One Night in Weaver... Read Online Free PDF Page A

countered blithely. “The brightness of your neon orange shirt has affected your hearing. Speaking of... Your sister wants me to do something about your shirts.”
    “Admit it.” Casey leaned over his fiancée and kissed her before pulling her to her feet. “The only thing you want to do about my shirts is get me out of them.”
    “Save it for the honeymoon,” Hayley told them. “My innocent ears can’t take any more.”
    “Please.” Jane rolled her eyes and ducked under Casey’s arm to come around the bar. “Are you
sure
you don’t want—?”
    “Get out of here.” Hayley gave her a hug and a push. “The party is over, so go home. I’ll make sure everything’s locked up.”
    “I know. I just—” Jane closed her mouth when Hayley pointedly looked at Casey for help. “Fine. Fine!” Her friend tossed up her hands and went back around the bar. She took the costume tiara that Sam had mockingly insisted she wear during the party and fit it back on her head before joining Casey.
    “Think it suits me?”
    “Well, you’re already the queen of my heart,” he drawled, nearly frog-stepping her to the door.
    “Oh, brother.” Jane sent Hayley a look as they left, but Hayley knew just how deeply in love the two were and once the door finally closed behind them, she couldn’t help but sigh a little.
    Not with envy. She wasn’t envious of her friend’s happiness.
    But she couldn’t help being even more acutely aware of her own solitary life in the face of all of that happiness.
    Blowing out a breath, she peeled off her high-heeled boots and wiggled her stocking-clad toes as she went around to each of the tables, picking up paper plates and crumpled napkins and dumping them in a trash bag.
    “Looks like you got left holding the bag.”
    She startled, jerking around at the sound of the deep voice, and somehow managed to spill the trash she’d just collected. She spotted Seth standing in the doorway to the grill. “What are you doing here?”
    He held up his plate and fork as if it should have been obvious. “Jerry’s got good pecan pie. And I was hungry after working a double.”
    She hadn’t seen him since she’d tried to chase after him at the wedding shower the week before, and she felt as foolish now as she always seemed to feel around him. “Well, the restaurant might have stayed open to serve you, but the bar’s closed.”
    “I gathered that from the girly-looking Closed for Private Function sign taped on the wall.” He took a few steps closer anyway. “Didn’t know that Colbys was fancy enough for
private
functions
.”
    She crouched to scoop the plates and napkins back into the bag again. “I threw Jane’s bachelorette party here.” She grimaced when her fingers sank into an unfinished piece of cake but scooped as much as she could into the bag. She wasn’t about to tell him that she was the one who’d fashioned the pretty signs. “There’s more room for a party here than at my place.” Particularly with her grandmother still in residence. And Jane had insisted that if she
had
to have another party in her honor, she wanted it held someplace where she was extremely comfortable.
    Hayley rose and wiped her sticky fingers on another paper napkin that she added to the bag. “What did you mean last week—” she pushed the words out before she lost her nerve “—about being a gentleman?”
    He forked another bite of pie into his mouth, not seeming surprised by her abruptness. “I said I wasn’t.”
    She finally looked right at him and felt the usual lurch inside her when she did. He was wearing blue jeans and a snug black T-shirt with SECURITY printed in white block letters across the front. “What you said before you left the Clays’ party last week. I had the sense you were implying something. I just don’t know what.”
    His vivid blue eyes narrowed slightly. “Afraid you’ll have to clue me in, Dr. Templeton.”
    She frowned at him. “Don’t call me that.”
    “It’s