Page 16

"Vi? Got that order?" Jasmine asks.

I blink at the sound of my name and realize I'm standing there staring into space. Muttering to myself, I get back to work and hurry to finish the order, handing it off after checking it twice due to my brain fog.

I'm back at the sink when Jasmine comes over. I glance over my shoulder toward the window, but there are no signs of customers to distract my sister from what I know is going to be an inquisition. "Don't," I warn.

"Oh, I think you know me better than that," Jasmine drawls with more than a little amusement infusing her tone. "How can you be mad at him? 'Hug it out'? Do you know how many women would've climbed him like a tree after an offer like that?"

I scrub harder, ignoring what feels to be a spike of jealousy, because I can't be jealous when Sully and I don't have a relationship. We're barely friends. Especially after pulling that stunt of his. "So let them. Not my concern."

I shake my head at myself. I know I sound like a cranky witch, but I'm uncomfortable with…everything. Yeah, I suspect Sully's interested in me. And I'd have to be blind not to see him as the drop-dead gorgeous man he is.

But my life? My past? It doesn't lend itself well to the happy-go-lucky bent I see in him with all his flirty smiles and winks and that sexy jawline I keep wanting to touch like a kid in a toy store.

"You don't mean that," Jas says softly. "You're just scared. Vi, you and I both know he's into you. And I think it's sweet the way he watches out for you."

"I don't need a motorcycle club acting as spies," I snap.

"Spies? Overreacting much? They're not spying on you. They're looking out for you, and I'm thrilled Sully asked the guys to do that after finding out Thad is free. I feel better knowing the guys'll be on watch when you're bartending."

I want to argue. I really do. But I can't due to common sense, and that makes me angrier. I'm not stupid. I know Sully did what he did to help me. I just wish he would've discussed it with me first. I would've said no, and Sully probably would've set it up anyway. But it would've been nice to have been asked. "I just want to work and live my life. Not have people gossiping about me."

Jasmine drapes her arm over my shoulders and leans her head against mine briefly.

"No one is gossiping. And even if they are, who cares? Sully's right. People care about you. Looking out for you is called human decency. And we're in a small town, all things considered. Any gossip that's said is with concern. Don't turn this into a battle when it isn't one."

I pause in my scrubbing and grip the small sink until one of my knuckles pops. I guess I am turning it into a fight but— "He did that too," I argue, not even wanting to say his name in case it pulled him from the shadows like a dark demon.

"No," Jasmine says. "He isolated you and controlled you. Took you away from us and hurt you. Sully is only trying to keep you safe. That's a huge difference."

"People hide who they really are," I argue. "Their motives. You never really know someone. Or what they're capable of."

Jasmine bumps my hip with hers.

"Um, excuse me, but Sully's made his motives perfectly clear when it comes to you. I get what you're saying, Vi. I do, but that man isn't hiding anything. He practically lights up whenever he sees you."

Hearing that makes me even more uncomfortable. I huff out a breath and go back to scrubbing. "Even if that's true—which it's not—it's only because he sees me as a challenge. For real. I don't fall at his feet the way normal women do. I mean, look at him."

"Oh, trust me, I've looked," Jasmine says with a grin. "And you are normal. Stop selling yourself short. Have you seen you? You're beautiful. Men look at you all the time, but you don't give them a first look, much less a second. Well, except for Sully."

I slide her a quelling look. Because as much as I want to deny that I find myself admiring Sully's good looks far too often, I can't.

"Okay, fine," Jasmine says. "You have a point that women go out of their way to flirt with him, but he doesn't flirt back that I've seen. He only flirts with you," she says with an earnestness I can't fathom.

A small thrill surges through me before I can stomp it down and toss it into my mental cellar where it belongs. Because like it or not, I am fully aware of Sully's good looks and charm.

But how long until he grows bored when his efforts aren't returned? Realizes I'm too damaged to be the kind of woman he wants? There's high maintenance materialistically, and then there's high-maintenance me—the emotionally broken kind. My trust issues have trust issues, and despite years of therapy?

I still got'em. Which means relationships aren't even on my radar. How can they be?

"Don't be too hard on Sully," Jasmine says softly. "He's trying, Vi. And that's the way a man should be. Protective and caring. He practically does handstands trying to get you to smile, and then he beams when you finally do. Guys like that are special, and it's a total turn-on. Besides, I know you like him."

"I don't," I quickly interject.

"You do. I see you. You're different around him. In a good way."

I lock my jaw and wonder if I'll have any teeth left in a few minutes. "He's… He's okay," I say, lifting a shoulder and dropping it stiffly.

"If by okay you mean gorgeous and totally into you, yeah, he is."