Page 4 of Vodka And Virtue

No, I dreamed of finding something authentic. For the last six months since returning home, I’d been focused on settling into my new house and starting up my business, just waiting for the right man to come along and put the cherry on my sundae.

Someone like Carlisle Carrick, my buddy’s nephew.

That man had caught my eye from the first day. I remembered seeing him several times before moving to the other side of the world, when I would swing by Graham's house on my bike. The walls of Graham’s home were lined with photos of his family, his nephews, and his adopted son. I hadn’t paid much attention to Carlisle back then. He was too young, too scrawny, too naïve. But the man I saw before me now was none of those things. He had grown up and filled out over the years, and there was nothing about him I wasn’t taking seriously.

Like now, as I stood by the entrance, chilled by the cold wind that breezed in every time someone opened the front door, I watched him at the bar, stocking liquor and napkins, closing out tabs. He was a gorgeous man. While his brother presented himself entirely differently with his sleeves rolled up and the buttons above his vest undone, hair disheveled, Carlisle was full of class. Not a hair out of place. His sleeves were buttoned at the wrists. His shirt pressed carefully and stain-free. His light green eyes twinkled under the recessed lights of the bar.

But it was his smile that drew me in. Soft, tilted just barely in the corners, like he was hiding a secret. He captured and held my attention like a train wreck. I couldn’t look away. He had caught me staring several times, always frowning like my attention made him uncomfortable.

I wondered if it was just me he didn’t like or all men, unlike his brother, who was gay. I remembered Graham had mentioned years ago that all the men in his family seem to have drank from the same water, so I had assumed he meant Carlisle, as well. But apparently not, as he was now talking to a curvy blonde in a pencil skirt and heels. She leaned across the bar, bringing her face close with Carlisle’s as she whispered in his ear. Her words made him smile. A flash of jealousy sparked within me. Apparently, it didn’t take much to receive one of his special smiles, yet I had failed to earn one myself.

I would just have to try harder.

It was still early. With the lounge having just opened, the dinner crowd hadn’t rambled in yet. I waited until the girl accepted her drink and walked away before I strolled over to the bar and casually propped my elbow on the counter.

“You don’t date much, do you?”

Carlisle’s dark head popped up. “Why would you say that?”

I shrugged my broad shoulders, looking over his shoulder at Carson. “Seems to me like your brother is preoccupied with someone. But not you. You keep to yourself.”

“You've been watching me?”

“Here and there. Not much to do when you stand guard by the door. I’m a people person, I notice things. I like to watch, figure people out.”

“Oh yeah? Do you think you have me all figured out?”

I should have taken his narrowed glare as a warning, but I pushed right past that red flag and gave him a cocky grin. “Not by a long shot. But I’d like to. So, no girlfriend, boyfriend?”

“Too busy with work.”

It seemed as if he was trying to dismiss me as he focused on stacking rows of clean glassware, avoiding eye contact with me.

“Your brother works, but he seems to make time.”

Carlisle turned, eyeing his brother across the bar. “Yeah well, he’s a multitasker. I like to focus on one thing at a time.”

“You make that sound hot.”

“Excuse me?”

This wasn’t going well. In fact, he seemed closer to throttling me than flirting with me.

“I’m sorry, you’re not into men, are you? That’s okay, I’ll leave you alone. I shouldn’t have bothered you.”

“No, wait!” He seemed to hesitate, his pretty green eyes cast downward as he debated something in his head. When he raised his eyes to me, I fell into the depths of his irises, so green, like an Irish meadow. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

I could brush it off, dismiss it like it was nothing and put him at ease, but then he would dismiss me just as easily. I would never know if I had a shot with him. So, I stood my ground, determined to coax the answer out of him.

“So, are you?” I asked softly.

“Am I what?”

“Interested in men?”

Carlisle closed his eyes as he chewed his bottom lip. He blinked them open, sighed, and shrugged his shoulders. “I–I like men. I’ve just never dated one before.”

My brows lifted, regarding him curiously. I was intrigued. “Oh yeah? How come?”