On The Rocks

I take her out to the front area and go over the features on the security panel with her, explaining how it works and giving her the code. We talk for a few more minutes, going over the hours she’ll be working. I had decided to close the bar for the lunch hour until she could get the inside portions done, which would give her several good daylight hours of work. Once she was ready to start on the outside, we would just close the deck area to customers. It would be difficult to work around, but it was something we’d be able to accomplish.

When I’m done, Gabby gives me another smile before she heads off to her friends, promising to see me on Monday when she starts. This time it’s bright and unforced, and I feel it slam into me like I’ve been hit by a truck. And just because I’m a guy, and there is no way that I’m not noticing, I watch her ass as she makes her way over to her table. When she takes a seat, I head behind the bar to help Brody.

Over the next hour, I can’t help myself. I keep glancing over at Gabby… avidly curious about her. I notice details that I never noticed before. Like how she always tucks her hair back behind her right ear, but never her left. Or she how she has a habit of twisting the ring on her right hand while she talks. While ogling her legs, I even notice that she has a tiny tattoo on the outside of her left ankle, although I’m not close enough to see what it is.

A few times, she lifts her head and turns it my way. I think I’m able to avert my eyes every time, and she has no clue I’ve been checking her out. I feel like a fucking thirteen-year-old kid crushing on the popular girl in high school, and that actually amuses me.

Gabby Ward is under my skin. I’ve repaired my friendship with her, but I’m certainly not looking at her as a friend anymore. And it’s clear to me as well… I’m sure as hell not looking at her like a little sister either.

I just don’t know what to do about it.





I can’t believe I let Casey talk me into hanging out at the beach today. It’s not that I’m opposed to it. Hello, beach girl here. But this morning when she showed up at my apartment, begging me to go out to Cape Hatteras with her, I so didn’t want to oblige. Not because I abhor a day at the beach with my bestie, but mainly because she told me that Hunter and Brody would be there.

Not that I’m opposed to Brody. I’d like to hang out with him some… help him get back into the swing of things. But the thought of spending the day on the beach with Hunter in close proximity has me wigged out for some reason.

The nature of our relationship changed the other night when he apologized for the way he treated me after our kiss. I accept that he was sincerely sorry, and I’ve moved past the hurt because of it. For that, I’m extremely grateful. But, when he hugged me afterward… there was something within the emotions surrounding us that didn’t take us just back to our pre-kiss friendship. It went somewhere different, and I’m not sure what to make of it.

I mean… it could be nothing. Maybe I’m imagining it, but I don’t think so. When I add it all up… the way he admitted he wanted me, the way he looked at me when I was standing half naked in front of him in my apartment, the way he pointed out that there was something in that kiss that both of us felt… well, it has a lot of the old feelings I use to harbor for Hunter starting to resurface.

And I so don’t want to go there. I’m not ready to lay myself out on the line like that. I’m not ready, nor am I willing, to get hurt again.

Hunter Markham has the ability not just to hurt me. He’s a man that could destroy me.

And that makes me cranky.

So my plan is simple. At least, the plan I devised when I came home that night. I decided I was going to stay as far away from Hunter as possible. I knew I’d have to deal with him on probably a daily basis while I worked on the remodel, but I could keep that professional. I certainly don’t want to get into any social situations with him. He’s too charming, too vivacious. He’ll suck me in like a pit of quicksand, and I’ll be helpless to claw my way out.