Billionaire Bartender: A Second Chance Romance (The Buckeye Series)
The Buckeye Series
BILLIONAIRE BARTENDER
A Second Chance Romance
By Jo Henley
www.facebook.com/AuthorJoHenley
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Billionaire Bartender - A Second Chance Romance (The Buckeye Series)
First Edition, Amazon Edition.
© 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Written by Jo Henley
The Buckeye Series
BILLIONAIRE BARTENDER
A Second Chance Romance
By Jo Henley
Chapter One
It was Halloween. The first Halloween since Liz petitioned for a divorce from her husband. Her decision had been anticipated for awhile. The marriage was irreconcilable. Simple or not, she didn’t love the man she’d married. Or at least the man he’d become. With support from her parents, she moved into their guest house at the end of their driveway in early summer. Chris had dragged out the divorce, but the papers were finally satisfactory and the final hearing was scheduled for next week.
Dressed as a bumblebee, Liz sat handing out candy from big bowls with her parents at the end of their driveway. Her mom gushed over the costumes and her dad tried to keep the kids from taking all the good pieces. Liz sat back in the lawn chair enjoying the evening. She was in her early thirties and had never had children of her own. Chris, her soon-to-be ex boasted about how lucky they were to not be parents. He was building his career as a top family law attorney. She went along with his “let’s wait” requests by distracting herself with her own career. But more than missing children, Liz missed an ordinary lifestyle. She’d grown up with working parents. They lived within their means. Chris liked to buy the best of things and wasted much of their income on extravagances. She was tired of it all and vowed her next relationship would be with a regular working guy.
Around nine when the trick or treaters turned into unwanted teenagers out for pranks, Liz and her parents called it a night. Before they could fold up the lawn chairs, Bill buzzed over from across the street.
“Liz, buzz buzz.” He swooped in, arms flaying about, mimicking her costume. In a glittery tutu, striped tights and antennae headband, she was the sexiest bumblebee on the block.
“What do you want?” she asked, joining her best friend from high school. Bill, who was the type to always have a beer in his hand made no exception tonight. For the most part he was oversexed, unemployed, and positively charming. He never grew up, but he was the one person who’d supported Liz the most with her decision for a divorce. Even with all his shortcomings, she cared for him and trusted him with all her secrets.
“Sting me baby.” Bill turned and shook his ass at her.
She slapped him hard, reddening her palm on the cheek of his tight jeans. “What do you want?” she asked not meaning to be snarky, but coming off that way.
“Shit!” He rubbed his ass. “Let’s have some Halloween fun.”
“Can’t. You’re not wearing a costume.”
“Yes I am.” He let out an in-throat burp and patted his chest. “I’m dressed as your boyfriend.”
“You’ve been using that line since high school. The burp added a nice touch though.” Liz folded one of the lawn chairs up to go inside.
“You liked that?” He raised an eyebrow, snatched the chair, and tossed it into the grass. “It’s early, let’s go for a drink.”
“Some other time. I have to work tomorrow.”
“You always say that. Tonight is your night to live. PLEEAASSEE!” He ripped the cowboy hat off his head and begged on his knees in front of her.
“You seriously want me to go out like this?” She shook the wobbling, glittery antennae balls of her costume.
“You look great. The guys at the Buckeye will love you.”
“Including the flirty bartender that’s “perfect for me?” She air quoted the last three words.
Even though she wanted to go, Liz was scared. All summer, Bill invited her to his hangout bar to meet the gang. They included a bartender named Oscar, who supposedly was a real stand up guy and a “perfect match” for Liz. She’d seen him once, while she was married. A chance passing in the street. His unintentional, seductive smile crept into her fantasies and gave her hope for the future. There was no explaining why he drew her in with a glance, but he did and she left Chris the next day.
All she had to do was go to the bar and the man of her dreams would be there waiting for her, but would the real Oscar live up to her fantasies? There was only one way to find out. And she was finally ready to explore this possibility.
“You win, Bill. Let’s go.”
“Yeehaw!” Bill, a true cowboy, shot his hat up in the air.
“One condition!” She poked him in the chest. “I’m going out tonight to have fun. Not to get set up. I’m not sad, divorced, Liz.”
Bill smiled and thumped her on the forehead. “Poof, you’re a sexy bumblebee queen. It’s Halloween, the night for playing pretend. You don’t have to be yourself.”
“And I’m driving.”
“That’s two things.”
“Walk to the car.”
Bill galloped ahead, slapping his hip and holding imaginary reins.
“Why in the hell am I doing this?” She took his emptied bottle of beer and left it in the hedges to get later. Then unlocked the passenger door.
Liz and Bill had plenty of late nights and stiff drinks over the last couple of months, but she’d managed to avoid a trip to the Buckeye Bar.
Divorce was hard enough, but leaving an obsessive controlling family law attorney had proved to be extremely challenging. Every chance he got, Chris sent the petitions back to her attorney for corrections. His actions in this matter confused her. Was he trying to hold on to their marriage or was he really that anal?
Either way, it was time to move forward. Meeting Oscar met facing her future and accepting that she was single again. She needed to stop dreaming of the perfect man and start talking to him.
“I can’t believe I’m going to the Buckeye dressed like this.”
“You’ll fit right in. Angela’s wearing her adventure girl costume and the pool table trio dress up for conventions all the time. So they’ll be all decked out.” Bill flashed his phone to Liz, as if she’d glance at the screen while driving. He was showing her a text from his long time girlfriend. “Dina won’t be there. So I’ll be checking out the sexy college girl’s costumes.”
“And Oscar?”
“He’s off tonight.”
“What?!” Liz slapped Bill on the thigh, swerving the car a little. “I thought I was going to meet this perfect bartender tonight.”
“Relax. He’ll be there.”
Sure he will. Here’s another mess Bill has roped me into by his charm. Damn him. I’ll end up buying all the drinks this evening.
The Buckeye was nothing like she imagined. It was a small unassuming storefront in a strip mall flanked on one side with a hair salon and a vacant space on the other. The red backlit sign above the blacked out front windows simple read, “The Buckeye Bar.” That was it. No flashy beer signs or drink special banners to draw the customers in. Just one small sign and an arrow pointing patrons to the front door.
“Damn, there’s not a spot,” Bill said, commenting on the full parking lot. “It’s a weekday.”
“Yes, but it’s Halloween.” Liz crept the car to the end of the hair salon. To her left, the street and a chance to chicken out, and to her right an alley that led around back. “Which way?”
“Right . . . Ummm . . .” Bill eyed a couple of girls in costumes crossing their path “Let me out here.”
“No!” Liz dug her nails into his thigh, pinning him to the passenger seat.
“Geez you’re no fun. Circle around to the back lot.”
Liz followed his directions down the alley to a gravel lot behind the strip mall. “Maybe this was a mistake. Let’s just go home.”
“Hell no! Do you want Chris to be the end of your life? The only love you’ll ever have? Do you want to sulk in the shadows of life or do you want to take it by the horns and live it?”
“Crazy ass cowboy.”
Bill grinned and nodded his head in agreement. His effect was strong. Even in high school his pep talks, convinced Liz to stretch herself and not always for the better, but tonight he was right. She needed to listen him. Three right turns and one left later, Liz parked in an open space out front and was ready to embrace what the night had in store for her.
Chapter Two
The heavy wooden door from the street opened up into a closet-size entry crammed with magazine racks and gum machines. It smelled of artificial citrus and newspaper. The only light filtering in was from a small rectangular window in the second inner door. And that wasn’t much.
“Give me a quarter.” Bill tugged on the tiny black purse perched on Liz’s shoulder.
“I don’t have any change.”
“Damn, I need a mint.” He breathed into his hand, then into her face. “Can I survive?”
“You smell like beer.”
“I’m good.” Bill yanked on the inner door and stood aside, holding it open for Liz to enter the dark bar first. She took two steps in with Bill crowded right behind her in the doorway.
“Bill!” Voices from every direction yelled.
The outburst, combined with the low light caught her off guard and she stumbled into the first table inside the place.
“You’re supposed to be the sober one.” Bill steadied her by her elbow.
“Sorry. Does it have to be this dark?”
“Nothing in here needs a spotlight.”
She squinted around, allowing her eyes to adjust to the low lighting. A quick survey of the room proved his point. He was right. The ambience was plain and monotone, the patrons—well dim lights appeared to be an advantage at first glance.
The layout was typical, pool tables in the front and dark corners in the back. Straight ahead, was the main bar. It was the brightest area in the place with lights highlighting the various bottles of alcohol set neatly in front of a mirror. Over-the-counter spot lighting bounced reflections off the mirror as far in to the bar as possible.
Bill took the lead, weaving them past barely legal drinkers decked out in their Halloween costumes. “Hey.” He waved to a trio of men at a pool table near the front windows. Next he walked Liz right up behind two other men sitting on stools at the main bar. “What’s the score?” he asked, slapping each man on the back.
“Seven to three. Bottom of the fourth. Two outs to go,” the man, dressed in a baseball jersey, named Andy said, while only glancing away for a second from the game playing on the wall mounted screen.
“Good to know.” Bill stepped aside and moved his hand to Liz’s shoulders. He presented her to the other man sitting at the bar. “Mitch, this is my friend, Liz.”
“Well hello, Liz,” Mitch said more to her cleavage.
“Eyes up here,” Bill said, with a snap. “She not here for an inspection.”
“It’s okay. I’m flattered,” she said to Mitch, a man in his early sixties sporting sexy silver hair swooped to one side.
