Walk On The Wild Side Read Free Page B

give him a back thumping squeeze. “Good to see you man! Wasn’t sure you were going to make it before we closed.”
    Ellie also came out from behind the bar to greet him. As usual, she looked gorgeous, but tonight she was especially so, her skin glowing, her thick dark hair spilling over her shoulders. Due, no doubt, to her pregnancy, which made her usually flat belly stick out just the slightest bit, but enough for him to feel its faint press as she gave him a welcoming hug.
    “Let me get you a drink” she said. She ducked back behind the bar, grabbed a pint glass and reached for the tap.
    “Actually tonight I’m in more of a Macallan mood,” he said, gesturing his chin to a bottle of twelve year on the shelf behind her.
    Damon cocked a brow. “Rough drive?”
    He stifled a scoffing laugh. The seven hour drive from Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, was like a vacation after the last brutal month of his life. “Something like that.” Ellie handed him a glass holding two fingers of amber liquid and single ice cube. Brady raised it in a little toast before downing the contents in one gulp.
    “How’s the situation back home?” Damon asked. “You get everything resolved?”
    “As much as I could.” Brady could tell Damon wanted to ask more questions about the “family emergency” he’d left to take care of a month ago. But even though they’d been tight ever since they met in Ranger school, Brady had never been inclined to offer up any details about his completely fucked up family. He sure as shit wasn’t going to spill his guts about the latest mess some members had gotten themselves into.
    He’d left home as soon as it had been humanly possible for a reason, and he made a point not to drag his past along with him.
    Trouble was sometimes it dragged him the opposite direction.
    “Oh, you’re here.”
    All unpleasant thoughts of his family fled in a whoosh of awareness at the sound of the feminine voice. A familiar tightness formed in his chest, threatening to choke off his breath as he turned to face her, bracing himself for that punched in the gut feeling he would get at the first sight of her.
    It never failed. From the first day he’d walked into Adele’s and seen her, struggling to keep her composure while simultaneously waiting on six tables while running back and forth to the kitchen to help with plating, every single time he laid eyes on Molly Tanner he felt like all the breath was being sucked out of his body.
    Even after knowing her for nearly a year, he still couldn’t make sense of it. He’d known a lot of beautiful women in his life, arguably more beautiful or overtly sexy that Molly.
    But with her buttery blond curls, big blue eyes and delicate, cupid’s bow mouth, Molly had an angel’s face contrasted sharply with a body that was custom made for sin, tempting him at every turn.
    Not that she ever played it up—not on purpose anyway. But with a body with more curves than a mountain road, she made even a body hugging sweater and a slim fitting pair of jeans look sexy.
    There was something else. Something about her that made him yearn for her the way he’d yearned for all of the things he couldn’t have as a kid. Because he couldn't afford them, or because people took one look at him and knew he wasn’t worthy.
    Somehow, Molly had become the epitome of everything he always wanted and could never have.
    He gave himself a mental shake and forced himself to put on his game face. “Don’t tell me you missed me, sweet thing?” He said, injecting his smile with just the right amount of leering quality.
    Unsurprisingly, the blue eyes rolled. “Your cooking, yes. You, not so much.”
    “Looks like you’re covering it pretty well,” he said, admiring the plate of skirt steak Molly set in front of the customer next to him. “That looks almost as good as mine. Obviously my lessons paid off,” he added with a small burst of pride.
    When he’d gotten the call from his cousin, Erin, that he needed