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“Lyric, yes.”She was Isla Barron’s best friend.Hopefully far enough removed from Liam’s drama to not make tonight awkward.Kelsey was the school librarian, and it’d be good to see Marion again, to talk when we weren’t working.“Sounds fun.”
“Only if we do it right.”She practically bounced next to me.
I was less than two years older than Aspen, but the gap could just as well have been ten years.Twenty, even.Yet her enthusiasm wound around me and eased the tension of feeling like a blunt stick in a pile of needles.Next to her, people wouldn’t wonder what the hell I was doing here.I would be one of the girls.
I hoped.
Inside, the space was lighter than I’d expected.Large windows let in the summer sun, still high enough to keep from glaring through the glass into diners’ eyes.The wood beams soaring along the ceiling and the wooden accents lining the bar and trimming out the walls were a light shade of brown…almost gray, but trendy.
Rattler’s Brewhaus had opened a few years ago.I had been here on a date night with Derek once.We’d planned to go again.
I sucked in a breath and concentrated on not meeting anyone’s eyes.Aspen told the hostess there’d be five of us.We were led to seats at a bar-height table in the bar section.
Marion appeared at our side and gave both Aspen and me small hugs.“Hi, ladies.I wasn’t sure I’d make it on time.Dermot asked what was for supper, and that started a small argument.”The older woman shook her head as she climbed onto a tall chair.“Like, seriously.When did asking someone to marry you mean that they have to decide what’s for supper for the next forty years?”
Other people would tense around me when someone made a comment like that, but Marion and I had worked together for months.She was comfortable with me.A gift I’d never have the guts to thank her for.
Shortly after we ordered drinks, Kelsey rushed in with tales about her daughter’s fast-pitch game.I’d had her daughter in school, and now she was going into ninth grade.High school.The last time I’d really talked to Kelsey, we’d discussed her kid’s transition to middle school.
I’d been away from work for a year, but I had missed a lot more than a paycheck.
Lyric arrived, also looking different than I’d last seen her.Purple streaks in her brunette hair gave her an edge that hadn’t been there before she’d left for college.She wore a deep red bustier top with cap sleeves and skintight white capris.Maybe I needed to get a few tips from her on how to dress in more than classroom-approved clothing.
“When’d you move back to town?”I asked.
Lyric grinned.Her dimples took away her edginess and made her cute.“I finished college last year and there was an opening in the lab.I graduated and moved right back home.”
Last year.I used to see Lyric at all the Barron family functions.Where Isla went, Lyric followed.She’d returned to Coal Haven a year ago.
Another reminder of how much I’d missed.
Conversation revolved around work, the activities that Kelsey’s kids were in, Marion’s grandkids, and Lyric’s job.Tension slowly drained out of me.This was no different from the break room at work.People left me alone, knowingly or unknowingly, waiting for me to speak about what I was comfortable with.
Isla’s older brother, Stetson, entered the restaurant.I was friendly enough with him.He was big and had resting asshole face, but he broke into easy smiles and cracked jokes.He resembled his father, but I’d heard Bruce comment once that Stetson was the spitting image of his and Cameron’s dad.Ink-black hair.Hard, dark eyes, and deeply bronzed skin.When he saw me, his brows lifted.
I gave him a little nod, afraid I hadI’m sleeping with Liamtattooed on my forehead.The last thing I wanted while beginning to navigate my new life was to have the Barrons involve themselves in my relationship.
Stetson was closer to Evander’s age than Derek’s.Thirty-three.He’d been at all the combined Barron family functions.Liam had never been at those events, so I’d never seen the side of Stetson that was a dick to Liam.Mostly he pretended Liam didn’t exist.
Stetson wove through the bar, nodding and waving at what seemed like every table.People in Coal Haven were wary of Cameron Barron, but they wanted to be on his good side.They genuinely liked Stetson.
He snuck up behind Lyric and ruffled her hair.“Hey, kiddo.”
Lyric’s face bloomed red, but she mock glared at Stetson.“I spent five whole minutes on this hairstyle, Stetson.”
Stetson rested his hand on the back of her chair and propped his other on his hip.His gaze swept over us.“Ain’t this a table waiting to start trouble.”
Marion shook her head.She’d probably been his teacher when she first started working in Coal Haven.“If anyone knows anything about trouble, it’s you.”
Stetson hunched over like she’d punched him.“Mrs.Kasper, I’m hurt you’d think that of me.”He winked, his grin packed with naughtiness.
Cameron and Bruce might pat themselves on the back about how well-behaved their boys were, but Derek, his brother, and Stetson had just been good at not getting caught.
He elbowed Lyric.“You stay out of trouble, kid.”
Lyric’s lips briefly pursed.“You mean when I’m helping save someone’s life by running expensive analyzers to determine what’s wrong with them.”Her tone was flippant, but her gaze was full of yearning.
Oh.Oh, wow.The poor girl.She had it bad for Stetson, but in his older eyes, she was his little sister’s best friend.Stetson might be good at reading people, but he was clueless about the way Lyric felt about him.I wasn’t the only one with a secret crush.Only, my crush liked me back.And what was between us rose so far above a crush.
