Free Sweat Equity by Liz Crowe Page A

the bar staff around. The jerk always was over protective, but she did love him.
    He put an ice-cold martini in front of her as he finished chewing out some bartender for not cleaning glassware properly. She frowned. He seemed tense, not himself. But his familiar grin eased her nervousness as he leaned over the bar and pecked her on the end of her nose. "What's up sister?" He grabbed a clean towel and started fussing with the pilsner glasses.
    "Oh, not much. Got a date." She did a quick smartphone email check. When she glanced back up at him the look in his eyes alarmed her. She turned to see what he was staring at. Rob was across the room, chatting and laughing with a couple seated at a table near the front window. She looked back at him, eyes narrowed. "What's wrong?"
    He shrugged. "A date huh?" She sighed and let him create the diversion. He was not good at talking about himself. It had been a solid month after he had broken up with Suzanne before she even knew about it, which had pissed her off to no end. He'd worked there for another couple of weeks before heading to the Midwest Beer Festival in Chicago where he'd met Rob. God she hoped nothing was wrong between them. They were the one solid thing in her life. She let him putz around and ignore her a few more minutes as she sipped and tried not to be anxious about an actual date with the man who'd nearly seduced her the night before she'd accepted Jack's marriage proposal. Her skin prickled, as if the air conditioner had been cranked up. She swallowed, suddenly tense. When she looked over at Blake, he was frowning, hands on his hips. "Let me guess Sara," he jerked his chin at something behind her. "This date. It's not with Jack." She opened her mouth to talk but the sudden scent of him filled her nose.
    "No." Her voice cracked. "It's not."
    "Good."
    The large familiar hand on her shoulder made her whole body zing like a too tight violin string.
    "Hello Gordon. The usual?" Blake's voice was icy calm.
    "Sure. Thanks." He took a seat next to Sara. She crossed her legs and kept as much distance between them as she could. If it were possible, he looked handsomer than ever. She sighed when he bumped against her shoulder playfully.
    "Don't touch me." She drained her martini and set the glass down, but her voice was weak and she knew it. Visions of them in that open house, his commanding tone, the hallway the first time, she shut her eyes against the overwhelming compulsion to climb into his lap. Damn him.
    "Sorry." He sipped the brown liquor in the rocks glass, keeping his eyes forward, mirroring her.
    She sighed, determined to be an adult about this. "How's the city commission these days? Get that approval yet?"
    "As a matter of fact, I did, just today and came in here to celebrate."
    "Congratulations." She shut her eyes against the inner calendar that had been so prevalent in her life for so many months–the one that reminded her that, if she had not broken it off with him, she'd be marrying the compelling man sitting next to her about the time the new building would open. They made plans around it, in fact. "Shit."
    "What's that?" He looked at her, his deep blue eyes concerned, making her look away.
    Fuck him and his fake emotions. The sight of Craig entering the door, clad in ass-hugging dark jeans and what looked like the softest blue button down shirt in the universe hanging over the waistband in his typical, too-cool-to-be-sloppy way lifted her heart. Yes. This was why she was here. She stood.
    "Nothing, sorry. I, um, gotta go." She waved at Blake. Before she could make her way over to him, Craig appeared at her side, hand stuck out to shake Jack's, whose eyes narrowed at the sight of them, standing close. Sara flinched when he put an unwelcome arm around her waist. What was he playing at?
    "Gordon, congrats on the council meeting. Full steam ahead, eh?"
    "Yeah." Jack shook his hand, never taking his eyes from Sara. She looked down on reflex, then back up at Craig as his