The Hot New Bartender in Town (Welcome to Kiss County #3)

Chapter 9

9

RILEY

W ell, this sucks.

I expected tonight to play out differently. I thought dinner would be awkward, which... it was. But not you-just-slept-with-your-new-stepsister awkward.

Married, Dad? Really?

As much as I’ll probably dwell on that later, I throw my focus toward the pretty girl sitting across from me now.

Tish Travis.

I’ve been looking forward to this since I kissed her goodbye this morning. And I had plans . We’d share a drink. Get a little flirty. Maybe a little handsy. Then, downstairs we’d go again, and we’d continue where we left off.

Now... well...

My plans haven’t exactly changed.

Tish, however.

She’s not gazing at me across the table, her pretty eyes bright with booze. She’s sitting back, her drink barely touched, her arms crossed defensively. Eye contact comes sparingly. A wrinkle has formed between her eyebrows.

“Tish,” I say, my voice soft beneath the hum of the surrounding crowd.

She glances over at me. For the slightest of moments, the girl I met last night looks back at me, but then she’s gone again. “Huh?” she asks. “Sorry, I’m just...”

“Shocked?”

“Yeah,” she says, the word a squeak in her throat. “Sort of. Should we tell them?”

“Tell who?”

“Our parents.”

“About what?”

“About…”

“Last night?” I ask.

She nods.

“No.” I shrug. “Why would we?”

“I don’t know.” She leans forward, collapsing her elbows onto the table. “Shit, I don’t know what I’m thinking. Ignore me.”

I smile. As if I could. As if anyone could look away from a girl as beautiful as she is. Especially after they’ve heard her sing. Heard her laugh. After they’ve tasted her.

“Tish,” I say. “Look at me.”

She tilts up, but keeps the bottom half of her face obscured behind her hands.

“It’s going to be okay,” I say. “You know that, right?”

That adorable wrinkle forms once again between her brows. “Is it?” she asks.

I nod. “We had sex last night.”

She jolts in her seat, her eyes darting for eavesdroppers. “Riley,” she scolds.

“It was hot, incredible sex between two consenting adults,” I continue. “Nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I’m not ashamed.”

“We didn’t know. How could we have known? They chose to not tell us until now. So, really, this is their fault.”

She snorts, showing that cute smile.

I lean forward, wanting it to stay a little longer. “You’re well within your rights to freak out,” I say. “I am, too. Believe me, I am. But it doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

Tish lowers her hands. “It doesn’t?”

I shake my head. “Look, if you want me to, I’ll back off. I’ll move on. But I told you this morning that I wanted to see you again, and I meant it. I still do.”

She briefly closes her eyes, her shoulders sinking a bit. “I hate this,” she whispers.

“So do I.”

“It’s stupid that I even feel this way. It was just a one-night stand, for god’s sake. I barely even know you!”

“You know plenty.”

“I didn’t even know your real name last night.”

“My name is Riley,” I say.

“Your name is Richard,” she says.

“My dad’s sex trophy is named Richard. My name is Riley. I’ve never gone by Richard in my life.”

“Okay, your name is Riley,” she says. “You’re a bartender. You play guitar. You grew up in Pleasant Place.”

“See? You know a lot.”

“That’s nothing.”

“Well, what else do you want to know?” I ask. “Ask me anything.”

Tish eyes me as she sits back, her arms crossing over her chest. “Why did you drop out of school?” she asks.

“Hated it,” I answer.

“What’d you hate about it?”

“Everything.”

She cants her head.

“Everything,” I repeat. “The classes were bullshit. The other students were assholes. I was only there because my father wanted me there and I wasn’t about to torture myself to make him happy, so I left.”

“What’s your mother think?”

“She’s dead.”

Tish blinks. “Oh.”

“It happened a long time ago,” I add as her face fills with sympathy. “Don’t sweat it.”

It takes a moment for the pain to leave her eyes. When it does, she nods and takes a sip from her drink. “What’s your dad do?” she asks.

“I told you. He writes code for some software company.”

“Why did he need a decorator? My mother said he was a client of hers. She’s an interior designer. So, why did he need a decorator?”

I think a moment. “His company just moved offices,” I consider. “Maybe they hired her to spruce the place up. I don’t know. Ask him.”

Tish stares at me again, her pretty blue eyes soft with more questions. “What did you and your father say when we left the room earlier?” she asks.

I shrug. “He asked what I thought. I told him it wasn’t any of my business what he does.”

Tish cracks a smile. “Damn.”

“What?”

“It’s just… your relationship with your dad seems way different from mine with my mother.”

“We weren’t always like this,” I say, staring at the table between us. “Some families just aren’t meant to stay together forever.”

She lets that sit for a second, then her head tilts slightly. “What do you think?” she asks. “About the wedding, I mean.”

I pause, letting my answer pass through a filter or two before reaching my throat. “I think it really fucking sucks,” I answer.

“Yeah.” Tish nods. “So do I.”

A silence drifts between us, broken only by the various sounds throughout the bar. Other people laughing. The old jukebox. The crash of billiard balls slamming against each other.

As I reach for my glass, Tish snatches her off the table, too. She tosses the rest of her drink back in a single gulp and slams the empty glass back on the table.

“You’re right,” she says. “This really fucking sucks.”

“Yeah, it does,” I say.

“And yeah!” Her voice rises suddenly. “It’s their fault!”

I pound the table once with my fist. “That’s right!”

“A little warning would have been nice.”

“Very nice.”

“I mean, if I had known we’d only have one night, I’d have...”

Her mouth closes fast, and she sits back in her chair.

“You would have what?” I ask, desperate to hear the rest of it.

She hesitates, a touch of blush filling her cheeks. “Nothing,” she says.

I smile. “If I had known we only had one night,” I say, “I would have done a whole lot more.”

A roar of laughter across the bar makes Tish flinch. She shakes it off, then her eyes drift back to me. “Me, too,” she says, barely above a whisper.

“Yeah?”

“Well, yeah. I mean…” She shrugs noncommittally. “If you know you’re only going to be at the Kiss County Fair for a single night, you’re gonna make an effort to go on all the rides, right?”

“Right.”

“So, you know…” She presses her lips together. “If we had known, then obviously we’d have spent more time in certain areas of the park.”

“What are we talking about here?” I joke. “The Carousel or the Tilt-A-Whirl?”

“Bumper cars,” she says, smirking. “The kind without seat belts.”

“Nice.”

“Not that it matters.” She sits back, looks down. “We just had one night.”

“Did we?” I ask, these words slipping right through all my filters.

“Yes,” Tish says. “Our parents are getting married, Riley.”

“Not yet. We still have two days to get this out of our systems before forever holding our peace.”

She frowns, but it softens quickly. “You’re not serious.”

“Oh, I am.”

“We shouldn’t,” she says, fiddling with her empty glass. “I mean, what if we do this again and…”

She goes quiet, but I know what she was about to say.

What if we do this again and… it’s still not enough?

I extend a hand across the table. I rest it on her wrist, her fingers stiff against her glass. “I think it’s worth a try,” I say, my fingertips sparking from the contact, from the undeniable connection we share. “Don’t you?”

Tish doesn’t move. Only her chest rises and falls, her eyes locked on our hands. Moments pass by in a blur; people around us talking and laughing and fading by.

Just as I’m about to admit defeat and pull my hand back, Tish nods.

“Okay,” she says.

My fingers flinch. “Okay?”

She pushes the empty glass away. “Okay,” she says, her eyes full of resolve. “Let’s do it. Let’s get this out of our systems.”

Oh, damn.

I move to stand and get the hell out of here immediately. “All right,” I say. “Let’s go.”

“But...” Tish says, stopping me. “We have to agree — right now — that no matter what happens, it’s just tonight.” She locks eyes with me, staring hard. “When morning comes, we’re...”

“Family.”

I expect a grimace of some sort, but she nods. “Yes,” she says. “We’re family.”

I nod as well, fully in agreement. In theory, anyway.

Who knows how I’ll really feel in the morning?

Tonight, I just want her.