A light blush creeps up her fair skin. “Oh, well, I’m buying a business.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “You are?” I ask, my throat suddenly very dry.
Green eyes lock with mine as she extends her hand. Her nails are painted, but kept short and clean, and the moment my hand touches her fingers, I feel the sizzle of electricity.
“Lizzie Meyer,” she states before going in for the kill. “As of Friday, I’ll be the new owner.”
Fuck.
CHAPTER
TWO
Lizzie
A whole plethora of emotions crosses the handsome bartender’s face as I tell him who I am. Shock, caution, a bit of anger, and then shock once more. Now that I’ve rendered him completely speechless, I take a moment to appreciate the view. He’s tall, probably just a bit over six feet, has the darker side of sandy-blond hair, and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. And his body?
Bangin’.
Please don’t tell my younger brothers I said that.
They’d be completely mortified.
No, his body is something to write home about. He’s muscular, yet doesn’t scream one of those guys who spends hours in a gym. He appears to be the type to get them organically, most likely from manual labor. I’m not sure what that is, but I don’t think it’s from working at a bar.
“Miss Meyer,” he finally says, running his hand through his hair.
“Lizzie, please,” I reply, smiling over the rim of my glass as I take a sip.
He exhales and turns a much chillier shade of blue eyes my way. “Lizzie,” he starts, swallowing hard, “I apologize for complaining. It was unprofessional of me.”
I snort and shake my head. “You didn’t say anything wrong,” I reassure him. “Besides, I want to hear the unfiltered version. If you knew who I was, then you were less likely to be forthcoming about everything.”
He pins me with an icy-blue gaze. “I don’t lie.”
“I’m not saying that,” I insist, taking another sip of my beer. “I just mean that sometimes, people don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings, so they gloss over the ugly or beat around the bush.”
He leans on the counter once more, the corded muscles in his forearms flexing in all the right ways. “I don’t do that. What you see is what you get.” His tone is firm, and his demeanor is somewhat gruff.
I nod, fighting a smile. He reminds me of someone I’m very close to.
“What?”
“What what?” I ask.
“You were trying not to grin.”
This time, I let the smile fly. “You just remind me of one of my uncles.”
He slowly lifts his chin, as if absorbing the info. Before he can say anything, a man at the opposite end of the bar hollers his name. He moves with ease, his jeans hugging his hips and molding to his ass.
Well, he’s definitely pretty to look at.
Too bad for me, that’ll be all it ever is.
I’m not buying this bar, uprooting my life, and devoting everything I have to creating the future I want, just to jump into bed with the first hot bartender I cross. Hell, good-looking guys behind the bar are a dime a dozen. It’s not like I haven’t seenthem a thousand times before. It’s how my dad made a name for himself back in the day, if I’m being honest.
It’s the same with women.
