he’s just being nice, or if he’s being nice and flirty because he likes me. I can’t read him.
“Only time will tell, honey. But if he is into you, then you need to be open to the idea of being into him.”
“I’ll try,” I promise, because I know she won’t give up until I do.
“Good. Now tell me how your grandma is doing. Did you get her an appointment?”
Lowering my voice, I say, “She’s okay, but she thinks I’m my mom, and most of the time I don’t have the heart to remind her who I really am. I got her an appointment for the day after tomorrow, so we’ll see what the doctors say then.”