Caught Up in You by Sophie Swift Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t start any of this.
    I shook my head and kicked the car door open with my foot.
    Whatever. Just get it over with.
    The back door beeped when I slid inside the building. Lia looked up from a giant brown packing box in the middle of the kitchen. I froze in place and stuffed my hands in my pockets.
    I hadn’t seen her in weeks.
    I’d almost forgotten how beautiful she was.
    Forgotten how adorable she looked when she was mad. Which she clearly was now. Although it wasn’t a full-on rage. It was more of a playful irritation.
    “Well, well,” she said, “if it isn’t the infamous Casanova. I haven’t seen you around here since you ditched the bar to hook up with my sister.”
    My eyes widened. “Alex told you?”
    I certainly hadn’t expected that. Although I did admit it made my purpose here a bit easier.
    “No. You were caught in the act.” Lia pointed to another girl in the kitchen with her. I recognized her as Lia’s friend Danika. The one who completely cock-blocked me that first night I took Lia out for drinks.
    I sighed. “It wasn’t my fault.”
    I could tell from the look she shared with her friend that Lia didn’t buy this for a second. “Oh yeah. I’m sure she held a gun to your head.”
    “No,” I tried to explain. “I mean, she called me. It was after Grayson went back to the city. I invited her over to my place and she whined about how he had lost interest in her. He didn’t like her body anymore. Some shit like that. I assured her she had a great body and then all of the sudden she was kissing me. I swear, she was the one who started it, I just…”
    Lia rolled her eyes and turned away. “Yeah, yeah, we know. Same old story. Alex is impossible to resist.”
    “Yeah, but then she stayed around,” I went on. “Gave some bogus excuse to Grayson about a business trip and she got, like, way too bossy. I did not sign up for that shit. I told her to just go back to the city.”
    I swore I saw Lia crack the tiniest of smiles. But it was gone before I could confirm.
    God, she’s cute.
    I wanted to punch myself in the face for even thinking it.
    And yet I wanted to run to her, scoop her tiny body into my arms, and kiss her. And not in the way I’d kissed Alex. Not in the way I’d kissed anybody. But in the way that girls like Lia deserve to be kissed.
    I wanted to ask her how she was. What she planned to do now that the restaurant was closed. How she was handling it. But mostly, I wanted to ask her about Grayson.
    I was so terribly desperate to find out if she had moved on. 
    If she would ever move on.
    But I couldn’t say any of those things. Because Blake Thomas doesn’t say shit like that.
    So I just grinned, opened my arms wide, and announced in my most confident, flirtatious tone, “Which means, I’m available ladies.”
    Now I wanted to punch myself in the face for that .
    Lia snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, I think I’ll pass.”
    It felt like a stab in the heart. And yet, I had no right to hope for any other reaction from her. Not after what I’d done.
    I quickly turned to Danika and waggled my eyebrows suggestively in her direction. It was the only thing I could think to do to cover the numbness in my legs.
    She shook her head. “Uh no.”
    I lowered my arms, pretending to appear completely dismayed. “Well, at least let me help you pack everything up. That’s why I came by.”
    It was a lie.
    It wasn’t why I came by.
    But I hadn’t even been sure myself why I was here until the moment I saw her.
    I came by to check.
    To double check.
    To see if there was even a smidgen of a chance Lia might see me as something else than what I’d always been.
    But it was clear that there wasn’t.
    To Lia Smart I would never be more than just a flirty, playboy bartender.
    “Okay,” she replied. “You can start wrapping the bar glasses. There are boxes for them out in the dining room.”
    I practically ran out of the room, desperate for a change of scenery, a change of everything.