The way her gaze drifted around my face, my shoulders, my arms, was utterly intoxicating. “I work at the university bookstore.”
My sexy librarian fantasy flitted through my mind, but I tried to focus on her soft smile. “What did you take at school there?”
“English lit. They’re only supposed to hire students, but I persuaded them that they needed staff members who would be there for more than a few years. Then I sort of...encouraged them to hire me as a manager.”
“That is extremely cool. You must love books.”
“I read a lot before, when I was going to school, but now it’s a bit out of control,” she laughed.
“I read a lot too, but mostly online. Science, nature, psychology articles.”
Her eyebrows raised slightly. “Really? That’s neat.”
Her eyes darted to the left as she looked around the space. “So, you’re not a bartender here, you own the place?”
“I own three places, actually,” I said, stroking her hand gently with my thumb. “The Duke Lounge belonged to my grandfather, Arthur Duke, and he sold it to me for a ridiculous deal. Then I found two more small pubs in neighborhoods that were chill, but on the edge of becoming trendy, so I snapped those up for a steal as well.”
“Taking over the city one bar at a time,” she grinned.
“I think I’m going to stick at three for at least a year, then we’ll see what happens,” I said. My head jerked down as I grabbed my phone, checking the date. “Wow. I hadn’t even realized that today is the third anniversary of my taking over this place.”
Allie squeezed my hand, looking at me with genuine excitement. “Congratulations! That’s amazing. Are you doing anything to celebrate?”
“I wasn’t really planning on it.”
Her bottom lip thrust out as she made a face. “I think It’s important to celebrate milestones. Happiness is earned through the accomplishment of goals. Then once we reach those goals, if we sustain them, we have to mark the continuation of those successes.”
I loved that she spoke with passion. Screw my vow of staying single for a while. I wanted this gorgeous girl. Being drawn to her so intensely had to mean something. This strange prickle of fire every time I looked at her wasn’t normal.
“You’re right. Okay, what is some tiny thing that we could do to celebrate?”
“Well, I’ve already had my one drink for the night,” she laughed, glancing at her empty glass. “But is there some rare drink that you save for yourself for special occasions?”
I grinned, then looked around the room. Some of the regulars here tonight were definitely beer nerds, and I couldn’t let them know about my secret stash.
Packing up my laptop, I jumped up, stashed it behind the bar, and then cleared Allie’s empty glass. “Follow me,” I said, taking her hand as I led her across the room, then downstairs to the basement storage room.
“Don’t be scared,” I said, instinctively tucking her against my side as we went down the hall. “I swear that this is a holy mission, inspired by monks.”
Her eyebrow raised, but she stayed silent as I unlocked a door and led her into the room. Allie’s soft gasp as I turned on the light made me laugh so loud that it echoed across the old stone walls.
CHAPTER FIVE
* Allie *
“Holy crap,” I whispered, looking around at shelf after shelf of wine bottles, liquor bottles, and stacked cases of beer.
“It’s holy, but it certainly isn’t crap,” Kellan laughed, walking to the end of the large room and punching a code into a locked cabinet.
He pulled out a tall beer bottle with no label. “This is made by monks, and they don’t actually export it. Every year, I have a guy who picks up a bottle or two from the monastery when he makes the trip out there. This one has aged five years already.”
He held up the bottle to show me. “This is Belgian Trappist ale – the Westvleteren 12 yellow cap.” Those deep blue eyes locked on mine as he asked, “Do you like beer?”
“I’ve only had average beer, and didn’t really like it,” I said. “But I’d love a little taste.”
Kellan led me to the opposite side of the room to a small table with two wooden folding chairs. He pulled out two special glasses that were a strange chalice shape, and split the bottle between them.
“We need to let it rest and open up for a minute before we try it,” he said.