Lucky in Love by Karina Gioertz Read Free Book Online Page B

give me an enthusiastic hug, which not only caused me to be airborne, but had various limbs of mine flying about in different directions. When he finally set me back down he said, “I love you!  Thank you!” In what had been perhaps, the most sincere tone I had ever heard him use.
    “Yeah. Don't thank me, thank D. I was going to let you suffer!” I replied with as little sincerity as I could muster. Noah just grinned and walked back to where he had been standing when I came in. As he continued wiping down bottles, he nodded his head at my hand and asked,
    “So, since when do you wear a wedding band?”
    I looked down at my ring and began to move it back over to the other hand.
    “I always wear it...just usually on the other hand.  It was Grandma Pearl's.” He looked at me for a moment and then turned his focus back on his cleaning.
    “Oh good, I was worried I might have missed something.”
    While we had been talking, D. had begun making his final rounds, checking to make sure everything that needed to get done was getting done and getting done properly. He stopped by to check on Noah.
    “You almost done here?  I'm just waiting on you, now.”
    Noah looked around at his bar to assess the situation and then looked back at D.
    “Almost, I still have to restock and then count my money.” He pointed over at an open cash register and a large stack of credit card receipts. D. shook his head.
    “Lucky count the man's money.  It's been a long night and I want to go home.”
    “You got it.”
    As D. walked back to his office, I climbed up onto a bar stool and pulled the cash and receipts in my direction.
    “Thanks.” Noah winked at me as he walked by on his way to the walk-in cooler to grab the beer he needed to restock. I just waved at him dismissively and started pulling out the bills to count the cash. By the time Noah returned, I had already counted all the money and had moved on to the credit cards. We both worked quickly and silently as he was putting away bottles in the cooler and I was sorting through the receipts until I found the Crypt Keeper’s tab.
    “Holy shit!  Is this that lady's tab?!” It had escaped my mouth a few octaves higher than I had intended.  Noah glanced over at the receipt I was holding up.
    “Yup, that's the one.”
    “Man, now I feel kinda guilty I didn't make you sleep with her.  She clearly paid for more than her drinks!” I was still shaking my head in disbelief as I was putting the receipt back in the pile and working my way through the rest.
    “Hey! I never said I was going to sleep with her,” Noah quickly interjected.
    “I'm sure you didn't, but I bet your smile did...You forget how many years I spent working right beside you, I've seen you in action.” I shot him a knowing grin.
    “I guess.  So, what are you doing here, anyway?” he asked, clearly trying to change the subject.
    “Couldn't sleep,” I shrugged. “Thought you might want to go get some pancakes.”
    Noah threw the last of the empty cardboard boxes into the trash and said, “Well, you're in luck, because I am starving!”
    I paused mid-count to stop and look at him. “I'm in luck?”
    “Yeah, I mean you could have gotten here and I could have been busy and then what?”
    I couldn’t tell if he was trying to make me feel important or point out how low I ranked amongst the women in his life.
    “Why would you have been busy?” I countered.
    “Because I am busy most nights...with the ladies...you know?!” If he had thrown in a ‘duh’ at the end of that statement, I might have just thrown the contents of his register at him. Since he refrained, so did I.
    “It's Saturday,” I replied flatly. Noah looked confused.
    “So?”
    I could see I was going to have to spell it out for him. It had been unspoken for so long, I just assumed he knew I knew, but apparently he didn’t.
    “So, you never hook up on Saturdays.”
    “How do you know that?” He actually looked stunned.
    “Because I know