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It would have been the first of many dates, and I would have asked for another as I paid for our bill. She would have smiled and nodded, excited at the thought of seeing me again, and that’s why I wouldn’t have kissed her when I finally dropped her off at home, even though every single part of me would have been dying for a taste of her. No, our first kiss would have happened on our second date. The minute she opened the door, I would have started date two with a kiss, instead of ending it with one.
“Ryan!”
Frank’s deep voice cut through my thoughts like a pesky gnat, and I blinked before meeting his eyes.
“Stop yelling,” I said with a groan.
“What the hell planet are you on?”
“Same as yours, unfortunately.”
Yeah, I was snippy, irritated because the night I’d envisioned had evaporated before my eyes. Sofia had left, and she didn’t even say good-bye.
“What’s the matter with you? You were fine ten minutes ago.” Frank leaned toward one of our customers, listening to his order as he waiting for my response.
“Ten minutes ago, Sofia was still here,” I muttered.
Frank’s head shot up. “Sofia? The girl? She was here?”
“Sofia’s here?” Nick sauntered over carrying two beers. “Here you go, man.” He handed the glasses off to a guy and took his credit card.
“She was. But she’s gone now.”
“Where’d she go?” Nick asked.
“I don’t know.” I knew I sounded irritated, but they were asking me questions I didn’t have the answer to.
Frank gripped my shoulder before he hit it twice. “She’ll be back,” he said with an encouraging smile, and I wanted to believe him.
“Out of the way, ladies and gentlemen.” Nick glanced toward the door and his voice rose above the din of the crowd. “The most beautiful woman in the world has entered the bar.”
He excused himself as he made his way through the crowd to his blond-haired girlfriend who stood in the center of the room, her cheeks a bright red. It happened every time Jess came into the bar. Nick made a spectacle out of her arrival, and she blushed to her hairline as the crowd parted around her to watch the show.
Even in my sour mood, I couldn’t help but smile as he grabbed her and kissed her like he hadn’t seen her in months. My little brother loved his girl like she made the moon and stars shine in the night sky. He had been an idiot when it came to her initially, but he’d made damn certain that his days of making stupid mistakes in their relationship were over. They had some huge hurdles to get over, but once they did, they never looked back. Since then, they’d been solid, respectful and kind to each other. They had the kind of relationship that people in their early twenties aspired to, but had no idea how to make happen. Yet there they were, showing the rest of us up and making it look easy.
Once Nick stepped away from Jess, he kissed her on the cheek and then smacked her ass. She jumped, looking around the room until her eyes met mine. She gave me a wave and a big smile before I pointed at a table near the social-media wall. Jess craned her neck to see where I was pointing, and when she caught sight of Claudia, Frank’s girlfriend, at the table with her best friend, Britney, she slipped through the crowd to join them.
“You want me to make her drink, or you got it?” I asked Nick when he made his way back behind the bar.
He shrugged. “Go for it. You make them better.”
As I mixed Jess’s favorite, a No Bad Days, I asked, “Frank, are Claudia and Britney good, or do they need another?”
He shrugged and headed for the girls’ table to find out. Claudia beamed at her man as he neared, and that familiar pang of envy hit me all over again. My brothers both had standout women, and I couldn’t even get the one I wanted to talk to me.
Finishing up Jess’s vodka cocktail, I swirled an orange peel around the rim of the glass and looked up at Frank as he slipped back behind the bar.
“Britney and Claudia both want an Adios Pantalones,” he said.
“I bet they do,” I teased, biting back a laugh as Frank’s jaw ticked.
My joking that his girlfriend wanted me always sent Frank over the edge. He had a bit of a jealous side that I’d never seen before he started dating her. I couldn’t help but wonder if Claudia’s Colombian temper had rubbed off on him, or if there was something about being with the right girl that triggered us men. Whatever it was, it made me laugh.
“Just make the drinks,” he growled, and I moved Jess’s drink near the back register so it wouldn’t spill or be handed off to someone else.
“I’ll take another one of those stupid guy drinks,” Grant’s rough voice bit out, and I immediately perked up, looking past him for Sofia. “She’s not here,” he said, answering my question before I could ask it.
“Where is she?” I asked, curious why he had come back without her.
