“Just…try not to get your hopes up, Scottlyn. These shows tend to go with someone more established.”
“I know,” I say, even though I don’t want to. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” she replies flatly before hanging up.
I release a sigh, pocket my phone in my small purse and rest it on my lap. At the same time, the bartender stops in front of me.
“What can I get for you today?”
“I need something that says,I have my life together.”
“Good luck,” a man beside me says, and I snap my head in his direction. “I don’t think any bartender has been able to figure outthatdrink for years.”
Piercing blue eyes stay fixed on me, leaving me speechless. I think my mouth is open, so I make a point to close it. He’s dressed in casual jeans and a deep brown Henley shirt, showing off forearms that are tan and muscular. His messy brown hair peeks out from the sides of his backward baseball cap.
A freakin’ backward baseball cap.
Christ.He’s good looking.
As if he knows what I’m thinking, a grin spreads across his face. I remind myself to breathe as my eyes trail where he stands. A glass already in his hand, amber liquid catching the bar light. I feel my lips curling into a smile, too.
I arch a brow. “Whiskey guy?”
He shakes his head. “More like a bourbon guy. Whiskey makes me feel old.”
“And how old are you?”
“Twenty-four next week. And you?”
“Twenty-four now.”
“And she’s funny too,” he says, nodding repeatedly in approval as he turns to face the bartender. “I’ll have another bourbon. Whatever you decide to make her, you can put it on my tab.”
The bartender acknowledges him and then moves around behind the bar to make both drinks.
“What are we drinking to this afternoon?”
I lift my chin, straightening my spine. “If I go down in flames tomorrow, I may as well start the journey with this delicious drink, a bacon cheeseburger, and fries loaded with cheese sauce.”
His grin widens, and it almost makes my stomach flutter as he takes the seat next to me. “Then we can go on it together.”
“Together?”
He nods. “We’re ordering drinks together, are we not? We’ll need a second round for the fun we’re about to have. Then we can order burgers—two different ones, obviously, to split and try both…” He pauses, deep in thought before lifting a pointer finger in the air as if a lightbulb just went off. “And the cheese fries to share.”
“Who said I want to share my cheese fries with a stranger?”
He holds up a finger again. “One, I like you already for the fact that you want your own. My kind of girl.” He winks and then narrows his eyes as if he’s thinking. “Now that I thinkabout it, I might not want to share if they are as good as the internet says they are.” He holds up a second finger. “Two.” He extends the same hand in front of me. “I’m Tucker.”
I look at his hand and back to his face, realizing I’ve already been smiling this entire time.
Then he grins broadly, with his hand still extended. “See? Now we’re not strangers anymore.”
I reluctantly take his hand in mine. The moment our palms connect I feel a shock to my system. Call it an electrical current or a lightning strike—whatever it is, it almost knocks me off my barstool. There’s a chance he felt it, too, with how his eyes just snapped to my hand in his.
“I’m Scottie,” I tell him, forcing his eyes to meet mine again.
“Scottie.” He pauses, processing it. “I like that. It suits you.”
