Page 16 of Forbidden Dreams
I walk over to the table and introduce myself like I did the last time. That seemed to be a good thing to do. Make small chitchat with them and ask them if they are from around here when I don’t recognize them. I’m thankful there aren’t many regulars in here sitting and staring at me. No doubt taking the gossip to my in-laws. I know one thing for sure—Winston would definitely come to my front door, but under no fucking circumstances would he come into this bar. At least I can be thankful he wouldn’t cause a scene in the place I work. Walking past a couple of tables before making my way back over to Autumn, I ask if everyone is okay. When I finally get back to the bar, Autumn is beside Brady making drinks while he hisses at her to get off her feet.
“Mommy and Daddy are fighting again,” Janelle teases. “My bet is on Autumn.” She stays beside me.
“That would be a good bet,” Autumn agrees as she puts drinks on a tray for Janelle, who takes them and walks away. “Are you okay?” she asks, and I just nod. She looks like she wants to say something else, but Brady places drinks on the tray in front of me. I smile at her as I listen to him tell me where to go. By the time I get a chance to catch a breath, I look over and see that it’s almost nine o’clock. Autumn walks out from behind the bar, putting her hands on her lower back, when her eyes light up as she looks at the door. “Well, well, well,” she says as Charlie walks in toward her. Actually, it looks like he’s prowling to her. The scowl on his face would not have me smiling like she is. “Look at who it is.”
“Let’s go,” he snaps two words, his voice tight. Instead of going with him without asking another question, she puts her hands that were on her back on her hips.
“Did you just walk in here, without even giving me a kiss, and order me to ‘let’s go,’ Charlie Barnes?” My eyes about come out of my sockets. “After I’ve been working all day long and then been on my feet for what feels like a hundred hours.”
“Whose fault is that?” Brady leans on the bar to interject his part of the showdown. Autumn doesn’t even turn back to look at him. Instead, she holds up her hand and flips him the middle finger, her eyes never leaving her husband in front of her.
“Now,” she snips, rubbing her baby bump, “perhaps we should start this again?”
“I have absolutely no problem with putting you over my shoulder and taking you out of here kicking and screaming, Autumn Barnes.”
They have a stare-off, and, I swear, I don’t even think I take a breath as the stare-off happens. Until she turns away from him and walks to the kitchen area, coming back out with a plate filled with french fries and a burger. “I was going to share this with you.” She pulls out a stool. “But you lost that privilege with that dumbass cowboy attitude.” She takes a fry and dips it in ketchup. “Sucks for you”—she moves her head side to side, enjoying the french fries—“because this is so good.”
I look at Charlie, wondering what he’s going to do, only to see him shake his head and look down at his feet, mumbling out words that I think are not good anyway, before walking over and pulling the stool out beside Autumn. He bends and kisses her neck before sitting down. “Too little, too late.” She side-glares at him as she takes a bite of the burger, and I can feel my stomach rumble as I watch her.
I should have eaten before I started my shift, I think to myself, but I was so nervous it completely went out of my head. So now I am going on a turkey sandwich and chips from lunch. “Can you get the case of water out of the closet?” Brady asks. I nod, walking over to the closet at the far end, near the door.
I can hear hissing from behind me coming from Autumn, and I think it’s directed at Charlie, but the minute I open the closet door and step in, I feel heat behind me. Looking over my shoulder, I glance at Brady, who steps around me, going to the case of water. The door closes behind me. “You just asked me to get the water,” I remind him.
“Yeah, but then I got that look from Autumn, so I came to help you.” He turns to me. “Open the door for me,” he instructs, and I don’t know if it’s because the room is small, but I feel him very close to me. The light is so dim that it shines only over the cases of water by the wall and not at all by the door.
I turn the handle and push the door, but nothing happens, doing it again and again. “It’s stuck,” I say, pushing to open the door again. But this time the handle breaks off in my hand. “Oh my God,” I tell him as he puts down the case and comes closer to me, “it’s broken!” I try not to panic, but with him standing so close to me, my breathing is coming in pants. And it has nothing to do with the room being so small and everything to do with the heat coming from the man who is very fucking close to me. It also comes from going all night, running all over the bar, yet every time I looked over, I found Brady had his eyes glued to me. Probably making sure I didn’t fuck up anything.
“How the hell did you do that?” he snaps out at the same time he grabs the handle from my hand.
“Do you think I have the strength of the Hulk—” I start to say as he gets even closer to me as he leans into the door too, trying to put the handle back on where it came from—“that I would be able to break a door handle?”
“I have no idea of your strength,” he pants, trying to slide it back on and turn it side to side. “Do you have your phone on you?”
“No,” I reply with a half smile on my face that now fills to a full smile. “My boss thinks I’m going to be scrolling social media during my shift, so he makes me leave it behind the bar,” I almost say in his face, but I don’t. “Where is your phone?”
“Fuck, I don’t know,” he answers honestly. “Could be in the office, could be behind the bar.”
“Amazing.” I close my eyes, the smell of him assaulting me. “This is great, just what I wanted to do tonight.”
“Yeah,” he mumbles, standing up in front of me, the tips of his shoes almost touching mine. “Trust me, this was not on my bingo card for tonight.”
“No?” I ask, trying not to let the words and his tone get to me. “Shocking.”
“You always this much of a pain in the ass?” he comes right out and asks me, and I could swear he’s coming closer to me. The air in the room is almost electric, or maybe it’s my body that feels like it’s one big nerve. “Like always?”
“I don’t know,” I answer, but my heart hammers so hard in my chest it feels as if it’s going to come out of it. “You always this much of a—” His eyes twinkle when I stop talking.
“Of a what?” he asks, his voice is almost a whisper. “What am I, Harmony?” His eyes move back and forth as he watches me. “What do you think I am, Harmony?” His voice barely a whisper. My mouth going dry. The handle in his hands falls to the floor with a huge clank, before they tangle in my hair, and his mouth is on mine. My eyes close the minute his tongue touches mine. I will them to open again so I can see this is happening, and it’s not my imagination. But the only thing I do is slide my tongue into his mouth and swallow down his groan.
CHAPTER 11
Brady
I’ve done a couple of dumb things in my life. One was not telling my sister how bad the business was until she got home. The second was hiring Harmony, and I have to say this right here. Kissing the shit out of her in the storage closet is number fucking three. Actually, it might be number two instead of number three. But the minute her tongue touches mine, and she swallows my groan, I know it is a fucking mistake. I’m making out with her in a fucking closet. The woman who for the past couple of weeks I’ve let get under my skin, and I have no idea how to get her out from under it.
The kiss deepens as I move her head to the side, both of my hands in her hair, cupping her head, forcing the kiss to go deeper. Her hands grip my sides, and I pull her to me. This time, she’s the one moaning into my mouth. A knock on the door makes us both jump away from each other. My eyes fly open and go to the door and then back to Harmony. Her chest heaves as I hear Autumn’s voice. “Brady?” She knocks on the door.
“Yeah, the door handle broke off,” I answer to the door, trying not to sound like I’m winded or all the blood has been drained from my body with just one fucking kiss that lasted less than a couple of minutes. My eyes watch Harmony’s as she avoids even looking in my direction. Her hands at her sides, which were just bunched at my waist, now hang motionless. The sound of the handle from the other side slides out, and I bend to see out of it. “There is a screwdriver in the warehouse.”