The town name sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place it in his mind. He shook head as he accepted his glass back from her.
“It’s about an hour west of here, but it’s like a completely different world,” she said wistfully. “I was born and raised there, and let me tell you, small town life is way different.”
“How so?”
“For one thing, there’s nowhere to go after nine p.m. I swear the entire town shuts down except one gas station just off the highway and the two small bars in town. So, unless you want to get drunk every night, there’s nothing to do. No movie theater. No mall. There are barely any franchised restaurants. It’s a tiny community compared to the population of this city.”
“I’ve heard that a small community can be a good thing. People look out for each other, right?”
She chuckled, the light and airy sound seeming to settle in the center of his chest. “Sure they do, but you’ve got to watch out for that sometimes.”
“It sounds like there’s a story there,” he said, eager for any glimpse at her past.
Picking up a glass, Ruby started to wipe it with a clean white rag, removing any fingerprints. He had a feeling that she was just keeping her hands busy while they talked.
“It’s not exactly a feel-good tale. Let’s just say that I found myself in the center of a controversy and needed to get out of there. So, I fled to the city. But I swear, I’m not a coward, even if I am running from something.”
“Maybe you’re not,” he said. “Maybe you’re here because you’re runningtowardsomething.”
“Like a fresh start?”
“Exactly.”
Her smile was brilliant, and he kept asking her questions about her life in her hometown and what she wanted from the future. He ended up lingering longer than usual, and the more they talked, the more conflicted his emotions became.
They were such different people. Ruby liked people and always looked for fun in life. There was an optimistic part of her that he could never relate to.
On the other hand, he was just a grumpy bastard.
Finishing off his drink, Owen paid and left his stool. He had work to do. He couldn’t keep hanging around down here, wasting his time down here lusting after a woman he was never planning to make a move on.
6
RUBY
Her first week working at the restaurant had flown by. She had yesterday off, and it happened to be Michelle’s birthday, so the two of them spent the day together. Now that Ruby was making decent money - due in large part to the amazing tips that Owen left every night he came to the bar - she was able to afford not only a gift for her friend but to treat them to manicures.
She was back at work tonight, and her eyes kept darting toward the hallway that led to the back of the restaurant. That’s where Owen would emerge from when he came downstairs. She found herself looking forward to seeing him every night. Sometimes he was tense and quiet, but most of the time, he talked to her. He asked her questions about herself and seemed to really care about the answers.
It was probably silly, but his appearance had become her favorite part of the evening.
It was nearly ten-thirty when he finally showed up, and she had a glass of his expensive scotch poured before he even took his seat. She could tell right away that he wasn’t in a good mood tonight. His shoulders seemed bunched up, like he was carrying the weight of the world on them, and there was a hard set to his jaw.
“Hey Owen,” she said, greeting him as she normally did when she sat the drink in front of him. “How you doing?”
“Not my best day,” he murmured, lifting the drink to his lips and downing half of it in one go. She didn’t know how he could drink that stuff. It was so strong that the smell of it made her eyes water. Not that she was ever going to order it in a bar herself. The stuff cost way more than she could afford.
He didn’t elaborate about what was bothering him, and she wasn’t going to ask. She might not know him well yet, but she understood that he was a private man. If he didn’t volunteer the information, she didn’t think it would do any good to ask.
So, she busied herself with making sure the others in the bar were well taken are of and keeping track of Owen’s drink out of the corner of her eye.
Even though he wasn’t chatty tonight, his presence still somehow dominated her attention. She could have sworn that she felt his smoldering stare on her as he sat at the end of the bar. Indeed, when she finally got up the courage to look in his direction, he was watching her over the rim of his glass with an intensity that made every inch of her skin tingle with awareness. Then, he put the glass down and licked moisture off his full bottom lip.
She nearly moaned. At least twenty feet of space separated them, and there were about a dozen other people sitting along the bar, but for just a moment, it felt like they were the only two people present, mesmerized by one another. Wetness pooled between her legs, and she had the absolutely insane urge to come around the bar and sit in his lap.
Maybe that scotch wouldn’t taste so bad if she was licking off his lip herself…
“Can I get a vodka and cranberry juice?”
