A Guy Walks Into My Bar - Lauren Blakely Page 0,111
about this choice. “I like it here.”
He pumps a fist. “You’ll love it soon enough.”
“I have no doubt,” I say, my lips curving up in a grin. “It’s our home.”
His eyes gleam. “It is. It’s ours. Yours and mine.”
The next morning, I get him a ring, and then I kiss him on Fifth Avenue with crowds of New Yorkers rushing past us, the city around us, and our life ahead of us.
NEXT YEAR
Also known as . . . and we live happily ever after.
50
Fitz
Best month of my life.
It’s February, my team is kicking ass, I’m having a killer season, and my fiancé is about to open his new bar here in New York.
Of course, the month before was damn good too, because . . . Dean.
I could say the same for the one before that.
Hell, every day has been epic since he arrived in town.
Today is another epic day.
After an afternoon workout, I stop by the spot he leased ten blocks from where we live and survey the watering hole.
“It’s so London,” I say, taking in the dark wood, the pool tables, the trivia games, and the TV screens that will surely have his version of football playing.
“Not too shabby?” Dean asks as he pours me a stout, just like he did the night we met.
“It’s awesome,” I say, grabbing a stool at the bar and taking a drink.
Everything about the place feels so very Dean, from the standards playing over the speakers to the name of the place—The Pub.
“It was my dad’s idea,” Dean had said when he decided on the name. “A few days after you left the first time, I was feeling particularly shitty, and he took me to a place just like this. Looked around, said it felt like home. I decided that was what I wanted here in New York.”
And that’s what he made happen.
This weekend, it opens, and I can’t wait to be here with him when it does.
“Does it make you miss London?” I ask him, only the slightest bit nervous that he’ll say yes. That he’ll long for what he left behind.
Dean shakes his head. “No. I have everything I want here.”
There he goes, making me fall harder for him every damn day. “Good. Let’s keep it that way.”
“Works for me.”
I point at the TV screen hanging in the corner. “You’re going to carry hockey, though, when I play, right?”
“Maybe,” my guy says with an easy shrug, setting his elbows on the counter, giving me those do bad things to me eyes. “Depends on whether you make it worth my while.”
“I always do,” I say, then I tell him to come around to this side because I need a picture of us.
Dean joins me for a selfie and gives me a sexy grin as I snap a shot of us in his bar.
“And will you use that on your next road trip?” he asks when I show him the image.
My eyes travel up and down his body. “Not if you video chat with me like I want you to.”
“Insatiable,” he scoffs, then slides a hand along my thigh before he returns to the bar.
“Just like you,” I toss out.
“Absolutely, Fitzgerald. Absolutely.”
I shoot him a curious look. “You’re calling me by my full last name now?”
Dean tilts his head as if he just realized what he said. “Huh. I guess I hear it all the time during your games. Maybe I’ll call you Fitzgerald in front of everyone else and Fitz in the bedroom.”
“You do that, babe. Want to know why?”
“Tell me why.”
“Because Fitzgerald sounds hot AF in your accent, and Fitz sounds like sex on your lips.”
Dean taps his chin. “So basically, I turn you on no matter which variation of your name I use?”
I laugh. “Sounds about right.”
“Works for me, then . . . Fitzgerald.”
A little later, we leave together, headed to meet some of our friends in New York for a little get-together.
Our friends.
Because that’s another thing I love about my man. He’s so damn charming that he gets along with everyone.
We head to a restaurant on the Upper East Side.
Logan spots us first and calls us over to the bar, where he has his arm wrapped around his new woman, Bryn, a take-no-prisoners brunette who keeps my bud on his toes.
“Laser tag. What are your thoughts on that? I’m looking for a summer league,” he says, then nods at Dean. “You want to play laser tag with us?”
Dean strokes his chin. “Let me think on that. Wait. I have