Trouble on Tap Read online

  He sure as shitting wasn’t changing his mind. “The only thing that mutt is good for is chewing things he shouldn’t.”

  “Your shoes?” Olivia asked, an amused smile curling her full lips.

  His combat boots had made it through several tours but not one night with the mutt. “Yep.”

  “You know, I bet he’d be a good mascot for the veterans’ center,” Luciana said. “Maybe you could raffle him off to raise money. With the caveat that he’d have to go to a good home, of course.”

  “Obviously you haven’t set eyes on the dog.” Or fought for air because of the fart missiles it fired.

  Ruby Sue returned with a waitress who carried three tall glasses of sweet tea on her tray. The waitress dropped off the tea before going to help another table, but Ruby Sue stuck around. He’d have to be a complete idiot not to realize she was looking for a little gossip.

  Either oblivious or purposefully ignoring the situation, Olivia took a long drink of sweet tea. Her pink tongue snuck out to swipe away the droplets from her lips, an act that left his mouth dry.

  She wiped the corner of her mouth with a paper napkin. “He’s a cute dog.”

  He snorted. “In what universe?”

  “If he’s as ugly as all that, he’d fit in perfectly at the veterans’ center, considering what a wreck it is,” Ruby Sue groused. “Just disgraceful what they’ve let happen.”

  Olivia looked from Ruby Sue to him to Luciana. “What happened to the center?”

  “Remember that big old oak tree at the corner of Main and Rogers?” Luciana asked while retrieving a crayon from under the table that Amalie had dropped.

  Olivia nodded.

  “Lightning strike hit it and sent it straight through the center’s roof.” She handed over the crayon and ruffled the girl’s long brown hair. “For the past two years, local veterans have been using the courthouse annex until they can raise enough money for repairs.”

  Packed in like sardines, more like it. Guys came in for help filling out VA forms, navigating the system, connecting with old buddies and networking for post-military careers. The veterans’ center was more than just a bar and a hangout. It was HQ.

  “But so many people use that facility. Almost everyone in town has two or three family members either going in, on active duty or retired from the military.” She turned her blue-eyed gaze on him. “Can’t the county help out? Or the federal government?”

  Like he was in charge of the county’s money instead of police chief of Salvation’s six-person force that included two part-time officers. “You may not have realized it, being a rich supermodel and all, but money’s tight for most people around here, and tax revenue is down so the county’s out and, because it’s not an official VA center, the feds don’t care about it either.”

  Luciana kicked him in the shin under the table. Her shoe connected with the bone right under his kneecap with enough force to snap his mouth shut before he could say anything else. The stop-being-an-asshole look on her face was just the exclamation point on her message.

  Olivia ignored the scuffle and continued. “What about a fundraiser? The brewery could host one.” She unzipped her giant orange purse and started digging through it. “Maybe make it an in-house brew crawl with folks signing up to taste all of the different beers.” She pulled out a small notebook and pen before flipping open the cover and writing First Annual Veterans Brew Crawl across the top in big, loopy letters. “We could even call in some of the other craft breweries in the area and have a beer-off.”

  “What’s a beer-off?” Luciana asked.

  “I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure it out.” She grinned. “Want to help?”

  “I’d love to, but I’m wall-to-wall already.” She turned to Mateo, an ornery grin on her face, and his gut tightened. “But you’d be happy to help, wouldn’t you?”

  If by “happy” she meant dead set against it. The extra sparkle in her eyes said otherwise. “Forget it, sis.” He would have sprinted from the booth if Olivia wasn’t the one between him and freedom.

  “No way.” Luciana shook her head and crossed her arms. “You’ve been holed up in your house by yourself for too long.”

  He liked his house. It was quiet. People left him alone. No one stared. “I work.”

  “Exactly.” His sister tossed up her hands. “You work, go home and then go to work again. You need to get out.”

  “I appreciate the thought, Luciana,” Olivia sputtered as she pressed her thumbnail into her finger. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “It is the perfect idea.” Jaw set, Luciana eyeballed him before turning her stony gaze to Olivia. “You…” she pointed at Olivia, “need someone to rein in your crazy. And you…” she glared at Mateo, “…need to stop hiding in your man cave and spend some time in the civilized world.”

  “I’m not hiding.” He couldn’t stop the words, even knowing they were totally futile. If he didn’t do it, Luciana wouldn’t stop bugging him about it. She’d push and she’d push and she’d push until he either spontaneously combusted or gave in. Either way, she’d win.

  Luciana crossed her arms. “It’s decided.”

  It may be decided, but that didn’t mean he had to like it, and judging by Olivia’s stick-up-her-amazing-ass posture, he wasn’t alone. He shook his head. Despite everything, he was on the same side of an argument with Olivia Sweet. Someone up there really did hold a grudge.

  “And it’ll be perfect to have you working together since Olivia will be staying at Dad’s old cabin behind your house.”

  Mateo’s stomach dropped to his toes. “What?!”

  “Luciana,” Olivia squealed. “I can’t do that.”

  After his parents divorced, his dad had built a small cabin/guest house on the back of their property and lived in it while Mateo, Luciana and their mom had lived in the house. It had been vacant since his dad retired to Texas. Still, there was no way he could live half a football field away from Olivia and hold on to what little bit of sanity he still had left when it came to her.

  “Everyone in town knows your sisters, Sean and Logan are all shacked up together at your uncle Julian’s old house,” Luciana said. “That place isn’t big enough for five people and the cabin is just sitting empty waiting for you.”

  Olivia shook her head, the light-brown waves turning golden in the afternoon sunlight slanting in through The Kitchen Sink’s windows. “I don’t think—”

  “And forget about rent. My brother, the hermit, has been renovating the bathroom for the past three months but the only progress he’s made is to yank out the shower. That mean’s you’ll have to trudge across the backyard to use the shower in the main house, so there’s no way we could charge rent. It’s perfect.”

  Sharing a bathroom with Olivia. Giving her free rein to come in his house whenever she wanted. His brain immediately conjured an image of her in the barely there, see-through lingerie she’d worn at the hotels they’d stayed at—but instead of a five-star hotel, he imagined her wearing it in his house, his shower, his bed. His cock liked the picture. Liked it enough that Mateo had to shift in his seat to accommodate its thickening length.

  “Do I have any say in this?” he grumbled.

  True to her bulldozing form, Luciana just shrugged. “Dad left the cabin to me, so I can let whoever I want stay there, and you wouldn’t leave her to wash in the creek out back, would you?”

  “Luciana, it’s sweet of you to offer but I’m not sure it’s a good idea.” Olivia’s cheeks had turned pink—the same shade they got whenever he had started talking dirty, telling her exactly how he was going to touch her, lick her and fuck her until she came so hard she couldn’t move.

  Looked like he wasn’t the only one remembering old times.

  He caught a glimpse of his twisted reflection in the metal napkin dispenser on the table. The sight was like having a gallon of ice water dumped over his head. She wasn’t getting turned-on. Olivia was embarrassed because she didn’t know how to say
no to his sister’s offer.

  The perverse urge to have her stay in the cabin fifty yards from his back door took hold of him with a steel grip. The pretty Olivia and the beastly him. Having to see the disappointment and revulsion in her eyes every time she looked at him would be just the punishment he needed to pay for the sin he’d committed against his team by living when they’d all died.

  “This place comes totally furnished—including a bed—just minus a shower. And have you looked at the rental market in Salvation lately? It’s awful.” Luciana continued her verbal battle. “Anyway, if you don’t say yes, I’ll just keep nagging until I wear you down.”

  Looking at Olivia, knowing he’d walked away from her before the explosion and that she’d never want him after, hurt him in a way he couldn’t even begin to describe—even if he had been that sort of touchy-feely bullshit kind of guy. But the pain was good. It was real. As long as he ached, he wouldn’t forget the Marines…the friends…he’d left behind.

  He turned toward Oliva, the move bringing his knee into contact with hers. Something sparked in her blue eyes, but she dropped her gaze before he could figure out what. Disgust, no doubt.

  “Luciana’s right,” he said. “The cabin is perfect. I’ll even help you move in.”

  Ignoring the unspoken question making his sister’s eyebrows arch, he downed the dregs of his lukewarm coffee and hoped like hell he hadn’t just made another life-altering mistake.

  Chapter Five

  The paper straw wrapper crinkled between Olivia’s fingers as she refolded it for the fifth time in the ten minutes since Luciana had left The Kitchen Sink with her sleepy kids. Like an idiot, she’d stayed behind in the vain hope she could actually work with Mateo the Surly. She’d switched sides in the booth so she sat opposite him and then held an entire brainstorming session for the fundraiser by herself. She’d talked, thrown out ideas, wondered aloud—he’d glared at his coffee mug.

  Awkward didn’t even begin to cover it.

  Walking on the beach in January in heels and a dental-floss bikini for her first Sports Illustrated cover? That was awkward. Having to tell her ultra-conservative boss at her first non-modeling job that her douche of an ex-boyfriend had posted pics of her playing with her tits to a revenge-porn site? Most definitely awkward. Meeting her sisters’ true loves for the first time while covered head to toe in mud? Totally awkward.

  Sitting here trying to pull words, let alone ideas, out of Mr. Grumps-A-Lot bypassed all of that. She’d nearly bitten her tongue off in an effort not to call him on his silent and glowering bullshit. Judging by his attitude, he bore some inner scars to go with the one’s crisscrossing the left side of his face, but damn, a woman could only gnaw the inside of her cheek to stop from screaming for so long before she ended up with a hole in her face.

  The waitress paused by the table, ticket in hand. “Can I get you folks anything else? How about a free refill?”

  “No.” Mateo didn’t bother to look up or even make a pretense at civility.

  The waitress blinked her wide eyes a few times, slid the ticket to the middle of the table and skedaddled away.

  Screw this. The man had gone from gregarious heartthrob to man most likely to hit you with the gigantic chip on his shoulder. How in the hell she’d ever fucked him on a semi-regular basis—let alone fallen in love with him—mystified her. There were snarling beasts she’d rather work with more than Mateo Garcia. In fact, she had. She’d done a magazine photo shoot with a lion. The big cat’s teeth had looked eight-feet long when she’d snuggled up to him, but it had still been a pussy cat compared to Mateo.

  “This isn’t going to work.” Olivia crumbled the straw wrapper and stuffed it under the corner of her plate. “Let’s agree to let Luciana think we’re working together on the fundraiser…”

  That got his attention. His head snapped up and his hazel eyes sizzled with a dark intensity that made her breath catch. “But we won’t be.” He finished for her.

  “Nope.” She grabbed the ticket, completed a quick tip calculation and doubled it as way of an apology for Mateo’s attitude.

  His large hand engulfed the coffee mug as he lifted it for a drink, every motion measured and efficient. Then he set it back down on the saucer without even the slightest clink. “You think you can just put together an event all by yourself?”

  “Absolutely.” Flaming lava sizzled through her veins. He could push all he wanted; she’d never backed away from a challenge or a dare. She’d earned her reputation as the wild Sweet triplet.

  He shook his head, not even a single strand of his dark-brown hair moved out of line. It was as if his entire self—not just his abs—was carved out of granite. “Good luck with that.”

  She raised her chin and stared him down just like she had every handsy photographer who thought she was too dumb to realize he didn’t need to feel her up to get the right shot. “You don’t think I can do it?”

  The bastard didn’t even blink. “Negative.”

  Anticipation pushed her forward in her seat. Oh, this was going to be classic. “Why not?”

  His gaze dropped down to the deep V of her cherry-red top and the pulse in his temple pulsed. For a second she didn’t think he was going to say anything, which was good because she’d just forgotten her own name. His focus inched northward across her generous cleavage, up her neck and to her lips—leaving a heated trail across her skin without ever making a move. The last dry spot on her panties surrendered.

  “Why not?” He dropped his attention back to the coffee mug in his white-knuckled grasp. “Because you’re all unicorns and rainbows and puffy pink clouds.”

  “What does that even mean?” Besides the fact that Mr. Tough Recon Marine had watched a few too many Disney movies.

  “That this is a job that takes organization.” He flipped up a finger. “Discipline.” Up went finger number two. “And follow through.” A third popped up. “None of which are your strong suits.”

  She didn’t need to count off with three fingers in response to his ridiculousness. She only needed one—but she kept that middle finger sheathed. Instead, Olivia added enough sugary sweetness to her voice to knock Mateo into a diabetic coma.

  “It also takes creativity and a willingness to try something new—not to mention something more than a piss-poor attitude and a cute butt.”

  He smirked. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. At least you have the hot-ass part down pat.”

  And to think she’d cried— cried—over him.

  He reached to pull the bill from her grasp.

  She swiped it away before he could get it and slid across the booth. Her bank account balance may be pathetic, but there was no way he was buying her lunch. She wasn’t about to owe him anything. “Well, don’t worry. You don’t have to put up with my questions or idiotic attempts at putting together a fundraiser that would actually help this community. And I’ll find somewhere else to shower so I won’t be darkening your doorstep.”

  His hand clamped down on hers, setting off an electric jolt that went straight to all the places it shouldn’t. “We’re in this together.”

  “Why?” Now that came out shakier than it should have.

  “Because I gave Luciana my word that I’d help you with the fundraiser, and I always keep my word. Always. Come on, I’ll drop you off at the brewery.” He tugged the bill free from her grasp. “I’ll meet you at the veterans’ center at ten a.m. tomorrow, then you can see for yourself that this project is too much for you.”

  Since Olivia’s office at the Sweet Salvation Brewery looked like Armageddon at the dust bunny convention, she marched down the hall to Miranda’s. Her oldest sister’s office was all chrome and dark wood—perfect for the fast-rising Harbor City business executive she’d been before they’d inherited the brewery from their crazy uncle Julian. The only thing that kept the office decor from perfectly toeing the company line was the Live Free, Die High poster leftover from when their uncle ran it.

  Miranda and Natalie
were hunched over the desk going through paperwork that Olivia would bet dollars to stilettos was some organizational plan the efficiency expert middle triplet had come up with to squeeze an extra half percent of productivity out of the brewery.

  While Miranda and Natalie were the exceptions to the all-Sweets-are-crazy rule, she was the Sweet who proved the rule. Still, when she needed to bitch, there was nothing like the triad.

  Miranda looked up from the paperwork on her desk. “You look like you’re about to set fire to the place. Lunch didn’t go well?”

  “Lunch was fine; it’s Grumps Garcia who isn’t.” She flopped down into the seat next to Natalie, who hugged her beloved clipboard tight. “Why did I let Luciana talk me into moving into the cabin behind his house?”

  “What?” Both sisters exclaimed at the same time, their identical blue eyes round with surprise.

  God, she really needed to think before she spoke. That was not how she wanted to drop the news to her sisters. “No offense, but Uncle Julian’s just doesn’t have the space for one more person.”

  There, that totally sounded better than “my best friend offered up the cabin behind her super-hot brother’s house and my hormones wouldn’t let me say no, even though I should have because he is a total ass.”

  Ass. Oh God, his was still amazing. It filled out his uniform pants like they’d been custom made. She shifted in her seat, pressing her thighs together as discretely as possible. Crap! Stop thinking about Mateo’s ass.

  “We’ll make room at the house,” Miranda said. “We always find a way.”

  Here her sisters were trying to clean up her mess of a life, just like when they’d been growing up, and all she could think about was Mateo. You could take the girl out of Salvation, but you really could never take the Salvation out of the girl.

  “True, but the cabin is already there,” she said. “It’s vacant. Plus Luciana won’t charge me any rent.”

  Natalie’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you worried about paying rent?”