Page 21 of Roar & Lizzy: A Forever Kind of Love

There were always people around when he'd drop in at the bar. If it wasn't the customers demanding her attention, Kelli watched her as if any moment she'd steal the money out of the cash register and convince Peer to run away with her.

She jumped up from the step and went into the house. Her social skills rusty, she could do more than ogle him in exchange for manual labor.

Pouring them each a glass of lemonade, she was halfway to the door and changed her mind, going back to the kitchen. She set both glasses in the fridge, not wanting to waste them and instead grabbed two bottles of beer.

She highly doubted bikers drank lemonade.

More confident about her choice of beverages, she returned to the front yard in time for Roar to shut off the mower. She walked out on the freshly cut grass.

"Do you put the mower in the garage?" he asked.

"Yeah, but I can do it." Refraining from saying she still needed to rake in case he got the idea she was hinting at him to do the job, she said, "Here's a beer to wet your thirst."

He took the bottle, twisted the cap off, and drank deeply. She stared up at his face, finding it interesting that he closed his eyes as he swallowed. It was only one in a long list of things she found fascinating about him.

Roar reached over and twisted the cap off her bottle. She startled. "Oh, thank you."

God, she needed to stop thinking of Roar in the same way she would want to discover things about any man she found attractive. He was her boss. Nothing good could come of getting a crush on him when the job he gave her afforded her so much more in her life and made her feel if she could breathe again.

She gazed across the street at the bar to remind her of where she belonged in Roar's life.

"Oh." She realized why he'd stopped by. "How much do I owe you for that part you brought over?"

"Don't worry about it." He handed her the empty beer bottle. "Thanks for the drink."

The irony of her giving the owner of a bar a bottle of beer and him being thankful tickled her. She lowered her gaze to his boots to keep from laughing. What would a woman get a bar owner that would make it special to him? Probably the lemonade she felt stupid about offering him in the first place.

"Lizzy?"

She raised her gaze. The concern in his eyes pushed her over the edge, and she laughed. Not a cute snicker or feminine giggle, but an open mouth bark of laughter that had her holding her stomach with one hand and reaching out to him with the other.

"I-I'm sorry." Her apology set off another round of laughter in her.

Unaware of him moving toward her until her hand connected with the front of his vest. She grasped onto the leather and wheezed in pure joy. Her eyes teared, and she panted, riding the hump of amusement. She looked at him, at his concern, and patted his chest.

"I'm sorry." She inhaled deeper. "I was going to give you lemonade."

At his scowl, she dropped her hand from the front of him.

"I changed my mind and then..." Her chest quivered, hanging on to the last thread of laughter. "I gave you a beer."

He continued scowling at her in confusion.

"You own the bar and could've walked across the street and had a beer." She grinned. "It hit me funny. I should've given you something you wouldn't get at the bar or at home to make it more special. To say thank you, I mean."

His gaze warmed. "A beer was fine."

"Well, good." She smiled over the whole situation and him being here.

Her stomach fluttered. His approval doing more for her than she wanted to admit.

"I like that." He lifted her chin with his finger and gazed down at her. "You laughing and smiling."

"Thanks to you, I seem to have a lot to be happy about." She slipped her hands in the back pocket of her cutoffs and brought her shoulders forward in a shrug.

His beard by the corner of his mouth lifted and he broke away from looking at her and gazed out at the street as his chest expanded. "You enjoy your day off."

"You, too," she said softly.

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