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ChapterFive
MOLLY
I pickup a mostly seasonal ranch hand, Georgie, at her house, promising to be her designated driver. The last thing I want to do in my first week as manager is need my hair holding back. Funny, and tempting as it was when Jolie suggested we rave, I have no interest in sleeping through my alarm. Not that I’d ever sleep through Dash’s. But even though today in the stalls he seemed to be training me for keeps, I’m still certain he’ll take any reason to let me go.
Georgie and I get out of my car at Sly Bull’s. Starlight Canyon’s premier bar. I have sneakers on, but Georgie is dressed to the nines. We’ve been working together now since I arrived in the Canyon for high season and we’ve gotten to know each other well. Her husband has been away on deployment ever since I’ve been here. I know she’s lonely. I know she’s always worried. It’s nice for her to be able to forget that fear for just a night, so I’m more than happy to help her have a few drinks rather than me.
Jolie said she’d meet us at the bar, and when we walk in, she’s already sitting with her brother andhim.I know a lot about Ashton Dane, one of the tallest hockey players in the league, Hollywood regular and the man who changes Jolie’s breath and tone when she speaks of him, even though she thinks she’s acting normal.
And boy do I see what she likes. He is a tall drink of water all right and the kind of man who instantly brings on the thirst. He’s six foot to Heaven, all dark, disheveled hair and hooded eyes. He has a serious face and eyes that could probably shift from the bedroom to the sin bin in two seconds flat. Goddamn. No wonder Jolie practically orgasms when she says his name. And when he sits next to his teammate and best friend, Logan? It’s like a pantheon of Greek gods because her brother is so gorgeous I can see why he doesn’t struggle to maintain his reputation as a womanizer. If you’re going to have a one-night stand, he’s the one to do it with. He’s actually extremely charming, too, and knows exactly how to make a woman feel comfortable.
Logan is more clean-cut than Ashton, with a single rogue curl tumbling down his forehead, natural and boyish but so perfectly placed it’s a wonder if he put it there as bait. Though his personality is playful, he has a sophisticated look about him, and his white button-down shirt is opened to just the exact place that has the female gaze wandering the same way a man can’t take his eye off cleavage.
It’s not bad company for the night. But only reminds me how someone even hotter is missing.
Georgie clicks across the floor next to me, and just like Jolie promised, there are five drinks waiting on a table. The three stand when we approach.
Jolie greets us with open arms. “Girls, girls!” She hugs Georgie. “Shit, babe. Sexy for a weeknight.”
Georgie wears a slip dress, hanging off her tall frame like a model with her long, lean pins strutting out of the bottom. The thing would be a crop top on me, but Georgie makes it look sexy-classy. She has an elegant beauty that even a skimpy dress can’t destroy. Though now that I consider her in Jolie’s admiring arms, she has lost a bit of weight since spring. I sometimes wonder if she’s always telling the truth about things being “okay.”
Georgie tucks hair behind her ear, bashful at the compliment. “I take every opportunity I can get. It’s a bit much for Sly’s, but my grandma always said, never save your best.”
Jolie smiles. “I’m glad you didn’t. I’ll get a pic of you, and we’ll send it to Noah. He can jack off to it in a time of need.”
Georgie shakes her head and laughs but agrees with a nod to sending her deployed husband a photo. She greets the guys, who she already knows, and Ashton approaches me, thrusting out a hand to greet me. His beastly mitt makes mine appear to be a child’s.
“Hey, Molly, nice to finally meet you. Congrats on getting past the gatekeeper and making it to the inside,” Ashton says.
People keep treating me like a dragon slayer for getting the stable manager position, as if Dash is a mythical creature at the gates of some cave of treasure. And now that I think of it, it’s not the worst depiction. At least in how I used to see him. But the cute note he left by the coffee, the way he mentored me in the stalls this morning… he might be softer than people let on.
“Thanks… Nice to meet you. You’re the second person after Logan I saw on TV before meeting in person. Who knew this would happen in Starlight Canyon of all places?”
He cocks his head sideways, with an almost shy smile, and pulls out a chair for me. Logan and Ashton might be wealthy hockey players traveling the country, but the cowboy upbringing is evident. I remember Logan rushing to open the office door for me when he and Jolie stopped by the stable yard.
Jolie takes her chair next to Ashton again, and I swear she scoots it just an inch closer to him. The scratch across the floor, hardly audible, makes its way to Logan’s ears because he snaps his head toward the pair, drops his gaze to the small space between them, and clouds pass over his eyes.
Jolie’s gaze darts to her brother, and instantly, she leans away from Ashton. It’s all over without Ashton really noticing anything himself, but the brother-and-sister telepathic conversation is interesting. Why would Logan care if his sister is into his best friend? You’d think it might be nice to have a bro become a brother.
Anyway, the brother and sister turn their attention back to the table, and Jolie raises her glass in the air for a toast. We all follow suit.
“What is this?” I ask, peering into the glass.
Logan tips his drink slightly toward me. “It’s a Dark and Stormy. We figured you can handle it.” He winks at Jolie, and I’m sure they’ve been joking about Dash.
I know they’re only kidding but I find myself defending my boss. “He’s actually pretty nice.”
“Nice?” they say in tandem. Then share a look that makes it very clear they think I either like him or he likes me. As more than a boss-employee thing.
“Why is it such a big deal I think he’s pretty nice?” I ask, bobbing from Logan to Jolie to Ashton. Finally, my gaze lands on Georgie who shrugs, drink still in the air, center table.
Jolie forces us all to clink glasses. “Here’s to Molly. Who fills all things dark and stormy with sunshine.”
We touch glasses, but it takes me a moment to swig because when Jolie calls me sunshine, I’m immediately thinking about the enigma back in the apartment. Dashiell Hunter. My God does his nature draw me in. All mysteries do. I hope I’m not just running around in circles lusting after the wrong kind of guy yet again.
The rum cocktail makes its way down my throat, and my hope for the alcohol being strong enough to quell my constant thinking about him is futile. It only seems to fuel the fire. I think about the last time we were here and Colt tried to make us talk. I think about how hot he is, one foot up on the wall with his fingers through those belt loops. I let my mind wander to his tattoos and his capable hands on that horse today.
I’ve got serious beer goggles, because in my mind’s eye, Dark and Stormy has quickly become Sex on the Beach.
