Love Me Forever - Juliana Stone Page 0,34

Billy Andrews answered.

“Cain Black and his band are inside, or so I heard. I bet you won’t be able to get into the place in about a half hour or so once word gets out.”

“Pretty sure it already has,” she replied.

“Who’s that again?” Link asked as he pushed open the double doors and waited for her to pass.

“You must have heard of BlackRock?”

“What’s that?” Link glanced her way.

“It’s a band, and he’s pretty famous? I’m sure you met him at the Blackwells’ Fourth of July.”

“Doesn’t ring a bell, mate.” Link flashed a smile at a waitress as they made their way to the bar. “I think we’ll have to grab those stools, because I can’t see any open tables.”

Poppy followed him to the last two stools at the end of the bar and slid onto one. She’d left her hair loose and wore a black sleeveless lace top that maybe showed a bit more cleavage than she usually did, but then she was feeling reckless. Different. Electrified or something. If she were a witch, she’d swear there was a full moon. Or would she have to be a werewolf?

She’d pulled on a pair of jean shorts that were on the loose side, but comfortable, and her plain black flip-flops were already sticky from the walk over. She rubbed them on the bottom rung of the stool as Link ordered a bucket of cold Mexican beer, two pounds of wings, and an order of poutine.

She spied Nash, the owner, just as he came around the bar and grabbed four bottles of beer from the fridge before heading back the way he came. Poppy turned slightly and watched him until he disappeared. She wondered if he was here with his brother, Cam. And that made her wonder if the Blackwells were in attendance. Maybe Jake Edwards, who was Cain’s oldest friend.

And that made her wonder about Boone’s whereabouts.

“You look like you’re thinking too hard,” Link said, passing her a cold bottle. She grabbed it and tipped it up, taking a good long drink before setting it down on the bar.

“I’m fine,” she murmured, enjoying the sound of voices and the frenetic energy in the air. So far, she hadn’t spied Cain Black or any of his band members, and other than a few locals, most of the crowd seemed to be vacationers or newcomers. She relaxed some more. Boone had a child and was home looking after Benji.

She and Link made small talk while they waited for their wings. He told her about some team from some European country that was willing to pay him a small fortune to come out of retirement and get back to footballing. She told him about the Turkish towels that had finally come in and how they were flying off the shelves. The two of the talked about pretty much everything except the thing that was bothering each of them the most: the Averys.

Tiny, the bartender, set down two baskets of wings and a steaming plate of poutine just as Link slid off his stool. “Gonna hit the loo,” he said. “Be back in a minute.”

Hungry, Poppy dove in and happily started one of the baskets of wings as well as the fries that dripped in gravy, cheese curds, and seasoning. She’d just plopped another fry into her mouth when someone bumped her from behind, and she nearly knocked over her beer.

She turned around and made a face. Wayne McTeer. A townie she’d known since the third grade, he’d married straight out of college and had been fooling around on his wife since pretty much that day. He was a big flirt and saw any woman as game…and with his sloppy, obviously drunk smile set on Poppy, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where his libido was headed.

She craned her neck, but there was no sign of Link, and with a frown, she turned back to her basket of wings—he’d been gone awhile. She’d just taken a sip from her nearly empty bottle of beer when Wayne slid onto Link’s stool and reached around her to grab a nice-sized chunk of poutine—with his fingers.

“Jesus, Wayne. What the hell?” She pushed at him, which made his grin widen. He leaned close and winked.

“Looking good, Fairbanks.”

“Looking drunk, McTeer,” she shot back.

He chuckled. “You got that right. I’m celebrating my divorce. Janey left me for some white-collar asshole from across the lake.” He held up his bottle and shouted for another, but Tiny ignored him. “Shit,