A Simple Wish About love - Karice Bolton Page 0,1
the right direction.”
Erika groaned. “You’re so full of it.”
“Me?” Drew smiled and glanced over at Daisy, talking to the customer. “New hire?”
“Yup. Daisy is twenty-four and a great bartender.”
He nodded. “Good.”
Erika’s brows raised. “That’s all you’re going to say?”
“What?” Drew shrugged. “We don’t date staff.”
Erika stifled a laugh.
“Anymore,” he clarified. “Besides, she’s too young. I need someone who’s mature and looking to settle down.”
“Wow. Is that what Europe did to you?”
Erika knew that Drew North enjoyed spending his days on the slopes that his family owned more than sitting behind a desk, and he was never one to turn down a good party.
Drew grimaced and leaned toward Erika.
“I don’t know what’s come over me.” He looked around the bar as if he were about to reveal a terrible secret. “Lately, the thought of going home to an empty house just doesn’t do it for me.”
“Interesting, but don’t you usually make sure you’re not going home to an empty one?” Erika wiggled her brows.
Drew laughed, wiggling his brows. “I don’t know what you heard about me, but it’s not true.”
Erika giggled and nodded. “Maybe you’re longing for a relationship because of your brothers’ new ones.”
“Maybe.” Drew shrugged. “They do seem so happy now that they’ve settled down.”
Erika shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m certainly not the one you want to discuss your love life with.”
Drew grinned and noticed Daisy leaning on the customer’s table.
“Does she always take so much time with the customers?” he asked, smiling.
“Not usually. But this one is special.”
Drew laughed. “How so?”
“He’s like every hot model and Hollywood actor rolled into one specimen. You’ll see when she moves aside.”
Drew laughed. “Specimen? Is that how you think of men? Like we’re just meat or something to be poked at?”
Erika threw her head back and laughed. “I’m glad you’re back, Drew North.”
By the time Daisy reappeared, Drew had left to catch up on some office work, and Erika was coming up on her break.
“The guy is getting stood up. Can you believe it?” Daisy’s eyes were wide and sympathetic. “But I don’t think he knows it yet.”
Erika cringed and filled up two pitchers for a table across the room. “That’s sad.”
“It is.”
“Or he’s just playing you. We’re coming up on a long weekend, you know.” Erika winked at Daisy, and she shook her head vehemently. “He might be laying out a plan to pick up a cute young bartender for his lonely nights.”
“No, this guy isn’t like that,” she assured Erika.
“They never are.” Erika grinned before carting the two pitchers of beer across the room.
Erika thought about how freeing it was to be so naïve at that age. At times, she wanted to go back to that way of thinking, but she knew better. Men had one thing on their minds.
It consisted of three little letters, but they were willing to do three million things to experience it.
As Erika placed the pitchers on the table, exhilaration ran through her. She glanced behind her and saw the sexy specimen look away quickly. She hid a smile and made her way back to the bar.
Daisy wandered over and poured two shots of tequila for another table.
“I think I caught your science experiment checking you out.” Daisy smiled and picked up the shot glasses.
“Hardly.” Erika rolled her eyes but snuck a glance in the man’s direction.
Her heart sank a little because he was looking at his phone.
Typical.
Easily distracted.
They always seemed to be.
Daisy leaned over and whispered, “Well, he was looking,” before wandering off to serve up shots.
Erika smiled to herself and glanced around the bar that was quickly filling up. The resort was in that in-between time where only certain ski slopes were running, and the lower half of the mountain was starting to fill up with mountain bikers, who were often a rowdy bunch in their own right.
She loved this time of year. Spring flowers were starting to pop up, but there was still a certain chill in the air. Erika had always loved crisp mornings, and living in the mountains at Silver Ridge Ski Resort in Washington provided that nearly year-round.
It was always so much fun to go into her son’s room, wake him up, and get the fire going as she prepared breakfast. It was one of the few times they could both settle in and talk about their days without one of his many friends joining in the conversation. Erika’s house always seemed to be Grand Central Station with his friends.
Erika had been lucky with Scott. He was an easy