Playing with Danger (Desire Bay 2)

How had things gotten so complicated? How had she gone from single and miserable, to married on a cruise ship, to wife on th

e run, to wife for two weeks? Grant had a knack for complicating her life, but he also had a knack for making her happy.

And there she was, thinking of him.

Thinking about last night.

She wanted more already. She was forcing her brain to recall every detail, every touch, every move. She tried to remember the exact way it felt when he slid inside her the first time. How the couch cushion had scratched against her mouth when she screamed into it.

She wanted to relive every second over in slow motion.

And that was the problem with Grant. It was always better than good and over too soon.

“Is it always this dead in here this time of day?” Rudy said, walking through the front door, his big Santa Claus belly sticking out from his blue jeans and covered in a stained white T-shirt. He looked like he’d just rolled out of bed.

Hannah glanced around. “Yeah, this is pretty typical between lunch and happy hour,” she said. Sure, Rudy covered for her now and again, but only when the other backup bartender wasn’t able to work the part-time shift.

“Well, I’m glad you know,” he said, coming to sit on the bar stool. Hannah knew his drink, and owner or boss or whatever he was to her, right now it was clear he was a customer, so she grabbed the gin and poured him a few fingers.

“I do know about this place, right down to the smelliest customer and tiniest crack in the floor.”

Rudy nodded and took a sip. “Well, then I suppose you should own this place,” he said.

Hannah almost dropped the glass she was holding. Her eyes darted to Rudy.

“What?” she asked, too scared to hope.

Rudy smiled. “You’ve been squawking for months that you want to buy this place. I’m selling, and I’m coming to you first,” he said.

Hannah’s mouth dropped open, and she lurched over the bar and hugged her boss.

“Whoa. Easy there, girl. You start handing out free hugs, and business will boom!” Rudy said, chuckling.

Hannah scooted back off the bar and stood, her heart racing in her neck.

“It’s mine? It’s really mine?” she asked, needing to hear once more that she was finally going to own Goonies Bar. Finally have a career, something of her own. Something she’d worked for.

“I know you’ve been wanting to buy this place for a while, and I promised you’d get first bid.”

She wanted to hug him again, but Rudy continued before she could.

“There’s just one catch,” he said, and Hannah knew there always was. That happy heartbeat in her throat stilled while she watched Rudy’s mouth, waiting on his every word.

He let out a breath. “The bank is set to foreclose on this place and put it up for auction unless I can pay off what I owe. Well . . . back owe.”

Hannah’s eyes went wide. “You never told me the bank was going to take the bar. And what do you mean, ‘back owe’?”

“I haven’t exactly paid on this place as well as I would have liked.”

Hannah frowned. “This place makes great money. We come out in the black every year. Even in our slowest months we’re still ahead.”

Rudy nodded and took another drink. “Yeah, I know business is good. I just . . .”

Hannah knew the rest of that sentence without Rudy saying it. He had a gambling problem. And a being-lazy problem. Hannah wouldn’t make him say it, but she knew it. She also knew this bar could be great under the right ownership. Which was why she wanted it so badly. She could do a good job. But if the bank got it and auctioned it, she didn’t stand a chance at owning it. Highest bidder usually had cash—or more of it than Hannah had, at least.

It was her turn to let out a breath. “How much do you have to pay off?” Hannah asked.

“Twenty thousand in ten days.”