Page 9 of On One Condition

But I’m so caught up in my feelings that I don’t give his grimace a second thought.

“Hey, Ash. Can I get another, sweetheart?” a regular asks from across the bar.

“Coming right up, Larry.” I move away to pour Larry’s beer, thankful for the reprieve. Maybe Ledger will give up and go back to wherever he came from while I’m distracted.

“Why am I sensing that I missed part of this conversation somehow?” Or maybe not. There’s a chill to his voice, a stiffness to his posture.

I’ve pissed him off.

Good.

That’s only an iota of what he deserves.

I stare at him, my jaw clenched and hands fisted. Why am I letting the memory of what happened still affect me? It was a long time ago. It’s done and over with. “You know what? You’re right. You’re not worthy of my anger,” I finally say, hating that while I tell him that, I still want to ask a million questions.

Why did you leave and never come back?

Why didn’t you call?

Was everything you told me a lie?

Why did you let him tear you apart like that?

That’s enough, Ash. Enough wondering. Enough anger. Enough forgetting what you promised yourself minutes ago—that the past is the past.

This is the first impression you give him of who you are and what you’ve made of your life? All you’re succeeding in doing is looking unstable.

Get your shit together, even if it kills you.

“You’re right. I’m probably not worthy of your anger.” He meets my eyes and something softens inside me at his comment. At him giving me an out to somehow justify the spiteful words I just slung at him. “But hey, if I had known asking for a Coors Light would make you this upset, then I easily could have picked something else. A Heineken. A Corona. Which beer is best paired with the side of animosity you’re serving?”

“Quit making fun of me.”

He offers his lopsided, mischievous smile that has one reluctantly tugging on the corners of my mouth. I’m transported back to ice cream cones on the docks and kisses that left me breathless.

There’s something about you that until this very moment, until seeing you standing there, I didn’t know would still pull on parts of me.

“Everything good here?” Hank asks as he steps behind the bar, eyeing me with curiosity before taking in Ledger. “Asher taking care of you all right?”

“Yes. She was just about to pour me a Coors Light, but she had to finish reading me the riot act about how much she dislikes me first.”

Jesus. I’m filling in for Nita. The last thing I need is to cause paying customers to complain and get her in trouble with the boss.

“Don’t take it personally,” Hank says, followed by his baritone bark of a laugh and a wink my way. “For what it’s worth, she doesn’t exactly like anyone.”

I narrow my eyes at Hank as he emits a big belly laugh before moving to the far end of the bar to chat with some regulars.

“Asher?” Ledger asks my name like a question, but when I look his way, there’s a sudden change to his expression. It’s almost as if he just had an epiphany or figured out an answer to the question he never asked. “A minute ago, you said something. About what I put you through—” He gives a quick shake to his head and as quickly as the expression appears, it’s gone. “I think you’re wrong. We do need to talk about what hap—”

“Telling me I’m wrong isn’t the best way to make me like you again.”

“I didn’t realize you had to try to. You never had to before.” The quiet confidence in his tone paired with the bittersweet look in his eyes has me struggling to think of a response.

How is it possible to go from anger to uncertainty in such a short span of time?

Confused and unsettled by the sudden feeling, I turn around to find a clean glass on the counter behind me, even though there’s a stack of them right in front of me.

I’m a grown woman, for God’s sake.