Chapter 5
With Gambler leashed at his side, Zane strode up the path to the library entrance. It was a pleasing one-story building, nestled in trees, with dark gray-shingled siding, a deep porch, and double doors painted bright red. Around the back, he knew, was a patio with benches then a rolling stretch of grass that was often used by patrons in the summer.
Today, the cloudless sky promised that particular season might actually arrive soon. Zane took the blue overhead and the warmth of the sun on his shoulders as a good omen. There was going to be a way out of the corner he’d backed himself into with Harper.
He only needed to turn off his stupid switch.
It had been flipped to the On position one other time, when he was training in Fort Knox, Kentucky. A beautiful Southern belle had led him around by the nose for a time, and he’d been smitten by Lucy’s soft drawl, her fancy high heels, even the way she complained about his big hands creasing her dress or messing with her hairstyle when they necked in her daddy’s front parlor.
He’d bought her gifts he couldn’t afford and arranged lavish dates that she’d seemed to enjoy—and think her due. Looking back, she hadn’t so much played hard to get, but hard to get to know, and his dumb young self had been hooked by the feminine mystery of her, big time.
After an intense couple of months, knowing deployment was in the offing, he’d gone down on one knee with a ring in his hand.
That’s when he found out that while he was good enough to date, to kiss, to accept presents from, he was also too big, too loud, and too rough for her to consider as husband material.
Really, she’d said, for any woman to consider husband material.
A lady wanted a gentleman who had a finer side.
Pushing away the unpleasant memory, Zane slid his hand into his pocket. The bookmark was there, that little thing he’d never quite managed to get back to Harper yet. But so was a tube of liniment.
A friend would provide that, because he guessed that today her muscles had to be stiff and sore.
Though he didn’t know what he was going to do about that rash promise to be her trainer, which would mean way too much togetherness, today’s friendly gesture he could make—and hope any second now his smart switch would flip.
As he and his dog reached the entrance, an older lady stepped out. He almost groaned aloud, but instead pasted on a smile. “Hi, Hildie.”
The silver-haired woman lifted both arms in welcome, causing the sleeves of her striped caftan to flare out like bat wings. Gambler instantly dove between Zane’s legs, his ninety pounds cowering there.
Add another item to the Terror List—Hildie’s wacky wardrobe.
“Zane,” she said now, completely ignoring the dog who was emitting tiny whines and hiding his face against his owner’s jeans. “I’ve just met the pretty new librarian.”
Yeah, and since she didn’t have any books in hand, he figured Eagle Ridge’s biggest gossip had gone into the building for just that very purpose.
Hildie Fontana owned and operated “Hildie’s House,” a pink cottage filled with white elephants—at least that’s what the knickknacks and “antiques” appeared to be in Zane’s eyes. Mostly she used it as a place from which she held court, dispensing chocolate chip cookies all day long as well as giving out and taking in the local gossip.
“I hear you and Harper are an item,” Hildie continued.
He stifled another groan. “We’re, uh, just friends.”
The old woman tittered, as he’d known she would, proving true what he’d told Harper the day before—Eagle’s Ridge had coupled them up and demurs and denials wouldn’t do a lick of good.
Despite the fact that he was no good for the pretty new librarian.
“She seems very nice,” Hildie said. “I think you’ll do well together.”
We broke up. The three words gathered on his tongue, prompted by the suggestion Harper had made the day before. But for the life of him, he couldn’t push them out. Damn.
Hildie grasped her skirts in each hand and lifted her hem to continue on her way. “You should come by the shop, dear boy, I have a fresh batch of cookies in the jar.”
“The last time I stopped in, I broke a vase and the chair I sat in collapsed underneath me.”
She laughed. “Your handsome company’s worth much more than a few broken things.”
Touched, Zane turned to kiss her cheek as she passed. “Maybe you could be my girl.”
On another little giggle, she pushed at his chest. “You’ve already got one of those,” she said, her gaze shifting over his shoulder.
He turned back to see Harper standing in the open doorway, and his optimistic mood fled.
There was no cloudless sky, no sunshine on his shoulders.
Summer was a long, long way off.
Because looking at her, instantly feeling that pull she had over him, he knew he was stuck on stupid. Maybe indefinitely.
Today, she wore a soft sweater set, like girls from the 1950s or something, in a pale blue with pearl buttons. On the bottom was a full black skirt and little black flats. Her hair was pulled from her face and clipped at the back of her neck.
She looked proper and tidy and his hands itched to mess her up.
And not in a friendly sort of way.
Her hand lifted in a small wave. “Hi, Zane.”
“Hey, buddy,” he said, trying to look at her like a pal instead of like Gambler at a steak bone. “I, uh, brought you something.”
Her head tilted. “A present for me?”
And screw him, how he wished he had flowers or candy or some little trinket for her, something to warrant that pleased expression on her face. “Yeah,” he said gruffly, withdrawing the tube from his pocket. “Liniment for your muscles.”
“Oh.” Her pleased expression didn’t drop. She moved forward, taking it from his hand.
“It’s odorless,” he said. “I wouldn’t get you the stinky kind.”
I wouldn’t get you the stinky kind. Good God, could he sound more graceless?
But she beamed at him anyway. “That’s nice of you. I did wake up a little sore this morning.”
“Yeah, and it will only get worse until you go on another run.”
“Good advice. I’ll go out again tomorrow afternoon.”
“There’s a nice jogging trail in the park at the east end of Sentinel Bridge.” He didn’t offer to partner on that, and she didn’t seem to notice.
Instead, her head remained bent over the liniment, so her eyes were hidden by her long, feathery lashes. “This is so sweet and thoughtful.”
Nice. Sweet. Thoughtful.
Hell. She could not get the wrong idea about him. That just wouldn’t do.
He gritted his teeth, then forced his jaw to relax. “Buddy.”
She glanced up.
“Buddy,” he said again. “I’m not sweet. Or nice. Or thoughtful.”
Her head did that cute tilt again.
“I’m a guy. A rough-around-the-edges, sometimes ill-mannered, belching kind of guy.”
Her mouth pursed as if she was holding back a laugh. “I don’t think you belch.”
“I did when I was twelve. The entire alphabet.” When she truly laughed this time, he gazed on her with some exasperation. “What I’m trying to say is…is…maybe I am a leopard. And leopards don’t change their spots.”
“Are you trying to tell me you could still burp the alphabet?”
“If I wanted to.” And why that came out surly, he didn’t know.
“Well, anyway, I have to get back to work,” Harper said. Coming closer, close enough that he could smell the fragrance of her hair, she popped onto her tiptoes.
Her lips brushed his cheek.
And even at that delicate touch, lust surged. “Harper,” he groaned, his hands flexing.
Then the distinctive whirr of a skateboard’s wheels on asphalt sounded and Gambler, forgotten during his owner’s conversation with the pretty, distracting, tempting librarian, bolted, his leash slipping from Zane’s loosened hold.
“Gambler!” he yelled, lunging after the fleeing animal. “Gambler, get back here!”
The dog’s scamper didn’t slow as he rounded the corner of the library building.
“Oh, no,” Harper called from behind him. They were both in hot pursuit now. “There are kids back there.”
Bad. Very bad. Zane didn’t think the canine would actually bite anyone, but he might easily knock a child over or scare someone into a stroke. Pumping his arms, he sped around the side of the library.
On the patio, on the grass. Kids.
Kids…and more dogs?
He stopped, his breath moving harshly in and out of his lungs, and stared. Harper came up beside him, she was panting too, but he didn’t look at her.
The sight in front of him was impossible to look away from.
On a patch of grass, shaded by a tree, a little girl stood in pink tights, a pink-and-blue polka dot dress, with miniscule sneakers on her feet. And at them sat a very calm, very alert yellow Lab.
“Is that someone else’s dog?” he wondered aloud.
“I think he’s yours,” Harper said, her voice low.
Zane began to move forward again, back in rescue mode, but she caught his arm. “Don’t rush.”
“What’s going on?” he asked, glancing over at her.
“This is our Kids Reading to Dogs program,” she whispered.
Of course it was, because about a dozen small kids sat about, with about an equal number of attentive canines beside them—though one kid had a rabbit in a basket. All the animals seemed content to be read to from the books in the children’s hands.
“My predecessor started looking into it before she left, and I followed through with the idea. Studies show children’s reading skills really improve when they have a non-judgmental ear.”
Zane’s gaze slid back to Gambler. He might be leaning against the little girl’s legs now. “Maybe you should go get my dog. I might scare that kid.”
He felt Harper’s gaze on him. “You wouldn’t scare a kid.”
“I wouldn’t mean to, but I often seem to anyway.”
Shaking her head, the librarian moved past him and to a stack of books on a nearby table. After selecting a few, she moved toward the kid-Gambler pair. A small blanket was spread on the grass nearby.
Zane followed at a cautious distance, arriving in time to hear Harper say in her soft voice, “Bella, this is Gambler. Would you like to read him a book?”
Zane nearly lost his mind. Yeah, the dog might be having a moment of calm, but any second now his Zen could be broken by bubble wrap or a frog sighting. “Uh…” He put his hand on Harper’s shoulder. “Do you think—”
“I think you should sit down right here, Zane, on the corner of the blanket so you can leave enough room for Bella and her reading partner.”
The kid didn’t say a word, but she did plop onto the blanket and Gambler instantly settled within reaching distance, his head on his front paws, his big browns trained on Bella’s face. Without knowing what else to do, Zane took his own place as directed by the librarian.
And then he just watched. In amazement.
He didn’t know what astounded him more, to see that the tiny kid could read, actually read—she couldn’t be more than four or five, could she?—or that his undisciplined, unpredictable dog remained frozen in place, apparently listening.
It was as if Gambler had found his purpose.
Harper bent to whisper in his ear. “Bella’s new to the program. This is her first time and she seemed very shy upon arrival. We also didn’t have enough dogs to go around today, so this works out well.”
Something involving Gambler was working out well!
Still dumbfounded, as Harper wandered away Zane remained in the shade of that tree and watched magic happen. The child’s hand creeped out and as she read she began to pet the dog’s head and play with his ears. The sight of those little fingers topped with pink glittery polish did something to Zane. Never one for keeping still for long, not since he’d won the battle with asthma anyway, now he found himself staying as motionless as his pet, unwilling to intrude by word or deed into the surprising interlude.
The girl’s sweet small voice washed over him, and he and Gambler listened intently, still unmoving, even as she picked up a second book, and then a third.
Finally, a little bell rang and Zane came back to himself as if from a dream. Harper stood on the patio, all smiles. “Thank you for coming to today’s program, boys and girls,” she said. “If you want to go inside now, there’s punch and cookies in the children’s section and you’ll meet your parents there. The dogs and the bunny will stay outside and be collected by their owners.”
Kids began getting to their feet, including Bella, who stacked up the books she’d read and handed them to Zane. Then, to his bemusement, she kissed the top of Gambler’s head and followed that up by sliding her tiny hand in his.
“Happy to make your acquaintance,” she said, as polite as any mini-adult could be. “I’m Bella.”
“Zane,” he said, more bemused and equally beguiled.
She continued to hold his hand. “Could I read to your dog again someday?”
“He seems to like the way you tell a story,” he answered, nodding.
Her face broke into a smile sure to slay hearts. Zane felt his own take a blow.
Then Harper was strolling toward them, a man at her heels. He didn’t look at the other guy, because he could only see the librarian’s face, the soft expression overcoming it as she took him in, Bella’s hand still in his big paw.
God, the librarian was pretty.
And she wasn’t looking at him like he was a big, loud, rough guy. No, she was looking at him like he was a hero.
Shit.
Still, whatever spell listening to Bella’s voice had cast over him, the shine in Harper’s eyes intensified it. The new calm settled more deeply over him and he felt his usual need to do, to move, ebb further away. He thought he could spend the rest of his life looking into the librarian’s lovely face. His chest began to ache, like someone was prying open his ribs, except the hurt didn’t exactly hurt, it—
“Leopards and spots,” Harper murmured.
Killed. That look in her gray eyes was killing him.
“Bella,” a male voice said.
Both the girl and Zane jerked their heads to the dark-haired man who’d halted just beside the librarian. Damn, if it wasn’t another of his old friends come back to Eagle’s Ridge. And though he was obviously fighting fit, Zane noticed right away that something heavy hung on the SEAL’s broad shoulders.
“Uncle Noah!” Bella flung herself at him.
Noah stood frozen in her embrace, then his hand finally lifted to touch the child’s silky hair. “I wasn’t sure you’d recognize me.”
The little girl stared up at him, her arms still wrapped around his waist. “We look at your picture every night. Mommy and me pray for you to come home safe.”
A pained expression crossed Noah’s face. “That’s sweet of you. I think of you guys too.”
“Are you home to stay?” Bella asked. “Mommy wants you back here with us.”
“Right now I’m here to take you home to your mom. Did you, um, have a fun morning?”
Bella let go of her uncle in order to point at the dog. “I read to Gambler. He belongs to that man. That man is Zane.”
“I know Zane.” Still without a smile, Noah held out his hand. “Z, how are you?”
“I’m good.” Better than my old friend, Zane thought. “When did you get into town?”
“Just today.” He glanced over at his young relative, shadows in his eyes. “Today I’m helping out my cousin Lainey. This is her little girl.”
“Ah,” Zane said. He knew that Lainey was a widow and had been raised like a sister to Noah. Clearly something was up to bring the Navy SEAL back here from his DC digs. “And your cousin needs your help because…”
“Reasons why aren’t great.”
“Can we give you a reprieve from them this evening then?” Zane asked. “Can you get free to meet up at Baldie’s tonight? We’ll have beer and greasy bar food. Share some laughs.”
At Noah’s nod, Zane slid his phone from his pocket. “Ryder’s around. Adam, too. Wyatt as well. I’ll text them right now. Six o’clock.”
“Sounds good.” The other man hauled in a breath and looked over at the little girl as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do with her. “You ready to leave, Bella?”
She agreed, placing her hand into her uncle’s. Zane gathered his dog’s leash. “Gambler and I will walk you two out, if you don’t mind going around the side of the library instead of straight through.”
The pair proceeded to follow his plan, then Zane proved his stupid was still on, full-strength, because as they moved off, he looked back at Harper. She was flitting about the patio straightening up, like some kind of book fairy in that full skirt, little flats, pearl buttons.
Noah glanced that way too, then at Zane. A brief smile twitched the corners of his mouth, and for a moment he looked more like the teen Zane had spent so many hours with in high school detention. “View around Eagle’s Ridge is improving.”
It’s my view, Zane thought.
But he stopped himself from claiming that aloud. Just barely.
Still, he chanced a second last look at her.
A breeze had come up, plastering her skirt to her thighs, delineating the lithe muscles he’d had his hands on the night before. He could feel her smooth, warm skin on his palms even now and couldn’t believe he’d managed not to drag her to his floor, strip her completely bare, then sample all that proper and tidy and sweet, from the top of her head to her smallest toe.
Lingering, of course, in the hottest, wettest of places. Gorging himself on her scent and on her taste.
Because he really was a beast of sorts, a man with rough edges and with exhaustive appetites.
Appetites that might frighten her. That might overwhelm her.
That might break her.
So he had to figure out a way to keep her safe from all that he wanted from her, because as deep as that went, it wouldn’t be what she needed and he didn’t have anything more than right now and rowdy times to offer.
And everything about the pretty librarian still screamed forever.
Zane looked forward to a night with the guys. Spending time with his old friends and his brother without any distracting women around would remind him of exactly who he was—and what he couldn’t be. Pushing open the door to Baldie’s, a dimly lit roadhouse of a place that had neon beer signs on the walls and an impressive list of craft beers and a just as unimpressive list of call liquors, he breathed in the pleasing scents of spilled brew and a deep fryer at work.
Behind Baldie’s bar no blender could be found, but you could order greasy chow from the kitchen guaranteed to forestall a morning-after hangover. The cheese fries were a locally known cure for the common cold.
As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he noted that he was the first of his party to arrive. It made sense he was early, because he was that eager to kick back and just be Zane—uncomplicated in his tastes and his lifestyle. A man who operated a business and didn’t get into other people’s. A guy who’d talk all night about the team’s chances for a play-off berth but didn’t want to talk about anything deeper. Certainly not about anybody’s feelings.
He strode inside, looking for a couple of tables to pull together, and saw his father seated at the bar. His posture, curved over his beer so low that his nose nearly dipped into the skim of foam at the top, didn’t appear to be the pose of a man relaxing with a brew on a Saturday night.
Zane hesitated a second, then crossed to him on a sigh, taking the stool beside the older man. “Hey, Dad.”
Sam looked over. “Son.”
“I’ve got the dog in the family. And I happen to know he’s at home, perfectly fine, presumably gnawing on the nylon bone I just bought him, or more likely, one of my shoes. So it can’t be that.”
His father’s brows drew together. “Come again?”
“My dog’s in good health, Dad, not run over, like your expression might lead other people to believe.”
A half-smile lifted the corners of his dad’s lips. Sam Tucker was a good-looking man, everyone said so, with his salt and pepper hair and chiseled features. But that smile didn’t make it to his blue eyes tonight. “I’m fine.”
Zane glanced around, first checking out the score of the game on the overhead TV. Nothing to be sad about there. The TV on the left wall showed a beer commercial that included several busty ladies, again not something to dampen his dad’s mood. Then he looked to his right, and spied a lone woman at one of the tables.
Oh.
“Brenda’s here,” he said.
Sam slid his eyes in that direction and his face once more settled into a frown. “I saw her.”
“Maybe you should join forces,” Zane suggested. “You’re not usually a drinking-alone kind of man.”
“I don’t know what I am,” Sam muttered. “And I certainly don’t know who Brenda is any longer.”
Great. Zane cleared his throat. “Maybe you should, I don’t know, go over there, get to know her again.”
“I’m supposed to already know her!” Sam said, his voice heated. “I’ve known her longer than you’ve been alive!”
Zane winced. “Maybe you’re a little unbalanced because of the news about Mom—”
“This has nothing to do with your mother,” his father ground out. “Absolutely zilch.”
Holding up both hands, Zane slid off his stool and onto his feet. “Okay, okay.”
“I’m here to meet Pete,” Sam continued. “But I saw Brenda, stopped to ask if she would like some company.”
“Okay.”
“She said no. She said she’s meeting someone.”
From the sour expression on his father’s face, Zane assumed his dad thought she was meeting a man—one of those online daters most likely.
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “And she said it in a very, very kind tone of voice.”
“That witch,” Zane said mildly.
“She’s not been kind to me lately,” Sam muttered, his gaze returning to his beer. “We do better when we’re not talking.”
Not going to touch that one, Zane thought. “Okay, well, Dad, I’ve got my own group to meet—”
“What the heck is going on?” Sam demanded. “Your sister finds a man, your brother finds a woman, Brenda’s dating. Why can’t things be like they used to be?”
Zane could sympathize, of course. “I know how you feel.” The bar’s door opened and Noah walked in. Zane lifted a hand, started in his direction, then leaned back toward Sam.
“If it makes it any better, Dad, I’m planning on being your crusty ol’ bachelor son until the day I die. Ready and somewhat willing to spoon feed you and Grandpa Max porridge and strained peas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
At his father’s reluctant chuckle, Zane left him to his beer and low mood.
He waved Noah to a table and put in for a pitcher of beer and some of those cheese fries with the server who bopped up. She was a cute thing, with dark hair cut short as a boy’s but Zane’s old friend glowered at her retreating form.
“How old do you think she is?” Noah asked.
“Uh, twenty-two? Twenty-three?”
“Bella’s going to be twenty-two someday. But before that it’s going to be years and years of pink ribbons and glitter pens and making sure some horny boy doesn’t get in her head and mess with her chances to be the Secretary-General of the United Nations or the CEO of her own Fortune 500 company, or, best yet, the doctor who finds the final cure for cancer.”
“Okay.”
“She’s really smart, Zane.” His friend forked his hand through his hair. “Whip smart. That can’t go to waste.”
“Of course not,” he murmured. And he’d seen for himself the little girl’s accelerated reading skills.
Conversation halted as the beer and the cheese fries were delivered. Neither seemed to improve his old friend’s temperament. Zane took a long swallow of beer then found he couldn’t stand the strained look on Noah’s face any longer.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Lainey, man, she’s like a sister to me.”
“I know.” Zane swallowed more beer.
“And she’s really got no one else in the world but me.” Noah pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.
“Okay.”
His friend hauled in a deep breath. “She’s been diagnosed with cancer. The prognosis isn’t good. It isn’t good at all.”
“Shit.” Zane thought of cute little Bella, already fatherless. “I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”
“Noah shook his head. “I’m thinking about coming back. Returning to Eagle’s Ridge for good.”
“What the hell?” A new voice pushed into the discussion. Wyatt Chandler clapped Noah on the shoulder and then dropped into the chair beside him. “Did I just hear that? You’re leaving your team?”
Noah bent his head, studied his beer. “There comes a time.”
Wyatt’s face closed down. “Yeah. Can’t argue with that.”
Then Noah shared with their other friend the situation he was facing. “Damn,” Wyatt said, and poured himself a beer from the pitcher and nearly downed the thing in one glug. “So you’re getting out.”
“There comes a time,” Noah repeated.
Hell, what it was time for, was to get this party started, Zane thought, looking at his two glum buddies. Hadn’t he promised they’d share some laughs?
Life could kick you in the teeth, that was sure, but tonight was supposed to be about letting go and having fun. For himself, Zane wanted to recall who he was before people in his family started going moon-eyed. Before his dog knocked over the local librarian and one look at her had knocked Zane off-kilter.
His attention turned from his friends as the door of Baldie’s opened again. A couple of men entered together, but neither part of their expected group.
Zane glanced at his buddies. “What’ll you bet my brother’s the last of us to arrive and he’ll have his cell to his ear, still talking to his woman when he walks in?”
Noah’s gaze shot to Zane’s. “Adam’s got a woman?”
“He’s whipped and wrapped.”
For the first time, the other man’s mouth stretched into a familiar grin that brought back old memories, old fun. “Last man in, phone to his ear, his woman on the other end, you say?”
“Ten bucks if I’m wrong.”
Noah frowned. “You know I don’t like to bet money.”
Zane thought of the other man’s prowess with everything mechanical and automotive. “Change my oil then, if I’m right.”
“Done.” They slapped palms on it.
Ten minutes later, the mood at the table had elevated. Ryder arrived, and then finally Adam, his phone to his ear as predicted. Zane snatched the device from his brother before he could sit down and said into it, “Jane?” His suspicions confirmed, he grinned. “It’s Jane.”
Noah shook his head. “Whipped and wrapped, who would have thought it?”
General, good-natured bull-shitting ensued after that. Then they talked about Wyatt’s grandmother and Noah’s new plan to return home—including the why of it.
That sobered the group again, but the SEAL was cheered when Adam mentioned that a local business, Nuts and Bolts Auto Repair, was for sale. It had been around for decades and serviced everything from farm trucks to Mercedes. The trusted shop could make a man a good living. Noah nodded, looking lighter by the minute.
Next they placed a call to Jack Carter, another member of their detention “club,” and a former Marine. Now living in Seattle, Jack hadn’t been back to town in who knew how long. He’d been expected to return for Founders’ Day in March and had been a no show. Now his fellow detention detainees decided he needed to get some shit for being so out of touch.
As the phone was passed around, Zane half-listened to his buddies razzing their old friend and stretched out his legs and relaxed in his seat, for the first time in too long feeling comfortable in his life and in his own skin. So his sister and his brother went spinning off into true coupledom. Maybe his dad was having some sort of parallel mid-life crisis with the woman who was really more like a mom to Zane than the one he had. But he was now at Baldie’s, beer and cheese fries making friendly in his belly and warding off germs, and all was right with his world.
He let his gaze roam the room skipping over his dad now shoulder-to-shoulder with Pete. Zane’s aim was to avoid Brenda, he didn’t need a glimpse of her online dater, no way, but a flick of movement from that direction caught his eye.
His head jerked. His eyes narrowed on another table occupied by another woman. “She’s over there having a drink,” he said out loud. “At Baldie’s of all low-life places.”
It interrupted the flow of conversation that had started up after his buddies had ended the call with Jack. The others gathered around the table looked to Zane.
“This isn’t a low-life place,” Ryder protested. “I’m here.”
“Too low-life for her,” Zane muttered, ignoring the other man’s joke and nodding in the direction of the table where Harper Grace sat, her long, dark honey hair swirling around her shoulders encased in that sweet, 1950s-style sweater. She’d exchanged the skirt for a pair of black, skinny-leg pants and instead of the flats, she wore high-heels, three inches of them, that had pointy toes and looked to be fashioned out of some black, snakeskin leather.
“Man, Miss Woody is still a looker,” Wyatt said. “I can’t get over it.”
Zane blinked. Oh. Oh, yeah. Sitting across from Harper was none other than their former high school teacher.
Adam’s lips twitched. “Zane’s not looking at Miss Woody.”
“Yeah?” Noah turned his head, took a gander. “Oh, the librarian. I thought there was something happening between you two today, Zane.”
“Huh,” Wyatt said. “She’s not your usual type, Z. You go for the good-time girls. She looks like just a good girl.”
Zane glared at him. “We’re only friends.”
His brother snickered. “Really?”
We broke up. He thought of saying it, he really did, but like when he’d spoken to Hildie earlier in the day, the words wouldn’t come out of his mouth.
Forcing his gaze away from Harper, he topped off his beer mug from the new pitcher they’d ordered.
“So, what else is new, Wyatt?” he asked. “You gotta line on that exciting new career you’re after? Grizzly wrestling, wasn’t it?”
His friend ignored the banter, his gaze elsewhere. “There goes Miss Woody. Over to the bar. Now Augie’s got her cornered.”
“Augie?” Adam craned his neck. “That suck-up. He drooled around her all through high school, cleaning her erasers and shit. He can’t imagine he has a chance with her now, can he?”
Wyatt spoke up again. “Zane, your girl is alone. Looking a little uneasy.”
Because she was better than this damn, low-life bar. But he wasn’t going to look. He was going to stay right here and enjoy being Zane Tucker, Confirmed Bachelor Man.
Noah’s attention had been snagged too. “Andy Smerkman, as I live and breathe.”
Smerkman. The man kept turning up like a bad penny.
“Looks like he’s clocked your girl,” Noah said.
“What?”
“Yeah. He’s starting to prowl in her direction. A total Smerkman move, by the way. Lone woman, new to town, Smerkman’s moving in.”
His jaw tight, Zane stared into his full beer. All remained right with his world, right here, damn it. With his buddies. Drinking brew.
“Bet you can’t sit on your ass for the rest of that beer,” Adam said, his voice sly.
“Sure I can.” Without another thought, Zane downed the contents of his mug, slammed it on the table, and shot to his feet.
“Twenty says you’ll wake up in that woman’s—I’m sorry, your friend’s—bed in the morning.”
“Forty says I won’t,” Zane bit out, and then he was gone.