Six-Gun - Winter Travers Page 0,1

give everything I owned to have even five minutes more with my wife.”

I leaned back and looked closely at the guy next to me. He couldn’t have been more than a couple of years older than I was. What the hell was he talking about having just a few more minutes with his wife?

“She leave you?” I asked.

I didn’t want to ask if she had died but asking if she had left him covered a broad range of possibilities.

He shook his head. “No. She died a few years back in an accident. I wish she would have just left me. I could still see her even if she hated me.”

“Sorry.” This guy was way too young to be a widower. I hadn’t even had a serious relationship and this guy had already been through the ringer.

Life was crazy like that.

He tipped his beer to me and nodded. “Nothing you need to be sorry about.” He nodded to my phone. “Was that your friends giving you hell for choosing your girl?” he asked again.

“Yes, and no,” I grunted. “She’s not really my girl. Just someone I’m keeping an eye on. He was giving me hell about being here when I should be somewhere else, though.”

The guy nodded. “Well, she must mean something to you if you’re willing to take shit from your friends for her.”

Memphis breezed by without a glance toward me.

“That her?” the guy asked.

I nodded and finished my whiskey. “That would be her.” Even when she was ignoring me, I couldn’t ignore the natural beauty that Memphis was. The perk of sitting at the bar while she worked was being able to look at her without feeling like a creep.

“Didn’t seem to even notice you. Won’t she talk to you? Fucked things up between the two of you?” he guessed.

There hadn’t been a two of us to mess up. She hadn’t given me that chance yet. The shit that Jester did to her might have fucked up any chance I could have with her. Though, I wasn’t sure I wanted that chance.

My head was all fucked up when it came to Memphis.

“There isn’t a two of us like I said, but it’s something like that.” I pushed my glass toward the edge of the bar and nodded to the bartender for another.

Memphis walked back by again without acknowledging me.

“Shit,” the guy laughed. “She really doesn’t wanna look at you, does she? Are you sure she knows you and you aren’t making shit up in your head?”

All I could do was laugh. The guy was not wrong at all. Apparently, whatever feelings I had toward Memphis were one-sided because she really didn’t pay me any attention. “I’m not too sure of anything when it comes to Memphis.”

“Well, good luck to you, pal. I loved my wife with everything I had, but God knows women are hard nuts to crack.” He nodded toward Memphis. “It’s even harder when they don’t even like you.”

I grunted and leaned against the bar.

I wouldn’t say Memphis didn’t like me; it was more like she didn’t know me. She had been through a hell of a lot, so I wasn’t completely put off by the fact that she was so indifferent to me.

I had to give her a chance to get to know me before she could say if she hated me. Right now she was just indifferent to me because I was a guy she didn’t know.

Fuck, I don’t think anyone knew what Memphis had been through. Billie Jean had told Raelyn what she knew about the time Memphis had been held captive by Jester, but Billie Jean said she never saw anything. She just heard Memphis’ screams.

Fucking hell.

Every night, I wished Jester were alive so I could kill his rotten ass again.

I brought Memphis to and from work, and all she ever said to me was the bare minimum, which was basically “hey” and “see ya later.” I could sometimes get a few more words out of her, but it was never really anything of importance.

Not exactly anything to go off to help me figure out if she liked me or not.

She mostly talked to Raelyn, but Playboy had told me that it wasn’t like they were having deep heart-to-heart talks or anything.

As much as Memphis strived to make everyone think she was okay, I knew she wasn’t.

I could see the demons and ghosts behind her eyes.

She needed someone to save her…

Or she was going to lose herself.

Chapter Two

You can try…

Memphis

“See ya,” I called