She poured herself a glass of water, then reached down to her small fridge and…darn him! He’d taken her lunch! Even her pretzels were gone! Ugh! She really needed to have a long talk with George. She was sick of him stealing her stuff!
She grabbed the carrot sticks that she’d cut up earlier and grabbed several orders, moving to the back room to help wrap up orders and get them ready for the mail carrier. The whole time, she kept looking out the door to the store and then glancing at her cell phone, hoping to hear or see Creek. She had no reason to think that he would contact her, but she still hoped.
By the end of the day, she walked up the stairs to her small apartment above the store, depression weighing heavily on her shoulders. She hadn’t heard from Creek all day long. Not even a text message! She’d been dating him for a week and a day hadn’t gone by yet when she hadn’t heard from him in some way.
Glancing down at her phone, she willed the screen to show that she had a message from him. Anything!
Of course, she could just shoot him a message. Where was it written that the guy had to initiate communications in a relationship? She was being ridiculously old-fashioned by waiting for Creek to send her a message. She should just…
She wasn’t an old-fashioned woman, she told herself. She was a modern woman who could take the initiative.
Picking up her phone, her fingers hesitated over the keys, not sure what to say. Finally, she decided to be bold and ask him out. He’d taken her out several times, it was her turn. If he didn’t want to have dinner with her, well, it wasn’t like she would be running into him a lot, now would she? He lived in the next small town. They’d only run into each other by accident that one time when she’d gone into The Rotten Apple.
Releasing a deep breath, she pressed the buttons and tapped out a message. “Any chance you might be interested in dinner tomorrow night? My place? Nothing fancy, just an old-fashioned meal.” She thought about adding in, “And me” but she didn’t have the courage to say that. She wasn’t even sure she was ready to take that next step, but offering to cook him dinner at her place seemed like she was sending out that message.
She pressed “send” before she could lose her courage, then stuffed her phone into her purse, not looking at it for fear that he might not respond. Or that he would!
Creek got the message and cursed under his breath. Slamming back the whiskey, he walked behind the bar and poured himself another, ignoring the concerned glances of Tucker and Saeger.
“What’s going on?” Saeger finally asked, when Creek sat down with the whole bottle. And wasn’t sharing.
“It’s the woman,” Tucker said, shaking his head. “Viola or something.”
“Violet,” Creek corrected, slamming the glass back down. “And she’s too expensive.”
Both men looked at each other. They knew their friend’s net worth and it was in the billions. None of them worried about money. Ever!
“What in the world are you talking about? You flew that one woman out to Tahoe last summer when she said it was too cold in Alaska.”
Creek took another swig of whiskey. “And I left her there.”
Tucker shrugged. “My point is still valid.”
Knox walked in at that moment, saw the three of them and shook his head. “Violet?” he asked.
Saeger nodded as he walked behind the bar and grabbed another bottle of whiskey. “Women,” he grumbled. “Keep it light and fun and there aren’t any problems.” He opened the bottle and took a slug, handing the bottle off to Knox who had already sat down to drink in solidarity. That was the thing about these friends. They were always more than willing to support one another, even if it meant getting drunk together.
Tucker glanced at Creek’s phone when it buzzed again. Reading the message, he was even more confused. “Creek, she’s just asking if you want a home cooked meal. If you don’t want it, can I take her up on it?”
Sarah walked behind him and smacked him on the head. “That’s his girl you’re talking about.”
“Everyone’s girl,” Creek mumbled and slammed back another slug of whiskey.
Knox did a double take with those words and the three men stared hard at Creek. Unfortunately, none of them had any idea what he was talking about but Saeger was still fast enough to stop Sarah’s hand from hitting the back of Creek’s head. “Something’s wrong, Sarah,” he mumbled. “Help me get him upstairs.”
“I’m fine,” Creek told all of them and stood up. He wasn’t going to drive home since he’d been drinking but he wasn’t going to continue, knowing that it wasn’t having the needed affect. He wanted to obliterate her image from his mind, but he was still able to picture her soft lips and those beautiful eyes that tilted up like a cat’s with the crazy blue color that he couldn’t stop thinking about. And her body! Damn he wanted to hold her body against his, to feel her tighten around him as he brought her to climax.