Ty had told her. She’d needed a dress for a friend’s wedding, and he’d driven her into Alamosa because he didn’t trust her piece of crap car to make it that far. They’d had lunch at a burger joint, and he’d watched as she’d tried on at least twenty different dresses before declaring this one to be perfect.
Was he telling her the truth? She stared at herself in the mirror and tried to be the person she wanted to be. Brave. Confident. Willing to take a risk.
But if she lost Ty, she would be devastated.
She cared about Michael, could even see herself really trying with the man, but that was because she didn’t have anything to lose with him. She didn’t remember a time when Ty wasn’t around to hold her hand, to tell her everything would be okay. To buy her breakfast when she couldn’t afford it.
She needed to talk to him. Tonight was nothing more than a friendly hangout.
Which was why she was wearing her pushuppiest bra and the Chanel lip gloss Georgia Warner-Stark had given her for Secret Santa last year that she hoarded like it was gold.
She looked good. Definitely good enough to hang around her best friend’s place, eat pizza, and watch some Netflix.
She took a deep breath and stepped out of the bathroom and into the tiny hallway that would lead her back out past the bar, where she would catch hell from Callie for how dressed up she was for a hangout.
She walked right into a big body.
Lucy gasped and stepped back. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
“No problem, sweetheart,” a deep voice said.
She tilted her head and realized she’d bumped into the douchiest of the Foster siblings. Brock stood there, blocking her way out. She moved back again, trying to let him get past her to the men’s room. “Well, I hope you have a good night.”
His hand came out, effectively cutting off that escape route. “I hope I have a good night, too. I wanted to find you before you snuck off.”
She got serious creep vibes off the dude. Before he’d been mildly annoying, but now she worried he was about to get nasty. “I’m not sneaking off. It’s the end of my shift, and now Zane or Callie will be helping. In fact, I’m sure it’s Zane. I’ll introduce you.”
If this man was going to get aggressive with staff, then six-foot-five Zane could handle his needs. Including the need to get punched and tossed out into the snow.
His lips curled up in a smirk that she was pretty sure he thought was charming. “But I don’t want some guy to serve me. Not when I could have you.”
He probably had seen her smile and read weakness. “You can’t have me. I’m off work.”
He moved in, crowding her and forcing her against the wall. “Good, then come back to my place. We’re going to have a party. You would be very welcome. What do you say?”
She was going to give him one more out. “No, thank you. I have plans for the evening.”
His jaw went tight, and he leaned in. “I can make it worthwhile for you. You live in this hick town. You probably haven’t been around real men who can take care of you.”
She sometimes hated the fact that she didn’t look like a woman who could take care of herself. “Step back. I need to leave now.”
He moved in closer. So close she could smell the bourbon on his breath. “That’s what I’m telling you. You don’t have to leave. You don’t have to go back to your sad little world. You can spend the night in mine. I’ll take care of you.”
He reached out, his hand starting for her chest.
And she was done being polite. She thought she heard a growl come from her left but she ignored it because she had something to deal with. She had to shove down her fear. It was there because he was bigger than she was. It was there because all the times that she’d been physically vulnerable came rushing back in that instant. But she’d learned that fear could freeze her or it could be fuel.
She took a breath and let her body do what it had been trained to do. She pushed out to gain space, using the wall behind her as leverage. When she had space, she brought her knee up as hard as she could. When he moved to cup himself as any wounded man would, she brought her fist up in an uppercut that caught his chin. Pain flared in her hand, but she would bet it was nothing compared to what Brock was feeling.
“I don’t need anyone to take care of me.” She stepped around him, and when she turned there was a massive dark shadow at the end of the hallway.