He cut her off with a finger to her lips.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him.

“There is no other place I’d rather be.”

Zoe kissed him and curled back up.

He felt her breathing even out and her hand grow lax on his chest and knew she’d found her dreams.

As he felt his own eyes drifting closed, he realized two things.

First, he missed Zoe already. She hadn’t left, and he was already counting the days for her return. And second . . . they’d failed to use a condom.

Chapter Twenty

Luke stepped into R&B’s hours after he left Zoe at the airport. Saying good-bye was starting to become impossible. He’d stumbled out of bed that morning to Zoe cleaning the kitchen.

She’d slept better than she had the night before, but there were still dark circles under her eyes. Probably a byproduct of crying for an hour before they’d made love.

When he brought up their lack of latex the previous night, Zoe assured him she was on birth control pills. He seemed to remember her saying that before but didn’t want her feeling alone if something were to happen.

Zoe removed his concern by suggesting they conserve water and shower together. By the time they stepped out of the bathroom, he’d spent his desire inside her a second time and vowed to throw away all his condoms so long as she was the only one in his life.

R&B’s was crowded for a Wednesday night. The parking lot full of Harleys indicated a club riding through. Luke wasn’t surprised to find clean-cut middle-aged men drinking light beer and playing pool.

He found an empty stool at the bar and waved Josie over.

In her midforties, Josie ruled her bar in Daisy Duke shorts in the summer and skintight jeans in the winter. Today she showed a little midriff when she reached above her head to grab a bottle of Grey Goose from the top shelf. Luke had always thought she was an attractive woman, if not a little old for him. He often wondered why she wasn’t married, but not enough to ask.

“Well, look who showed up.” Josie reached across the bar and gave him a hug.

“Zoe flew out this morning.”

“Oh, God, no . . . no bar fights,” she teased.

He deserved that. Zoe leaving in the past had resulted in bad behavior on his part. “She’ll be back in three weeks for the wedding.”

Josie pulled her long brown hair behind her shoulder. “You look happy.”

It was hard not to smile. “I am.”

She used the rag in her hand to clean the space in front of him. “What’s your poison?”

He ordered his favorite on tap and looked around while he waited for her to come back.

She was back in less than two minutes. The beer felt cool in his throat.

“I heard about Ziggy. That really sucks.”

“Zoe is pretty torn up about it.”

“I can’t imagine. And what the hell is Sheryl thinking?”

“That’s the ten-thousand-dollar question everyone is asking.”

Someone from the other end of the bar called for her attention.

Josie waved a hand in acknowledgment.

“Ziggy isn’t welcome here, though I’d be half tempted to serve him and then have his ass thrown back.”

Luke lifted his glass. “Not a bad plan.”

Josie tapped the bar and moved away.

Luke swiveled around in his chair and searched the room for familiar faces.

Principal Mason and his adult son sat at a small table by the jukebox.

Matt, his partner in bar-fighting crime, sat sucking on a longneck and flirting with a woman who wasn’t his wife.

There were a couple of young faces he recognized that he couldn’t place names to, kids who were just twenty-one and drinking on a Wednesday night in a bar because they could.

Waterville was starting to reach closer to River Bend, putting faces into the mix Luke didn’t recognize. Growth was important, or small towns like River Bend would fold in a bad economy. Considering they’d managed to stay afloat in one of the worst economic decades since the twenties, River Bend wasn’t doing too bad.

Places like Josie’s bar were busy midweek as a result.

Luke picked up his drink and walked around the opposite side of the bar, toward the kitchen. He watched the window where the waitress or Josie would toss up a food order . . . food being a loose term for the fried menu items R&B’s had to offer. Still, he watched until he saw Buddy peek over from his side.

Luke raised his beer. “Hey, Buddy.”

“Busy night,” Buddy said, placing an order of fries up in the window and ringing a bell.

Considering the man had done his best to kick the shit out of Luke not long ago, they’d managed to be friendly.

“Can I take a minute of your time?”

Buddy looked around the kitchen and nodded toward the service entrance.

Luke set his beer down and met Buddy in a quieter part of the bar.

After the two shook hands, Luke got straight to the point. “Have you heard about Ziggy Brown?”

“Josie brought him up in a staff meeting. Haven’t met the man.”

Luke fished his phone out of his back pocket and found the picture he’d gotten off his record in Jo’s office.

“He’s a complete dirtbag. Beat up on his kids, his wife before he ended up in jail.”

Buddy wasn’t one to get involved unless kids were part of the equation.

“Everyone has a past.”

“Maybe. But he’s back, and his grandson is in his home. I’d hate to see something happen to the kid.”