Chasing Dreams (Devil's Bend)
Read Chasing Dreams (Devil's Bend) Online
Authors: Nicole Edwards
Chasing
Dreams
A
Devil’s
Bend
Novel
Nicole Edwards
Copyright © 2013
by Nicole Edwards
Publisher:
SL Independent Publishing, LLC
Amazon
Version
All rights reserved
. Except as permitted under the
U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a
database or retrieval system, without prior permission of the publisher. This
book may not be resold or redistributed without the express consent of the
author.
Chasing
Dreams
: A Devil’s
Bend Novel
is a
work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents
are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious
manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is
purely coincidental.
Cover Image by:
© Piet Mall/Stock4B/Corbis
To
my amazing mother and my wonderful mother-in-law:
There
will never be any way to show just how much I love you both, but please know
that you mean everything to me.
Thank
you so much for your love and encouragement.
Love,
~Nic~
Table of Contents
“Tessa.”
At
the sound of her name, Tessa Donovan glanced up from the beer she was pouring.
Not that she needed to. She knew exactly which man owned that sexy, country
drawl.
“Awww,
hell!” she exclaimed, glancing down to see a mess of foam as it poured over the
edge of the glass she was filling.
“Well,
don’t get
too
excited that I’m here,” Eric Lancaster, the only other
bartender that
The Rusty Nail
employed, said with a cocky grin as he
headed her way.
“I
blame you, Mr. Lancaster,” she grinned sheepishly as she grabbed a towel and
wiped the overflow off of her hands.
“You
can drop that mister shit right here and now,” Eric teased. “Keep it up and
I’ll start callin’ you ma’am.”
“Ok,
buddy. No need to start with the threats,” Tessa joked, returning her focus to
the new glass she grabbed, paying attention this time as the foam lifted to the
top. Once full, she slid it over to the man at the end of the counter as she
called out to him, “Hey, Tex, put your hands on the beer, not the lady. You
know she’s married, right?”
The
stranger who’d bellied up to the bar half an hour ago had the decency to blush.
Didn’t stop him from hitting on the bar bunny though. The very same bar bunny
with a wedding band on. Tessa glanced down at his hand. Great. He had one on
too, and it wasn’t from a matching set. Lovely.
As
Eric made his way around behind the bar, Tessa grabbed another glass, filled
another beer and passed it over to another waiting customer. Story of her life.
“Ow!”
Tessa hollered when Eric swatted her on the ass, as was his usual greeting.
“Don’t let your ol’ lady see you doin’ that.”
“She
might just be jealous that I got to touch your ass, you know that right?”
Eric’s sexy rumble echoed around the bar.
Glancing
over at him, Tessa smiled. If it weren’t for the fact that Eric was more like
her brother than her own brothers sometimes, she might just get excited. Ok,
no. That wasn’t true either. She’d grown up with Eric, and since he was
actually married to her best friend, Isabelle, Tessa knew more about him than
she cared to. Probably no attraction to be had no matter the case.
He
was a decent guy though.
“You’re
probably right on that one,” she said, making Eric laugh.
The
sexy rumble that followed caused more than one head to turn at the bar. Eric
had that effect on women… er,
other
women. He turned heads. In fact,
Tessa was pretty sure he was almost personally responsible for the sheer volume
of ladies who flocked to
The Rusty Nail
on a nightly basis. It was just
a good thing that Izzy – Eric’s lovely bride – was one of the most confident
women that she knew. Had Eric belonged to Tessa, she couldn’t guarantee there
wouldn’t be at least one cat fight each and every night.
“You
see Adam yet?” Tessa hadn’t seen her older brother all day, and that was
unusual, especially for a Friday night.
Since
Adam was in charge of the entertainment, he generally stopped in early to
ensure there weren’t any problems with arrival, setup, that sort of thing.
Considering the band wasn’t there yet, and they were closing in on seven
o’clock, Tessa figured it was safe to say there were problems. If not, then
this was one band that could use a course in time management. She would not be
responsible for the chaos that would ensue if the main attraction did not show
up on time.
“He
texted me earlier. Said he had to run an errand,” Eric explained as he grabbed
a bottle of vodka and began rolling shots out as they were ordered.
The
bar was quickly filling up, and Tessa knew it was because of the night’s
entertainment. She personally hadn’t believed Adam when he said he booked
Cooper Krenshaw, but from what her brother told her, he was actually excited to
play there.
Right.
Why
one of the biggest names in country music wanted to play her bar, she had no
idea, but she wasn’t in charge of the music selection, so she didn’t ask. She
wasn’t the swoon worthy type, which meant she wouldn’t be swept off her feet by
his overwhelming presence either. From the looks of it, she might be the only
one though.
“Care
if I take a few minutes?” she asked Eric when the walkups slowed a short time
later. Although it was still early, Tessa had been running solo for the last
hour, and they were busier than usual.
“Take
all the time you need,” he grinned and she could’ve sworn she heard several
sighs from a few of the ladies seated at the bar.
“Thanks.”
Tessa pulled off her short apron and tossed it onto the shelf beneath the bar
before sneaking out. She made a beeline for the back door, hoping for some
fresh air before the place filled to capacity as was to be expected tonight. In
fact, she had called in extra backup to man the doors because she was pretty
sure there would be a line of people waiting to get in even after they hit
maximum capacity. Thankfully, she had a family full of cousins who weren’t too
proud to help out when needed.
Before
the solid steel door could slam behind her, Tessa was inhaling the humid
September night air, letting the warm breeze slide over her overheated skin. It
wasn’t long before some of the tension in her shoulders eased.
Her
brother Adam gave her a hard time about wanting to be outside rather than
upstairs in the private office that they rarely used. Tessa couldn’t explain
it, but she’d rather be inhaling the country night air than the stale,
bittersweet fumes that lingered on the inside.
At
least out here she could think. Inside, with the whoops and hollers of the
crowd, she could barely pay attention, much less focus on anything other than
serving drinks to her customers. The sheer volume of people overwhelmed her,
even if she did enjoy the interaction most of the time. Tonight, it seemed that
her feet were already pissed off at her, and her shift had only just begun.
Leaning
back against the corrugated metal, she gave one foot a rest by propping it flat
against the wall at her back before alternating to the other. It was on nights
like tonight that Tessa wondered why she hadn’t become an accountant. Sure, it
might be stressful in its own right, but at least she’d be able to sit down.
Then again, that would probably make her crazy too.
At
twenty-nine, she should’ve been used to the constant hustle, smelling like
beer,
and
her aching feet. She and Adam had acquired the bar from their
late father – a man neither of them knew all that well – six years ago, and
after some careful consideration and a long talk with her husband, Richie,
she’d opted to give it a go.
It
could safely be said that a twenty-three year old did not come equipped with
all that much wisdom when it came to running her own business, but no one
would’ve been able to tell her that at the time. Hell, for years before that,
no one could tell her
anything at all
, so it wouldn’t have mattered much
then either.
Just
the thought of her late husband made her heart ache. Seemed life had taken a
turn some years ago, and Richie’s death was only part of the heartache Tessa
had experienced. To this day, she missed him dearly. He had been a police
officer, killed in the line of duty when he was only twenty-six years old. She
had been twenty-five, and they’d just settled into life together, married only
fifteen months when he was taken from her.
Here
she was, four years later, slinging beers and dodging more than a few wandering
hands night after night in the place she’d come to feel was her second home.
The
Rusty Nail
was nothing more than an eight thousand square foot, remodeled
old barn that had at one point been a feed store years and years ago. At that
time, it had received an enormous overhaul which included an exterior facelift
of metal walls and reinforced steel beams on the inside to support the roof as
well as bear the weight of the two hundred square foot office upstairs. Not
much had changed after her father had purchased the place and converted it into
a bar until Adam came along and set up the stage.
Speaking
of the stage, she could only hope the band showed up soon because there was an
excellent chance things were going to go from bad to worse if they didn’t. If
Adam left her to handle the fallout like he had the last time, she was going to
give him a piece of her mind, followed by a good swift kick in the ass.
Glancing
down at her watch, Tessa realized she had a few more minutes to spare, so she
pushed off the wall and headed back inside. She disappeared into the restroom,
using the free minutes to take care of business before washing her hands and
pulling her hair up into a ponytail. While she was standing in front of the
mirror, two women slammed in through the door in a flurry of giggles followed
by “Ohmigod! Ohmigod! Ohmigod!”
Tessa
didn’t turn to face them, but she could see them through the reflection in the
mirror. Since they were effectively blocking the door, she waited for the
ladies to move on so she could sneak out and get back to work. She smiled at
her reflection, trying not to laugh at their giddy excitement.
“Ohmigod!
Did you see him? He
winked
at me! Winked!” one of the ladies squealed,
the other jumping up and down by her side as though this were the biggest news
to hit Devil’s Bend since Jessica Sanderson told the Devil’s Bend Gazette that
she was having triplets.
“He’s
going home with me tonight if I have anything to say about it!”
“Oh,
he will. Maybe we’ll just surprise him. You know, tag team,” the blonde woman
exclaimed, giggling between words like a school girl.
Figuring
she wasn’t going to be able to outlast their elation over meeting another
famous singer, Tessa turned around, smiled at the ladies before squeezing past
them and out the door. Once she was in the dark, narrow hallway, the familiar
noises and the perfume-slash-cologne mixture assaulted her senses, and she
pasted on another smile as she turned the corner.
“Holy
crap,” she muttered to herself, pushing through the wall of bodies as she tried
to finagle her way back to the bar.
An
influx of women had descended upon them during her short reprieve. Tessa sighed
as she wove through the commotion, realizing that tonight was going to be one
of those nights. If anyone ever thought men were high maintenance in a small
country bar, they clearly hadn’t met the women Tessa had. Especially when there
was supposed to be a hunky, big time country music star in their presence.
With
her back to the stage, she made her way through the throng of people to the bar
on the other side of the room, smiling at Eric as she approached. “What the
hell happened while I was gone?” she asked, not expecting a response.
“You
have
him
to thank,” Eric said, nodding his head in the direction of the
stage. Due to the sheer volume of people filling every available inch of floor
space, not to mention her height deficiency, Tessa couldn’t see who he was
referring to, but she could pretty much guess.
“Hey,
can we get some beers over here?”
Tessa
glanced over, nodding her acknowledgement to a table of women who looked as
though they’d prepped themselves for prom.
Wow.
This guy certainly had
quite the following.
“Why
didn’t you come get me?” she asked, grabbing her apron before turning toward
the first customer she came to.
Within
seconds, Tessa felt frazzled. Unlike Eric, who was standing just a couple of
feet away, looking just as cool and confident as ever although the oversized
bar with its hardwood top scarred from years of customer abuse – her favorite
part of the entire place – was completely engulfed by people.
“What?
You think I can’t handle this?” Eric laughed and, once again, heads turned.
Geez, these women were easy.
“Hey,
Katie!” Tessa had to raise her voice over the din of the now overcrowded
section. “Can you check on that table? They want beers, and Miranda is not here
yet.”
Katie
Clarren was one of the two waitresses that Tessa employed. Young, beautiful,
and almost too smart for her own good, Katie was also one of the best servers
she had. Not too long ago, Tessa had been under the impression that her younger
brother, Jack, actually had an interest in Katie. According to Katie, she
didn’t have time for dating, although she seemed flattered.
As
it turned out, Katie was juggling college and another part time job outside of
the bar, so her days and nights seemed to be full. Considering Jack’s history
with women, she was actually grateful for Katie’s busy schedule. No need to
have another broken heart left behind in her brother’s wake.
“Sure,”
Katie said sweetly, her long, silky black hair swinging behind her as she
nodded energetically.
For
the next few minutes, Tessa didn’t have a chance to look up from the horde of
people demanding drink after drink. Just when she was beginning to think she
would need to call in some backup, a gruff voice echoed through the speakers,
causing the noise to dim as everyone turned toward the stage.
“Howdy,
y’all,” the deep southern drawl, followed by a rough, raspy chuckle, silenced
the rest of the chatter.