“Listen to the man. He’s not an idiot all the time.” Nicole points at her throat. “Besides, an asshole drunk driver ran me off the road on my bike a couple years back, and I got tangled up in a barbed-wire fence. I thought I was going to bleed out right there, but the asshole’s fucking OnStar shit automatically called 911 and an ambulance came. So basically the driver almost killed me and saved my life at the same time. Don’t be that guy.”
Nicole’s story has a sobering effect on Banner, who pushes the rest of her cocktail away. “I’m officially done drinking. Maybe forever. Jesus. If y’all just had cabs or public transportation, everyone could drink and get home safely.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Y’all? You’re saying y’all now?”
Banner narrows her eyes at me. “I’m trying it out.”
“Try it out all you want. I’ll be waiting right here. We’ve got a hell of a lot to talk about.”
* * *
I’m right about at least one thing tonight—Banner won over a chunk of the townspeople, and as she works the room and delivers drinks to the stragglers who aren’t yet ready to go home, Ben finds me at the bar and takes a seat.
“You think that city girl has enough money to buy me out?”
Nicole freezes with her hands in the sink. “You said you’d sell this place to me.”
He nods at her, but it’s dismissive. “How are you ever going to get that much money, Nicki? You’re hustling your ass off everywhere you can, but I can’t afford to finance the sale of this place and let you pay me off over a few years. I need a lump sum from someone so I can retire and not worry about it going under and losing my retirement fund.”
“It wouldn’t go under.”
I hate that I’m caught in the middle of this discussion, but there’s no easy way to extricate myself from it other than to mention one thing.
“I don’t think Banner’s looking for this kind of investment. She’s got her own stuff going on.” To myself, I addthatshe hasn’t even told me details about.
Ben looks from me to Nicole, who I know he’d love to see take over Brews and Balls, which is what the locals call Pints and Pins, but unfortunately he doesn’t have the means to just give it to her.
“I guess it’s good to know where we all stand,” Ben says awkwardly before he slides off his stool and shuffles toward the office.
Nicole watches him leave. “He’s never going to believe I can raise enough money to buy this place, but goddammit, I will. I can’t spend the rest of my life working in that factory.”
Determination takes over her expression as Banner steps up beside me. “What’s with all the serious faces? What did I miss?”
Nicole looks down at the glasses in the sink. “Nothing important.”
Chapter 31
Logan
It’s almost two o’clock by the time I finally drag Banner out of the bowling alley. She decided that since I wasn’t letting her drive either way, she might as well have another drink with Nicole. It was almost like she could tell Ben had just crushed the girl’s dream, even if she wasn’t present for the conversation. But given how long Banner dragged it out, I have to wonder if she was trying to avoid leaving.
I lift her up into the passenger side of the truck and shut the door before heading around to climb into the driver’s seat.
“You afraid to be alone with me now?” I ask her.
“No. Of course not.”
“Then what’s going on?”
Banner stares down at her hands in her lap. “This morning sucked balls, and now all of a sudden you don’t care if people know you’ve got a thing for me. I can’t keep up with you. I get that this is your town and I don’t fit in here. Trust me, that was very clear today at the grocery store.”
“You don’t think you made some headway on that tonight? Half the town was in that bar, and they’re on your side.”
Banner shakes her head. “The male half. That’s not the problem. All the women still think I’m some big-city skank coming to steal one of their prime men, and they have no problem showing it.”
“What happened?”
When Banner fills me in on her grocery store experience, I try to hold back my laughter, but it’s a lost cause.