Chapter 5

Jeremy

"Look. Just get through it, and I promise you, we'll sit down and talk to momma together soon, okay?" My sister's voice should have been calming, but it wasn't.

My mother had decided to set me up on another fucking blind date and didn't tell me until the poor girl was already sitting at the table in the middle of the restaurant. The only reason I decided to go, besides the fact that I wasn't a total dick, was that it was at the Blackhouse Grille. The thought of walking in and reconnecting with little Bailey Wright had my mood not diving deep into the dumpster.

"This is fucked up. You're single for God's sakes. Why the hell isn't she setting you up? You're older! If we were in a foreign country, you'd be deemed damaged goods right now!" I barked playfully into the phone.

"Watch it, cockhead. Go in there and tell the girl that you're happy to be there. Tell her that your genital herpes have flared up, and you just didn't think you were going to make it." Nina barely made it through her last few words due to her incessant laughter.

"Ha. Ha. Fuck you too." I leaned back in my seat and breathed in deeply through my nose as the phone beeped in my ear. "Someone is trying to call."

"Well, it's the girl or momma. Check." She laughed harder.

"I hate you sometimes." I pulled the phone from my ear to see it was my mother. "It's Mom."

"Be nice. You know all she has is us."

"She's about to just have you and your damaged goods ass." I smiled. "I'll call you later. Thanks for keeping Austin on short notice."

"No worries, but we're going to my house. He likes the pool, and your place is booooring."

"Thanks." I flipped the call over, closed my eyes and answered. "Hey, Mom."

"Jeremy. Are you at the restaurant? Bethel called and said that Tazzy hadn't seen you yet."

"I was running late from work, Mother. You know a little bit of notice would be good. You literally informed me that I would be having dinner with Tazzy (I shuddered at the poor girl's name) about thirty minutes ago. I fight fires for a living."

"You're the captain. Don't try and pull anything over on me. I'm your mother."

"I'm going into the restaurant now. I'm going to come see you soon. I want this to end."

"What? Me trying to help you find a mother for my only grandson? It's been two years, Jeremy. It's time to move on. It's not fair to Austin or you. It's not fair to any of us."

"I'm sorry my wife dying isn't fair to anyone." Anger burned through me, crippling my resolve to get out of the car and tell Tazzy about my herpes or lack thereof. I'd have loved to pull it off just to get a good laugh out of Nina later.

"Jeremy Mitchell Bennett. Don't you dare throw this back on me or on Laila. Don't."

I swallowed and reached for the door. "I'm going into the restaurant. This is the last time I'm doing this for a while. Got it?"

"Fine. If you don't want my help, then you'll not get it."

"Good night, Mom." I dropped the call, put the fucking phone on silent and walked toward the old Grille. The place was a piece of shit, and one I rarely visited, but it looked better. Cleaner.

After locking the truck, I walked in and stopped short. "Shit."

The place looked brand new. Like someone had come in and cleaned it up from floor to ceiling. It was nice. Beyond nice.

"Hi, Sir. Table for one?" A young guy at the hostess stand gave me a warm smile.

"No. Meeting someone named Tazzy." I stared at him instead of looking around.

"Do you want to mosey around and see if you see her?"

"Nope. Blind date thanks to my meddling mother." I turned my attention up toward the bar. The girl working the counter had her back to me, but the long brown braid that touched the top of her ass caught my attention. I loved a woman who kept her hair up for the world and let it down for me. Laila always had short hair, but I begged her into long hair a few times much to my pleasure and her pain.

The girl had narrow shoulders and a tiny waist, but the swell of her hips was fucking hot.

"I'll find the girl. Thanks." I waved the young guy off and walked toward the bar. I wanted a good look at the bartender. No fucking way she was Bailey, but I could have a few well-hidden fantasies. My eyes moved down to the swell of the girl’s ass in her tight black slacks, and I stifled a groan. Those hips and thighs, a big ass and long hair. Fuck me. She started to turn toward the bar, and I cut off to the left. No need to get myself into trouble with some random woman I wanted to see naked and nothing more.

My cock grew thick and hard in my jeans, which was fucked up. I made a beeline to the bathroom and walked in as someone called out my name. Tazzy most likely. I ignored her and closed the door behind me in the stall.

"Chill the fuck out." Pressing my hand to the front of my jeans, I wrapped my fingers around my erection and tried to catch my breath. It was a good-looking woman from behind. No biggie. She probably looked like a man from the front. Yeah. A lumberjack with a beard and shit. For sure. Hairy armpits and a bushy mound and...

"There." I breathed in deeply as my arousal faded into oblivion. The last thing I wanted to do was to admit to myself that I was a little turned on at the thought of the girl being Rhys's little sister all grown up. She had no clue, but I remembered the way she looked at me when I'd gone home from college with Rhys for his folk's fortieth wedding anniversary. I was twenty-two and she was sixteen. No fucking way I'd get near her, but I could almost sense the desire rolling off her.

Hormones. It had been puberty for sure. Girls didn't hit puberty until sixteen or seventeen. Right?

I ran my fingers through my hair and forced myself into a calmer demeanor. Just because Rhys's little sister was somewhere in the restaurant and she had the hots for me years ago didn't mean shit.

I was damaged goods. Not my sister like she often teased about. I was torn and broken and fucked up beyond repair. Hell, I didn't want to be repaired.

"Let it go. Idiot." I splashed water on my face and patted myself dry with a paper towel. I studied myself in the mirror and growled. I was getting older, and uglier. The hard days and nights of fighting fires were wearing on me. I had laugh lines and forehead lines and lines on the side of my eyes. "Stupid."

I was caught by surprise as I walked out of the bathroom and almost ran over a small, frail looking girl with wild red hair and big blue eyes.

"Jeremy?" She smiled, and rows of braces smiled back at me.

No, the fuck my mother didn't set me up with a high school junior.

"Um. Tazzy?" I forced a smile.

"Wow. You are so good looking. I knew you were a firefighter and stuff, but dayum." She lifted her hands in the air and danced a little like an old-time rapper. This shit wasn't happening. Surely I was going to wake up any fucking minute in a pool of my sweat.

"Thanks." I glanced around as my pulse spiked. This young pre-pubescent girl was supposed to be my date? Holy shit.

"Hey. I'm twenty-eight. I just never developed really well." She smiled and snorted.

My eyes widened. "Hey look. I hate to do this, but I just went into the bathroom and checked my shit, and my herpes are all flared up. It's really ugly down there. And the shit itches."

She gave me an odd look and glanced down to my dick and back up to me. "Wow. You sure? Do you need some cream or something?"

"I need a rain check." I shrugged and tried to look much nicer than I was. "That okay? Tazzy-girl?"

"Oh yeah. Sure." She gave me a sweet smile. "Let's do this weekend if you're feeling better. Maybe we can have dinner at my place." Another cheesy ass smile. "I can rub some cream on you if you need me to."

"Sounds like heaven." I winked, turned and walked into the bathroom in horror. My sister was going to have a fucking field day with that one. "You've got to be kidding me. How do I keep getting pulled into these ridiculous situations?"

I gave myself a few more minutes to make sure Tazzy was good and gone before going out. She was nowhere in sight as I walked out of the bathroom and let out a sigh of relief.

"Herpes? Really?" The pretty girl from the bar walked by, her voice soft and sexy.

"Hey. I had to make it about me. Come on." I turned and followed her. My eyes moved down to that fine ass again, and I could almost picture myself on my knees, my face pressed to it, my tongue fucking her as deep and as fast as she'd let me. "She would have thought it was about her."

"She knows it's about her." The girl turned the corner and walked into the back of the bar before turning to face me.

Her dark hair was pulled back in the sexy-ass braid, but little pieces of it flew out from around her beautiful face. It took me a minute to remember how to fucking talk. Her nose was cute as a button, her lips soft looking and a muted pink. The wisdom and playfulness in her light green eyes left my dick swelling again. Little freckles danced across her nose, and her cheeks were pink like her lips.

"God damn, woman." I pressed my hands to the bar and leaned in a little, still miles away from where I wanted to be. Her tits were perky and big enough to fill up my hands, which was all I needed. She had me wishing for far more than I should have been wishing for. It had been forever since I'd felt anything that powerful, that intoxicating. "You are so incredibly fine. Please tell me you're married."

"Try it on someone else, Jeremy. It's not happening here, buddy." She smiled, and realization washed over me. "No ring. I'm not interested."

"Bailey?" I dropped down in the seat next to me as my cock poked me in the stomach. I shifted uncomfortably and tried to keep my attention on her face. She wasn't a little girl anymore, and fuck me if she wasn't the best looking woman in all of New Hampshire. "Rhys told me you'd come up this way."

"Yeah?" She reached for a rag and wiped down the bar. "I wanted to start a new life, you know... one where my family wasn't at the very center of it."

"You have a great family." I wanted to get up and hug her, to pull her against me for so many reasons. Just seeing her and knowing who she was softened me. Rhys was my best friend, and outside of my little boy, he was all I had left to remember Laila by. The memories the three of us had together got me through some of the toughest shit imaginable, and yet, Bailey felt the same to me. Like having my wife and my best friend right in front of me.

"Hey. You okay?" Her voice softened as she walked around the counter to stand next to me.

My knuckles were white as I gripped the bar, and my breathing was all over the fucking place. I nodded. "Yeah. Sorry. Just so many memories of your brother and my wife."

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Jer." She reached out and squeezed my shoulder tightly. "I heard you have a little guy."

"I do." I pulled myself together fast and stood. "My mother keeps setting me up on these fucking dates."

She laughed, and the room brightened a little. "I don't have that problem. Just an overprotective brother that wouldn't let me date even if I wanted to."

"So no boyfriend, hm?" I slipped my hands into my pockets and studied her. I wanted to see that same desire she'd had as a girl when she looked at me, but it wasn't there. Not that I could tell.

"No." She smiled and walked back around the bar. "Well, I gotta get back to work, and from what I can tell," She paused and looked around, "the coast is clear for you."

I laughed and stood there for a second more. "It's good to see you, Bailey. You look real good. All grown up."

"That happens when you blink a few times." She winked at me and turned her back to me. "See you around."

"Yeah. You will." I turned and walked to the front door of the restaurant. What a strange turn of events.

It wasn't her that had lust in her eyes when she looked at me.

It was me this time, looking at her.