Fate Interrupted (5 page)

Sugar and
alcohol infused conversation and laughter muddied her thoughts as he came
closer with a blond haired friend who wasn’t nearly as tall. The cool air
conditioning licked at her clammy skin as she wiped her sweaty palms on a black
apron with the word
Sugars
stenciled
across its front in hot pink.

The tall guy
whose name she couldn’t recall smiled as he approached the counter.
“Hi Evy.”

“You are
following me,” she said faintly.

Brooke glanced
at Dean and narrowed her eyes.

“Thought we’d
stop by and see what all the fuss was about.”

Evy tucked a strand
of hair that had managed to escape her ponytail behind an ear.
“
Fuss
?”

“Yeah,” Dean
replied, taking the place in. “Everyone’s talking about this place on
Facebook
, Twitter, the blogs...
Pinterest
.”

An eyebrow leapt
into the middle of Evy’s forehead. “You’re on
Pinterest
?”

“No, but Jon
here is.”

“Jon Vanguard,”
the blond friend said with confidence, extending his hand.

Evy hesitantly
reached across the countertop and shook Jon’s warm hand, the hint of a grin
tugging at the corner of her lips.

“Good crowd for
a Friday night,” he said, scoping the place out.

“It’s not bad,” Evy
responded, her eyes gravitating back to Dean. “It was really busy earlier.”

“So
what’ya
got to drink?” Jon asked, craning his neck to see
behind her.

“Tonight’s
special is an Apple Sage Ginger
Mezcal
Smash for nine
dollars.”

Jon frowned.
“What the hell is that?”

Evy smiled. “
It’s
Mezcal
tequila and simple
syrup muddled with apple, sage and ginger.”

Jon traded a
hesitant look with Dean.
“How about two shots of the tequila
and a couple of IPAs?”

She laughed and
glanced at the tall guy whose name she couldn’t remember, butterflies
fluttering in her stomach. She turned to the rows of liquor bottles behind her
and poured two shots before grabbing some beer bottles from a nearby cooler. Evy
glanced in the mirror as she slowly poured the beers into glasses and busted
Dean staring at her butt. Heat flashed between her legs and she flushed with
embarrassment.

She turned back
to them with the drinks and Dean handed her two twenties. Her fingers brushed
against his as she took the money, sending electricity shooting through her
veins. She smiled at him and stepped around her nosy sister.

Dean followed Evy
to the cash register, watching her every move. “This place is really amazing.”

“Thank you,” she
said, handing him back his change and catching another charge when they touched
again.

Brooke moved in
closer. “So who’s tall, dark, and handsome here, Evy?”

“Jon Vanguard,”
Jon quickly replied, reaching his hand across the counter.

Brooke jerked
her admiring gaze from Dean to Jon and shook his hand with a subtle laugh. “And
this one?” she asked, turning back to Dean.

Evy shot the
shorter brunette a look and returned her heated gaze to Dean, squeezing her
eyes together in mystic wonder.
“Steve, right?”

“Dean,” he said,
correcting her with a polite grin.

A mortified look
stole across Evy’s reddening face. She glanced at the shorter girl standing
next to her. “This is my nosy little sister, Brooke.”

Brooke reached
across the counter and enthusiastically shook Dean’s hand.
“Nice
to meet you, Dean.”

“Nice to meet
you,” he smiled back. “You guys have a great place.”

“Thank you,” Brooke
dreamily replied.

Jon raised a shot
glass into the air. “Here’s to making new friends,” he said, shooting Brooke a wink
that she didn’t catch it.

Dean clanked his
shot glass against Jon’s and knocked it back.

“So is this the
guy who asked you out at the gym the other day?”

“Brooke!” Evy
gasped, clapping a hand over her heart.

Brooke studied
Dean like he was a shiny new car. “How could you turn this gorgeous man down?”

Jon kicked Dean’s
foot below the counter and Dean smiled before sipping on his beer.

“I am going to
kill you,” Evy whispered out the corner of her mouth.

“Well, you’re in
luck, Dean,” Brooke said, reaching behind Evy and untying her apron. “Evy just
got off work!”

Evy spun away
from Brooke, her loose apron twirling through the air like a ballroom gown.

Brooke snapped
her close by the hand like a Latino dance partner and pulled the apron over Evy’s
head.

“Brooke stop,” Evy
quietly pleaded.

Brooke stood on
her tippy toes and whispered in her sister’s ear. Evy’s eyes slowly drifted
over to Dean and she slapped Brooke’s arm, her face bunching into a tight ball.
“Don’t be so dirty,” she whispered back.

Brooke giggled
like a schoolgirl. “Have her back here by noon tomorrow,
Deano
!”
she said, nudging Evy out from behind the counter and smacking her on the ass.

Evy gasped with
the slap and took reluctant steps across the checkered floor, glancing back at Brooke
for help who would only grin and wave. Evy turned back around and found
herself
looking up into Dean’s eyes, her heart heaving in
her chest. The smell of his cologne fanned her desire as they shared a simple
moment that seemed to last for hours.

Jon pounded the
rest of his beer and squeezed between them, headed for the front door. “Let’s
do this.”

“Shall we?” Dean
said, sweeping a hand out.

Evy swallowed
hard and followed Jon outside with Dean behind her. She stopped on the wide
sidewalk out front and adjusted her ponytail. “I can’t go anywhere too fancy,”
she said, brushing flour from her black v-neck t-shirt. “I look like hell.”

A confident
smile parted Dean’s lips. His rows of pearly whites sparkled in the glow of a
nearby street lamp. “You look gorgeous.”

“I’m wearing
tennis shoes.”

Jon’s eyes
lowered to her shoes. “Don’t worry, we’ll go somewhere low key.”

***

A rainbow of
flashing lights painted their faces with alternating strokes, the music’s heavy
bass rattling their bones. The DJ cradled one end of his headphones in his
shoulder as he mixed with both hands, fueling the crowds’ hungry hips on the dance
floor.

When Dean saw
Megan standing by the back bar he nearly had an aneurism. She turned around, a red
Cosmo in each hand, and he breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t Megan. He
forced himself to relax and stretched his arm along the back of the long blue
couch, pinning Evy’s ponytail in the process. She tipped her head forward and
he quickly relocated his arm.

“Sorry,” he said
with a sheepish grin, folding his hands in his lap.

Evy played with
the end of her hair, taking in all the pretty girls in tight dresses and
colorful high-heels. She leaned into Dean’s ear and brushed a lip against his
cheek. His heart flinched with the contact.

“I am way too under
dressed for this place,” she said over the music, the scent of vanilla floating
from her breath.

He smiled at her.
“Personally, I think you’re overdressed. Why don’t you take off your shirt and
get comfortable.”

Her head jerked
back like some invisible entity had just slapped her across the face. She
frowned at him, resisting a laugh and turning back to the dance floor. “It’s so
busy in here.”

He kept his eyes
glued to her, watching her twist her fingers. “I hadn’t noticed.”

She fell back
into his big browns, trying to read him like a book, and quickly looked away.

He leaned into
her ear, inhaling another whiff of her sweet smell, delaying what he was about
to say for as long as humanly possible. From this close, her lips looked soft
as pillows and all he could think about was sucking on them until she begged
for more. “Trust me, Evy, you look amazing.”

The lights
flickered across her skeptical face.

“You must work
out,” he said, finally getting her to laugh.

“Do you guys come
here a lot?”

He opened his
mouth and hesitated, seeing himself with Megan on this very couch just last
Saturday night. “Not much,” he lied, scooting closer. “So where do you hang out?”

“Sugars,” she replied
flatly. “It takes up most of my time right now.”

“I bet. New
business in a new city, that’s a lot to handle.”

Her green eyes
found him in their sights and his pulse quickened. She stared at him for a
moment and turned back to the throbbing crowd. Dean, however, couldn’t turn
away so easily. He loved the way her gaze slowly gravitated back to him every
few seconds. He waited for it and started counting – one Mississippi, two,
Mississippi, three Mississippi. Evy turned back to face him and he tried not to
laugh.

“What?”

He shook his
head, wanting to know everything about her but not wanting to spoil the moment
with words. She tore her gaze back to the dance floor and it filled him with
joy knowing those eyes would soon be back. He impatiently awaited their return,
adjusting his jeans which were riding him in the crotch.

“Okay, who
ordered the lamb?” Jon yelled, magically appearing out of thin air with three
shot glasses in his hands.

“Oh, hell no,”
Dean said, taking one of them off his hands.

Jon shoved one
in front of Evy, who eyeballed it like spiders were crawling about inside. She
held up a palm. “Oh, I don’t…”

“Take it!” Jon said,
gesturing with the glass and spilling a little of the clear liquid onto the
wood planks between her shoes.

She took it
before he could spill any on her as a pretty waitress dropped off a tray of
Heinekens.

Jon thanked her
with some folded bills and told her to keep it. She gave Dean
fuck me
eyes and Evy frowned. Jon
watched the waitress disappear into the gyrating mass on the dance floor,
licking his lips from one side to the other. He turned back around and raised
his shot glass into the sweaty smelling air. “Here is to the rousing success of
Sugars, my new favorite after dinner retreat!”

Evy smiled and clanked
her glass against theirs. They tossed them back, grimaced with the tequila’s
burn, and slammed the glasses onto a narrow coffee table with a relaxing shade
of red glowing from its core. Jon chased the shot with a long swig from a
Heineken bottle.
“
Whoo
!
Now,
that’s what I’m
talkin
about!” He sat down on the
other side of Evy and surveyed the crowd, his head bobbing along with the music.
“Ass soup tonight!”

Evy arched a
puzzled eyebrow at him and Dean gladly took the opportunity to lean into her
ear, much closer than needed. “He means it’s
an…
attractive
crowd.”

Her perplexed
frown morphed into a laugh.

“So is your
sister single?”

She smiled warmly
at Jon. “She’s married.”

“Bummer,” Jon
replied dully, returning his attention to two dark skinned girls with long
brown hair tearing up the dance floor. “So what’s up with giving my boy here
the slip two times in a row?” he asked, jerking his chin at Dean.

She turned to
Dean and sharpened her gaze. “I know a player when I see one.”

Dean’s jaw
dropped in mock horror. “Me?”

Jon leaned in
closer to Evy and Dean wished it was him. “Don’t hate the player, hate the game,
girl! He can’t help it if women fall all over him.”

She turned to
Dean and wrinkled her brow.
“You poor baby.”

Dean’s shoulders
rose to his ears. “It’s an old family curse.”

“His problem is
he’s been looking for love in all the wrong places,” Jon said, enjoying watching
Dean squirm.

Dean rolled his
eyes and took a long drink, hiding behind his beer bottle for as long as
humanely possible.

Evy squinted at
Jon. “That sounds like a country song.”

He shrugged
apathetically while scanning the club. “All I know is you’re only going to find
rotten
skanks
in a place like this. Dean needs
someone wholesome to sweep him off his feet and he
ain’t
gonna
find that in here,” he said, his eyes following
the tight butt of a pretty redhead walking by. “Trust me.”

Evy studied Jon
while Dean
shot
him a look that could kill behind her
back. “Wow, you’re a really good wingman, Jon!” she said over the driving beat.
“I’m impressed.”

Jon gestured
with his bottle, spilling some beer that Evy narrowly dodged. “My boy here runs
a lot deeper than you think, Evy. Don’t let his superficial good looks and
charm fool you. Dude cried during
The
Notebook
.”