Page 21 of Same Time Next Year

I ignore the feeling I’ve been having lately. Or the lack of feeling, rather, when I talk about the bar. It has always been my dream to own Sluggers, but now that I do, the magic I was expecting ... it isn’t there. “Um. I’ve been coming in early to sand down the bar in sections, adding new varnish. Another couple of days and I should be finished. Riggs is going to love it.”

“Why?”

“He’ll be able to see his reflection in it.”

Sumner chuckles.

“The old register is gone too—I put in a POS system so we’re not handling as much cash. We’re officially a twenty-first-century bar.”

He visibly turns that over in his mind. “I’ll kind of miss the cranking sound of the old register, but that’s great, Britta. Necessary.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you.” Hearing the hint of wistfulness in my tone, I backpedal slightly. “Without the money.”

“Right.” A muscle slides up and down in his cheek. “I knew what you meant.”

I swallow hard, wishing things were easier between us. As much as I crave being around Sumner, there is this invisible knot between us tying tighter and tighter. I have no idea when it’s going to snap, but there’s a whisper of warning in the back of my head sayingsoon. But instead of being alarmed, my sex constricts, moistening me, and I dig my toes into the leather sole of my cowboy boots to counteract the rush of need. It doesn’t help.

“What else do you need done at the bar, sweetheart?”

I don’t really feel like talking about the bar, which isn’t like me. At least, it didn’t used to be. I could talk about potential improvements for hours. Now, the topic causes the back of my neck to strain. “Nothing I can’t do myself.”

“What else?” Sumner persists. “Me and the guys can help out.”

“That’s okay, Sum. I know practices are getting ready to start again.”

Briefly, he tips his head back, as if the ceiling might help him figure me out. “Britta, the guys would swim to the bottom of the ocean to find a lost earring for you. All you’d have to do is ask. Trust me, I know, because part of me hates how much they like you.”

“Please,” I scoff. “They treat me like their sister.”

Sumner grumbles something under his breath.

I poke him in the ribs. “What was that?”

He gives me a dark look. “I said, that wasn’t always the case.”

It takes me a moment to decipher his meaning, but when I do, the events of the last twenty-one months come flying back in a series of moving frames. “Wait ... yeah. A couple of themdidask me out a while back, but I said no.”

“Why did you say no?”

“Uh-uh. You tellmewhy they stopped asking me out.”

“I’m guessing because they wanted to keep their nut sacks attached to their bodies.”

The pieces are coming togetherquickly. “Sumner, what did you do?”

He has the nerve to look proud of himself. “Made you off limits, Britta. It’s a rule that is rarely invoked among the group. But once it’s done, it’s fucking done.” He leans over until our foreheads are a breath apart. “If you don’t like it, then stop being my dream girl.”

His mouth is warm and parted, our lips stroking sideways in the barest of touches, but it’s enough to shoot a zing down to my navel. “I should be angry at you. Calling dibs on me like I’m the last french fry.”

“You’re more like filet mignon, sweetheart.”

“The metaphor isn’t the issue. It’s the tactic. Toxic, macho—”

“I didn’t make you off limits because I was feeling competitive. Off the ice, I don’t care if I outdo anyone. I wasn’t in control of myselfat all. We were in the locker room. I’d been thinking about you all fucking day with your big beautiful eyes and the way you treat customers like they’re family. The way you mother some people and give tough love to others. How protectiveyou are of the other women, how they look up to you. How your laugh is better than any music. And the words just came out of me. ‘Touch her, and I will end your life.’ Simple.”

I’ve never actually felt the pupils expand in my eyes before.

Or my heart ripple.

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