Page 1 of Among the Stars

Chapter One

Veronica Shepherd was drunk.But then, what was a pity party without a hefty dose of alcohol? If she was a sassy little redhead like her ex-husband’s new bride, guys would be flocking to buy her drinks.

This was her fourth bar of the night. Or maybe her fifth. After the phone call from her ex—who also happened to be her best friend—announcing his impending nuptials, Veronica faced a choice. Spend Christmas Eve drinking herself into oblivion alone on her couch, or recruit another friend for a night out on the town. Neither option was the norm for her. Though she loved to throw elaborate and rowdy shindigs throughout the year, Veronica rarely drank and almost never visited the loud, tourist-ridden bars of Nashville’s Lower Broadway.

Tonight had been an exception in many ways.

After struggling to catch the bartender’s attention on the main floor of this particular establishment—the name of which she didn’t know—Veronica had ascended a level to experience the same issue on the second floor. She kept climbing and found exactly what she was looking for on the third—a more reasonable volume and several empty seats at the bar. Now she needed a libation to go with her comfy barstool.

The friend she’d recruited for the night, a minor acquaintance named Melanie Turnbull, had met a guy at their previous destination and refused to continue Veronica’s quest to visit every venue with an open door. Which, for anyone who’d never visited Nashville, was every single bar for four blocks.

Undeterred, Veronica had moved on alone. She always seemed to be alone these days.

“Who’s a girl gotta flash to get a drink in this place?”

“No flashing necessary. What can I get you?”

Glancing into the brownest eyes she’d ever seen, Veronica’s world spun. A possible side effect of her level of intoxication, but something told her this paragon of manly beauty could make even a sober girl dizzy. Dark brows arched in expectation, and a twinkle danced in his steady gaze. Or maybe that was the neon reflecting off his eyeball. Perfect male specimens of this nature never twinkled, after all. And perfect was the only way to describe him.

Strong jaw shadowed by a day’s growth of scruff. Cheekbones that would make a Victoria’s Secret model weep with envy. And the hair. Veronica sighed as she propped her chin in her hand. One onyx lock dangled over his forehead, tempting her to touch it. She didn’t, of course. She wasn’t that drunk.

“You’re pretty,” she sighed instead.

“Thanks,” the bartender replied. “You aren’t so bad yourself.”

A cheesy and cliched response, but Veronica didn’t care. The timbre of his voice lit a long-dormant fire, and she wanted to keep him talking.

Leaning forward, hoping she appeared more sexy than desperate, she said, “What do you recommend for a girl looking to forget someone?”

Tilting his chin as if truly pondering the question, he said, “That depends. Are you the dumper or the dumpee?”

The divorce had been mutual, but Veronica felt like the one left behind tonight.

“Dumpee.”

Dark eyes narrowed. “Then the dumper is a fool.”

She was the fool for letting Ash go, but she didn’t correct him.

“Fool or not, he’s getting his happily ever after, and I want a drink.” The last was uttered with a slur so Veronica tried again. “A drink,” she said more clearly, emphasizing the k sound.

The bartender leaned on the bar, drawing attention to the strong forearms revealed beneath the rolled-up sleeves of his starched white button-down. Licking her lips, she pulled her gaze upward and spotted a wisp of dark hair through the open collar at his throat. Veronica’s mouth went dry.

“You’ve had enough to drink,” he said, the purr of his voice too distracting for the words to sink in. “Is someone waiting downstairs to take you home?”

Watching his lips move, she imagined pressing her own against them. “I’m alone,” she replied. “You could take me home.”

“Do you go home with strangers often?”

Veronica shook her head slowly, her eyes still on his mouth. “Never.”

“But for me you’d make an exception?”

The judgmental tone made her sit up straighter. “Would that be so bad? To make love to me all night?”

The chiseled jaw twitched as he watched her with a heated look that did funny things to her neglected girl parts. Veronica shivered.

“No, that wouldn’t be bad for either of us,” he drawled. “But I’d rather a woman ask me to make love to her because she wants me, not because she wants to forget someone else.”

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