“No, it’s not. But it’s my hometown and the place I’m living for the time being. Maybe forever,” I added when her eyes brightened at the phrase time being.
“Well, let me take you out for that coffee.”
“I’m busy, Susan. Why did you drive up here? It’s over an hour out of your way.”
She waved her hand. “I have business in Cheyenne tomorrow. A potential story. I decided to visit here first. See what you were up to.”
“And you’re staying the night in Cheyenne?” I asked.
“Bob has a hotel for us.”
“You and Bob still seeing each other, then?” I asked, not sure why I even brought it up.
She gave me a look that spoke volumes. “No, but we still work together. There are two rooms in that hotel, thank you very much. However, I’m sure I could arrange to stay here for the night if you were accommodating.”
I gritted my teeth. “No. There’s no room at the inn for you, Susan.”
“Pity.” She let out a breath and looked up at me with wide eyes. I used to love staring into those eyes, the jade green color so intoxicating.
Now, I only saw all the lies.
“I am sorry,” she whispered.
“You said it before.”
“Well, I am. And maybe one day you’ll believe me. I’m glad that you’re here, settling down. Finding peace. You’ve needed it.”
“Susan,” I warned.
She held up a hand and shook her head. “I know. Can’t touch the heart that is Jacob Queen. That was always the problem.”
“We both know that wasn’t the only problem.”
“Perhaps. However, I am glad you’re here. But I miss you.”
I shook my head as warning bells sounded in my brain. “Okay, go get in the car and drive up with Bob to Cheyenne. You probably left him out there, didn’t you?”
“He has an audiobook. And the man is monotonous. Not Bob,” she said as my lips quirked. “The narrator. He has no inflection, but Bob’s happy with it, so I’m dealing with it. However, I wanted to see you.”
“You came, you saw, now it’s time for you to go.”
She looked at me then, studied my face and shrugged. “Be safe, Jacob.”
And then my ex-wife walked out of my office. I let my head fall back. Today was a shitty day already, and, honestly, I only had myself to blame for the choices I’d made that led me to this point.
“That seemed fast enough. I didn’t have to get you out for a meeting,” Seressia said, and I growled.
“We’re all out at six. I don’t care what we’re working on. We’ll come back to it tomorrow. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need a drink, and me thinking about it here isn’t going to cut it.”
Seressia grinned as Dustin and Lucas laughed behind her. “You’ve got it, boss.”
They left my office, and I went back to work, trying my best to focus on what I needed to do, rather than the outside world continually trying to drag me back in.
I didn’t love Susan anymore. I hadn’t for a long time. We’d been married for all of two years, and she’d cheated on me in the end. She and Bob had been happy for a split second, though apparently, they weren’t anymore.
Susan had once called me too raw, too angry at life. Said she needed normalcy. Fort Collins would be too ordinary for her. I didn’t know why she had come here, other than to disrupt my life because she didn’t know how to settle herself. Either way, we were two flames that burned too brightly near each other. We didn’t need to be in the same room anymore.
Being combustible meant leaving debris in your path, not a warm and bright glow.
And now, I was getting all poetic about my ex-wife. Time to get to work and focus on what was important. Not my future plans, not my ex-wife, and not a woman with blue eyes who kept haunting my daydreams.
By the time six p.m. rolled around, I was exhausted and really wanted to take off my tie and call it a day. I was true to my word and shoved my staff out the door before they had a chance to complain about it. They worked just as hard as I did, hence why they had disrupted their lives to come up here with me to begin with.
I had a feeling that Lucas and maybe Seressia would head back to Denver after they got a couple of additional years under their belts here and gained experience, but they were here for now, and we had an odd little work-family dynamic.
I looked down at my phone and figured I could eat or go and get that drink. And if I remembered right, Riggs’ had wings. Damn good ones.
Riggs’ was a bar owned by a nice guy. He’d given me a once-over the first time I walked into the place, and I had simply smiled and shaken my head. I wasn’t interested in starting anything, especially not with the bartender I wanted to get to know personally when it came to my drinks.
I tugged off my tie and made my way to Riggs’, grateful that it didn’t seem too busy on a weeknight. Once I got out of the car, I looked down at my slacks, nice shoes, and the button-up shirt I had on and figured I was probably a little overdressed for the place. But I wasn’t about to go home and change. I rolled up my sleeves so my forearms were bare and undid the button nearest my neck. It was the closest I could get to casual. Plus, I didn’t usually wear jeans. It just wasn’t who I was.
I walked in, the sound of music playing and people talking over drinks and food filling my ears. My shoulders immediately relaxed, and I knew I had come to the right place. I needed people around, but I didn’t need to talk to them. Wings and a beer and maybe a whiskey, neat. That’s all I needed.
But then I looked over into the corner, saw a familiar set of people, and ground my molars together.
Of course, they would be here.
The fucking Montgomerys were everywhere.
Chapter 7
Annabelle
“Okay, who is the hottie with that strong jaw?”
I looked over my shoulder, then at my best friend, Brenna, and winced. “That would be my neighbor, Jacob Queen.”
Eliza, my other best friend, gasped. “That’s Jacob Queen?”
I sighed and took a deep gulp of my beer.
“I love that whenever we talk about him, we always use both of his names. And someone always says that Jacob Queen. Like a title.” Paige sighed happily.
I glared at my little sister. “Shove it, Paige.”
She wiggled her fingers at me and leaned into her boyfriend. “Oh, I don’t believe I will. And look, Jacob’s not headed this way. He did that head-tilt thing, though. Mr. Queen acknowledged your presence, but he isn’t coming over here to talk to the big, bad Montgomerys.”
“Probably because he knows that while the brothers haven’t seen him yet, they will likely kill him because they are big, mean, and love to act like linebackers protecting their quarterback.”
I whispered the last part, and both Eliza and Brenna started laughing into their hands, doing their best not to make too much noise.
Jacob sat at the bar, Riggs grinning down at him as the two of them laughed over something. Riggs set a beer and a water in front of Jacob, as well as a menu.
“He shouldn’t sit and eat all alone,” Eliza said. “It’s not nice.”