Page 6 of Falling in Love with Two

Adam scans the room. “Not sure. I guess we’ll see how the night plays out. If nothing else, I can always call the crazy girl.” He wiggles his eyebrows.

Jamie says, “There’s a girl in a tight pink dress at the bar I may go talk to.”

All of us instinctively turn to look and see who he’s talking about.

Jack spits, “Christ, Jamie. She’s barely this side of legal. That’s kind of gross.”

Jamie points at him. “No, it would be gross for you. You’re old. I’m young, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jack groans.

Our boss isn’t old—barely pushing forty. In Jamie’s eyes, though, Jack is knocking on death’s door.

Jack says, “I can’t wait for all you fuckers to get old and settle down.”

Adam and Jamie both freak out as though Jack put some kind of curse on them or something.

I’ve always liked Jack. Even before he started dating my sister, he was a good boss and an even better friend. I’m glad he’s part of the family now. After growing up with all sisters, it’s nice to have some testosterone around.

Jack glances at the time on his phone. “One more drink, and then, I’m going to head out.”

Adam says, “Oh, come on!”

“I’ve got a pregnant woman at home, boys, and I promised I’d bring back ice cream.”

Jamie says, “Man, Liz has you on a tight leash, huh? You’re fucking whipped.”

Jack shrugs his shoulders. “Boys, let me tell you something. I may not be out chasing tail, but I get to go home to the same woman every night. She’s waiting for me…in my bed. I don’t have to wonder where my next lay is going to come from. So, who’s really the winner here?”

That gets everyone to shut up pretty quickly. Although it’s gross to think of my sister in that way, I can appreciate the sentiment of having someone around to share your life with.

Looking around at everyone’s empty drinks, I announce, “I’ll go grab the next round.”

Once I get up to the bar, I order four more beers and take a moment to look around. People watching in a place like this is always entertaining. You’ve got everyone from the rednecks to the jocks and the busty blondes to the girls who could even kick my ass. In one corner, I see a couple making out so passionately that I figure they’ll start dry-humping on a pool table any minute now. On the other side of the bar, a few muscle heads are seeing who can take the most shots.

The Dells can get a little wild.

But it’s not like there are a ton of bars around. We live in a cluster of small towns, and there’s only about one bar in each of them. The one my parents own, Andre’s, is nice, but it’s more of a local watering hole versus…well, whatever you would call The Dells.

The bartender hands me four beers, and I hand her some cash and tell her to keep whatever’s left.

On the way back to the table, a very large, very drunk guy comes lumbering through, knocking into everyone in his path. He slams into one woman so hard that her body flies into mine.

Beer and whatever is in her two glasses goes sloshing all over both of us. She looks up at me with wide eyes.

Wide beautiful blue eyes.

“I am so sorry,” she says, enunciating each word.

“It’s alright,” I tell her. “I think we have that drunk asshole to thank for it.”

Her head whips around to see the guy who security is now escorting out the front door.

“What a dick,” she says. “Some people just can’t hold their liquor.”

“I guess not.”

She looks at my wet shirt, grabs a stack of napkins off a nearby table, and starts trying to wipe me down. I look down at her long mane of hair. It’s long, almost down to her ass, and black with red tips at the bottom.

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