Page 1 of Chasing Blue

PROLOGUE.

Jack

Then.

I watched as she threw her head back and laughed at something Sammy had said to her as he waited to get served.

Her red hair was piled on top of her head. The wispy escapees from that pile had curled at the back of her neck and in front of her ears in the humidity.

I noticed this because I’d done nothing but watch her. I’d watched to the point I’d actually witnessed one of those curls form.

She turned and replaced the EFTPOS machine on the back of the bar after Sam paid. My position on a stool at one of the high-top tables gave me a glimpse of her round arse in those short shorts.

“Jailbait, mate, not even worth considering. Plus, Ash will have your balls,” my brother, Nate, told me, something I was well aware of.

“She’s working in a bar, she must already be eighteen,” I responded before swigging from my beer bottle.

“And you’re twenty-one, newly single, and not looking for anything complicated. Getting involved with the barmaid at your favourite bar . . . the barmaid who just happens to be the little sister of the bar owner, is about as complicated as it gets.”

Letting out a long sigh, I sliced my eyes to my brother. “I’m just looking,” I answered. “She has a great arse.”

“She has a great everything, she’s fucking gorgeous. Not your usual type, but gorgeous all the same, and for you, little brother, way too complicated.”

“I have a type?” I questioned.

“Yeah, you have a type. Every girl you’ve ever dated has been a clone of the last. Tall, blonde, lean, typical surfie chick.”

I tilted my head to the side as I considered this and nodded. “I have a type,” I agreed. “Maybe that’s where I’ve been going wrong. Maybe it’s time for a change.”

Nate put his bottle on the table and leaned back on his stool. “Listen to your big brother, don’t go there.”

“Chill. I’m just looking,” I told him with a shrug.

I tried.

For a whole week, I tried. And then I went there.

* * *

“Doesyour brother ever give you a night off?” I asked casually as Scarlett placed the ice-cold bottle of Carlton on the bar in front of me.

Her dark, perfectly arched brows pulled down into a frown.

“Me?” she pointed at herself and asked. Her voice sounded a little higher pitched than normal as if surprised at my question.

Beyond ordering food and drink, and the usual barmaid–customer banter, I’d never really said too much to her directly, but all of that had been building up to this moment.

Leaning my elbows on the bar top, I leaned in.

“Well, I’m not talking to Ash, and I’m definitely not talking to Jenny, so that only leaves you, Blue.”

Her lips twitched before pulling up into a full-on smile as she looked down and away from me shyly.

“You got a night off this week?”

“Thursday,” she looked up and said with a shrug, her blue eyes again meeting mine.

“Can I take you to dinner?” I asked.