I could use the extra money, especially since my truck needed new tires soon.
I walked over to the cupboard where Cruise kept the fry oil and unscrewed the top.
Damn it was hot in here. Even the girl was starting to sweat.
She nodded, a trail of sweat dripping down her neck and in-between her breasts. “Yep. How much is rent again? This is like the tenth place I’ve looked at today.”
“Six hundred for the studio, includes utilities.”
She laughed nervously. “Perfect. I’ll take it.”
She hadn’t even seen the place! What kind of woman lived above a bar without even seeing the place?
A psycho, that’s who.
Chapter 4
Millie
What and theactual fuckwas I doing? Julie was going to have me committed. This had gone off the rails so quickly I wasn’t sure what was really happening. When I’d walked into the bar and seen the dude with his scar on full display, I nearly fainted. First of all, why was he so good looking? Couldn’t Colin’s heart have gone to a sweet scrawny chess player? Not this tattooed bad boy who looked like he could bench press me. Secondly, he was smoking and a total fucking asshole. When he told me his name was Ashton, I’d short circuited. I’d somehow hoped he was a random bartender with a heart scar and the real Ashton was upstairs.
Now he was showing me the apartment above the bar because I wanted to live here? Oh my God, this was the most royal fuck-up of my life. What was I doing? Should I just tell him? Tell him who I was, and beg him to stop smoking and ask to listen to Colin’s heartbeat?
Yeah, right.
He’d tell me to fuck off and light up ten more. I could tell from this pleasant five-minute conversation with him that he was a stubborn asshole.
“So how soon do you need to move in?” he asked, walking out of the sweltering nasty kitchen and back out into the bar. If the inspector came, they’d be shut down for the shape of that place.
Technically, I wasn’t in between apartments yet. My lease was up in a month and I hadn’t decided on a new place, so that was almost not a lie. I did have savings money. A whopping $2,400 which got you nothing in New York.
I actually realized just now that I was in more shit than I realized.
Was I going to have to move home to Connecticut with my parents? Or worse, crash on Julie and John’s couch and be all pathetic in their newly engaged life?
No way.
“As soon as possible?” I queried, praying Julie would somehow jump out of nowhere and stop me from this train wreck.
Wait, I wasn’t seriously considering leaving New York City and moving here toTennessee, right?
I laughed nervously as my own mental breakdown played out before my eyes.
“Okay…” He hesitated, bending down and pulling out a sign that he laid on the bar.
Be right back. Steal shit and I shoot,the sign said.
Charming.
If I could just stay for one month. Thirty days and I could probably get him to stop smoking, see what he was like, get him to church and save his life, because clearly he was on the wrong path. It was like a project. Like a soufflé about to deflate. Something I could control.
He walked to a side door I hadn’t noticed and I followed him. The floors were sticky with beer and the shades were drawn, making the entire place dark and dingy. The side door led us to the outside, and we were back in front of the doorway I’d tried before and found locked.
I made small talk. “Do you own the bar as well?”
He simply nodded and grumbled, “Family heirloom,” leading me up to the apartment door.
Some family heirloom this place was. Colin would have had a field day with this place. He’d have drawn up a ten-page business plan and charged a twenty-thousand-dollar retainer and turned it into the hottest joint in town. I looked at Ashton, I meanreallylooked at him, and found myself baffled by the fact that he was so good looking. Messy dark hair that was thick and glossy, wide strong jaw and perfect fucking straight white teeth. Why did he have to be so sexy?
