Page 9 of Cowboy Crush
She nods. The corners of her mouth begin to turn upward but she gains control of the smile and tugs them back down as she shrugs. “Figured it was the least I could do.”
“Thank you but it was unnecessary.”
The bartender is back and she sets the shot glasses in front of us.
“I got it,” Hannah tells her.
“No, I got it,” I insist, tossing a twenty down on the bar.
The bartender nods, takes the twenty, and goes to get my change.
Hannah looks up at me. “Thank you, but I don’t take shots from men with names I don’t know.” Her brown eyes glisten with that line and I know it’s just a way of getting my name but I’m drunk and don’t feel like playing the back and forth game so I give in.
“I’m Jameson, now drink your shot.” I motion toward it as I pick up my own.
“The shot is Jameson or you are?” She’s smiling now.
I roll my eyes as a dramatic sigh leaves my lips. “I’m Jameson. The shot is Jack. Think you can handle a little whiskey? You don’t look like the type.” I’m holding the shot in the air, ready to throw it back at any minute, but I don’t. I don’t know why.
“Oh, so now who’s assuming things?” she giggles out. She makes a show of picking up the glass, putting it against her glistening lips, and tilting her head back. The amber liquid pours into her mouth, and she swallows it down without the slightest hint of disgust.
She sets the empty glass on the bar and looks at me in a challenging way.
I toss my shot back and set the glass next to hers. “Two more,” I tell the bartender. I’ll make her regret this night.
I look at her with a lifted brow, but she doesn’t back down from my challenge. Instead, she gets herself up onto the barstool. “A beer too,” she adds on.
“We don’t chase our whiskey around here,” I tell her.
She laughs. “I don’t chase anything,” she tells me. Her eyes glance somewhere behind me and then they’re back on me. “Looks like someone has stollen your table.”
I turn and look and sure enough, my beer gets pushed to the edge of the table as a group of four slide into the booth. I turn back around, annoyed that I’m stuck here with her. Or…am I annoyed. This is pretty entertaining for the moment but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I grow tired of this game I’ve seemed to start playing without realizing it.
“He’ll need a beer too I assume,” she tells the bartender when she’s back with our shots.
The bartender nods, turns away to grab the beers, and then she’s back in front of us. “On your tab?” she asks.
Hannah nods at her while looking at me. The bartender turns and leaves us alone again as Hannah picks up her shot and holds it into the air.
“Now that we’ve been formally introduced, how about we cheers…to making new friends?”
I pick up the shot. “I don’t need new friends,” I tell her, leaning against the bar.
She looks all around me. “You sure? Doesn’t seem like you have old friends so I wouldn’t be rejecting any new ones.” She smiles and throws the shot back.
I don’t know what I’m getting myself into, but I can’t seem to stop it. It’s like I’m in a speeding car that’s rolling down a steep hill with no breaks. There’s nothing I can do.
7
HANNAH
Idon’t know what the hell I’m doing. You’d think that after last night, I wouldn’t want anything to do with him…but I do. It doesn’t have anything to do with wanting what you can’t have or a girl liking a boy because he’s mean to her. It’s none of that. It’s something deeper. I just can’t put my finger on it. Something inside me tells me that he needs me, although I can’t figure out why. I’ve never experienced anything like this before in my life. If a guy showed me no interest, it was no sweat off my back. I’d go find another. There are plenty of fish in the sea. But here….he’s the only fish in the pond, and…well, he keeps biting at my line.
“I have plenty of friends,” he tells me, tossing back the shot.
“Yeah, where are they?” I ask, picking up my beer and taking a drink. I’m not the biggest fan of whiskey, but I can put it back with the best of them if need be. I know I’ll be paying for it tomorrow though.
He shrugs. “Living life I guess.” He picks up his bottle and takes a drink.
