Page 10 of Because of You
Chapter Eight
Ben
Ican’t get out of the bar fast enough.
I make it a habit before leaving the bar to jot down a list of everything I need to remember for the next day. Getting all those little things out of my head and onto paper keeps me from waking up in a panic at three a.m. and sending myself emails with stuff in the middle of the night. I do it every night, without fail. The thought of Hallie sitting on my couch upstairs waiting for me is enough to have me consider skipping it, but the responsible business owner I am at least half of the time has me sitting down at my desk in the back office and making the damn list. The first item is “think about Stonegate offer.” But I know that isn’t one I can banish from my subconscious just by writing it down. Then, I head back into the bar to make sure it’s stocked for the rest of the night and to check in with Jeremy before I leave.
I’m eyeing the liquor bottles on the wall, my back to the bar, when a voice says, “Hey, what’s a guy have to do to get a beer around here?”
I turn around, grinning. Guess I’ll be here a little longer than expected. Sitting on one of the stools is Jordan Wyles, champion shit-stirrer, surgeon, and all-around excellent human. He and Iwere assigned as random roommates during our freshman year of college. We hit it off instantly, and then I met Jeremy; the three of us have been inseparable ever since.
“Hey, man, you look like shit,” I say to him. Jordan is a pediatric surgery attending at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and works insane hours. He looks rough, so he most likely just finished a twenty-four-hour shift—he tries to get into the bar every week or so after one of his shifts since we practically never see him otherwise.
“Thanks, asshole. Two minutes before I was supposed to get off, a five-year-old came in with a broken arm that needed surgery. He wanted to see if he could fly, so he climbed on top of his parents’ car and jumped. He was cute as shit and the parents looked so terrified when I saw them in the ER that I stayed and did the surgery myself.”
“I did that once,” I muse, sliding a beer across the bar to Jordan. “But I just jumped off the kitchen counter. A car, though. Brave kid.”
Jordan takes a long sip of his beer. “Yeah, he was pretty proud of himself, and he likes the blue and red cast I gave him. He’ll have a good story to tell at school.”
“Hey, look what the cat dragged in.” Jeremy sidles up to us, takes the seat next to Jordan, and props his leg on the empty stool next to him. His old hockey injury still sometimes bothers him when he’s on it for too long. I inwardly wince at the thought of leaving him to close for the third night in a row so I can go up and have dessert with Hallie. “About time that hospital cut you loose. I haven’t seen you in a week.”
“God, I know,” Jordan groans. “It’s been a brutal month.”
“You’re still good for the lake, right?” I ask. Jordan and Jeremy always come to my parents’ lake house for our annual two-week vacation in August. Growing up, it was just my family and Hallie’s family. But then I met the guys in college, and Julesand Hallie met Emma and Molly in law school, and now they all come too.
“Are you serious? Allie would murder me if she missed the lake. Those two weeks are set in stone for both of us.” Allie is Jordan’s fiancé. She is smart, funny, and a badass heart surgeon. She is probably on shift tonight since he’s here, and she isn’t. If their nights off overlap, they usually stay at home wrapped up in each other. They are insanely, disgustingly in love. “So, what’s up with you guys?”
Jeremy and I look at each other, and we both nod, silently agreeing to tell Jordan about the Stonegate meeting. He isn’t a part of the bar except for all the drinking he does here, so he might be a good, objective voice in the newly formed hurricane of our professional lives.
“What did I tell you guys about doing that weird as fuck telepathy thing around me? It’s creepy as hell and I hate it,” Jordan mutters.
“Sorry,” says Jeremy with a sheepish look on his face. “We kind of do have some news.” Jeremy launches into the story of our meeting and everything that the Stonegate guy laid out for us earlier.
“Wow,” says Jordan in a low voice. “That is really something. It could be a big opportunity for you guys.”
“It could,” I muse. “But going national like this is a major deal. When I think about the bar, I think about this.” I gesture to the three of us. “Us hanging out here, our regulars, the girls at the table in the corner, people from the neighborhood, the college kids who turn over every year. I know that we’re a popular place now, but I worry we would lose the vibe we’ve built here if there are suddenly Firesides all over the country.”
Jeremy nods. “Those are my concerns, too. We decided to think on it for the rest of the week and see where we are at over the weekend. But keep it to yourself, dude.” He points a finger atJordan. “If you tell Allie, she’ll tell Jules and Hallie and the girls, and too many cooks in the kitchen, you know?”
“It’s in the vault,” promises Jordan. “Speaking of the girls though, where are they? I figured they would be here after their big day. Allie and I felt bad we couldn’t be around to help them out today. We’re going over on Sunday for a couple of hours to check out the place.”
This is what makes Jordan such a good guy. He spent the day putting little kids back together in the OR and dealing with traumatized parents, but still remembers that the girls moved into their office. And I know that Sundays off are sacred for him and Allie, but they’re using the day to go over to help the girls out.
“Just missed them,” says Jeremy. “They were here until like twenty minutes ago. They all looked wiped and made it an early night. Actually, I didn’t see Hallie leave—did she go with Jules?”
“No, she’s up at my place waiting for me to finish here. I guess she didn’t really feel like going home, so we’ll probably watch something stupid, and she’ll crash upstairs.”
“Realllllllllly…” muses Jordan, with a shit-eating grin on his face. I look over and see his expression mirrored on Jeremy’s face too.
“Shut up,” I mumble. Okay, so when I said that no one knows about my feelings for Hallie, I meant no one except for Jordan and Jeremy. Sort of. A few years ago, in a tequila haze, I might have mentioned something about her being my soulmate and me not being able to breathe without her, or something dramatic like that. I played it off at the time because, tequila. I rarely ever talk about it with them now, but they got the idea, even if they don’t really know the details. So, every so often when some of my real, true feelings for Hallie leak through, they catch it, and they pounce.
“She hasn’t seemed like herself today, and I think she needs a friend.” That’s all I’ll say about it to the guys, even though I have every intention of going upstairs to try to get her to talk to me.
“It’s a big thing they’re doing,” says Jordan. “It would be weird if she wasn’t a little off. If all of them weren’t. This is a huge step for them. It’s probably just first day jitters.”
I shrug and bounce my leg the way I do when I’m anxious to get moving, glancing up at the big antique wooden clock I have hanging on the bar wall. I should be up there already.
“Check you out. Can’t even stand still, thinking of her up there,” teases Jeremy.
