A Little Complicated

A Little Complicated

Copyright © 2013 by Kade Boehme

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Editor: AnonymousBlogger

Cover Artist: L.C. Chase

             
              http://lcchase.com/design

This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Disclaimer

This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. For sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase.

MORE TITLES BY THIS AUTHOR

Novels

Don’t Trust the Cut

Novellas
Wide Awake
You Can Still See the Stars in Seattle (Wide Awake Book 2)

Dedication

To anyone who realized love is always a little complicated and st
uck it out to find the good times. May the good times be many and totally worth the ride.
 

Acknowledgment

I’m, first and foremost, grateful to every reader out there who takes the tim
e to read my books, whether you adore them or not. Thanks for giving me a chance. Without y’all, there’d be no point to doing this.

I have to give a huge thanks to L.C. Chase. Not only are you an awesome friend, but you also make my stories, m
y characters come alive in a way I could never have dreamed possible and I love you for giving me that.

Mon and Christy, y’all always stick by me. Wendy, you just make me smile no matter what.

Jay, Jay, Jay. Here’s to you and Dave and your crazy cats and drunk nights of laughter and friendship where my soul gathers the experience to write these things and make them happy ever after.

Sue N. and Piper. It’s love.

And last but never least; Seymour, Taylor and Amy I appreciate every silly moment that distracts me from things that get too heavy or too annoying and keeping me positive and going. Y’all are brilliant. Keep shining.

CHAPTER ONE
Ryan

“Guess who I have a date with?” my sister Ellie asked as she pulled up a stool at my bar at Lucky Star Grill & Bar (better known for its whiskey than its steaks, I assure you). This was a question I heard every other week. Ellie’s tastes did not discriminate and she was always on the hunt for her future husband, though I’d never known her to stay with any of her guys more than three months. She was a bit too free spirited to be held down and as much as I adored her for her flighty ways I had poured up shots for many of the guys she’d left heartbroken in her wake.

I pulled a bottle of tequila from my well and started mixing up her favorite margarita. It was Friday night and I was surprised she was in as late as she was, as she always showed up right after work to “start her weekend right”. And I mean every weekend since three years ago when I started bartending down the road from the school where she taught art. Obviously now I understood her tardiness, she’d been chatting up a guy.

“Who is it this time Ells?” I asked, passing her the margarita I’d shaken for her. “Is it the cute guy at the Post Office or is it that guy who helped you air up your bike tire?” I jumped up and down in feign excitement, clapping my hands. “Ooh, or could it be mystery guy at the gym?”

The look she shot me was not amused but she was accustomed to my giving her shit over her lackadaisical dating habits. She took a long pull from her margarita and before she could speak again one of the waitresses came to hand me a ticket for a couple of martinis. I took my time making the martinis and wisely made Ellie her second margarita, she’d sucked the other down before I’d gotten back to her.

She was pulling her pouty face. For her to be the elder sibling she acted way more like a princessy, younger sister. I adored her, though, so she knew the pouting would work. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry for teasing you.”

“No, you’re not.” She flipped her blond hair over her shoulder and poked out her bottom lip. I produced the fresh margarita and traded it for her empty glass. Her eyes brightened and she grabbed the new one greedily sing-songing “You’re forgiven!”

I laughed at her. “I thought so.”

“So don’t you want to know?” she asked. I didn’t have anyone else at the bar so I leaned in, propping my elbows next to her and motioning with my hands for her to get on with it. “I’m going in for a second helping!”

My eyes got wide. She
never
did second chances with guys.
Never
. An unspoken rule existed whenever she broke up with someone and that was for them to never try to ask her out again. “Must be serious.”

She looked wistfully into her margarita glass with a shy smile that I can’t say I’ve ever seen on her face. “I always kinda thought he was the one. Y’kno, ever since college I only ever felt bad about ending it with this guy.”

Oh shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
I knew this story. I’d heard it before and she meant every word. She’d regretted breaking up with only one man ever and it was… “Brady Novak,” she said dreamily.

I stood up and turned from her to pretend I was washing dishes, hiding my facial expressions at all costs. I’d never expected t
o see that man again, much less had I expected her to be dating him again. Good lord.

“Can you believe it?” She was fucking swooning. I shook my head but still said nothing when I turned back to her, my face blank. She looked me over. “I know. I deserve that look. I hurt him good, but hey, if he can forgive me wouldn’t that be awesome? Who
ever
gets another chance with the one that got away?”

Who indeed?
Now I needed a shot of liquor myself. After hearing a waiter call me to the well-side of my bar, I went over to make a round of drinks for him and another margarita for my sister. I may or may not have slipped a little vodka in the Red Bull I had stashed under my point of sale computer. Whatever.

Fucking Brady Novak. Holy shit. I was stunned. She’d dated him as briefly as anyone else, but he was the only guy she’d ever pretended to be
serious about. I assumed it was because he had a kid and she needed to impress him. That had been my freshman year and their final year of college. I thought Brady hung the moon every bit as much as my sister had. He’d had a kid in high school and when the mother didn’t want it he’d taken the little girl on himself and moved out of his parents’ house to support her. He then still managed to finish high school and get through college. Pretty much a dream guy. And did I mention he was hot? Like, how in the hell did my sister ever think she’d do better than
him
, hot.

“So, Brady, he’s cool given how you ditched out on him and his kid and all?” I was surprised at how bitchy my question was. I couldn’t even really tell with whom I was more annoyed; my sister for having a date with Brady, Brady for coming back, or me for still being affected from just the man’s name after all these years.

Ellie looked surprised at my cunt-a-licious response at first then shot daggers with her eyes. “Well, he says he’s missed me too and he thought second chances were only fair.”

I hmphed. What can I say? I own my jealousy. I am one with my jealousy. And let’s face it, she kinda sprung this on me and I’ll be damned but I wanted to go find Brady myself and kick his ass for not think
ing
I
deserved a second chance if he was passing those out.

No time for that, though. I shook my head clear.

“Sorry, Ells. I’ve just been busy all day and I won’t be out of here until late. Congrats on snagging Moby Dick. Maybe you’ll hang on to him?”

She beamed. “You better believe it!”

“Do you need another margarita before it gets busy in here again?” I asked, seeing a line of people wander in the front doors.  She threw a look over her shoulders and grimaced.

“No thanks, Ryan. I’ll just head out.” She started digging through her purse
while I printed up her check, still a bit stunned from earlier. When I handed her the check she asked “Heya, can I ask you a favor, kid?”

“Because calling me kid always gets you what you want?” I asked drily. I hated when she called me kid. She only had three years on my twenty-six years.

She rolled her eyes in her indulgent-big-sister way. “My bad.
Ryan,
can I get ready at your place tomorrow. Mom and Dad have some big to-do going down at the house and I don’t want to be in the way.” I often wondered why she still lived with our parents since she made plenty of money and hated that our parents had better social lives than both of their twenty-something children. God knows I’d left during college and not looked back. Don’t get me wrong, I love our parents but good Christ I loved my freedom, even if it didn’t often get me much more than a blow job because I worked two jobs. Damn my inability to sit still.

“Okay, that’s cool. I have to be here at five-thirty so you should definitely get there no later than four-forty-five please.”

“Great!” She leaned over the counter with her winning smile and pecked me on the cheek as I picked up the cash she’d left in the ticket presenter. “I’ll be able to get ready right down to the wire, too, because he lives in your building. Maybe I won’t be late for a date, for once.”

I blinked, staring for a moment. “He lives in my building? I haven’t seen him around at all.”

“Oh, he lives on the lower floor in a handicapped apartment to accommodate his daughter. She’s sick or something. He didn’t explain, really.”

I blinked and stared more. “Wow. Poor guy hasn’t had it easy.” I said that more to myself but she made a sympathetic frown and nodded.

“Well, Ellie is here to make it all better.” She winked and I wanted to puke.

“I’m sure she is.”

Brady Novak’s daughter was sick. My sister had dumped him and his kid when everything was way peachier than that. Did he really want to take that kind of chance again? I knew my sister, though, and she had pined away enough that I thought she might actually want to give it a real, grown up try with Brady.

But that hurt. How could I sit across the table at holidays, watching them be a couple? That thought threatened to rip out my heart.

CHAPTER TWO

The next day Ellie showed up exactly at four-forty-five. I didn’t actually have to be at work until six p.m. but I’d learned long ago to tell her at least thirty minutes earlier for everything because work was about the only thing she seemed to be able to make it to on time. How she passed college was beyond me, for all the tardies that kept adding up into absences.

I’d been obsessed with the fact that Brady lived in my building. I almost wanted to roam the first floor to see if I might catch him wandering out so I could ask him
what the hell?
There was no reason for me to venture to the first floor, though. Only thing on the first floor was handicapped accessible apartments and the Superintendent’s quarters. They had a separate parking area and everything so that definitely explained why I hadn’t bumped into him randomly. And I really, really still wanted some answers— even all these years later—so bumping into him would have been really fucking nice.

He’d disappeared after that night. I guess when he was supposed to leave the next day anyways it was unfair to be really angry, but we’d kissed, we’d touched and the next day he was gone.