The door to the bar swung open. No big deal. So why did it catch Bobby’s attention today? Maybe a change in the light. He didn’t know. All he knew was he looked up and the woman walking in glowed. A radiant light surrounded her. More than that, she looked like an angel.
How had he not seen it before? Her hair was a bit disheveled, not unusual after a long day at school for her. She wore her typical style of dress with the flowers. Her heavy book bag hung from her shoulder.
Ramona had walked into his bar before, and she never caught his attention this way. She never radiated light this way.
How had he not noticed before? Was she an angel?
The glass in his hand slipped from his grip.
He registered the sound of the crash but didn’t move until Chareese shrieked. “Oh my God, Bobby, what the hell? You dropped my drink.”
Bobby felt muzzy-headed. He blinked a few times. The door behind Ramona swung closed. The radiance did not diminish. The glow around her pulsed in time to his heartbeat.
He shook his head and looked at the floor. When had he dropped that?
“Oh hey, sorry about that. Glass was slippery. Let me get you a new one and clean this up.” He ignored the rest of Chareese’s bitchy commentary and bent over to pick up the larger chunks of glass.
He felt like a zombie, moving with staggering, jilted steps. Angel. The light had caught the dust in the air and fanned out around her like a blaze of wings. No, Bobby, hell, that was just the light coming in the door. He had always thought she was pretty. He shook his head, trying to clear the image of radiance and beauty that he had never recognized in Ramona before.
The small grin on her face seemed more like her typical resting expression. Ramona did not have “resting bitch face.” She had a pleasant expression when her face held no emotion. She didn’t look any happier than any other day she’d come in here to work.
Hell, maybe she was knocked up. After all, pregnant woman were supposed to glow. Bobby shook his head. No, between Melissa and Abby he’d been around enough pregnant women to know that glowing was just an expression and not an actual thing. But that did make him realize, Bobby had no idea if there was a special person in Ramona’s life. He would like to think that because she took baths at his place and allowed him to brush her hair, there wasn’t. He needed to know for certain.
He needed to know everything about her, and that need hit him with a rush and a wallop. Bobby ran his sleeve across his forehead, suddenly beaded with sweat. He asked Jenna to make another mojito for table eight, and he returned with the mop bucket.
“So, Bobby, you have plans for tonight?” Chareese’s voice felt scratchy to his ears. She must have broken up with her most recent boyfriend if she was leading in with the fastest pickup line in town.
Bobby swept the glass fragments into a dustpan.
“No, Chareese, I don’t. And I think I’m gonna keep it that way.”
“Oh,” she pouted. “Are you already booked?”
Bobby sighed. Right now being the easiest lay in town felt like a chore he should have taken care of years ago. He ran the mop over the floor under her chair. “Yeah, Chareese, I’m booked. Thanks, Jenna,” he said as the waitress placed the newly made drink in front of the blonde.
Bobby took a hard look at her, nodded, then pushed the bucket back to the utility closet. He had just turned down thirty-eight double Ds, a thirty-two inch middle, and miles of long, slender legs. Chareese loved to dress up in see-through and lacy things, and she wasn’t a bad package to unwrap, having unwrapped her a few times in the past.
What the hell had he been doing with someone like her? Had they ever actually had a conversation? She only wanted him for his body and, well, his dick.
No, he didn’t need that right now, not tonight, not ever again.
He washed his hands and dried them on a few paper towels.
“Hey, Ramona.” Why did his own voice sound like it had a nervous quaver to it?
She smiled, and that body part Chareese was interested in throbbed. He never throbbed around women—well at least not anymore. Hell, Ramona still glowed, and she was astounding.
Her eyes were his favorite shade of green. No, blue was his favorite color. He was letting this whole angel thing run amok with his brain. He slid into the booth opposite of her.
“How was your day?”
“Oh, it was pretty standard. You know, nothing went as planned. The principal came in with someone from the county, and they did observations. I wasn’t prepared. The students went a little nuts.”
“You still doing the math with zombies?” he asked.
“It’s working really well too. Now I’m having them calculate what it’s going to cost to stock up a bunker. They are given a supply list with prices, and”—she pulled a handout from her bag and slid it across to Bobby—“they are told what they would need for an average day, and then they have to calculate how much of everything they need for a year. They also have to calculate the costs associated with it, and how long it will take them to stock up on supplies based on randomly assigned jobs.”
Bobby laughed. That sounded like real-life math. Except he wasn’t stocking up a survivalist bunker, he was saving to complete the build-out on his own house, complete the buyout on the bar, and pay for the new AC system he knew was going to need to be installed next year. That was the kind of math he could have used in high school. “Now that’s math they can use.”
“Yeah, but you should have seen the look on Dr. G’s face,” she sighed. “He’s going to come talk to me tomorrow, I can just tell. I kind of wish he would let me teach and not worry about all the other crap. I don’t know. I still need to keep everyone focused and not have class dissolve into whose house, or which warehouse, or if the school would be the best safe-hold. I hate to say it, but I’m not teaching the best or the brightest.”
“No, but you are making a difference. Even if you only get through to one or two of them, this will make a huge difference in their ability to function out in the real world. You’re doing good. RavenCroft is lucky to have you.”
“Thanks, sometimes I wonder.” She looked over her shoulders, right then left, before leaning across the table to whisper. “Dr. Grover seems pretty paranoid about what I do with my life outside of school, and—”
“Grover is your principal?” Bobby rubbed a hand over his eyes. He shook his head. “He taught social studies when I was in school. Heard he worked his way up to vice principal over at Central. You sound like you need a little lift in your Cherry Coke.” He smiled. He could tell by the way she rubbed at her neck that she needed a massage. Grover was lucky to have a teacher so caring about her students. Those kids were going to actually learn math because of her, and having been that kid in that class, he knew too darned well how easy it was for the teachers to just give up on the students who were having problems.
“Yeah.” She sounded defeated. Ramona took a deep breath. “His actions don’t speak well of extending my contract to next year.”
“You don’t plan on going back to Dallas when school’s over?” He didn’t want her to leave Haven.
Ramona shook her head. “I’m still contracted for summer school. I moved here to try something new. The people here are really sweet, and so far I really like this town. Going back to Dallas next school year will be a defeat.”
Bobby leaned back. “You don’t have to worry about Grover. He is always overly concerned about everyone else’s business, but he never actually does anything.”
She nodded. “Can I get a BLT, extra B, hold the T?”
“Piled high, with cheese and extra mayo?”
The smile she gave Bobby was subtle, but there was a new sparkle in her eyes that made Bobby catch his breath. He wanted to touch her, to hold her, to rub the stress he saw out of her shoulders. He wanted to take care of her. What the hell was going on?
She catches some random ray of light walking into the bar and all of a sudden you want to give her flowers. Maybe he should go bang Chareese. Maybe he was getting sick.
He slid back out of the booth to go make Ramona’s sandwich. So if it was the sun catching dust motes that caused her to look like she had wings, how did he explain to himself that she still glowed?
He placed the BLT, extra B, hold the L and the T, with cheese, grilled, extra mayo and a side of pickles in front of her. “This has a little extra boost to it,” he said as he set the large drink next to the sandwich. “And this should help keep you focused while you grade,” he said, putting an ice cream brownie sundae down.
She sat up and squirmed a little straighter. Had he even noticed that she had boobs like that before? Perfectly round, with a bit of bounce. Christ, he felt like he was fourteen and just realizing that girls were shaped amazingly different. Of course he’d known Ramona had breasts before. She was a woman. They tended to come with them.
“When did you add this to the menu?” Ramona’s large eyes were bright and happy as she took in the chocolate concoction in front of her.
“It’s not on the menu. It’s special order only, and only if I feel like it. You looked like you could use a little extra.”
She turned her sparkling eyes to him. “Thank you.”
Her pink tongue peeked out from behind her teeth.
He suppressed a groan and felt a pull in his gut. He held his breath and let it out slowly. “When you’re done here, I want you to go use the tub. Get a good long soak in. I’ll be here late.”
“Hey, Bobby, is she what you’re up to later?” The voice was sharp and piercing.
He cringed. Chareese sounded like she’d already had one too many. He had better go check on her, make sure she wasn’t popping some pills in his bar and washing them down with the mojitos.
“I’ll check back on you in a few.” He didn’t want to leave Ramona’s side, but he still had a bar to run, still had customers to keep happy. But he couldn’t take his eyes from Ramona and found that she distracted him from every task he attempted.
Women had been a major distraction in Bobby’s life ever since he could remember. But never one like this, never one who he could be happy just to be near. Was this what Brad had been talking about, being friends first? He knew what that mass of black hair felt like under his fingers. What did the rest of her feel like?
Wow. This is a new to me author and I absolutely am a fan. This book was amazing. Bobby was a flawed alpha who has a secret and Ramona is the new girl in town. They form an unlikely friendship but can it be more? Can he change? Can she see beyond his reputation? Can she live with his secret? This book is so good I couldn’t put it down even on vacation…on a boat…in a lake. ~ an Amazon reader
What do you do when your imaginary friends start pestering you with images of sexy male strippers and hot were-shifters? You write stories about them. Well, that's what I did! Oh, and then I combine them and toss them in a kilt for good measure!
Hi, my name is Lulu and I write sexy hot contemporary and paranormal romance. Welcome to my website.
Making the Para "Normal" and the Supernatural Extraordinary.