Author: Jaci Burton

She threw some serious “help me” signals at Tara, Liz, and Maggie, who stood.

“Well, Craig, this has been fun,” Liz said, “but it’s girls’ night out and we need to go.”

He stood, too, turning to Jenna. “Wait. You’re leaving? With them?”

She wouldn’t laugh at the shock on his face. Really, she wouldn’t. Craig must not get turned down too often. “Afraid so. Nice meeting you. Good luck with the job.”

The slap of frigid air as they stepped outside never felt better.

“Wow. You were so right,” Tara said.

“No wonder I never dated much.” Liz shuddered. “Are all single guys like that?”

“Not all of them. But a lot of the ones I meet are.”

Which meant she was going to have a difficult time finding a date for the wedding.

FIVE

FINDING A MAN COULDN’T BE THAT HARD. JENNA worked around a sea of them. Men came through the doors of the bar often enough it was like catalog shopping. All she had to do was pick one.

Easy, right? Great-looking guys poured into the bar every night. Men with charming smiles who made good conversation. All she had to do was scope them out, talk to a few of them, and then ask one out and hope he said yes.

She was hit on all the time, but usually blew them off with a smile and a gentle no.

This time, she didn’t intend to say no.

She’d gotten busy after happy hour and stayed that way. No hockey game tonight, but there was a basketball game on. Anything that would bring people in to watch a game was good for business. And that meant men would come in.

She laughed. Never before had she been interested in men coming in. She cared about customers coming in, not what sex they were. Tonight she eagle-eyed every guy who walked through the doors, sizing them up as potential dates.

When a gorgeous man with a body to die for pulled up a seat at the bar, her radar started pinging. He wore crisp dark jeans and a button-down shirt, which he covered with a dark jacket.

Medium brown hair, cut short, and killer green eyes, with an engaging smile to perfect the look. She took a deep breath, a quick glance at the back bar mirror to make sure she looked okay, and went to take his order.

“What can I get for you?”

“I’ll have a glass of Chardonnay.”

Crap. “Sure.”

A wine drinker. Fussy and anal retentive. How could she not have noticed that his jeans had that crease down the center? He probably dry cleaned them.

It would never work.

One down, many more to go, she busied herself serving some of her regulars and scoping out a few more potential single candidates, when another new guy walked in.

Dark blond hair, leather jacket, relaxed jeans and boots, motorcycle helmet in his hand. Must be tough to be riding in February, because it was damn cold outside. His goatee and lazy grin were sexy as hell. He caught sight of her right away and headed in her direction.

She liked that.

“What can I get for you?”

He leaned against the bar. “I’ll have a Chivas on the rocks.”

Dammit. “Sure.”

She’d been so hoping he was a beer guy. Instead, she’d gotten a rich boy playing biker. And he’d had so much potential. He probably rode a Ducati Superbike.

She refused to give up hope and went back to serving her customers and filling orders.

“Busy night.”

Shivers skittered down her spine at the dark, sexy tone of the man’s voice. She closed her eyes for a second and let the sound of Ty’s voice fill her senses.

She really didn’t need this tonight. Not when she was man shopping.

She turned around. “Why are you here?”

“Uh, to play pool?”

She looked to the left, and sure enough, two of the other members of the Ice hockey team were already setting up at one of the pool tables.

So maybe he wasn’t here to see her after all. Maybe Tyler and his friends liked the atmosphere and pool tables at Riley’s.

And now she felt like an ass. An egotistical one. “What can I get for you?”

“Three beers. One light, two regular. Bottled.”

She grabbed the bottles and slid them across the bar. “Want to start a tab?”

“That’d be great, Jenna. Thanks.”

Mortified, she rang up the tab and decided she was going to ignore Ty the remainder of the night. She signaled Amber to work his table and to keep him and his friends in drinks so he wouldn’t feel the need to wander over to the bar.

Then maybe she could get back to finding herself a date.

The rush slowed for the next couple hours, so she had time to survey the crowd.

Maybe she was being too picky. Damn her liquor as predictor theory. This was why she didn’t date much. It was an accurate theory and weeded out the losers.

“Can I get a beer?”

She looked up and saw her savior in front of her. Nice looking, dark hair, a little long, just the way she liked it. He had on a tight-fitting shirt and worn jeans, a day’s worth of stubble on his jaw, and spectacularly sexy brown eyes.

Yum.

“Bottle or draft?”

“Draft. Regular.”

Bingo. A beer drinker.

She poured his beer into a mug and he paid her in cash. No fancy credit card. So far, so good. He walked away and she watched to see if he met up with a girlfriend. He didn’t. He also wasn’t watching sports. He sat at the other end of the bar with a group of friends—all guys—talking.

Okay, this dude worked for her. Which didn’t mean anything. He could still have a girlfriend or even a wife, and this could be guys’ night out.

She gave him his space, waited on her customers, washed glasses, and when the time was right, moseyed down the bar.

“Ready for refills?”

He graced her with a thousand-watt smile, one that showed interest.

“Sure.” He looked at his friends. “You guys ready?”

“I have an early call tomorrow, so I’m headed out,” one of them said.

“Me, too. You’re on your own, Joe.”

“See you, guys.”

His friends grabbed their coats and left. He stood and followed her to the bar.

“Still want that beer?” she asked, figuring he’d take off now that his friends had.

Instead, he nodded. “Yeah. I’ll take one more before I head out. It’s been a long day.”

“Coming right up.” She filled his mug and handed it to him.

He paid her and tipped her well. She liked that part, too.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” He took a long swallow, but held her gaze. “This is my first time in here. Nice bar.”

“Thank you.”

His brows lifted. “Yours?”

“My family’s, but right now I’m running it.”

“Big operation for someone so young.”

She leaned over the bar, doing her best to remember how to flirt. “I manage.”

He held out his hand. “Joe O’Brien.”

She shook his hand. “Jenna Riley.”

“Nice to meet you, Jenna.”

“So what do you do, Joe?”

“I’m a doctor. Resident, actually, and new in town. I just moved here from Massachusetts, so I’m trying to find new places to spend what little free time I have. My friends and I decided to pop in here since it’s close to the hospital.”

She grinned. “Welcome to St. Louis. I think you’ll love it here. Are you a native of Massachusetts?”

“No. Originally from Pittsburgh. But I’ve heard great things about Washington University, so I’m anxious to do my residency there.”

“It’s an awesome hospital.”

They chatted awhile. She liked this guy, though she couldn’t help but catch sight of Ty in her peripheral vision.

He was playing pool. He looked up to occasionally glance at her talking to Joe.

She wondered if he was jealous. Not that she cared. It wouldn’t surprise her at all if he walked over and put himself in the middle of her conversation.

Except he didn’t. Not even when she and Joe started laughing.

It was obvious Joe was flirting with her.

Really, really obvious.

Just as it was obvious Ty was watching them. But he continued to play on, even ordered food and more drinks. From Amber.

He didn’t once come over to the bar. Not even to chat with her.

“So, Jenna. Since I need a tour guide for your great city, and since you’re a native, would you be up for a date? I could buy you dinner, and you could show me around.”

She’d been concentrating on Ty and had almost forgotten about Joe. His question startled her. “Oh. What?”

He frowned. “I’m sorry. Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Me? No. Not at all. I’m sorry. Occupational hazard here. I was keeping an eye on my customers.”

Liar. You were watching Ty.

Which was going to have to stop. Right now. “I’d love to go out with you, Joe.”

Maybe she’d said that a little loud. Lowering her voice, she tried again. “Yes, I’d love to go out.”

They worked out a date when they’d both be free, which was Friday night.

Perfect.

She had an actual date, with a good-looking doctor.

And even better, with someone who didn’t play sports.

After Joe left, she busied herself with bar and manager duties. She wandered around to visit with her customers and to make sure everyone was happy, which also required her to mingle with the Ice players who’d apparently made Riley’s their home. Keeping them happy was good for business. She needed to make sure they kept coming in.

“How’s it going, guys?”

Eddie Wolkowski watched Ty line up to take his shot at the table, then grinned at her. “We’re doing great, Jenna. How are you?”

“Perfect. You guys are smokin’ up the arena lately. Making us all proud.”

“Doing our best. Thanks for the burgers, by the way.”

“You’re welcome. By the way, Victor, you have a gaggle of female fans across the room dying for an autograph.” She motioned with her head toward table seven, where about a half dozen women in their mid-twenties had zeroed in on Victor when they first came in and hadn’t stopped looking at him since.

Victor Putinov was their left-winger on the Ice. His platinum blond hair and patrician good looks always sent the women swooning.

Victor lifted his chin. “I will go see them. Sign their papers.”

“I’ll bet you’ll sign their papers,” Ty said without looking up from the pool table.

Victor arched a brow. “It is my duty to keep female fans happy.”

Eddie laughed. “Yeah, with your giant dick.”

Jenna shook her head.

“I see you got yourself a new boyfriend.”

She stopped and turned to face Ty, who’d taken his shot and leaned against the end of the pool table. “Not a boyfriend. A date.”

“New guy?”

“None of your business.”

“He’s not your type.”

Irritation skittered along her nerve endings. She put her hands on her hips. “Really. And why would you think that?”

He shrugged. “No chemistry between you.”

“There’s plenty of chemistry between us.”

He reached up and grasped a strand of her hair, gave it a gentle tug.

Her breath stilled, and a tingle shivered down her spine. Everything she hadn’t felt between her and Joe sizzled between her and Ty.

“Between you and me? Yeah. There’s chemistry.”

She lifted her gaze to his. He was right. An explosion bombarded her senses. Her breasts tingled, her lips parted. She went damp and she all but gave him an invisible road map to the promised land.

Whatever was between them was combustible, and very dangerous.