Page 14 of Here In Your Arms

“Hey, how was your day?” Wes greets me.

“Could be worse. Yours?”

“The horrors persist, but so do I,” he states dramatically.

I chuckle and roll my eyes at him. He laughs and nudges a full beer closer to me.

“I took the liberty of ordering for you.”

“Thanks,” I tell him with a genuine smile.

As I sip, I scan the bar and see two guys on duty. My eyes also catch on a guy a few seats down from us, sitting at the end of the bar so he can see along the length of it. He’s bald with a goatee. While I can see he has a certain charm, he’s looking pretty stand-offish at the moment. Wes leans over.

“She’s not here yet, and that guy is a creeper,” he says softly.

I grunt in answer, not really sure how to respond to that. I’m sure he didn’t hear, and I force myself to look away before he notices my eyes on him. Wes and I sit and drink our beers, oscillating between easy banter and comfortable silence. As I’m thinking of flagging down a bartender to get a refill, she comes running in like a tornado. She’s tall and is finishing up her braid as she approaches. Bald guy grabs her arm as she passes and she stops, whipping her face toward him.

There are soft words exchanged, and she rips her arm out of his grasp before going to the cash register. I can hear her apologizing to the other bartender for being late as she hurries to get acclimated to the current customer and order situation. She waves at the bartender who is on his way out, and the guy gives baldie a look, but it doesn’t seem to phase him. Interesting.

She fills two drink orders before turning to the bar itself and looking for who needs refills. When she spots us, she takes the few steps our way, her eyes lighting up in recognition.

“Whes!” she cries in greeting.

I almost spit out the last sip of my beer when I hear it come out of her. She sounds almost exactly like the TV show when she says it and I start cracking up.

“Oh not you too,” Wes groans and puts his hands in his head.

“Didn’t think you’d really come back and be subjected to my humor,” she says, ignoring his discomfort. “Your friend okay?”

“I’m good,” I manage to say before getting a good look at her.

It is absolutely her. The green eyes that I keep thinking about take me in and they widen. “Pool God,” she says softly.

“Pool what?” I blink, surprised by her words.

She blushes furiously. “Uh, nothing. What can I get you guys?”

“You’re not getting out if it that easily,” Wes warns her before ordering a beer refill.

She makes a face at him and gets our refills, then has to bustle down to the other patrons on this half of the bar to refill their drinks as well. She glances at baldie but his drink is still more than half full so she quickly looks away.

“Hey, get back over here!” Wes calls playfully.

“Do I gotta?” she whines, her head tipped back, a small smile in her eyes when she looks at us.

“Yes! I need to hear more about this Pool God nickname,” Wes insists.

“What Pool God nickname? I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she insists as she walks over.

“Better tell us, or I’m gonna start calling you ‘barmaid’ when I come here,” Wes says with a teasing grin.

“FINE!” she exclaims, smiling. “The first time I saw him, he was staring at me across a pool. Then, like a total stalker and creeper, I checked him out when he got out of the pool.”

I start laughing. “Honestly, I was thinking the same on my side! I couldn’t stop staring at you when I was still in the pool.”

She blushes. “I guess we both have good taste. What’s your real name, Pool God?”

“Kyle,” I tell her. “Yours? Or do I just get to call you Green Eyes forever?”

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