Page 3 of Wish You Were Mine (Kings of Eden Falls #3)

“And humble, too.” Theo chuckled and took another sip of his scotch.

“Of course.” I grinned.

As we continued to talk, a guy who looked to be in his mid-twenties stepped up to the bar next to Nora, striking up a conversation with her.

“Think Nora’s gonna give this guy a chance?” Theo nodded over at the light-haired guy who had started chatting with my friend.

“I don’t know.” I looked at the guy briefly and then to Nora, studying her body language. “She seems interested right now, at least.”

“Yeah?” Theo raised a dark eyebrow. “I can never tell with her.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked, curious what my brother thought about my best friend.

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I’ve just seen her with so many different types of guys since you’ve been friends that I’ve always been curious if there’s a common thread among any of them.”

“I have no idea,” I admitted, since I’d been equally puzzled about Nora’s tastes in men. “But I think a lot of it is the chase.”

“The chase?” Theo furrowed his brow.

“Being pursued,” I said. “You know, having someone woo her. It’s nice to feel wanted.”

At least, I wouldn’t mind feeling wanted for a change . Desired . Instead of as someone’s backup plan.

“I guess I can see that,” Theo nodded thoughtfully. “We all want to feel wanted.” He looked back at Nora and seemed like he was about to say something when his phone buzzed. After checking the notification, he sighed and said, “My ride just pulled up out front. I better head out.”

“Got another early morning meeting in New Haven?” I asked, knowing my brother’s high-powered law firm kept him busy. He was one of the youngest junior partners in the firm’s history and was hoping to make senior partner before too long.

“My client wants to meet before his deposition.”

“Sounds exciting,” I said, still not fully understanding what my brother’s demanding job entailed.

“Very,” he said with a wink, grabbing his suit coat from the back of his chair and slipping it over his shoulders.

“Well…” I stood and gave him a quick hug. “Take care, bro.”

“You too.” After returning my hug, Theo tapped Nora on the shoulder to say a quick goodbye. “See you Friday.” And just like that, he was gone.

I slipped back into my seat. Since Nora was still happily chatting with the guy next to her, leaving me the third wheel, I let my gaze wander over to Owen while I sipped on my water.

He was wiping down the counter with a dishrag, and maybe it was because I hadn’t kissed anyone in months, but dang!

The way the muscles in his forearms flexed as he moved the cloth. ..it was so hot. Almost hypnotizing.

I’d never seen arms like his before.

Did he just lift weights all day?

As a bartender, his schedule was probably pretty open for a nice, long mid-morning workout at the gym...

He had a great torso, too. Nice pecs. Toned shoulders and back.

The sleeve of his black T-shirt rose just enough on his bicep to reveal the bottom of a tattoo. Dang. Tattoos were hot.

Did he have any others? Maybe something on that well-defined chest of his? Or on his back...

Too bad I wasn’t drunk right now. If I was, I might be able to get away with flirtatiously asking him to show me more of his tattoo .

Okay, Lucy…you’re getting way too carried away, I chided myself. Since when did I objectify guys like this?

Since you saw the sexiest man alive wiping down the counter like he had plans to lick something right off of it.

I found myself imagining him walking around the bar, his eyes locked on mine, the space between us pulsing with tension.

He’d step closer, his strong hands gently lifting me up on the counter, setting me there as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

The cool—now sparkling clean—surface beneath me would send a shiver through my body and then his hands would thread through my hair, tilting my head back just enough for him to press his lips to mine.

It would start soft, tentative—because, of course, he was a gentleman—but then heat and hunger would rush in, and before long, I’d be wondering if I was about to burst into flames.

I closed my eyes, imagining the feeling of his mouth against mine, the way his kiss would send a shiver down my spine, the way his strong hands would press into my back and pull me closer to him and?—

“…Now to see if that guy actually texts me,” Nora’s voice entered my mind.

And just like that, I was snapped out of my fantasy and back to sitting in my seat—sadly, not in the bartender’s arms.

“Sorry, what?” I blinked, looking at Nora who was watching me.

And that was when I realized that the guy she’d been chatting with was no longer at the bar.

My cheeks instantly burned. How long had I been checked out for?

Nora grinned, clearly aware of what was going on. “I was just saying that I wonder if that guy will actually text me or if he was just being nice.”

“He asked for your number? ”

“Yeah,” she said, glancing over at Owen briefly before raising her eyebrows at me. “But I think you might need to exchange more than just phone numbers with our sexy bartender before you internally combust.”

“Was my daydreaming that obvious, then?” I gasped, covering my eyes with my hands.

“Only because I know you.” Nora chuckled.

“Sorry.” I shook my head. “I don’t know what has come over me tonight. I just... I don’t think I’ve ever found a guy so physically attractive in my life.”

“Well…” Nora laughed. “He is way hot and your exact physical type. Almost as if that guy from your favorite Korean drama and Theo James had a baby...”

“Two guys having a baby?” I cocked an eyebrow. “Do I need to give you a biology lesson?”

Not that I’d ever been great at science. I was, after all, the girl who had put off getting her required chemistry credits done until her last semester of college.

“Oh, you know what I mean.” Nora waved it off.

“I know, I was teasing.” I laughed nervously, feeling jittery as I glanced back to Owen and considered Nora’s description. And realizing that she was spot on, I said, “And yeah, that’s actually the perfect description. Like Kim Soo-hyun and Theo James had a baby that grew up to be a hot bartender.”

Almost as if his ears had been burning, said bartender looked down the bar at us. When his eyes briefly locked with mine, my heart skipped a beat. And as he walked back toward us, his confidence practically radiating off of him, a rush of heat flooded my cheeks.

Get yourself together, Lucy, I told myself. Just because he’s walking your way doesn’t mean you can slip into another fantasy.

“Do you ladies need anything?” he asked, his voice smooth, deeper than I remembered. “Another water? Or perhaps something stronger?”

And suddenly, I was tongue-tied.

Which had never happened to me before.

“I’ll take another water,” Nora answered first. Then with a smirk, she added, “And your phone number for my friend here.”

“Nora!” I gasped, my eyes going wide before I elbowed her in the side. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

But Owen’s eyes sparkled with amusement as he glanced at me and said, “Didn’t our mutual friend Theo mention you have a long-time boyfriend?”