Hot New Bartender

  I was just thinking about you.

  I nearly collapse.

  Fuck, this is going to suck.

  I’ve been thinking about you all morning, too.

  So... I have to reschedule tonight. :(

  My mother insists I come to dinner tonight. She wants me to meet her new boyfriend.

  That’s crazy.

  Why?

  I was just about to text you to reschedule because my dad wants me to meet his new girlfriend.

  Wow. Yeah. That’s Kiss County for you!

  So, raincheck? I really want to see you again.

  My heart flutters.

  Definitely. :)

  I want to see you again, too.

  :) Damn. What a coincidence.

  Just one night. I’ve waited my entire life for a guy like Riley to come to Small Town.

  I can make it through one more night.

  Not wanting to spur the ire of Bruno, I put my phone back in my locker and return to check on my tables.

  7

  TISH

  Ireturn home shortly before six. It’s a quick walk from Bruno’s Diner, just a few blocks west of the town square on Fourth Street. Our house is easy enough to spot along the way. It’s the only one on the block with a red mailbox and matching front door.

  As I walk down the sidewalk outside the house, I check out the fancy black coupe parked in the driveway next to Mom’s old blue sedan.

  Throwing on my best we-have-company smile, I walk through the front door. “Mom! I’m home!”

  “We’re in here!” she replies.

  Taking a quick breath to prepare myself first, I step lightly through the entryway, following the quiet sound of whispered voices toward the living room.

  First, I see my mother in another one of her pretty cocktail dresses, this one a gorgeous sapphire blue that brings out the color in her eyes. Her smile is warm and youthful, full of promise. It makes me pause, truthfully. It’s easy for me to forget how young my mother can look. How young she still is.

  She rises off the couch as I walk in, along with the man sitting beside her. He has a bright smile as well, his mouth partially covered with a well-trimmed light brown beard and mustache. A few white and gray hairs are the only thing giving away his age, which appears to be mid-forties.

  Mom walks over, my cute black shoes once again leading the way. “Hey, honey,” she says. “How was work?”

  “Work was... work,” I say, giving a shrug. “Typical day at the diner.”

  “Bruno’s, right?” the man asks, gently approaching the two of us.

  “Yes,” I answer, taking the chance to get a better look at him. He’s admittedly handsome, with sharp cheekbones and blue eyes accented by a line of soft freckles on either side of his nose that seems... strangely familiar. “I wait tables.”

  “You do so much more than that,” Mom says. “You make the schedule for the entire staff, don’t you?”

  “Sometimes,” I say, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear. “When Bruno’s got his hands full, I help out.”

  Mom turns toward him. “Oh, you’d love it, Richie. Best patty melt in Kiss County.”

  “Sounds great!” he says. He extends his hand to me. “I’m Richard, by the way.”

  I shake his hand. “I figured, yeah. Tish. I’m Tish.”

  “Only I’m allowed to call him Richie,” Mom says, smiling.

  “It’s true,” he says, smiling right back.

  Hell. I smile, too.

  They are damn cute together.

  “My apologies, by the way,” I say, gesturing at my uniform. “I’m sure I smell like burger grease. If you’ll excuse me a few minutes, I’ll go change.”

  “Oh, sure!” he says. “Go on.”

  “Yeah, honey,” Mom says. “There’s still time before dinner.”

  “Great,” I say, taking a quick step back toward the stairs. “I’ll be really quick, I swear.”

  “Take your time,” Richard says. “We’re still waiting for one more to arrive.”

  “One more?”

  “My son, Richard Jr,” he says. “He should be here any minute. He’s about your age, actually. You two should get along.”

  “Oh, great,” I say, smiling politely. I’d mentally prepared myself to meet one new person tonight, not two. “I’m sure we will.”

  I rush up the stairs. As I reach my bedroom, I quickly peel off my uniform and drop it in the hamper by the closet. I push past the T-shirts and jeans, electing for something a little nicer to throw on, given the occasion. I land on a simple yellow sundress and a white cardigan; possibly the last opportunity to show off the fun summer gear until next spring.

  I stop by the bathroom to wash my face, re-do my makeup, and run a brush through my auburn locks, then I’m ready to head back downstairs.

  Halfway down, I hear my mother laugh. Not an uncommon thing; she can be quite giddy sometimes. But this one sounds different.

  She’s happy. Content.

  A woman in love.

  I approach the living room on light feet and peek inside. She and Richard are sitting on the couch again. Their bodies are close enough to touch, their knees brushing casually. He whispers something that only she can hear. She laughs again. He smiles, adoring her. Loving her back.

  It makes me think of Riley. The two of us sitting on his couch, singing. Laughing. Kissing.

  The doorbell rings.

  I hop back before they notice me gawking at them. “I’ll get it!” I say, pivoting toward the door.

  All right. This isn’t so bad. Just have to make it through the next few hours, make nice with Richard and his Junior, and then I’m free.

  Maybe afterward, Riley will be free as well.

  My heart skips at the thought, but I keep my excitement at bay as I open the front door.

  “Hel—” I pause, my welcoming smile slipping as I look into his blue eyes. “Riley?”

  Riley blinks twice. He’s wearing a nice pair of black pants and a navy blue sweater, looking more like an office worker than the bartending musician I met last night. Still handsome, though. Still perfect.

  But why is he here?

  He blinks twice from the porch. “Hey,” he says, his brow furrowing with confusion.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask, just as confused but happy to see him.

  Riley glances around the porch. “My dad told me to meet him here.”

  “Here?”

  “Fourth Street. Red mailbox. What are you doing here?”

  “I live here.”

  He pauses, his thoughts spinning amid the green specks in his irises. “Right…” he murmurs.

  My gut tightens. No.

  No, please.

  This can’t be what I think it is.

  “Are you… Richard Junior?” I ask.

  Riley nods slowly. “I go by Riley,” he says.

  Nope.

  Nope, nope, nope!

  “Oh, god,” I whisper.

  My mother’s new boyfriend is his father.

  His dad’s new girlfriend is my mother.

  What a coincidence.

  8

  TISH

  “What?” Riley asks.

  Before I can explain, my mother appears next to my shoulder. “Hello,” she greets, extending her hand to him. “You must be Junior.”

  Riley flashes a freckled smile; the same freckled smile Richard gave me earlier.

  Damn.

  Not sure why I didn’t see it before.

  “Riley, please, ma’am,” he says. “Only my dad calls me Junior.”

  “Well, Riley,” Mom corrects as she shakes his hand. “I’ll agree to call you that if you agree to never call me ma’am again. Tanya is fine.”

  Riley bows his head politely. “Agreed.”

  “And this…” Mom rests her hands on my shoulders. “Is my daughter, Tish.”

  “Yes, I’m Tish!” I say, thrusting my hand toward Riley.

  “Tish,” he says as we shake hands. “Yeah.”

  “Do you two know each other?” Mom asks, noting the strange aura between us.

  “No!” I say as Riley says, “Yes.”

  Mom raises a brow.

  “No,” I repeat, giving him a look. “Not officially. But I’ve seen you around town. At Sparks! Right?”

  Riley nods. “Right,” he says, going along with it. “We’ve… seen each other at Sparks.”

  “And we’re meeting tonight for the very first time,” I say, doing my best not to panic.

  “Well, it’s nice to finally meet you, Riley,” Mom says. “Your father has told me so much about you.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, too,” Riley says. “My father hasn’t mentioned you at all to me yet.”

  “Then, it sounds like we should all pour some drinks and chat a while! Tish.” Mom bumps me with her elbow, playfully scolding me. “Why are you making our guest stand out on the porch? Invite him in.”

  “Would you like to come in?” I spit out.

  “Sure,” Riley replies.

  “Come on in, Riley,” Mom says, taking charge with the wave of her hand. “Your dad is just in here.”

  As he walks by, we make eye contact for a split second; a second laced with a lot of internal screaming.

  While Riley continues into the living room with Mom, I stay behind in the front doorway, in the fresh air, allowing a moment for this to sink in.

  What is happening?

  What is going to happen?

  What—

  “Junior!” I hear Richard greet Riley. “How are you, son?”

  “I’m good, Dad,” Riley says. “You?”

  Damn. Part of me still hoped this was just some kind of misunderstanding, but addressing each other as Junior and Dad are as nail in the coffin as it gets.

  Taking a deep but unsatisfying breath, I follow them back to the living room as my mother finishes offering Riley an old-fashioned glass half-full of some amber-colored booze. She’s currently talking it up, lamenting at how expensive the bottle was, but she just had to have it after tasting it the other night at a restaurant in Big City.

  She pores me a glass and walks it over to me. “Go on and take a seat, won’t you both? There’s still a few minutes before dinner is ready.”

  Noting the hidden order in her voice, I flash a smile and make my way over to sit on the couch next to Riley. Not too close, of course. I shift to one side, hugging the armrest, and he does the same.

  Meanwhile, my mother returns to the loveseat across the coffee table from us and sits next to Richard. Once again, they sit close enough for their knees to touch, and Richard wastes no time in perching his hand on top of hers on her knee.

  I glance at Riley. Despite the distance between us, I catch a hint of his scent. It’s a clean, manly scent that instantly thrusts me back in time. I was propped up on his table with his tongue inside of me not ten hours ago.

  “So, Riley,” my mother says.

  Snapped back to the present, I look forward as Riley clears his throat.

  “Tish mentioned seeing you at Sparks Pub?” she says.

  “Yes, ma’am. Tanya,” he corrects, making her smile. “I just started working there, actually.”

  “You tend bar?”

  “I do, yes.”

  “Part-time?”

  “Full-time,” he says. “I don’t have much else going on right now, so I spend it working.”

  She tilts her head. “Your dad mentioned you were going to school. Is that not true?”

  “It’s true,” Richard says, breaking his silence sharply.

  “I was in school,” Riley says. “But it wasn’t working out, so I stopped going.”

  “Schooling isn’t for everyone,” my mother says diplomatically. “Learning happens in all sorts of ways.”

  “I agree,” Riley says.

  Richard doesn’t reply, opting to sip at his drink instead.

  “Riley makes a great amaretto sour,” I say. “Very tasty.”

  “Oh, I love a good amaretto,” Mom says, then laughs. “Do you remember last summer? On the water?”

  I crack up. “How could I forget?”

  She touches Richard’s arm. “Last summer, for Tish’s twenty-first birthday, we rented a paddle boat on Deep Lake and snuck a whole bottle of the stuff out there with us.”

  “It seemed like a better idea at the time,” I say. “But we didn’t anticipate exactly how… unstable paddle boats can be.”

  “I’ve never felt so nauseous in my life!”

  We laugh. Riley does, too.

  Richard, however, offers a stiff smile, his hand still resting on hers. “Well, now that the introductions are out of the way, how about we…”

  My mother’s head swivels toward him. “Now?”

  “Why wait?”

  She hesitates. “Well…”

  “Wait for what, Mom?” I ask.

  “We just sat down, Richie,” she says. “Maybe we should wait a little longer? Have our drinks first?”

  “Sober, drunk. Won’t change the good news!” Richard moves his hand to her back. “Let’s tell them now.”

  “Tell us what?” Riley asks.

  Blissfully won over with a simple wink and a smile, my mother turns forward. They sit tall, both of them looking at us over the table, the moment crackling with strange anticipation.

  “We…” Mom pauses, swallowing hard. “We’re getting married.”

  Married?

  They’re getting married?

  My insides knot and twist. Part of me leaps with joy; the devoted daughter in me wanting nothing more than to see my mother happy.

  But then there’s the woman in me, too. The young woman who just spent an incredible night with a man she just met, a man she wants to see again and again.

  “Married?” I ask. “When?”

  “In two days,” Richard answers.

  Riley laughs.

  I turn to look at him as he leans forward to set his glass down on a coaster on the table.

  “What’s so funny, Junior?” Richard asks.

  “Nothing,” Riley answers, clearing his throat to stop his laugh. “Nothing. Congrats.”

  “Mom,” I say, too shocked to smile, let alone laugh. “Two days?”

  “I know it’s sudden,” Mom says.

  “Guh-huh.”

  “But we’re sure,” she says, their hands entwined. “We care about each other. We love each other and we want to spend the rest of our lives together.”

  Beside me, Riley exhales hard through his nose, but doesn’t say a word.

  “We were going to elope last night in Big City,” Mom says, looking at me. “But I couldn’t go through with it. Not without you, honey. Without both of you.” She smiles at me. “We always used to fantasize about our weddings, remember? Our perfect days. But I didn’t care what my day looked like, as long as you were there, so… will you be there, Tish?”

  “I…” I take a breath, still unable to fully process this. Her and Richard. Riley and me. “Of course I’ll be there, Mom. I wouldn’t miss your wedding.”

  She happily pushes off the loveseat to come over to me. I do the same, meeting her in the middle and throwing my arms around her in a firm embrace.

  “Congratulations, Mom,” I say.

  “Thank you, honey,” she says, squeezing me tighter.

  I look at Richard and Riley over her shoulder. They’re staring at each other, communicating silently. My mother and I do that often, though it looks like their father and son telepathy isn’t as playful as ours is.

  The oven timer goes off in the kitchen.

  “Oh!” Mom says, shifting back. “That’s dinner.”

  “I’ll help you,” I say.

  She grips my hand and we excuse ourselves to the kitchen, leaving them to talk alone.

  But, oh… to be a fly on the wall.

  When we sit down to dinner a few minutes later, the air is noticeably warmer. Whatever was said between Richard and Riley was enough to soothe whatever tension was beneath the surface, and the four of us have a nice dinner together.

  Things between me and Riley, however…

  Still crackling.

  Unfortunately, Riley doesn’t stick around long once dinner is over, stating that he has a late shift tonight at Sparks and excusing himself.

  While Richard, Mom, and I head to the kitchen to clean up and do the dishes, my phone vibrates in my pocket.

  Hot New Bartender

  Meet me outside.

  “What’s that, honey?” Mom asks, standing beside me at the sink.

  “Uh…” I angle the screen away from her. “Just Bruno,” I lie. “He wants to know if I can cover for Lottie next week.” I dry my hands on a dishtowel and step back. “I’m just gonna go call him really quick. I’ll be right back.”

  “We’ll be here,” she says, focusing on the dishes.

  As I step away from the sink, Richard takes my place. Instantly, my mother brightens, her smile warm and genuine with him by her side. For a moment, I watch them, feeling so very happy for her all over again. It doesn’t last, though, the thoughts quickly shifting toward Riley.

  I escape out the front door. “Riley?” I whisper into the dark.

  “Hey.”

  I follow his voice, quickly finding him standing behind the tall bushes at the bottom of the porch stairs. “Hey,” I say.

  Riley glances over my shoulder at the door to make sure we’re alone. “So, you want to go get that drink now?” he asks.

  “What?” I shift back a step. “No, Riley. I don’t want to go get that drink now.”

  “Why not?”

  “Uh…” I release a nervous chuckle. “Because our parents are getting married in two days.”

  He stares, seemingly unbothered by that little tidbit. “So?”