Finding the Right Girl (A Nice GUY to Love spin-off) (5 page)

Brian took the highway exit towards Cactus Creek in silence. He was accustomed to the larger than life, bubbly Tessa. This quiet, sad side of her tugged at his heart. Captivated him all the more to her.

“Isaac and I met in a grief group,” she revealed in the silence. “He lost his younger brother around when I lost Willow. We became friends right off the bat. We’re not the talk-all-the-time sort of friends like you and Abby are but if ever I get a call from a bartender, I always go running.”

Somehow, that didn’t surprise him.

They pulled into the parking lot of the rustic bar and she hopped out before he even shifted into park. “I got it from here, Brian. Thanks for driving me. I’ll call you sometime this week so we can talk about the whole HD testing thing some more. Sorry we didn’t get to—” She frowned and backed up when he got out of the car. “What are you doing? You can head home. I promise, I’ve got it from here.”

Yeah, like he was really going to let her go in a biker bar alone. The fact that she looked so damned surprised that he wasn’t leaving her there shot another dart into his chest. “Come on, let’s go get your friend.”

With a resigned shrug, she turned and headed in. As if she weren’t the most misplaced thing that belonged in the joint. With her serene smile, Smurfs t-shirt and frayed denim skirt over sneaker. She was driving him insane.

As she headed for the bar, the tatted up bartender looked up, one eyebrow raised. “I take it you’re ‘
If I’m Drunk Off My Ass
?’” His glance swept over her up and down, and Brian felt his hackles rise.

“Damn, you
are
as sweet and delicate as you sounded on the phone. I was hoping, but at the same time not. You do know that Isaac rode his Harley down here, right?”

“That is his usual bar-going ride of choice,” she replied matter-of-factly, scanning the room for her friend, finding him in the corner, all but passed out.

“Alright,” said the bartender, shaking his head and handing her Isaac’s phone, but holding onto his keys. “I don’t normally allow this but I can lock his bike up in the back for you.”

She gave him a surprised smile—damn near lighting up the whole room in the process—and scooped Isaac’s keys from his hands. “Thank you but I got this. I can ride. Plus, that’s Isaac’s brother’s bike. I can’t let it out of my sight.”

A measured pause, and then, “Is that the brother he’s been talking about all night?”

She nodded.

The bartender gave a quiet look of sympathy. “Okay then. You sure you can handle it? That’s a lot of bike.”

Pulling out a twenty, she slid it over to him. “I’m fine. Thanks for calling me.”

“I already charged the standard tip for his drinks on his card, hon. You can put your money away.”

With a determined stare, she walked over and shoved the bill at him. “This tip is my ridiculously small way of saying thanks. Not every bartender would take the time to go through a drunk customer’s phone or find out which bike is his. You did. You didn’t just boot his ass into a cab and leave his bike out in front to get stolen. You genuinely care. I heard it when you called and I’m looking at it now. You’re a good bartender and an even better guy. Take the tip or not, your choice.” She shrugged. “I’m just going to leave it on the counter regardless.”

Then she just up and walked away.

Holy shit. The little hellion was more potent than a dose of meth. Just as addicting, too.

And evidently, he wasn’t the only one who thought so.

Reaching over to pocket the twenty, the bartender couldn’t take his eyes of Tessa. “Sugar, if your boyfriend wasn’t looking ready to tackle me, I’d be embarrassing myself in front of all my regulars right now begging you for your number.”

Tessa laughed. That damn, captivating laugh that had a half dozen heads at the bar turning her way. “That’s my friend Brian. He’s not my boyfriend.”

An amused chuckle rang out from behind the bar. “Tell
him
that.”

Smart bartender.

Tessa tossed them both a puzzled look and went over to retrieve her friend—a guy that could’ve passed as the bouncer for this very bar. Even though he was too drunk to stay on his feet without swaying, the second he saw Brian, the man looked like he went on alert, exchanging a few hushed words with Tessa.

With an arm wrapped around his waist, Tessa walked Isaac out of the bar, exchanging introductions as she walked Isaac over to the row of bikes out front. When Tessa mentioned his being Connor’s brother, Isaac seemed to relax.

Seemed like the need to protect her wasn’t his compulsion alone.

Brian watched then as Isaac barely managed to throw his leg over his Harley.

“Tessa, you can’t be serious. The guy is too drunk to sit up, let alone hold on to you. He’ll take you both down if you try and ride double with him.”

The corner of her lip rose up. “Are you offering to ride double with him instead?”

He glared at her. “I’m being serious. Were you telling the bartender the truth? Do you really know how to even ride this thing?”

“Yes. I took lessons years ago.” She met his eyes quietly. “It was one of the things Willow always wanted to do.”

He cataloged that info to read into more later. “Still, this is dangerous and you know it.” He helped Isaac off the bike. “C’mon, let’s get him in the SUV. Then you drive and I’ll follow you on the bike.”

She pulled back. “Have you ridden a Harley V-Rod before?”

Admittedly, no. But he’d driven a few dirt bikes when he was younger and the occasional buddy’s motorcycle in college. “It can’t be that different a ride.”

With a fierce headshake, she clutched Isaac’s keys tighter. “Sorry, no can do. I’m not letting you near the bike.”

Annoyed, he bit back. “I’m not going to wreck it.”

Surprised, she looked up. “I was worried about you hurting yourself. But yes, now that you mention it, I can’t let anything happen to the bike either. But I will take you up on the offer of putting Isaac in the SUV. It’ll save me from using his belt to buckle his arms around me like last time.”

He came to a stuttering halt. “You did
what
last time? Tessa, the guy’s got a hundred pounds on you, easy.”

“I didn’t get on the freeway or anything,” she defended, chin raised at his incredulous look. “Isaac has actually never come to this bar before. Normally, he sticks to bars in Mesa or Tempe. Since I don’t exactly know where he lives, I usually just coast us over to get some coffee and food into him to sober him up enough to ride back to my place where he sleeps it off. And I go really slowly, you could call me Fred Flintstone by the way I ride.”

Such an illogically weird reference…that for some reason made him want to protect her even more.

“Fine. You ride the bike. But just because I’m morbidly curious to see if you can actually adhere to a speed limit. You go slow though, you hear? I’m talking granny on a scooter slow.”

Smiling, she suddenly jumped up and kissed him on the cheek. Out of the clear blue sky.

“What was that for?” he asked gruffly, wanting seconds.

“Your alpha-protectiveness. It’s growing on me. It’s sweet.”

Sweet?
That was the last description he wanted to hear coming from her mouth. He didn’t want Tessa to think of him as the sweet guy she could just give an innocent peck on the cheek to.

He wanted more.

“She meant it as a compliment,” came the slurred commentary from his backseat.

Brian glanced up in the rearview mirror. Isaac blinked at him slowly. “Tessa. She hasn’t had sweet guys in her life. It’s actually a hell of a compliment.”

And then he passed out again.

Huh. Brian processed that drunken revelation later while half-dragging Isaac up to Tessa’s little one bedroom apartment. After dropping him onto her living room couch, Brian motioned for Tessa to follow him back outside.

“Why don’t I stay over tonight too?” he offered. “Just give me a spare pillow; I’m fine sleeping on the ground. Better to be safe than sorry. I mean know he’s crashed here before, but let’s face it, he’s really drunk and he’s a guy.”

She gave him a reassuring headshake. “You don’t have to worry about Isaac. He wouldn’t try anything, trust me. He’s in love with a woman from his past. Random flings are the only things he’s open to while he waits on her. And that’s just never going to happen.”

No, just as he thought, a girl like Tessa wouldn’t be open to just a fling.

Then again, for a girl like Tessa, Brian wasn’t sure he’d be open to
just
a fling either.

“Isaac and I have been friends too long,” she continued. “And since I don’t have a whole lot of friends, I make it point not to fling or get flung by one.”

Funny, Brian would think a woman as full of life as Tessa would have a ton of friends.

“I guess you could say we’re more like each other’s emergency brake if we ever find ourselves sliding backward down a hill.” She shrugged. “No muss, no fuss. We just know to screech the other to a halt since we already know exactly what the other is going through.”

Been there. Never really had that.

“So he’s in your phone call list too?” he asked, envious over that somehow. He wanted to know Tessa as fully as Isaac seemed to. Though even then, she was so fiercely independent, he wondered how fully anyone truly knew her.

“Yeah, but not as a drunk-in-the-bar contact. Just as Isaac. I guess I’ve never used the emergency brake ‘advanced feature’ of our friendship.”

So what’s kept her from crashing all these years?

“Hand me your phone,” he said gently.

Giving him a look, she passed it over, a faint smile on her lips as she watched him type something onto her phone. When his phone rang a moment later, he disconnected her end and gave it back to her while quickly typing in something on his own phone.

He watched her quickly, and curiously scroll through her friend directory—a short scroll—and smile wider when she saw the new name he’d put in her contacts list. “‘
If I Just Did Something Insane,
’” she read aloud with a chuckle. Then she looked up and read his screen, which he was displaying with the contacts entry he put for her phone number. “
Caution--Crazy Woman
.”

She laughed out loud. “Nice.”

“Oh, and I put my cell phone number in there instead of my landline because I don’t want to be getting what’s sure to be daily calls of insane reportings on my home phone.”

She whacked him in the gut in relaxed humor. He caught her hand and tugged her closer, enjoying the return of her smile with a long lost ease that was as welcome as it was confusing, as turbulent as it was comfortable.

Smoothing her hair back, he gave her a soft kiss on the cheek. “Don’t do this by yourself anymore, sweetheart. If you’ll let me—and I really hope you do—I’ll be your emergency brake. Whenever, wherever.”

He climbed in his SUV and started it up, rolling down the window before he shifted into gear. “And could you do me one huge favor?” he called out.

She smiled hesitantly. “Sure.”

“Lock your bedroom door tonight. I know he’s your friend and all but the thought of him being just a few feet from you in bed is killing me…almost as much as it’s killing me to think of you sleeping anywhere but my bed tonight.”

At her quiet gasp, he just gazed at her for a parting second before saying softly, “Sweet dreams, Tessa. I had a great night.”

C
HAPTER
F
OUR

A
LL WEEK
, she’d thought about the feel of his lips on her skin, about being in his bed...about being in his bed while he did more than just kiss her cheek like a gentleman.

Today alone, she’d been so hot and bothered by all the possibilities, she’d had to restart the prep on three dishes for tonight’s catering event.

She had it bad.

“Hey Tessa, sorry we’re a little late.”

At the sound of Connor’s voice, Tessa glanced up and smiled.

“Hey guys, are we late?”

At the sound of that second voice from the other entrance, Tessa’s smile froze…and her heart rate went from a trot to a gallop.
What the heck was Brian doing here?

Funny how the two brothers sounded so alike and yet Brian’s voice was the one that had her nearly forgetting why she was holding a tasting fork in each hand. She turned just in time to see Connor look over at his brother in surprise.

“Hey man, I didn’t know you were helping Tessa out tonight, too.”

Neither did I.

Even though Brian’s eyes shifted over to address Connor, Tessa could still
feel
his attention on her.

Okay, seriously, why were her hands still holding two folks midair?

Right, tasting. While the guys chatted, she awkwardly jammed a fork in both of their directions. “Want a taste?” she offered lamely, blushing when she saw the sizzling hot awareness in Brian’s eyes dial up to scorching as he answered her silently.