Page 23 of Just This Once

The band was good. Kings, Sullivans, and tourists alike melted onto the dance floor. A rowdy bachelorette party caught Royal’s attention, but I wasn’t in the mood to flirt. With a shake of his head, he shrugged me off in search of a good time while I sulked into my beer.

When he returned a while later and I was still nursing the same beer, Royal frowned down at me. “Are you feeling all right?”

I sighed and rolled my neck. “Yeah, just wound a little tight tonight. That’s all.” My middle finger scraped against the chipped wood of the high-top table. “Dad stopped by today.”

Royal shook his head and drained the last of his drink. “Yeah, that’ll do it.”

“Do you ever wonder sometimes why we do it?”

Royal’s brows knit down.

I continued, unable to look at my older brother. “Why he says jump and we ask how high?”

Royal sighed. “What else are we going to do, man? Leave him like Mom did? He’s done a lot for us.”

My teeth ground together.He’s taken a lot too.

I wasn’t brave enough to voice the traitorous thought, so instead I swallowed it down with a gulp of beer.

“You sure are mopey for someone who asked me out tonight.” Royal’s assessing eyes never left my face, and I shifted under the attention.

“Just been a long week.”

A low, disbelieving grunt vibrated through him, but he didn’t call me out on my outright lie. “Thought maybe you caught wind that Charles Attwater was sniffing around your librarian.”

My head whipped up, catching his gaze, and he gestured toward the dance floor with his chin.

Sure enough, on the edges of the marred, wooden floor, Emily was politely smiling at Charles. Charles Attwater was a transplant relatively new to Outtatowner, but in a tourist town like ours, it was no wonder his boutique wine shop was a hit.

In all reality, JP and my father were just pissed they hadn’t thought of that business venture first. Word around town was Charles’s business was making money hand over fist.

Quiet, lean, and seemingly meek, Charles hadn’t made any particular impression on me, and I had never viewed him as any kind of threat, business or otherwise. That was, until I saw the way Emily peered up at him, her blue-green eyes holding every bit of his attention. Her pants were a soft hunter green and cropped at the ankle. Her white top had delicate black stripesand was tucked into the waistband of her bottoms. Compared to the skimpy bar clothes most women at the Grudge were wearing, it was tasteful and unassuming, but no amount of modesty could hide her curves. Her sandy-blonde hair cascaded down her back in soft waves. I knew exactly what that hair felt like around my fist, and my hand itched to touch it again.

Fire burned in my gut as I watched them. The guy was clearly born with two left feet, and in a town where your only bar was a honky-tonk, we had all learned to dance circles around any tourist who passed through.

Charles was struggling, and Emily’s tan, open-toed heels were no help against his fumbling. More than once he crushed her toes as he led them in an off-beat bounce that no one in their right mind would call dancing.

Still, Emily smiled up at him.

I wrenched my gaze away, stuffing down the tightness in my chest. Somehow Emily had become a hostile squatter, occupying every inch of my brain.

It didn’t help that her pants were painted on. The soft material stretched over the curve of her ass, and my palm itched to grab another handful.

Royal’s low whistle drew my attention. “You are so fucked, brother.”

My face twisted, and I shrugged him off. “She’s the chief’s daughter. Not my type.”

Royal’s hearty laugh rumbled through the loud bar. “Is that why it looks like you’re about to rip the guy from limb to limb and beat him to death with his own arms?”

I laughed at Royal’s ridiculous—though not really a bad idea—comment. The last time I’d been face-to-face with her, I may have acted like a jerk, but she ghostedme.

I had zero interest in giving in to the temptation of her.

Despite all that, when she left the dance floor and disappeared down the back hallway, I followed.

TEN

EMILY

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