Be Mine Read online

  At the time Sam had helped build the shelter five years ago, Marnie had thought the space would last for a long time. But the strays kept coming, and now they would have to double the size in order to have the room they really needed. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the funds for that.

  Carly was helping her mom apply for an environmental grant. If they got it, the grant would give them more than enough money to build extra space. But they wouldn’t hear back for a few weeks yet.

  She yawned as she pulled into the drive, accepting the fact that for the time being, she would be sharing her bedroom with a few Chihuahua puppies.

  At least the rain had stopped. She’d better hurry and let the shelter dogs out before it started up again. She needed to get to bed and get some sleep so she wouldn’t spend the next day with bags under her eyes.

  As she stepped into the shelter amidst the excited barking, she found herself hoping that Dylan Price worked on Saturdays.

  Chapter Three

  A week later, Dylan sat at the bar at Quigley’s nursing a beer. He was listening to his brothers at the table behind him arguing about the virtues of the Royals versus the Cardinals. His sister Becca sat on his left, giggling as she ordered a second shot of Fireball whiskey from her friend Tori, who also happened to be his brother Ethan’s girlfriend.

  Tori had bartended at Quigley’s for years, and that night was her last night. Ethan’s restaurant opened in less than two weeks, and he had finally managed to talk Tori into coming to work for him. The whole family was there to celebrate her last night at Quigley’s.

  The restaurant owner Zach Quigley came out from the kitchen with a scowl on his face. He didn’t look very happy to be losing his bartender.

  “Hey, Q.” Dylan raised his pint glass in greeting.

  Q crossed his arms, flicked a glance at Tori and Becca, then sighed. “Everyone looks way too damn happy. I’m losing the best bartender I’ve ever had. This little celebration is not helping my mood.”

  Dylan couldn’t help but notice Q was staring at his sister, not at Tori. He had to wonder if the man was more upset Tori was leaving or that he probably wouldn’t be seeing Becca as much since she wouldn’t be coming by all the time to see her best friend. But Dylan wasn’t going anywhere near his sister’s love life, so he kept his mouth shut.

  Finally, Q turned to him. “So, I heard you and Julie broke up.”

  He grimaced at the name. “Yeah, well, once I finally saw the dollar signs in her eyes, I realized she probably wasn’t the right one for me.”

  Q sighed. “She does seem pretty money-hungry. I heard she’s already latched onto some lawyer who lives over in Bristow.”

  Dylan winced a bit. He wasn’t jealous, but it would have been nice if Julie had been at least a little upset when he’d broken up with her. “Yeah, I guess I was too distracted by … I don’t know what.” For the life of him, he couldn’t think of why he’d been remotely attracted to her. All he could see now when he thought of her was a gold digger. He ran a hand through his hair and wondered how he’d ever thought she was the one.

  Q smirked as he refilled the bowl of peanuts in front of Dylan. “I know what it was. That rack of hers is enough to distract any man.”

  Dylan coughed on his beer as Tori and Becca turned to shoot scathing glances at Q. The curly-haired bartender simply grinned in response before turning his attention back to Dylan. “I wouldn’t worry about it. You can do better.”

  “Yeah, you can do better,” Becca piped up in agreement. Her voice was slightly louder than usual—which was quite a statement considering his sister’s normal tone of speaking boomed louder than a damn foghorn—lending proof to the fact that her whiskey shots were definitely kicking in. At least she wasn’t slurring her words … yet.

  Q narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re not driving, are you, Bec?”

  “Oh. My. God.” Becca rolled her eyes. “Of course not. I rode with Foster and Linzee.” She waved her arm in the general vicinity behind her. “Linz just got over some sort of stomach bug, so she’s the designated driver. And that means…” She slammed her shot glass down in front of Tori. “I can have another shot.”

  Tori’s mouth twisted as she looked from Q back to Becca. Dylan could tell that she didn’t want to pick sides between her friend and her boss. Finally, Q gave her a slight nod.

  “Okay,” Tori said to Becca. “But be careful.” She pulled out the bottle of Fireball and poured another shot. “This is number three, and you know you’re a lightweight.” She slid the shot in front of Becca. “I’m getting you a glass of water, too. And make sure you eat something.”

  Becca’s eyes rolled again. “Q, I certainly hope your new bartender isn’t going to act like my babysitter like this one.”

  “I do,” Dylan and Q both said in unison. Sometimes, Becca needed a babysitter. His extroverted little sister ran a boutique just down the street there in Oakville. Her outgoing nature made her a great salesperson. And she was insanely smart. She just tended to act first and think later.

  He turned back to Q, who was still eyeing Becca. “So you’ve already hired someone to replace Tori?”

  “Yeah, she should be here soon. Tori was going to finish training her tonight and see if she had any questions.”

  Dylan took another sip of his beer. “Anyone I know?”

  Q nodded. “As a matter of fact, I’ll bet you do know her. Her name’s—oh, here she is now.”

  The cold breeze hit him as the front door to the bar opened. He turned to look at the new bartender who’d just walked in … and found himself staring into the deep blue eyes of Carly Peters.

  Chapter Four

  “Carly!” Becca’s squeal nearly made her jump. Carly didn’t even have time to register the fact that Dylan Price was sitting at the bar staring at her before Becca Price enveloped her in a huge hug. “Tori told me Q hired you. I didn’t even know you were back in town. Why haven’t you called me?”

  Carly laughed as she embraced Becca. “Wow, that’s some cinnamony breath you have there, Bec.” Someone had been serving up the Fireball.

  “You guys!” Becca sing-songed as she turned around hollering to the people behind her. “Look! It’s Carly Peters!”

  The Price family sat at a long table in front of the bar. When Sally Price stood up, Carly’s face burst into a huge smile. She rushed to embrace the older woman. Sally had been almost like a second mom to her when she was a kid. She was one of the kindest people Carly had ever met. Whenever she’d spent time at the Price house, Sally had treated her just as if she were one of the family.

  “Oh, my dear child, it’s so good to see you. Let me look at you.” Sally held her at arm’s length, her sapphire blue eyes sweeping over Carly. “You are too skinny. We need to feed you. Here, you sit down and fill us in on what’s been going on with you.”

  She wished she had time to catch up. She also wished Dylan would stop freaking staring at her. She flicked another sideways glance toward the bar. Yep, still staring.

  “Sally, I’d love to join you, but I can’t. I’m actually here to start my new job.”

  “You’re the bartender that’s replacing Tori?”

  She turned at the question and looked up at Foster Price. “Foster!” She launched herself into his arms. Becca’s brother had been the class clown in school. Even though he was a few years older, his pranks had been legend. While he’d liked to tease her and Becca, as well as play pranks on them, he had never been mean-spirited. His easy smile and infectious humor made it almost impossible not to love him.

  As Foster embraced her, Carly’s face turned in Dylan’s direction. That beautiful face scowled directly at Foster for a split second before it flattened back to an even expression. Dylan’s eyes flicked to hers and held, but she couldn’t read what was there. She’d been so excited to see him when she’d gone in on Saturday to check on Batgirl—she’d felt it necessary to rename Batman after the cat had given birth to a litter of five kittens—but Dylan hadn’t been
working. She hadn’t liked how much disappointment she’d felt.

  Disentangling herself from Foster, she smiled as he introduced her to the pretty redhead sitting next to him. Linzee had only been in town a couple of months and had snagged a job as Ethan’s head chef. She looked at Foster with such love that Carly couldn’t help but be taken with her.

  She turned to accept hugs from Ethan and Luke, the eldest Price brother, before making her way behind the bar where her new boss was waiting patiently. “I’m so sorry,” she said hurriedly. “I didn’t mean to chat for so long, Mr. Quigley.”

  Becca snorted as she returned to her seat at the bar. Mr. Quigley shot her a glance. “Enough out of you, troublemaker.” When he turned back to face Carly, she stifled a giggle as she watched Becca stick out her tongue at his back.

  “First of all, call me Q. Second of all, feel free to cut this one off if she gives you any trouble.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder in Becca’s direction, and she gave him a scathing look. “Now, I don’t think you’ll have any trouble. We went over the ropes the other night. So just let Tori or me know if you have any questions.”

  She made her way to the break room and put on an apron. With thoughts in her head of Dylan—who hadn’t said one word to her—she stopped to check her hair in the mirror before heading back out. She’d started to go back to her locker for lipstick then stopped herself and rolled her eyes. He’s not interested, Carly. If Dylan were interested, he would have made some sort of attempt to see you or talk to you in the past week. And he hadn’t, so she shouldn’t waste her time getting all dolled up for him.

  But forgetting him was much easier said than done. As soon as she stepped back behind the bar, Dylan looked up from his empty beer glass, and his eyes met hers. Carly put a hand on the bar to steady herself as she felt her knees go weak. She didn’t get it. He had the same blue eyes as his siblings, so how come her heart beat faster when Dylan looked at her? And when the heck had that started? She didn’t have that reaction to him when she was fourteen and he was sixteen.

  “So, how’s Batman?” He finally broke her gaze, staring into his empty glass.

  “Uh, fine,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Would you like another beer?” When he nodded, she pulled out a new pint glass. “And I decided to go with Batgirl.”

  His mouth twitched. “Probably a wise decision.”

  “She’s taking to motherhood quite well,” Carly said as she pulled a draft. “And my mom always has a long list at the shelter of people who are waiting for kittens and puppies, so we’ll adopt them out when they’re weaned.” The thought of saying goodbye to her fluffy little kittens saddened her, but she couldn’t keep every baby kitten or puppy that came through her door, no matter how much she wanted to.

  She set the beer on the bar in front of Dylan.

  “You don’t seem too pleased by that idea. Why don’t you keep one?”

  She shook her head. “That would be silly. There are so many people out there who are more than willing to adopt animals when they’re babies. It’s the older ones I have a soft spot for. Besides, my bedroom is already way too busy for any more guests.”

  When Dylan choked on his beer and began coughing, she realized how that must have sounded. “Ohmigosh, I’m sorry.” She handed him a napkin as he coughed. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “You’re good with the double entendres, aren’t you, Carls?” he asked affectionately. “What exactly did you mean?” His smile faded as if he’d just remembered something, and he held up a hand before she could speak. “Never mind. That’s none of my business.”

  She couldn’t stop herself from scowling at him. What did he think? That her bedroom had a revolving door? Sometimes men were dumb. But she couldn’t let this chance pass her by. “When I left the house, I left two guys asleep on my bed. And the bedroom isn’t that big. They probably wouldn’t get along with the cats on a long-term basis.”

  Dylan gaped at her. “Two? Two guys?” He blinked a few times, opening his mouth once to speak, but then closing it again.

  Carly bit her lip, but the surprise on his face was too funny, and she finally broke into a big grin, giggling.

  Dylan sighed in what looked like relief. “You’re playing with me.”

  No. But I’d like to. Man, she sure would get in trouble if she responded the way the voice in her head did. “Well, I did leave two guys asleep on my bed when I left, but they’re Chihuahua puppies. Three of them have been adopted out already, but we still have two at the house—Cupid and Valentino.”

  Becca turned from where she had been talking to Linzee and tuned into their conversation. “What’s wrong, Dylan? Are you a prude? Would it really be so bad if Carly was dating two men?”

  “I—well—no, but, I mean … at the same time?”

  Becca seemed to be lost in thought for a moment and then said almost to herself, “I don’t see anything wrong with being involved with two men at one time.”

  Q had been standing at the other end of the bar. He’d been drying the same pint glass with a towel for the last five minutes, so it was fairly easy to see that he was intently focused on Becca, as was another man who had walked in while she was talking and now stood behind her.

  “Well, that is certainly good to know, doll,” the man behind her said in a deep voice.

  Becca gasped, her eyes growing wide. She spun around so quickly that she almost fell off her bar stool, but the man’s strong arms reached out to catch her. “I uh, oh God—Detective.”

  A slow smile spread across the man’s face. He seemed to be enjoying Becca’s reaction to him.

  Hmm, that’s interesting. Carly could have sworn Becca had a crush on Q from the way she’d flirted with him, but this man seemed to make her flustered. Becca was usually very sure of herself no matter what the situation.

  Q walked over. “Gray, meet our new bartender.”

  Carly was beginning to notice that even when Q spoke to other people, his eyes rarely left Becca.

  “Carly, this is Detective Michael Grayson.”

  “But you can call me Gray.” His eyes twinkled as he took the seat between Becca and Dylan. Becca had gone uncharacteristically silent. Dylan, on the other hand, seemed happy for the distraction and turned to talk to Gray, sufficiently dismissing Carly.

  She tried not to let out an audible sigh. So much for trying to flirt.

  Not that she had much time to flirt anyway. The crowd in the bar seemed to steadily grow, and eventually Dylan and Becca both abandoned their seats to join their family at the long table.

  Tori introduced Carly to the regulars who came in, and gave her little tips or things to watch out for with some of their steady customers. Ralph claimed to be half-blind, but Tori said she was pretty sure he only used that as an excuse to brush up against pretty girls when they walked by. She told Carly to make sure she gave him a wide berth. She also advised her to keep an eye on Wanda, who liked to sneak cigarettes in the bathroom. The woman was upset you couldn’t smoke in bars anymore—or any public places for that matter—and decided to light up anywhere and everywhere as a form of peaceful protest. Carly was just happy that everyone seemed so friendly. She could tell she was going to enjoy Quigley’s.

  As the night progressed, the place filled up. They were short-handed a server, so Tori and Carly were also running food out to tables in addition to bartending.

  Carly grabbed the order of spinach dip that was up and saw it went to the Price table. When she walked up, Foster motioned for her to set it down between him and Linzee. The redhead, who was in the middle of laughing at something Foster had said, stopped suddenly when Carly set the plate down in front of her. “Oh God,” she whispered.

  “What?” Foster looked alarmed. “Are you okay, darlin’?”

  But Linzee had gone very pale, and Carly could swear she seemed to take on a slightly greenish tint. “I’m fine.” But she looked anything but fine. “The smell of the spinach … maybe I’m not feeling as well as I thought. I�
�m sure I’ll—” She stopped suddenly, her hand clasping her mouth. Without another word, Linzee quickly rose from the table and ran toward the hallway where the ladies room was located.

  “Linz!” Foster started after her, but Becca jumped up from the table.

  “I’ll go.” She tossed her napkin in her chair. “You can’t very well go into the ladies’ room, can you?”

  Carly stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do when Luke leaned over and stuck a giant tortilla chip in the spinach dip and scooped up a dollop. “Seems fine to me.” He shoved the dip in his mouth and made an “mmm” sound before picking the whole plate up and setting it in between himself and Ethan.

  She really hoped Linzee was all right. Pea green was not a natural color for any human. Carly went back behind the bar and refilled drinks. Thirty minutes later, only a couple of patrons remained at the bar, and the few tables still eating dinner were under control.

  Becca walked out of the ladies room with her arm around Linzee, who looked better, albeit still a little pale.

  Foster said good-bye to his family and raised a hand to wave at her before he put a protective arm around Linzee and led her out the door.

  “Is she okay?” Carly asked Becca when came over to take a seat at the bar.

  “Yeah, her stomach’s just bothering her. She says she’ll be fine.” But Becca didn’t look convinced, and her mouth turned down into a little frown.

  Carly had been hoping to gather the courage to talk to Dylan again before he left, but since the Price clan seemed to be packing up, she didn’t think she’d get the chance.

  But then he turned and looked at her, and his eyes seemed to heat up like he wanted to devour her. When he walked over to the bar, she thought her heart had stopped.

  Chapter Five