Chapter 2 - Connor

Nothing had changed at all. It had been five years since I had left town, yet Paddy’s Pub looked exactly the same. Even the same regulars sat around the small circular tables in the place just like they used to when I had come before.

Paddy was behind the bar serving drinks and polishing glasses. He greeted me with a bear hug and a free beer. I sat down in front of him on a stool and chugged the beer down thirstily.

“What’s up with you, man? Someone said you left town for good?” Paddy asked, grabbing the damp rag off his shoulder to give his glasses a wipe.

“Moved to Texas. Bought a ranch,” I replied and grabbed myself another beer from the crate.

“And you’re just visiting now? Your mother threw another one of her posh parties?” Paddy laughed and I laughed along with him. This guy knew me from when it wasn’t even legal for me to be drinking. He’d seen me through bad times and could very well be the only positive presence for me in the Hamptons.

“Just like the good ol’ days,” I said and lifted my beer up in the air for a would-be toast.

I heard the door of the bar open and turned partially in my seat to have a look. I could only hope that it was Lewis, Jack, or one of the other guys walking in. As far as I knew, they were still in town and it would have been great to catch up with them. Instead, a woman had walked in. I nearly choked on my beer.

When was the last time a woman had that effect on me? But this one was perfect. Big breasts stretching the material of her thin cotton t-shirt, a slim curvaceous waist, and dark jeans hanging low, revealing a flat strip of belly. My gaze travelled up towards her face and, for a moment, she looked familiar. Luscious dark hair fell down in waves around her shoulders and framed a slender heart-shaped face. Her deep green eyes surveyed the bar – presumably for an empty table. When she saw one, she walked towards it, a hand clutching the strap of her purse on her shoulder.

She weaved around the tables in the bar, and I saw heads turn. A sudden feeling of jealousy coursed through my veins. How dare they look at her? I’d seen her first!

“Paddy, the usual!” she called out from her table by the window, and I whipped around to him, my brows furrowing with curiosity.

“Who is that?” I asked while he prepared a gin and tonic.

“You don’t recognize her? Lesley Evans, man!” Paddy said, and then, with a grin on his face, he walked around the bar to carry the drink to the girl’s table.

For a few moments, I didn’t think I’d heard him right. Lesley Evans? The neighbor’s kid I used to babysit? The family whose money I . . . 

I shook my head to rid myself of those thoughts. Paddy was walking back towards the bar, and I chanced a look at her again. I tried calculating how old she could be now . . . She was at least ten years younger than me . . . So, twenty-four?

“That’s Lesley Evans?” I asked Paddy again, trying to sound as calm and natural as possible. He smirked as he polished some more glasses.

“Didn’t you, like, babysit her or something? I thought you guys were friends,” he said casually while I gulped down some more of the beer. Even though I wasn’t looking at her now, the sight of those breasts, the curves of her hips, her arched plump lips . . . It was all fresh in my mind. I shouldn’t have been thinking about her like that. She was like a sister to me when we were growing up.

“Yeah, kinda . . . Not really friends. Her family lived next to us. That’s all,” I told him. Paddy clucked his tongue and shook his head as he worked.

“It’s a shame what happened to them, though,” he said and I felt my throat run dry. I had a pretty good idea what happened to them, but I needed confirmation.

“What happened to them?”

“They lost all their money. Bad investments or something. They had to sell the house and move into a small, cramped apartment. The poor girl had to give up her college fund to sustain the family,” Paddy continued. I couldn’t stop tapping my feet on the floor.

“College fund?”

“Yeah, she was preparing for law school. Got into one of those Ivy League ones, too, but they couldn’t afford it. Now she works mornings at some diner on the Highway and at a gas station at night,” Paddy said. I ran a hand through my hair.

Nobody knew anything about what those bad investments were. I could have bet a million dollars that Lesley’s dad hadn’t told his family about the scheme I devised for him. It would have been too shameful to admit to being duped by a twenty-eight-year-old guy. A neighbor whom he trusted and relied upon. I thought I was having fun. I thought I was taking risks and being a big guy. When the Evans family went bankrupt, I didn’t bat an eyelid. I had my own shit to worry about . . . Natalia and Alfie . . . Now, hearing about what Lesley was going through made me shift uncomfortably in my seat.

I was responsible for everything.

“Shit happens to good people, doesn’t it?” Paddy’s voice cut through my thoughts and I quickly emptied the bottle of beer down my throat.

Why did Lesley Evans have to grow up and look like this? Now my brain and cock were at war with each other, and I wasn’t sure whose side to take.