CHAPTER TEN
Lance immediately noticed that Brynn wasn’t behind the bar when he came through the door. At least, he was fairly sure it wasn’t her…as long as she hadn’t cut her hair or gotten numerous, rather adventurous tattoos in the last twenty-four hours. Whoever the woman was manning the bar, she was doing a damned fine job from the looks of things.
It was evident that the evening crowd at the Cavern were growing in numbers as each night wore on, though it was still relatively early tonight in comparison to the after-dinner rush. Folks tended to arrive at their favorite drinking establishments after the working day was done and they’d packed away their evening meal. Considering the two-screen movie theater on Main Street had closed years ago and the nearest bowling alley was in the city, Tiny’s Cavern was about it when it came to adult entertainment.
Lance suddenly realized that Brynn must be doing an all-time record-breaking profit since the body was discovered and the reporters began to congregate here every evening, milling around while talking with the locals.
Loud conversations were in process, the smack of the balls on the two recently refurbished pool tables hinted at friendly wagers, and Chad Schaeffer was in his usual spot in front of the dart boards schilling the reporters who seemed to be all too willing marks. His partner was someone Lance didn’t recognize, but the man wasn’t here to mingle from the look in the guy’s eyes.
“Hey, have you seen Brynn?” Lance stopped a new waiter who was delivering a basket of butterflied shrimp and shoestring fries to one of the tables next to the Wurlitzer jukebox glowing in all its neon majesty. He was hoping this employee would know the answer to Brynn’s whereabouts. “I need to talk to her about something important.”
It was still relatively easy to hear the waiter’s response over the country music blaring from the multiple surround sound speakers that Brynn had installed. The same wouldn’t be true once the live band started to play tonight at twenty hundred hours since it was the opening Friday night of live entertainment.
It didn’t matter that most of the booking would be the local garage bands and budding artists just getting started in the music business. Brynn was stepping up her efforts to build her tavern into a hotspot that would draw people from the surrounding small towns.
Everyone around Blyth Lake had been talking about her business plan for the Cavern since well before he’d gotten home. Hell, even his brother had remarked on her improvements.
Lance’s high school girlfriend had grown into a real honest to God businesswoman.
“She’s in the office.”
Lance nodded his appreciation, but he didn’t look forward to trying to make it across the place when everyone and their father would want to talk to him about those damned pictures he’d found. Hell, he and his dad had spent most of their lunch fending off questions from the other patrons at the diner. That didn’t even account for the hour Lance and Noah had spent over at Calvin’s hardware store. They’d gotten the third degree from the gathering of elderly men from around town who hung out there playing dominos for a penny a point most afternoons.
Honestly, Lance was pretty sure he’d now spoken to every single living resident within the town’s limits since his return. That wouldn’t stop everyone here from trying to see if there were any new developments.
“Need an escort or a riot gun?”
Lance couldn’t help but smile and stick out his arm for the firm handshake only Tiny Phifer could give. The giant of a man had a death grip that could make a teenage boy piss himself in fear…which was the intended effect. Well, it appeared Lance hadn’t quite seen everyone since returning to town.
“It’s good to see you again, Tiny.” Lance wasn’t surprised when Tiny drew him in close with a slap on the back. “And seeing as you just read my mind, maybe you could clear a path. I was hoping to take Brynn out to dinner, but I’d rather it be earlier instead of closing time, which is how long it would take me to break a trail through this crowd.”
Lance figured it was in his best interest to be upfront with the man. After all, Tiny was the closest thing Brynn had to family. In all regards, Tiny was Brynn’s father. He’d taken her in after her parents had died, getting her through high school and even putting her through college. The man had been there through the toughest of times and regarded Brynn as the daughter he and Rose had never had in their younger years.
Lance and Tiny made their way across the main floor. No one ever bothered Tiny unless he purposefully stopped at their table to make small talk. His imposing presence prevented most interlopers from bothering either one of them. Lance felt the heavy stares of every individual, but he ignored them, as he had most of the day. There wasn’t anything else he could tell them that they didn’t already know. He wasn’t involved in the investigation, regardless that he’d found a stack of pictures that included a number of new potential victims.
“Lance, I don’t have to worry, do I?” Tiny’s meaning was all too clear. “You wouldn’t be stupid enough to hurt her again, would you?”
Lance hadn’t thought for a fraction of a second that he would make it to Brynn’s office without having a serious discussion with Tiny about his intentions. He respected Tiny for what he’d done to help Brynn and didn’t doubt the man would lay him out with one haymaker to the jaw if for one second Brynn’s emotions were on the line and Lance didn’t show her the appropriate level of respect.
“I’ll be honest with you.” Lance wouldn’t hold back from expressing his lack of confidence as to what the future held for them, considering her previous refusal to have dinner with him. “I truly didn’t realize how very much I’d missed Brynn until I saw her again recently. I’m having a hard time getting her to say yes to dinner, let alone anything more involved. You’ve known me since I was a boy, Tiny. I would never intentionally hurt Brynn, and she will always have my respect.”
“I understand that, but you hurt her all the same.”
The glaring truth hit Lance’s chest like a massive blow that could easily have knocked him into the wall if he hadn’t steadied himself. He hadn’t gotten off scot-free back then either, but she’d always expressed to him her support in the letters she wrote. He spent months half-believing that their break-up hadn’t affected her the way it had him, but then he’d remember their last kiss, and he’d known that wasn’t true.
“It was a tough time for both of us,” Lance acknowledged, unable to change the past. He honestly wasn’t sure he would if he was given the chance. His time in the Marines had shaped him into the man he was today, which was a far cry from the high school boy who’d left a young girl who held his heart back then and the town that would forever hold his childhood memories. “I can only say that I want to reconnect with my oldest best friend, get reacquainted with my family, and start fresh in my hometown. I spent time with Brynn last night, and it was the first time something clicked inside of me that I was finally home.”
Tiny nodded his understanding. At least, Lance thought his gesture was in understanding. He might be reading the situation completely wrong.
“She’s my little girl, Lance. It’s my job to look out for her. If you step out of line, I’ll have to put you down.”
“Understood.”
Lance held back from knocking on Brynn’s office door. He glanced back to the bar area, noticing the band was starting to set up for their live performance. Tiny was already deep in conversation with their road manager, but Lance didn’t doubt Brynn had already covered tonight’s song choices.
He’d always known that she would still be in Blyth Lake when he returned, though he honestly thought she’d be married and living on the edge of town in a two-story house with a white picket fence, raising a little girl who was her exact duplicate. There was never a time that he spoke to his parents over the years that he didn’t inquire about her and what life had been like for her.
Brynn had made it perfectly clear last night that she didn’t think they could reclaim what they’d had in high school. She’d been right even back then when she said waiting would not be a good option for them given the distance and the time they would spend apart.
It hadn’t been his intention to try and rekindle their relationship upon returning home. He sure as hell had enough priorities to occupy his time, but he’d held her in his arms last night. It was the first time he’d truly felt he was home since he’d gotten back from the war.
Granted, it was a reception that mirrored many of the other residents’ outward greetings.
Yet it wasn’t the same. His heart knew the difference.
“You know,” Brynn said the moment she swung open her office door, “I can see your shadow underneath the door. How long were you planning on standing out there?”
“Until I figured out how to get you to say yes to my dinner invitation.”
“Good luck with that.”
And just like that, Brynn closed the door in his face.
Lance was lucky he’d pulled back in the nick of time, or else he would have ended up with a broken nose and an unexpected trip to the hospital. He couldn’t help but smile at the fire she just sparked underneath him with the dare she’d laid out before him.
“I don’t need luck,” Lance announced, opening the door and crossing the threshold with a renewed sense of determination. “It’s actually pretty simple, really.”
“Oh yeah?” Brynn settled back into her office chair behind her desk, but the tilt of her head and the sparkle in those brown eyes of hers let him know that she was curious about his tactics. “And how is getting me to have dinner with you simple when I’ve already turned you down, Einstein?”
Lance took a moment to study her, though it was more to give himself time to back off this path he was currently considering launching himself down. It hadn’t been his intention to hurt her when they were younger, just as he would never deliberately do so now.
But what was so wrong with wanting to reconnect with her, whether it be a simple friendship or to maybe grow it into something more?
Brynn’s pretty pink lips parted as if she were going to say something, only to then close them after reconsideration. The desire to taste her was too strong to resist, and he slowly closed the distance between them.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Brynn stood up so abruptly that her chair rolled back into the wall. She held up a finger in warning. “You can stop right there, Lance Kendall. What are you up to?”
“It’s simple.” Lance did stop when he was mere inches from her. He’d always respected her wishes, and he would continue to do so. “Kiss me.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Kiss me. If you feel nothing, I’ll head to the bar to drown my sorrows, knowing we’ll only ever be friends from this moment on.” Lance noticed that Brynn stopped breathing, though he was relatively certain that was the start of the reaction he was looking for tonight. “If you feel even the slightest flicker of the flames that are currently burning inside of me, then I get to take you to dinner.”
“I could lie.”
“You wouldn’t. You can’t.”
“This is foolish.” Brynn finally took a deep breath, though he could hear the slight catch in her throat. She wasn’t immune to what was still between them, either. “We’re both adults who can make decisions without relying on our hormones to drive our actions.”
Lance remained where he was, maintaining his level stare, proving that he would wait for her acquiesce before kissing her.
“This is so ridiculous,” Brynn said rather impatiently after another minute had passed. Had she really thought he’d give up and walk away? “Fine. It won’t change anything.”
Lance smiled in victory, yet he would never let her know that he was trembling with anticipation. He’d thought of this moment for many, many years…and that epiphany alone suggested he’d subconsciously waited for her all these years.
He gradually stepped forward, never releasing her gaze.
“One kiss,” Lance murmured, slowly raising his hand so that he could cradle her beautiful face in his palm. He could literally feel her heart beating in time with his as he pulled her close to him. “I really have truly missed you, blondie.”
Lance didn’t give her time to respond. He closed his lips over hers, swearing that the sky had opened up overheard with an incredibly impressive fireworks show to rival the Fourth of July on the centennial. He wrapped one arm around her lower waist, needing something to balance them as they formed their bodies together for the first time since their youth.
How was it that she could still taste like fresh strawberries after all this time?
Lance didn’t bother to suppress a moan of satisfaction when the tip of her tongue barely traced over his lower lip. He couldn’t get enough of her. It was as if he were a newborn vampire with a thirst he just couldn’t quench.
“Hey, Brynn, the credit card machine isn’t—oh, shit! Sorry.”
Lance immediately dropped his hands and stepped back, not wanting Brynn to be caught in an awkward situation by one of her new employees. Talk about being doused with ice water at the exact wrong moment.
“It’s fine, Kristen.” Brynn leaned forward against the desk, giving him the slightest bit of satisfaction. Hell, he was using the wall for support. The woman who interrupted them was the same one who’d been bartending when he’d walked in earlier. “I’ll check to see if the Wi-Fi went down.”
“Thanks for that,” Kristen said rather sheepishly before she quickly took two steps back and closed the door.
Heavy silence hung in the air. Lance couldn’t prevent the previous tension from settling in his shoulders. Had she not been affected by their kiss? He sure as hell was still reeling from the distant past and current emotions slamming into one another.
“So, where are you taking me to dinner?”