Enemies on Tap Read Online Free PDF Page A

tasted good.
    “You know people are worried you’ll set fire to the brewery and collect the insurance money,” Ruby Sue deadpanned.
    The pronouncement of her presumed criminal intent constricted her throat and sent the mouthful of tea down the wrong pipe. The resulting coughing fit had her lungs bouncing off her ribcage like a toddler in a bounce house. Her eyes watered, either from the oxygen depletion or Ruby Sue’s palm whacking her on the back. The woman was old, but she still had fight in her. Finally, a thin thread of air found its way into her desperate lungs. Slowly regaining her equilibrium, Miranda eased her greedy gulps of air until her breathing returned to its normal pre-shock rhythm.
    “I am not going to commit insurance fraud.” The words scraped against her raw throat as well as her tweaked ego.
    “Well, you can’t blame ‘em for wondering. It’s not like you ever showed any interest in the brewery before.” Ruby Sue ripped open five sugar packets and dumped them in her tea. “Plus your grandma did go all firebug on the DMV when they wouldn’t renew her license.”
    “She was never charged.” Miranda dabbed ineffectively at the brown wet spot soaking through her favorite white shirt. “The building had faulty wiring.”
    “Mmm hmmm.” Ruby Sue shrugged her shoulders.
    The old familiar weight of being a Sweet in Salvation weighed down Miranda’s shoulders, and she bit back a nasty comeback just in time. Ruby Sue was just being her normal, blunt self. If anyone in this closed-minded little town was in her corner, it was the feisty old lady with the sugar addiction.
    Miranda’s attempt to eliminate the tea stain had only served to spread a damp spot across her chest. She needed to go rinse the shirt before it was ruined. “I’m gonna run to the bathroom real quick, but I promise, I’m not going to hurt the brewery.” She grabbed her briefcase and jacket from the next stool, then stood up. “I’m going to make it better than it ever has been.”
    Mind focused on what her next move should be for financing the brewery’s turnaround—maybe it was time to put out an SOS to her sisters—Miranda paid little attention to the handful of customers filtering into the private dining room next to the bathroom. But instead of the numbers coming together clearly in her head, all she kept seeing was Logan Martin. The asshole looked even better than he had in high school, and that was saying something. Not that she cared about his muscular arms or his square jaw or the way his butt had looked in his perfectly tailored suit pants.
    The restroom door had barely swung shut before Miranda looped her briefcase and jacket onto the counter, engaged the sink’s small stopper, stripped off her white shirt, and held it under the tap while the basin filled with water.
    The tea had soaked through to her ivory lace demi bra, too, but there was no way she was taking that off in a public women’s restroom. She could live with a stained bra. It’s not like she’d shown anyone the results of her lingerie shopping addiction lately, or would any time soon.
    The creaking of the door’s well-worn hinges caught her attention, and she jerked up her gaze.
    That’s when she spotted the white urinal reflected in the mirror above the sink.
    Her heart thundered in her ears, and her cheeks burned.
    Oh. Shit.
    Focused only on escape from the men’s bathroom, she whirled around and slammed right into an immovable object in the hot-blooded form of Logan Martin.
    She bounced back and teetered on her heels.
    Only his strong fingers wrapped around her bare upper arms saved her from falling backward. Electricity sparked across her skin, leaving nothing but jumbled nerves and half-melted objections in its wake. She thought she’d been vaccinated against his brand of hotness, but it looked like she needed a booster shot.
    All her know-better-nows turned to ash under the heat of his touch, each finger burning an imprint on her skin.