With a wickedly steamy look Jake raised his eyebrows. “Just wait Gorgeous, you haven’t seen me play tag football yet. We play shirts versus skins. You know what that means? Me. Shirtless. And given the way you couldn’t stop staring when you were stitching me up at the hospital, I think you might enjoy the sight.”
Callie could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. Damn he was too hot for words, what was he doing flirting so heavily with her.
A short while later, Jake announced last call to the customers left in the pub. Startled by the late hour, Callie reached into her purse to pull out her wallet.
Seeing her actions, Jake reached over the bar to lightly cover her hand with his own before he spoke with that low, delicious voice of his. “Beers are on me Callie. You made tonight fly by, and gave me something beautiful to look at while I poured drinks.”
“Thank you, Jake. That’s incredibly generous of you,” Callie smiled in response. She shifted in her seat, uncertain what to say or do now.
Before either of them could say anything else, a group of young men seated at a table started arguing loudly about who was going to drive home. It was clear from their shouting they had all had too much to drink to be safe behind the wheel.
Jake looked apologetically at Callie and said, “Sorry, I’ll be back, I’ve got to deal with this. Nobody drives home drunk from this bar. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened because of it.”
Watching Jake, Callie started to pull on her coat, torn over whether he meant she should stay, or if she should just go home. In the end, her nerves won out. What if all the flirting and attraction she thought she perceived from Jake was just in her head? What if he behaved like that with a different woman every night? She couldn’t figure out what would make her special and wasn’t ready to face the risk of rejection if she asked for his number, or to see him again.
She glanced back at Jake who was smiling with the frat boys, obviously trying to keep them happy and agreeable to whatever solution he had offered them. It was impressive how swiftly and calmly he had defused the situation and ensured they had a safe drive home. But then, it wasn’t all that surprising. In just a short while Callie had realized Jake had a charisma that seemed to put everyone at ease. Callie couldn’t remember the last time she had opened up to someone so quickly. Friendly, confident, sexy, he was definitely too good for her.
* * *
As Jake locked up the pub that night, his thoughts kept turning back to Callie. Thanks to her beauty and the incredible connection which he had felt instantly, a boring Thursday night had suddenly become one of the most intriguing nights of his life. For once he was grateful Ryan was down with the stomach flu, meaning Jake had to take his place behind the bar. The only question that remained was, how could he see her again? Jake was filled with frustration at the drunk frat guys. Taking care of them, making sure they all got into an Uber and reassuring them that their car wouldn’t be towed overnight had taken way too long. By the time he finished dealing with them Callie had disappeared, without leaving her number. Briefly he considered contacting the hospital to try and get it, but he decided that might come across as creepy, or even worse, get her in trouble.
He could only hope that maybe he had made enough of an impression on her, that she’d come back to the bar looking for him. And Jake knew, if that happened, he wouldn’t let her get away again. After all, the serendipitous coincidence of her coming into his pub had to have happened for a reason. Jake glanced up at the photo of Pop and smiled. Maybe Pop was pushing him towards his happy future after all.
Chapter 4
Over two weeks had passed since Callie’s disastrous date (if what happened with Rod could even be called a date) and her unexpected reunion with Jake. She had not stopped thinking about the hot bar owner, who had the most mouth-watering body Callie had ever seen poured into his tight shirt and jeans. He had even starred in several more fantasies when Callie was lying in bed. Fantasies that were so hot she needed to find relief from the sexual energy buzzing through her body more than once, even if her purple vibrator was a poor substitute for a flesh and blood man.
Fantasies were about all Callie had time for these days, as work consumed her time. A nasty stomach flu had taken down half of the ER staff, with those who weren’t sick working overtime to cover.
At the end of a particularly grueling shift, Callie was in the doctors lounge changing out of her scrubs when one of her fellow ER physicians and friend, Melanie Haynes came up to her and sank down onto the bench beside Callie’s locker with a groan.
“Damn, girl, are you as wiped out as I am? I swear if it wasn’t the end of my set of shifts, I would be calling in sick tomorrow. All this overtime is killing me. Not only are we down several doctors but it feels like half the nursing staff is out too.”
Callie sat down next to her friend, her tired feet aching with relief. She rubbed them for a second before responding to her friend, “Yeah I hear you. I’m so glad to finally have a few days off. This is my sixth shift in a row, covering for Roarke and Constantine. They’re finally over the flu and ready to come back for their next set thank god.”
Melanie leaned back against the lockers and started to untie her shoes. “Finally! If the rest of us don’t end up sick, maybe we can go back to normal instead of this overtime induced hell we’ve been living in.”
Standing up, Melanie pulled off her scrub top as Callie toed off her own shoes. Modesty was a luxury ER doctors couldn’t afford, as they often had only a few minutes to change in their coed locker and break room. Standing confidently in just her bra and scrub pants, Melanie turned to Callie and said, “Hey, a bunch of us are thinking of heading to that new bar tonight. The one over on Mercer, what’s it called, Lucky something?”
Callie’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of the Lucky Strike. She wasn’t so sure about taking the chance of seeing Jake again after working a 12-hour shift. Callie wasn’t a vain person, but even she had standards, and messy hair in a ponytail and no makeup was not exactly a sexy look. Melanie was waiting for an answer, so she quickly replied, “The Lucky Strike. Yeah, I’ve been there, it’s pretty good. But I don’t know if I’ll join you, I’m tired and I look like crap. I’m not really up for a night out.”
Melanie’s voice turned pleading, desperate even, as she tried to convince Callie to join them. “Oh come on, Cal. Even on your worst day after 12 hours in the pit suturing wounds and dodging projectile vomit you look better than anyone I know. You have to come. I hear they have the cutest guys working there.”
Callie considered Melanie’s description. Cute was an understatement for Jake. Deciding to be spontaneous for once, Callie stood up from the bench and turned to take her clothes out of her locker, then looked at Mel.
“Alright, I’ll come. But the first round is on you.”
After all, it’s not like the delicious man she’d been fantasizing about for weeks would remember her. Would he?
* * *
Jake stepped out into the hallway leading from his office into the main bar area and surveyed the packed room with a strong sense of satisfaction. He had done it. He had successfully opened his dream pub. If only Pop could have seen it, Jake could imagine what he would say.Boy, it looks good. Real good. All it needs is a beer in my hand and a woman by your side.
Pop had encouraged Jake’s career success but had always tried to gently remind him there was more to life. Pop and Nana, Jake’s grandmother, had a marriage like no other. They liked to say it was love at first sight, that turned into a beautiful partnership. Pop had instilled a desire for that type of relationship into Jake’s father, who passed it on to Jake. Yet recently, he had ignored any dreams of starting a family, while he worked on getting the pub up and running. That tendency to have such a narrow focus was one of Jake’s flaws. Often, he would become so consumed by his current priority, it would turn into tunnel vision. In college he could be so focused on a class he was passionate about, regular things like groceries or laundry, even nights out with his friends would be forgotten. However, in the long run, that laser focus had clearly paid off in the business aspect of Jake’s life. There would be time for a personal life someday.
Ryan was behind the bar tonight, and the place was busy with a steady stream of customers. Jake considered the idea of hiring more waitstaff or another bartender but filed that thought away to be dealt with another day. After a long day full of a meeting with his accountant, visits to city hall to update some permitting, and figuring out food and alcohol orders, Jake was ready to have a drink and head home. But as he headed towards the bar, laughter from a group of people close by caught his attention. He glanced over to a nearby table and stumbled over his own feet at what he saw. Callie was back.
His first observation was how stunning she was. Damn right she had looked incredible that first night, all dressed up with makeup on and her hair softly curled, but tonight she was more relaxed. A long-sleeved tee hugged her body, and those jeans should be illegal the way they made her long legs look. She was absolutely breathtaking. Jake immediately altered his course to head over to Callie. No way was he letting her get away for a third time.
