“ . . .inspector walk-through is tomorrow . . .”

I was only half paying attention to our unofficial partners meeting as we went down the seemingly endless list of things we had to do before the bar opened.

The problem was that my mind was somewhere else. Specifically, it was stuck replaying a brief yet amazing moment that I had shared with a near stranger in an ATM vestibule a few nights before. A stranger who had ditched me without exchanging numbers, haunted my dreams with the memory of her lush, full mouth, and then unexpectedly shown up on the doorstep of our soon-to-be-opened bar yesterday.

Fate was a tricky minx, and she was really fucking with me right now, it seemed.

Because the timing for all of this couldn’t have been worse.

I was all for the perusal of gorgeous women. And I had done my fair share of said perusal in the past. The same went for my friends, especially Chase, who sat across the table from me, most likely texting his latest hookup to arrange tonight’s plans.

But while Chase was all about the one-night stand, all about the casual hook-up, I was much more of the serial monogamy type. I wasn’t looking to settle down, but I did like to get to know a woman before jumping into bed with her. I also liked to get to know her afterwards. I wanted to know what she liked, what she didn’t, and I especially wanted to know what turned her on. I was a fan of finding the right buttons and knowing exactly in what order to push them.

But it was also the last thing in the world I had time for right now. The bar was the priority. It needed to be a success, not just because we were depending on it financially, but all of us had something to prove—myself especially.

Which is why I needed to focus my attention on my to-do list instead of imagining how hot it might have been to fuck Alex against the very wall across from me. Because from the way she had reacted to my kiss in the ATM vestibule the other night, I could tell that she would be very, very receptive.

Ahem.

I dragged my attention back to the list. “We should probably scout out the neighborhood watering holes,” I spoke up. “Knowing our competition will allow us to better see what needs aren’t being filled and how best we can fill them.”

My mind was definitely focused on needs being filled (as well as other things) but it had absolutely nothing to do with the bar.

“I don’t think we’re going to have any problems on the weekend,” our finance guy-slash-business strategist Liam spoke up. “We got lucky with this location—tons of businesses within walking distance, but we’re the closest bar by far. But weekdays are always where a bar can make it or break it. We need to be busy all week. That means finding creative ways to get people to come in after work. Happy hour is great, but we should see if we can up the ante. Do something unique.”

He paused and looked around the room. Chase was still texting. Sawyer, the resident contractor/architect, let out a yawn. Dante hadn’t even shown up. And me? My mind was still doing dirty things back in that ATM vestibule.

Liam sighed.

“Maybe we should just call it a night.”

“Sorry, man,” Sawyer apologized. “I think we’re all just a little distracted.”

“I’m working,” Chase argued, holding up a hand but not looking up from his phone. “This is work.”

Liam rolled his eyes. The two of them could not have been more different, but that’s what made us all work. Where Liam was the strong and silent type, Chase was impulsive and charming.

“Are we at least on schedule with the build-out?” I asked Sawyer. Construction was his domain. Well, anything with a tool-kit. He had a studio making hand-crafted furniture, the kind hipsters ate up.

He nodded. “The bar looks great, just a few finishing details.”

“We’ll have our first signature ale ready for the opening,” Chase chimed in, before frowning at his phone. “Once I can get the recipe right.”

This time I was the one who rolled my eyes. Chase was probably one of the most chill people I knew—except when it came to alcohol. Then he was a savant. An obsessive savant. An annoying, obsessive savant. He had been talking about this signature ale of his for months now, but none of us had seen the results of all his labor.

“The mysterious ale.” Liam’s comment echoed my thoughts. “I think often of that ale. And how it doesn’t exist.”

“But it will!” Chase insisted.

Liam shook his head. “I’m going to head out.”

“I left some paperwork on the desk,” I tell them all. “I need it signed by tomorrow.”

He nodded. All five of us—Chase, Sawyer, Liam, Dante and myself—had an equal share of the bar, but I was the one who would be managing it. That meant I’d probably be living in that office for the first few months the bar was open.

Still, nothing could dampen my enthusiasm. We had talked about making this place a reality for so many years, and even though we were so close to opening, I still couldn’t believe that it was happening. I wasn’t even sure I would truly believe it until we started pulling a profit. Until we were a success.

The others headed out, leaving me alone with Chase. And his phone.

“I’m going to go check on that paperwork.” I pushed back from the table.

“Want me to bring me the latest brew from the back?” Chase asked.

“I suppose it’s too much to ask if it’s the ale,” I joked.

“It’s an IPA.” Chase gave me a look. “You know the ale is special.”

“So you’ve told me,” I reminded him. “So you’ve told all of us. Yet, we’ve seen no proof that this ale is anything more than just a dream.”

“It’s a dream like the bar was a dream,” Chase countered.

“So the ale is going to take five years, several hundreds of thousands of dollars, and possibly put all of us into crippling debt?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Chase responded. “But it will be worth it.”

I walked around the table, headed for my office, but before I could leave the room, Chase’s arm shot out, stopping me. For such a laid-back guy, he had pretty damn good reflexes.

“So.” He leaned back in his chair casually, his napkin apparently forgotten. “How’d it go with our hot neighbor?”

I should have known that Chase would have noticed Alex’s aforementioned hotness. I felt an unusual twinge of jealousy. It wasn’t something I was used to. Chase was my friend, basically my brother. I would take a bullet for him. So why was I getting angry at the thought of him checking out Alex, a girl I barely knew?

I tried to play it cool.

“Our neighbor?” I asked casually.

“She lives upstairs, doesn’t she?”

“I guess so.” I shrugged. “She just wanted to complain about the noise.”

“Yeah, I got that much.” Chase laced his fingers over his chest and gave me a look. “What did you say?”

“That we were finishing construction soon, but we would be open late, so she might have to get used to a different kind of noise,” I told him.

Her face had definitely fallen when I had given her that information, which had given me a twinge of guilt. I felt bad that we might contribute to an unpleasant living situation, but there wasn’t much that I could do about it. The bar was our dream and I couldn’t let guilty feelings for a girl I barely knew get in the way of that.

She hadn’t stuck around long after I’d told her that. Not that I could blame her. The whole thing was a little awkward. Incredibly hot, but definitely awkward. It had been especially hard—hard being the word—to stand that close to her and not be able to touch her. Everything about her had been touchable.

Unlike the night in the vestibule, when she had been the literal definition of buttoned up, yesterday, she had been in jeans and a sweater, her gorgeous blonde hair down and silky around her shoulders. I remembered how it had felt in my hands, and my fingers itched to touch her again.

“You like her!” Chase’s proclamation startled me out of my daydream.

I blinked at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He scoffed. “Please. I had my suspicions, but the dopey dreamy look on your face right now totally gave it away.”

“You had your suspicions yesterday?” I demanded. “You weren’t even in the same room as us!”

“I was watching from the backroom,” Chase told me, looking entirely too pleased for someone who had basically just admitted to spying. “The tension was so thick that I was practically choking on it.”

“I barely know her,” I objected.

“But you know her enough,” Chase confirmed.

It annoyed me that he could see through me so quickly. But the boy knew two things: women and beer. And he was basically an expert in both.

“For the record, I totally approve.” Chase stood and clapped me on the shoulder. “She’s got some fire to her. I like fire.”

“So you go after her,” I snapped, not meaning it at all.

Chase laughed. “Yeah, no thanks. I don’t have a suicide wish.” He grinned at me. “Besides, you know our rules. We don’t go after each other’s girls.”

Thank God for the bro code.

“She’s not my girl,” I insisted.

“Not yet,” Chase teased and left the room.

I thought for a moment about following him and arguing my case—that Alex and I didn’t know each other, that I didn’t have time for romance, of any kind, and that getting involved with someone who lived in the same building where our bar was could not have been a more terrible idea—but instead, I just retreated to my office to deal with the paperwork that Sawyer had left me. Alex was a distraction that I needed to be distracted from, not the other way around.

I managed to lose myself in work for a good hour. It was exactly the kind of reminder I needed about what was important right now. This bar had been a dream for so long and now it was a reality. Well, almost a reality.

As I was going over Liam’s projections for the first month, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Pulling it out, I checked the incoming number.

It was my parents. I stared at the screen for a moment and then sent the call straight to voicemail. That was another distraction I didn’t have time for. Especially now.

My phone buzzed again, indicating that they had left a voicemail. I ignored it. At least, I tried to. When I found that I was reading over the same five lines without retaining any of it, I decided I needed a break.

I left my phone in the office—that little red light indicating that I had a message seemed to taunt me—and went searching for Chase and some of his amazing drinks. Instead, I found a familiar dark blonde figure seated at the bar, surrounded by a pile of paperwork not unlike the pile I had left behind in my office.

“What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?” I asked Alex as I slid onto the stool next to her.

She glanced up at me, and even though she frowned, I was pleased to see that there was a slight flush in her cheeks.

“If the noise bothers you in your apartment, I imagine its ten times worse here,” I observed.

I had gotten used to the chaos that was construction. Even though we were almost ready to open, there were still a million tiny things that the contractors needed to do before the doors could be opened. So there were still hammers going, still power saws going. It was a noisy mess, but it was our noisy mess.

“I’ve decided that it’s easier to ignore the noise when you’re right in the middle of it,” Alex told me.

I then noticed that she had a pint in front of her.

“I’m guessing the beer helps too,” I observed.

“You’d be right about that.” She raised her glass. “Your not-employee gave it to me. Said he made it.”

“He did.” I was pleased that she didn’t seemed to know Chase’s name yet.

“Well, make sure to give him my compliments.” She took a long drink.

As she did, I noticed that although she was undeniably gorgeous, it was pretty clear that she was exhausted as well—there were circles under her eyes and a deep crease between her brows.

That guilty feeling from yesterday returned.

“Is that all you’re having for dinner?” I asked.

She lifted a shoulder. “I’m sure I’ve got some ramen somewhere in my kitchen.”

I shook my head. “Absolutely not,” I told her, ducking under the bar.

Without waiting for her to respond, I headed into the kitchen—the one part of the place that was actually finished. I rummaged through the cabinets. Though all the gear was in place, we hadn’t really stocked it yet. But, I had the right ingredients for a grilled cheese sandwich—mainly because I spent most of my own dinners here and grilled cheese was about the extent of my culinary abilities.

I whipped up two of my signature sandwiches, plated them, and poured myself a pint of beer. When I returned to the bar, I found Alex focused once again on her work. I couldn’t help peering over her shoulder, trying to figure out more about her. She intrigued me. Probably because she had told me so little about herself.

“So.” I slid a plate over to her. “You’re a lawyer.”

I knew enough about law and lawyers to recognize the kind of work she was doing. Also, the long hours, working on the weekend, and the suit she had been wearing the first night I saw her all pointed in the same direction.

She lifted her head. “Did you guess that?” she asked, eyebrow raised. “Or did you cheat?”

“I totally cheated,” I confirmed before taking a bite of my sandwich and gesturing for her to do the same. “Though I would have figured it out eventually.”

“Sure you would have,” Alex responded, pushing aside her paperwork to take the grilled cheese.

Even though I wasn’t a culinary genius, I still watched as she took a bite. It was the rare person that didn’t appreciate the beauty of melted cheese and crispy buttery bread.

Alex’s eyes fluttered closed as she chewed, her face relaxing for a moment as she savored the food. It was electric, watching her take pleasure in something.

Fuck. She was hot.

She ate with vigor, barely stopping to take a sip of beer in between bites. When she was finished, there was a little bit of cheese stuck on her bottom lip. I wanted nothing more than to kiss it off of her, but instead, I held out a napkin and gestured towards her mouth.

She wiped it off, looking a little sheepish.

“Guess I was hungry,” she said, looking down at her empty plate.

I had only gotten in a few bites of half of my own sandwich, so I immediately slid the other half towards her.

“Oh, I couldn’t,” she argued, but I could see that she was starving.

“I’m not really hungry,” I lied. I was hungry, but it wasn’t for grilled cheese.

She eagerly took the other half of the sandwich, taking a little more time with this one.

“This is really good,” she told me. “Are you the chef here?”

I laughed. “You’ve just witnessed the extent of my culinary skills,” I said.

“Well, I thoroughly approve.” Alex took another bite. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” I couldn’t stop looking at her.

She had been gorgeous that first night we met—her hair tied up in some fancy bun, her suit fitting perfectly to her slender curves—but I found that I preferred this Alex. The one with her hair down, a cozy sweater, and a pair of snug jeans that fit her curves just right.

“So if you’re not the chef, what do you do here?” Alex wanted to know, finishing up her grilled cheese and taking a long drink of Chase’s IPA.

“I’m the manager,” I told her. “My nights probably look a lot like yours.” I gestured towards the stacks of work around her. “Lots of paperwork.”

“I bet your paperwork is far more interesting than mine,” Alex said wryly.

“Depends,” I teased. “Just how interesting do you consider time cards and beer orders?”

“Extremely interesting,” Alex teased, a smile curving her lush lips.

And what a smile it was. It was hard to look at it and not want to coax a full-blown grin out of her. But, as friendly as she was being, I was also getting a very clear “keep away” vibe.

I understood. We were strangers, and she was clearly someone who had a very demanding job—one that she was obviously dedicated to. No doubt the noise coming from our bar for the past few days had contributed to her exhaustion, and though I would have liked nothing more than to pull her into my arms and kiss her, it looked like she needed a good night’s rest far more than she needed a good night’s kiss.

“I should go,” she said, confirming my suspicions.

I nodded, standing when she did.

“You’re always welcome to come work here,” I told her.

She glanced around. “I’m pretty sure you guys are a little out of my price range.”

I made a mental note of that—I was interested in the kind of first impressions we were giving out. We wanted to be upscale, but not exclusive. Maybe we needed to make the place look a little more approachable.

“First beer is always on me,” I told her, the offer out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

Alex looked surprised. “Thank you,” she said.

“And thanks again,” she said. “For the grilled cheese.”

“Anytime,” I told her.

I watched her leave, unable to pull my eyes away from the way her jeans perfectly cupped her amazing heart-shaped ass. It was only after she was gone that I realized exactly how noisy the bar still was. I looked at my watch. It was after ten. Usually, the contractors would work until at least midnight—we paid them well for it—but tonight I was less worried about the bar’s timeline and more concerned about a certain blonde’s ability to sleep.

“OK guys, finish up!” I found myself calling. “We’re taking an early night tonight.”

When the bar was quiet and empty, I poured myself another pint and thought of Alex, only a few floors away—so close and so tempting. It took everything I had not to head upstairs and try to finish the kiss we had started a few days ago. Instead, I sat at the bar and finished my drink.