Hard Checked (Ice Kings #4) - Stacey Lynn Page 0,64

out of his doggie room while Sebastian heads to the kitchen.

Bruiser yips and spins and circles before gaining traction on the wood floor and runs toward the back door where I let him out.

“Does he always do that spinning thing?”

“Always. It’s weird.”

“It’s cute.”

“That too. An omelet okay for breakfast, or would you like yogurt again?”

“What are you having?”

“Oatmeal and another omelet.”

“I’ll have what you’re having. Need help?”

“Not with cooking.” He gestures with a knife to a pantry behind him. “You can feed Bruiser. His food is in there. One scoop.”

I turn back to watch Bruiser chase a stray leaf blowing and tumbling across the yard, yipping madly at it and decide to leave him to his business. While Sebastian starts making our breakfast, I fill Bruiser’s food bowl and let him in when he barks at the door and then fill two cups of coffee from Sebastian’s Keurig machine on the counter.

“So the bar,” he says, whisking an enormous bowl full of eggs. “You need to do some more thinking about it?”

“Probably. When Dad talked to me about it the other night I was so sure, but I guess since then I’ve been thinking. There were so many things I wanted to do with my life, so many grand dreams and whatnot. When I was traveling, I kept thinking about that. How I could make those dreams come true but then I came home and Dad was sick for a while. He didn’t have a heart attack or anything, but he was told to take it easy for a few months and I started thinking that the simple life I was living, a job that I could do and do well and then leave behind me without a lot of stress plus getting to supplement that income with my Instagram stuff seemed pretty damn easy. But do I want it forever?”

“You make money off your Instagram feed?”

“I get sponsors and ads for photography things. I only promote what I actually like or use, but yeah. It’s not a ton, but it’s a decent amount of fun money.”

“That’s cool. And you know whatever decision you make doesn’t have to be forever, right?”

I watch as he pours over half of the eggs into a frying pan and then the rest into another. I hope that smaller one is mine because that’s more eggs than I eat in a month in the larger one. How much protein does this guy need?

“I grew up in the bar. His friends that are always there practically helped raise me. I did my homework in the booths and carved my math facts into one of the tables. Pretty sure the initials of me and my fourth grade crush are carved into a heart somewhere else, too.”

At that, Sebastian grins, shaking his head at me. I’m pretty sure right now he’d call me cute.

At my feet, Bruiser yips and scratches my ankles, so I pick him up and settle him in my lap.

“After Mom died, the bar was the only place Dad and I hung for a long time. At home, he was quiet and grieving. But at the bar, he was always the same, like it brought him alive.”

“You running it won’t end that. But why don’t you want it?”

I don’t have a good answer for it. Except questioning the decision. “Perhaps I’m allergic to responsibility.”

I am, after all, the girl with a failed marriage who skipped off to Europe.

“Are you?”

“When did you become a therapist?” I tease, winking at him over the rim of my coffee mug.

“Perhaps a cute little bartender is rubbing off on me.”

“I think you’re the one doing all the rubbing me off lately.”

“Easy.” He points a wood spoon at me with a gaze so hot it could melt his granite countertops. “That kind of talk will only get you bent over this counter.”

“You make that sound like a bad thing.”

“Drink your coffee. I need to stop thinking about how good it feels to fuck you or I’m going to be playing tonight’s game distracted.”

I preen under his warning. Personally, I like the idea of him thinking of me while he’s at work. But I also know how important his career is to him.

“I’ll try to dial it down a notch,” I say, taking another drink of my coffee.

“Only until I can see you again.”

“Deal.”

He’s distracted me from bar talk with all his threats and sex talk and we move on to his game tonight, playing Nashville and after we eat breakfast, and