Just One Kiss: A Black Alcove Novel (The Black Alcove Series Book 1) (2 page)

“Umm, Ethan,” she says.

Ethan.

I freeze, resting my forearms against the
counter.

“He was the cousin who used to stay with us
over the summers. The same cousin you dumped a bucket of paint on
when my dad was redoing the floor in this place.” She pauses to
look down. “I’m so glad he decided to go with the whole tie-dye
floor thing. It gives this place some color.”

I smirk. I only dumped the paint because
Ethan was trying to remind me about our so- called “kiss.” We got
lucky when Sara’s dad actually liked the mess I made. He went out
and bought buckets of assorted colors, letting us kids go wild
coating the cement floor. I aimed for Ethan with every bucket I
touched.

“Anyway, his dad and my dad are brothers, so
he’s used to the whole owning your own business thing. Plus, he
just got a business degree and wants to add this to his
experience,” she continues. “He’s only a year older than us; you
have to remember him.”

Oh, I remember him. How could I forget?
Still to this day no one knows what happened, not even Sara. I
should have known geeks were the worst.

“You know he had that stupid mushroom
haircut thing going on and glasses.” Sara laughs, but then the
giggles fade and she stares off at something behind me. I follow
her gaze to find nothing important, and when I look back at her
she’s again focused on her papers. “That’s the one problem with
this plan. I haven’t seen him in years. I hate to be shallow, but I
can’t have a nerd running this place. We have a reputation to
uphold and he could ruin it.”

She glances up. “Come on, Kelsey, you have
to remember him.”

Oh right, she’s refreshing my memory. I give
my head a slight nod as I pretend to remember.

“Yeah, he was the one who was always
following us around. I bet we could still make him wait on us hand
and foot.” We both begin to laugh again but are quickly cut
off.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen this
time.”

I jump at the deep voice
that echoes inside the empty bar. In the doorway stands the most
beautiful man I’ve ever seen. Tall, dark, and handsome doesn’t even
begin to describe him.
Is
that…Ethan?

Sara hops off the stool
with a giant smile on her face and quickly rushes to give him a
hug. The veins that appear in his toned arms as he gives her a
tight squeeze send a flutter through my entire stomach.
Holy crap, he’s huge.
This is not the nerdy boy I remember. His body looks so firm
and sexy.

When Sara lets go of him, she turns to me.
Her movement grabs my attention, snapping my eyes to hers before he
can catch me checking him out.

“Kelsey, you remember
Ethan,” she says, and I can tell she’s happy with her decision to
leave him in charge.
Looks like her bar’s
reputation is going to survive.
“I was just
telling Kelsey how you’re going to take over for me while I’m
gone,” she says to Ethan. Although I don’t think he heard her. His
eyes are focused solely on me.

Ethan takes a step forward in his black
shirt and blue jeans, and I watch him cautiously until he’s
standing in front of me. My fingers grip tighter onto the counter,
trying to keep myself standing. He’s even more gorgeous now than he
was before.

His green eyes are bright
against his short, black hair, and when he smiles, I know instantly
that I don’t stand a chance at holding my damn plan into
place.
Not that I ever
did
. He extends his hand to me, but I just
stand there. I don’t move. I don’t do anything. Not even
blink.

He lets out a deep chuckle, and my heart
races so fast and loud, I swear he can hear it. “You haven’t
changed a bit.” He raises an eyebrow, never taking his gaze off
mine. “Still keeping quiet, I see.”

I swallow and then break
our eye contact.
Holy crap.
When I look up again, Ethan is glancing over to
Sara, who’s standing next to him, leaning against the
counter.

“Is she this quiet with the
customers too?” he jokes.
I
think.

“No, she isn’t,” Sara says then looks at me
with both eyebrows raised. She’s trying to tell me something. She
tilts her head toward Ethan and her eyes grow even bigger as they
flicker toward Ethan and back to me.

I return my attention to Ethan and open my
mouth.

Crap.
What am I supposed to say?
Think,
Kelsey, think
.
Either speak or close your mouth. You haven’t spoken to him
since that unfortunate summer. It was just one kiss, nothing to get
worked up about. Don’t embarrass yourself.

I nod. “Hey,” I say, wiggling my fingers and
cringing at the pitch of my voice. “How’s it going?”

Sara erupts into a fit of
laughter I’ve never heard before, and I can feel my cheeks as they
begin to blush. I look away the moment I feel the tears trying to
fight their way forward.
Ohmygod! Ohmygod!
Ohmygod
! So much for not embarrassing
myself. How high did my voice seriously just go?

I stare at the countertop, pretending to be
deeply distracted by a divot in the wood. I trace my finger over it
and silently hope they’ll leave soon, when Ethan’s calming voice
grabs my attention.

“Things are going good, just got to town.
The wind here is annoying as hell, but I can get used to it,” he
says with a half grin. He winks at me then turns to Sara, who is
staring at us with a satisfied smile on her face.

“Do you want go over my responsibilities out
here or in your office?’ he asks, getting right to the point of his
visit.

“I’ll meet you in there.” She points her
office.

“Cool,” he says. “I’ll see you around,
Kelsey.”

Ethan flashes a heart-stopping smile my way
before he turns for Sara’s office and disappears.

The moment he’s out of sight, my breathing
returns, and it feels like I just finished running a marathon.

“You are totally into him,” she says,
pointing behind her with her thumb and walking backward toward her
office. “You were blushing a deep red just now. I can’t believe I’m
going to miss everything. Now, get out of here, and thanks again. I
don’t know why I get so on edge about the way Logan cleans at
night. I promise one day I won’t call you in to help last
minute.”

I don’t respond to her while she laughs
since my mind is still processing the fact Ethan is back and is
going to be my new temporary boss.

After she closes the door, I let out a long
breath before grabbing my purse from under the counter and marching
out the door, straight to my car.

I round the corner from the bar and wave to
Mrs. Mulligan, who’s walking into the diner next to the BA. She
waves back then stops to watch as I get closer to my car. She’s
nearing her eighties, which means she’s starting to become very
nosey. Something my mom warned me about—and she should know. As
Mrs. Mulligan’s neighbor, Mom has put up with more than a few
surprise visits.

I pull the keys from my purse but pause
mid-step when I see the large silver and shiny Toyota Tundra parked
next to my tiny, white Ford Focus. The truck still has new plates
and makes my car look like it’s owned by a homeless person. God,
even his truck is gorgeous.

I’m so totally
screwed.
I shouldn’t be stunned into
silence or struck in awe by Ethan or any other man. Men suck.
Always have and always will.

Ethan

This is going to be one hell of a year.

I sit in one of the old torn chairs in front
of Sara’s desk, resting my hands behind my head as I wait for her.
The chair squeaks when it leans back, and it goes far enough to
make me think it’s going to tip over. I sit up straight and pull my
thoughts together.

I’m here to manage this place while Sara is
away as a favor to my uncle, but mostly to get my father off my
back. I’m not like him or my brothers. I can’t manipulate people to
get things I don’t deserve. Like this bar, for example. If it
weren’t for the fact I’m sick of my father telling me how
ungrateful I am and a pathetic man, I wouldn’t be here secretly
helping him sabotage his way into owning this place. Most normal
guys my age would tell their dads to “fuck off,” but not me. Family
is important, and as shitty as they are some days, they’re the only
family I have. And that reason alone is why I’m here.

My mindset walking into this was “get in,
get out in less than two weeks.” Sara needs someone for almost a
year, but the sooner my dad is happy, the sooner I don’t have to
listen to him anymore. But now, I might take a little longer. I
wasn’t expecting to walk in and find a certain slender and still
beautiful brunette standing behind the counter.

Kelsey Brian.

One look from her and I forgot
everything.

All she did was stand behind the counter,
staring at me, and I already know there’s no way I’m going to stop
thinking about her. Hell, I don’t think I ever have. Those big,
golden eyes practically undressing me the minute I walked in the
door. Her full, pink lips falling slightly apart as I walked
closer. She smelled like Red Hots, the cinnamon candy, and my body
had responded immediately.

I never could forget that girl. I wanted her
so badly every summer I came here, to Wind Valley. That last time I
was here, I had to beg my father to let me go. I had to have one
last chance with her. When she found me during Sara’s barbeque and
pulled me to a hidden spot, I knew this was it. I was going to get
exactly what I wanted. I was finally going to kiss her.

Then I ruined it.

My cell buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out
to see a text from my father.

DON’T LET ME DOWN

I read the message twice,
remembering the last thing he said to me before I came here.
You better turn that heart to stone before you
give the Connelly name a poor reputation.
My father’s words are branded into my brain.

Fuck.
As much as I hate it, I better repeat that every day. Kelsey’s
hot, but getting my dad off my back is more important right now
than any woman.

Sara closes the door behind her and sits on
the other side of her large desk. She doesn’t say anything as she
sorts through the papers in front of her, probably trying to find
the one she needs. There are papers covering every inch of the
wooden surface, and my need to always have things in order is
trying to push its way out. I stand quickly and move to a
bookshelf, picking up random pictures to keep my hands busy before
I start to clean off her desk for her.

“Is everything okay?” she asks.

“Mmm hmm, everything’s
good.” I glance down at her surroundings.
Fuck, this office is a mess.

Sara smiles before finally clearing off a
spot and setting a stack of papers on the open area. “These are for
you. I need you to fill them out before we get started,” she
instructs, gesturing to the stack. “Thanks again for helping out.
Our fathers couldn’t have picked a better time to make up.”

They haven’t actually made up, but she
doesn’t need to know that. It is all an act my father put on to get
me into this spot. Deep down, I know my father should be mad at my
grandfather for leaving everything to Sara’s father, but without my
grandpa here to defend himself, my dad is taking it out on my
uncle. And he’s doing that by sending me here to find a few account
numbers that he can use.

My grandfather’s will said the bar belonged
to my uncle. But there’s also a clause that says if the day comes
where money is misused in any form, the bar will then transfer to
my father. Hence, my dad wants the account numbers to move money
that isn’t his into accounts that personally belong to my
uncle.

“That will happen with stubborn old men,” I
say instead of the truth, returning to my seat across from her.

“What’s it been…six or seven years since I
last saw you?”

It’s been seven, but if she can’t remember,
neither can I.

“Yeah, something like that.”

Sara begins organizing her desk a little and
I start filling out the paperwork. My mind is on autopilot as I
fill in the blanks and I finish in record time. Once I’m done with
that, I follow my cousin out of the office. The bar top that Kelsey
was standing behind is a large L shape that takes up two walls, but
there isn’t anyone standing behind it now.

“It doesn’t look like much during the day,
but when it’s filled with people at night, it’s my favorite place
to be.” Sara points to the corner. “We have a stage, but it’s been
weeks since there was a band on it. I’m working on a schedule for
it now, but I’m waiting for a few phone calls.” She spins, pointing
to the corner by the front with the pool tables. “For now we use
the jukebox for music.”

I nod my head as she carries on about a
couple more things.

This place is a lot cooler than I expected
it to be. The space is in great shape and looks well taken care of.
They don’t have very many tables, but it works because they are
more of an “enjoy the beer” place, not an “enjoy the food” place.
The walls are blue, but you can hardly tell that with all the
banners and neon signs. I’m actually excited that this is where I
will hang out. It has a welcoming feel, and it’s easy to see why
business is good.

Sara’s still talking when I glance at her.
She moves around at ease with a smile. She doesn’t notice me while
she talks, so I survey the rest of the room.

It’s obvious she and I are the only ones
here now. Good. I need to ask her if she needs anything else from
me because I have an appointment with the Realtor to pick up the
keys for the house I’m leasing. It takes me a minute to realize
Sara isn’t talking anymore. She’s watching me when it clicks.