Behind the Stick Read online

  “I told you to call my contractor. This would have been done weeks ago.”

  If he called Ashton’s contractor, then Ashton would know every single thing that was wrong with the place ever since Gavin decided to start messing with things. If Gavin would have just left things the way they were, he could’ve continued to be blissfully unaware of how much of a dump this bar was beneath the walls and floorboards.

  He had visions of what this bar could be and those ideas slipped away the minute the random wall in the far side of the bar revealed its actual purpose and the costly nightmare that hid beneath.

  In order to finish the construction, it would cost more money that Gavin didn’t have, and he’d already be paying Ashton back for the rest of his life with the loan he took from him to buy this place; the last thing he wanted to do was add to the debt.

  It had taken everything he had to walk into Ashton’s million-dollar office overlooking Seattle and ask for money. He swore to himself when he stepped out of the office that he would never ask his brother for another penny.

  Unfortunately, he was already nose deep where Ashton was concerned. He refused to tell his brother that he couldn’t afford to pay the contractors. He would never hear the end of it. Ashton would lecture him on financial bullshit that would make him feel like an idiot for jumping in blindly. Nope, no way in hell he was about to throw himself in front of that bus.

  Luckily, Lily May, tapped Ashton on the shoulder, and he focused on her.

  “Hello to you too,” she said, her hand landing on her hip, annoyance radiating off of her in amusing waves.

  “Sorry, baby,” he said, drawing her in for a quick kiss.

  She patted his chest. “Now that’s more like it.”

  Ashton stared at her with nothing but adoration and Lily May knew it.

  “Look at you grinning like a possum eating a sweet potato,” she said, her own lips curving upward.

  “I have a lot to grin about.” Ashton grabbed her around the waist and Lily May let out a high-pitched squeak.

  “Must you do that? You’re going to scare my customers away,” Gavin joked while he got down a bottle he kept aside for Ashton. He’d never seen his brother’s intimidating nature fade so quickly. It usually took a few glasses of top shelf scotch to achieve any ease to his uptight posture and stoic expression.

  “What customers?” Ashton asked, and Gavin bit his tongue…hard.

  Lily May’s blonde hair spun around her as she twirled to face Gavin. Her eyebrow lifted. “Now don’t go and get your feathers ruffled on me.” She gave him a quick smile, and he smiled back a thank you for defusing the situation.

  Gavin held his hands up. “No feathers here to ruffle.” He poured the amber liquid in a glass and pushed it toward Ashton. Maybe a few sips of scotch would lighten his ass up a little more and he’d leave Gavin the hell alone. The last thing Gavin wanted to deal with tonight was Ashton’s inability to let things go. Lily May had invited all of their friends here and Gavin was looking forward to catching up with everyone, especially getting more acquainted with Lauren, without Ashton’s disappointed glare constantly wandering in his direction. Lily May gave a sassy tilt of her head, then clapped her hands together, looking from Ashton then to Gavin. “So what’d I miss here?”

  “Nothing,” he and Ashton said at the same time.

  “That tells me that’s a lie.” Lily May pointed her finger at them.

  “Did you just Maury Povich us?” Gavin asked.

  Lily May laughed. “Maybe. Neither of you are trying to figure out who the baby daddy is of the pregnant woman you’re both seeing, I still thought it was fitting…. but if nothing is going on.” She leaned in closer to the bar and gave a motion with her head to the far corner opposite the construction. “Why don’t we talk about Lauren?”

  Gavin refrained from rolling his eyes. Lily May was determined to set him up on dates ever since she found out that he signed up for an online dating site. He did it out of desperation. With Ashton’s annual charity gala coming up, and with Ashton happily attached to Lily May, he couldn’t show up to the party without a date. If he did, his dads would never stop questioning him about when he was planning on settling down. The two men were getting impossible in their old age. Just because they were blissfully happy together since their late twenties, they expected everyone else to be.

  For the most part, they left Ashton alone since he was building his legacy, and Gavin would get the brunt of the concerned parent brigade, using their favorite go to line, we just want you to be happy.

  Now that Ashton had it all, the empire that expanded more and more every day and the beautiful girlfriend who was nicer than any human Gavin had ever known, Ashton was once again making Gavin look bad.

  If he could show up to the gala with a date on his arm then he’d be free of the questions. Online dating proved to be a bust though. When he finally had a match worth a dime, it turned out she was madly in love with her best friend. Rae and Tommy belonged together though, and, as if she knew he was thinking about her, Rae caught his eye from across the way where she stood with Steven and Ginny and gave him a wave. He nodded in acknowledgment, getting her and Tommy’s drinks together, virgin rum and Cokes, while Lily May practically burned a hole in the side of his head.

  “Gavin Mills, you cannot ignore me.”

  “Want to make a bet,” he said, and Ashton cracked a smile.

  “I really think you and Lauren would be perfect for each other.”

  “That’s what you said about Darla from your spin class who told me every single nutritional fact of everything I put in my mouth. Then there was Becca you met at the dog park, which I still don’t understand why you were at a dog park when you don’t even have a dog.”

  “I do, in North Carolina.”

  “Yes,” Gavin said. “But that still doesn’t explain why you would be in a dog park here.”

  “Fine, I like to pet them. Is there anything wrong with that?”

  Gavin laughed before looking at his brother. “Can you get the girl a dog?”

  “I don’t need him to get me anything,” Lily May declared, her head tilting upward. “Besides, there’s a no pet rule in my building.”

  “Yes, but he owns the building,” Gavin said, hitching his thumb in Ashton’s direction. “I’m sure he’d make an exception.”

  She waved her hand in front of her. “Stop trying to get me off track with your puppy distractions. Becca was a very nice girl.”

  “She was, but there wasn’t one thing on her face that was real. And, hey, if you like that sort of thing by all means go for it, but I prefer a natural beauty.”

  “Okay, so she wore a lot of makeup and is a little heavy on the contouring.”

  “A lot? I couldn’t tell if I was talking to a person or a painting.”

  “Fine, so she wasn’t your type. What about Tara from my bank? What was wrong with her?”

  “Other than the fact that she asked about your boyfriend every other sentence.”

  A storm brewed in Lily May’s blue eyes, turning them dark. “What!?”

  “Yeah, it seems she was more obsessed with the fact that I was Ashton Mills brother than anything else.”

  “Well, you are lucky for that,” Ashton said, and Gavin finally tossed the rag at his head.

  Ashton caught it before it could slap him in the face and shook his head as he placed it on the bar. “Real mature.”

  Gavin shrugged. He spotted an empty glass in front of one of his regulars. “While I would love to stand here and chat some more, I have customers I have to help.” Gavin swiped the rag up and flopped it over his shoulder. “And you invited all your friends here,” he said to Lily May. “Go have fun, tell Rae I have her drinks, and don’t worry about my dating life.”

  “But—”

  “Let him be,” Ashton said, taking her in his arms and guiding her toward the group of their friends.

  She peeked around Ashton. “This isn’t over,” she called out, and G
avin laughed. He didn’t need her to tell him. Lily May was anything if not determined and for whatever reason she was fixated on setting him up.

  Gavin filled Devin’s glass and bullshitted with him about a few of the local breweries that had popped up in the area. It was bad enough Gavin was competing with the new sports bar around the corner, but now he was also competing with breweries. While he had no hope of winning against a sports bar stacked with twenty-two TVs and a beer selection that would rival a distributor, he wanted to find a way for him and the breweries to work together.

  There was one thing Gavin loved, and that was beer, and he wanted his bar to show that. Granted he would still carry all the other staples, like his brother’s top shelf scotch, wine, and mixed drinks, but he also wanted to carry craft beers that were growing mass appeal. He had ideas. Hundreds of ideas that he wanted to implement like having the breweries do a tap takeover, offering a discount if the brewery sent someone over to him, hosting a cask festival, and even having live music and trivia nights. The problem was, with all this never-ending construction, potential customers took one look at the place and walked out.

  He never should have tried to knock down that wall in the corner. Now he knew it contained half the wiring in the place, but that didn’t help him now. He thought just reconstructing another wall would fix the problem, but once the contractor saw the shoddy wires, he advised to update the wiring and adding a bigger expense that Gavin couldn’t afford, but also something he couldn’t ignore either. The last thing he needed was one of those wires to cause a fire.

  It kept him up at night, and since he lived in the apartment upstairs, he would come down to the bar and check everything a few times a night. He’d barely been sleeping because of it.

  He looked at his brother, who was finally lightening up, then over at the under-construction portion of his bar. Maybe he should just ask Ashton for the money and be done with it. He already owed him a fortune, so what was a few thousand more at this point?

  Still there was something inside him, pride most likely, that kept him from marching over there and asking Ashton to talk. Instead he pushed all thoughts out of his head and focused his attention on Devin until he got up to use the bathroom.

  Gavin could easily go over to the group that he now called his friends, but he wasn’t feeling very social at the moment. Everyone over there was in a happy relationship, thriving at life, and he was forever stuck in the habitual phase of never getting it right.

  He went to lean against the bar when he noticed Lauren still hiding in the corner, her nose burrowed deep in a book, long brown hair hanging over the side of her face.

  “Reading anything good?” he asked as he approached.

  “It’s not bad,” she said, not even bothering to glance up at him.

  “That good, huh?”

  She held her finger up, and he stifled a laugh as her eyes roamed the page before gently closing the book and placing it down on her lap. She pushed a pair of black plastic frame glasses up her nose, and he couldn’t bite back the smile at the adorable bookworm in front of him.

  “I didn’t mean to keep you from the good parts,” he said. “I know how annoying that can be.”

  Her head tilted. “You read?”

  He reached behind the bar, pulling out a worn copy of his favorite book. “As often as I can.”

  Amusement flashed across her pretty features. “Did you just pull a book out from under the bar?”

  “Why, did you find it wildly attractive? I can do it again.” Gavin put the book back then grabbed it, holding it up with renewed vigor.

  Her forehead creased. “Do you really think the book is what makes you attractive?”

  “So what you’re saying is that you think I’m hot.”

  “What I’m saying is my boyfriend and I just broke up, and I am not ready for whatever it is you’re attempting.” She wiggled her finger between them before placing her hand on her lap with the book.

  “Have you had your nose in that book so long you’ve forgotten how to communicate with fellow humans?”

  Her eyebrows drew together, creating a cute look of confusion. “What is that even supposed to mean?”

  “That maybe I wasn’t flirting. Maybe I was just being friendly because you’re over here by yourself, and as a good bartender, it is my job to make sure you’re okay.”

  A disappointed glint flashed in her eyes. “So you weren’t flirting with me?”

  “No, I totally was.”

  She laughed, and the sound was a mix between sunshine and hot chocolate, both warm and welcoming after a cloudy day. “I appreciate your honesty,” she said.

  “Don’t be fooled by my forwardness; it’s just that I’ve never really been a good liar. I don’t have that stoic face like my brother.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing,” she said. “But it’s not.”

  “Why are you over here all by yourself?” he asked, looking toward the group of their mutual friends.

  She lifted one shoulder and let it fall, her brown hair lifting and falling with the movement. “Like I said I just went through a breakup and being around all those happy couples is…”

  “Depressing?” he asked.

  The sad lines around her mouth vanished as she glanced up and met his gaze. “Exactly.”

  He leaned against the bar, ignoring the mess he couldn’t fix and the brother he loved but would never beat, and sunk into the conversation with the adorable bookworm.

  “I might not be going through a breakup, but I get it. Being the only single guy in a group makes me feel like a total fish out of water.”

  “Yes! I mean not that I’m a guy but it’s the same thing for girls too. When your friends are in relationships things change and I know they don’t mean to have their inside jokes that leave the rest of us feeling left out.”

  “Or to talk about how happy they are and all the new exciting things they have planned.”

  “Exactly. It comes with the territory, but coming off another failed relationship, I don’t want to be reminded about how I can’t seem to find that happily ever after no matter how hard I’ve tried.”

  “That’s the thing,” he said. “When it comes to the happily ever after stuff, you shouldn’t have to try so hard. It should just happen.”

  “When you least expect it, right? At least that’s what everyone says.”

  His eyes met hers. “I think they may be on to something.”

  ***

  Lauren had no idea how much time had passed since she and Gavin started talking, but for the first time in her life, she didn’t care. She wasn’t thinking about going home, crawling into bed, and losing herself in a book. She was enjoying losing herself in this conversation.

  Gavin was nothing like Dylan, thank god. He looked at her when he spoke, genuinely listened to what she had to say, and never once picked up his phone while she was talking to him. It was a refreshing change of pace, and Lauren enjoyed not only the attention, but the company.

  Gavin pointed at her, smile spreading wide across his face. “Most embarrassing memory, shoot.”

  “I’m not telling you that,” she said as she sipped the blueberry wheat beer Gavin suggested when she told him she liked herbal teas. The beer tasted nothing like her favorite tea by any means, but it wasn’t bad either.

  “Oh, come on, don’t go getting shy on me now,” he said, and her chin dipped down.

  For the most part, Lauren kept to herself; she wasn’t exactly shy, but she wasn’t outgoing either, at least not until she had a chance to warm up to someone. With Gavin though, the ease was almost instant, and while she would never tell anyone this horribly embarrassing story, she wanted to tell him.

  “Excuse me, Gavin” A guy at the end of the bar held up his hand.

  “I’ll be right back,” Gavin said.

  Lauren went to reach for her book, but instead focused her attention on Gavin. She watched as he took the guys empty glass and without asking for a reminder of wh
at he was drinking, began to refill it. He engaged in small conversation asking the guy about his kid’s karate match.

  It was obvious Gavin loved being a bartender and he was good at it. He seemed to know his customers and genuinely care about them and their lives.

  When he handed over the glass, a woman came up to bar and flashed him a big smile. “You’re hot,” she said and Gavin bashfully smiled.

  “Thanks, can I get you something else? A water maybe?”

  She waved her hand at him, eyes pinched closed as she swayed. “How about your number.”

  “Silvia, we’re leaving,” a redhead said, tapping her friend on the shoulder.

  “Raincheck on the water,” Silvia said and gave Gavin a sloppy wink before stumbling away. Silvia and her friends disappeared into the night and Gavin came back to Lauren.

  “Sorry about that,” he said.

  “No worries, you’re working. I shouldn’t be holding you up like this anyway especially when you have customers or should I say a fan club.”

  He laughed, loud and boisterous, the sound filling her with joy. “No fan club and don’t think you’re going to get out of telling me your most embarrassing memory.”

  An uncontrollable grin pulled at her mouth. “I was hoping you’d forget.”

  “Not in a million years.” He clapped his hands together. “Now what it is? The suspense is killing me here.”

  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I wet my pants at a sleepover when I was ten. I was scared to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and didn’t want to wake anyone up.”

  Amusement danced across his face. “So you just peed your pants?”

  “I know it seems ridiculous now, but that hallway was creepy. Seriously, it gave off The Shinning vibes. I expected to walk out of that room and see the twins standing at the end of the hallway asking me to play with them.”

  Gavin smirked. “What’s wrong with twins?”

  “Nothing is wrong with twins as long as you can blink without their dead bodies being slain across a hallway and their blood dripping down the walls.”