A Million Kisses or More (7 page)

At the moment, there weren’t a lot of people because it was just after the lunch hour rush and a few hours before the dinner hour. Waving off the waitress who offered to seat her, she went straight up to the bar and smiled at the bartender when he looked at her. There was something almost familiar about him but she couldn’t think of any reason other than the fact that he had brown eyes which reminded her of Harrison. Cocking his head to the side, he looked even closer and asked, “Don’t I know you?”

“Ana Smithfield,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’m Helen and James Petersen’s niece.”

“Ana. It’s good to see you again,” he said with a warm, friendly smile. Crossing his arms over the bar, he leaned in and asked, “What can I do for you?”

“You can give me a job,” she said with a smile, glancing around the dining area in search of who might be in charge of the place. “Or at least point me in the direction of who I’d ask for an application.”

“I can help you with that last part,” he told her, reaching beneath the bar and pulling out some papers. “Here’s the application and if you want I can put in a good word for you with the boss. She’s my cousin.”

Glancing over the form, seeing the usual questions, she nodded, “That would be great. But I have to warn you that it’s only through Christmas.”

“That shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Maris always hires a few extras during the holidays,” he assured her as if he was the one who was going to hire her.

“I thought Maris sold Jesters?” Ana murmured absently.

He chuckled though she didn’t understand what was so funny. “She did but she came back and married the new owner.”

“Huh,” she huffed, interested in hearing the story behind that turn of events.

As she continued to read over the questions, the boy pulled a pen out from somewhere and handed it to her. At her blank look, he explained, “So you don’t have to take it home, fill it out, and then bring it back.”

“Thanks,” she murmured. After a few minutes of filling it out, she felt his eyes on her and she glanced up again. “Yeah?”

“Don’t you remember me? We met the last summer you were here,” he told her. “When was it? Three years ago?”

Now that he brought it up, she forced herself to take a closer look, to see whether or not she actually knew him or if she was just seeing Harrison everywhere. He looked like he could be in his early twenties, about her age, with medium brown hair and beautiful brown eyes that were similar to but not quite as gorgeous as Harrison’s eyes. The guy was attractive but she wasn’t attracted to him. It took her another moment to place him because he must have grown six inches and packed on several pounds of muscle.

There was something else that was awfully familiar about him and she was almost certain it had nothing to do with knowing him from before. He was still looking at her as if he expected her to know who he was. Regrettably, it took her a moment to recall his name and when she did, her stomach flipped over because he had the same last name as Harrison. But Miller was a common enough name, wasn’t it? It didn’t necessarily mean anything, even if they had the same beautiful brown eyes. Swallowing, she asked, “Holy crap. Dan? Dan Miller?”

His smile widened as he nodded, “You do remember. I wasn’t sure since we didn’t really hang out back then.”

“Of course I remember you,” she said, wondering why it took her so long. Now that she remembered him, she realized he had to be only nineteen since he had been a gangly sixteen-year-old the last time she saw him. He had been working at Jesters, too, but as a busboy. While he had gotten along with everyone, he had been only sixteen and not old enough to go out with the group after work or on the weekends. Of course, Ana had been dating Asher Kingston at the time, well sort of dating him, and they mostly hung out with his friends, who were all older than Ana.

In fact, Asher was the one who had introduced her to Jesters but it had been back when
she
was sixteen. They had met rather unconventionally at an Independence Day celebration when she accidentally hit his car. She hadn’t had her license for very long and his car had appeared out of nowhere when she was backing out of a parking spot. Of course, Asher had been pissed as all hell but the moment she climbed out of her car ready to beg for forgiveness, he had become all that was charming. It wasn’t until after her aunt thoroughly embarrassed her that she learned he was twenty-three and way, way too old for her. That hadn’t stopped him from spending the entire summer flirting with her every time he saw her or her flirting back. By the time she was nineteen, the age difference didn’t seem to matter as much. While they had flirted and kissed, she had never seriously considered sleeping with him, even though she knew he wanted to be her first.

She had known from the beginning that he was trouble but that didn’t mean she wasn’t hurt when he called her an infant for refusing to sleep with him and then tongue-fucked some girl right in front of her. That summer just solidified her position on bad boys, which came in handy during her college years where boys were even bigger douches with infinitely less charm.

Now it no longer mattered because Harrison left everyone else in the dust.

Dragging her thoughts back to the present, Ana remembered that Dan also had an older brother and a little sister whom she met when they had come into Jesters. But Harrison hadn’t been with them; she would have remembered him. Why hadn’t she met Harrison? She had been in town for a couple of months that summer and she had had no idea that Harrison even existed. It seemed wrong somehow. Well, she didn’t meet him because he probably wasn’t Dan’s brother, despite the same last name. Offering Dan a smile, she managed, “Wow, you’ve grown up.”

He snorted as color burnished his cheeks. “Yeah, well, that happens, I guess.”

“And you’re still working here,” she said. She looked at him and frowned because he was too young to be serving alcohol, wasn’t he? “Aren’t you a little young to be tending the bar?”

“I don’t actually work behind the bar, I’m just cleaning it while the bartender takes a quick break,” he explained. “Though I’m sure I could get you a beer or something if you want.”

“I’m good.” Tilting her head to the side, she asked, “Why are you still working here?”

He laughed at that, wiping at a non-existent spot on the counter. “It pays well. Besides, I think all of my siblings have worked here at some point in our lives, except Harry who left just as soon as he graduated high school. Of course, now Harry’s a cop so he doesn’t have to put in any time here to help out like Ellen and I do.”

Ana sucked in a breath and promptly started coughing when it went down the wrong pipe. Pounding a fist against her chest, knowing her face was beet red, she tried to get the cough under control but the harder she tried to stop the more she coughed. With panicked concern, Dan asked, “Man, are you okay?”

She nodded her head even as tears streamed down her cheeks. So, Dan having the same last name as Harrison
wasn’t
a coincidence. A glass was placed in her hand and Dan encouraged her to drink. Taking a tentative sip, she found it helped and a few moments later, the sudden coughing attack was under control. Wiping her eyes, she smiled at Dan, “Thanks.”

“What happened?”

“Swallowed wrong,” she hedged, her heart still galloping like a racing demon. Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she looked up at Dan and wondered if it was Providence that placed her on that bar stool at that moment. Even though she already suspected the truth, she had to ask just in case there were two Harry Millers. Oh, Lord, what had his parents been thinking when they named him Harrison? No wonder he preferred Harrison… No,
she
preferred Harrison. She’d have to ask him what he preferred. Casually, she asked, “So, Harrison is your brother?”

Dan stopped wiping the counter and gave her a suspicious look. “Yeah. What of it?”

“He’s my, er, neighbor for the next couple of months,” she said, trying to sound as bland as possible, grateful that her cheeks were already bright red from her coughing fit. God, how could she have missed him? Even if she was dating Asher, she would have noticed Harrison. That kind of reaction was too powerful to just come into existence. Not knowing him before was going to plague her for the rest of the night. Casually, fishing for information while trying not to seem too obvious, she murmured, “I don’t remember seeing him around.”

“He wasn’t really around a lot back then,” Dan explained, leaning on the counter. “Besides, you were with Asher.”

“Not officially,” she muttered, not quite meeting Dan’s eyes. While she hadn’t had sex with the man, she had spent plenty of time kissing him in dark corners and locked rooms. “So, where had Harrison been hiding?”

Dan arched an eyebrow, “He wasn’t hiding. He was simply being a father to his daughter and didn’t like hanging out with Asher, especially after his divorce.”

“When did he get divorced?” she asked, knowing she wasn’t being subtle, also knowing she should be asking Harrison.

“Six or seven years ago,” he answered with a shrug. “He moved back a few months afterwards.”

Mentally, she was doing the math in her head, from the age he was when her aunt and uncle moved up there to when he got divorced. He would have been nineteen that first summer but she was certain she would have noticed him. She definitely would have noticed him at sixteen but she would have been too young to get involved with a man who had a small child. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if they had met all of those years ago. If her reaction was as strong as it was currently, she probably would have followed him around and spent too much time obsessing over him. And anything that might have developed between them would have been destroyed before it even had a chance because she wouldn’t have had the maturity to back off. Also, five years was too much when one was sixteen and the other was twenty-one. It hardly mattered because his marriage was falling apart by that time and he probably wouldn’t have been interested in a sixteen-year old girl.

Right, that would explain why she hadn’t met him when she was too young for him. Tilting her head to the side, starving for every little tidbit, she asked, “He moved away?”

“Yep,” Dan confirmed. “As soon as he graduated, he joined the military.”

Oh, jeeze, the thought of him in a military uniform would have brought her to her knees if she wasn’t already sitting down. It didn’t even matter if he was married at the time. She was definitely twisted. “But it’s a small town and I’ve never seen him until yesterday morning.”

The suspicion in Dan’s eyes grew as he narrowed his gaze at her. “It’s not like a grown man with his responsibilities is going to hang out with a bunch of kids.”

“He’s only a few years older than me,” she protested automatically, trying to rack her brain for any glimpse she might have had of him in the past and coming up blank. It was a small town and he was a cop; how in the world had she missed him the last time she was here? “I’ve met the rest of your family, at least briefly. Why not him?”

The suspicion in his eyes that were close to Harrison’s but weren’t grew as he asked, “Why are you asking about Harry?”

“No reason,” she said, thinking it was strange how life worked out. Would she have met him had she visited in the previous three years? Would she have been able to handle the absurd attraction that was overwhelming her even now? “Just curious about my neighbor.”

“I think Asher might have something to say about your strange fixation on my brother.”

“That’s absurd,” Ana scoffed, momentarily wondering about Asher. Her heart had been bruised when he had ended things with her but mostly it was her pride that had been stung. Now when she thought about him, it was with annoyance because he wasn’t Harrison. She didn’t think her heart would survive a break up with Harrison. Assuming she and Harrison got together. “We’re not together and haven’t been for several years. Besides, it was never that serious.”

Dan snorted, “You have no idea.”

“Whatever,” Ana murmured, trying not to ask about Harrison but unable to keep her curiosity in check. “So, is Harrison seeing anyone?”

“I thought you said you weren’t interested.”

“I never said that,” she replied. Trying to play it off, she half-heartedly added, “But I’m not. Interested, that is.”

“Right. So if I give you all of the dirt on Harry, you’ll go out with
me
sometime?” Dan asked wryly, acting bolder than a nineteen year old boy should act. She wondered if Harrison had been just as cocky at nineteen, before he had an ex-wife, a kid, and a mortgage. “Since you and Asher aren’t together and you’re
not
interested in my brother.”

“No,” she answered quickly, not quite meeting his eyes.

He snorted, “That’s what I thought.”

Forcing her gaze upwards, she offered a slight smile to ease the sting of her next words. “It’s nothing personal but you’re nineteen.”

“So?” he asked, more out of curiosity than anger.

“I’m nearly twenty-three,” she said softly, glancing around the restaurant in the absurd need to see if Harrison was around to hear her confession. Of course he wasn’t. He was tucked up nice and warm in his bed so he could work that night. She wondered if he was on duty tonight and if it was worth speeding through town in the hopes of getting caught.

Oh, dear Lord she was a fool! He might not even be the police officer who puller her over. Plus, if he
was
the police officer, he’d see her license and her thin layer of self-preservation would vanish.

Dan cocked his head to the side, a slight frown on his face, “I could have sworn you were my age.”

Jeeze, how old did he think she was and didn’t he realize that Asher wouldn’t have gone out with her had she been sixteen three years ago? “Why?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly, going back to wiping the spotless bar. “I guess it’s because you didn’t drink with Asher and the others.”

“You weren’t old enough to know that.”

He smiled at her, “I paid attention. Whenever the group of you got together, you nursed your beer the entire night and I’m pretty sure you dumped most of it out afterwards.”