Fuck, I couldn’t go there right now. The last thing I needed was to walk around town with a hard-on.
I found a parking spot across from the park. And there was the big old gazebo my brother had gotten married in.
I’d never seen him happier. Maybe it had been then that I’d felt the first twinge of dissatisfaction with my life.
The handwriting had been on the wall even before that. Instead of the stag party I’d been trying to put together for Dare, we ended up at The Spinning Wheel. Dare hadn’t been interested in partying the night away. He’d barely grunted his way through a beer with four—oh, yeah, partying it up hard—of his friends before making excuses to go home to his kid.
And sure, Wes was damn cute, but it wasn’t like I was in town all that damn often. Was I completely out of Dare’s life at this point?
Yep. That’s affirmative.
I slammed the door on that thought and wandered down the wet sidewalks toward the pier. Spring in upstate New York was in full effect. Rain, rain, oh, and more rain. The lake was choppy with the leftover wind from the last storm that had followed me up from the city.
The last time I’d been here, the entire town had been decked out in its Christmas finery. Now there was mud and slivers of snow clinging to the edges of the grass determined to break through.
The gray sky fit my mood though. As did the sun trying to burn its way through the misty clouds. I was tired of the sameness in my life. Trials, tryouts, speed tests, and safety checks had ruled every moment of my day. Then the nights had been about going to bars just to ease the loneliness.
The night before Dare’s wedding had been far more interesting than any other for a damn long time. A woman who didn’t want strings or do-overs. It should have been the perfect way to spend a night.
And it had been.
The problem was it had left me wanting more.
Watching my little huntress stomp up to me in her midnight dress with her witchy dark eyes flashing outrage had lit me up like a high octane fuel cocktail. Christ, she was amazing.
And now she was my sister-in-law.
Just my fucking luck.
The blare of a horn made me turn toward the road. A boat of a Cadillac was turning on to Main Street. Pure white with the turn radius of a damn semi. I didn’t even know an
yone who drove one of those anymore. Just the bloated, ugly versions that were on the showroom floors now.
New cars were computers with wheels. They had no soul.
I headed back down the pier to the sidewalk and passed the bank, which seemed unnaturally large for such a small town. Then again, if I remembered correctly, it had been decked out for Christmas like it was Park Avenue in New York City. The whole town took on a Hallmark Channel kind of aura.
Even now in the gray, muddy days before spring officially sprung, Main Street in Crescent Cove was like a damn postcard. The storefronts were neatly swept and trash didn’t dare mar the sidewalk.
I ducked into a small coffee shop with virtually no business. A sign was up behind the counter that they were changing from selling java to a wine bar.
Man, even in small town USA, wine was getting popular.
I smiled at the girl behind the counter. “Wine bar, huh?”
“Yes. We started working with a vineyard not far from here to get some local wines in. Hoping to expand as we go. We can’t compete with Brewed Awakening anyway, so we decided to change it up.”
“Great idea.” I glanced out the window. Across the street, there was a café with a line almost out the door. “Glad you’re still doing coffee today. Looks serious over there.”
“It’s always like that.” The pretty blond leaned forward and pitched her voice low. “Even I go over there for coffee.”
“Well, I’ll chance it. Medium dark roast, please.”
“You got it.” She turned away to the coffee canisters on the counter against the wall. I wandered to the large picture window and realized my brother’s garage was right next to the bustling café. I’d walked right on by without giving it a thought.
“Here you are, sir.”
I turned and smiled at the girl. “Thanks. Hey, I have to go see my mom. Any flower shops around here?”