Free The Last Second Chance: A Small Town Love Story (Blue Moon Book 3) by Lucy Score Page A

“Who gets the sausage sandwich?”
    Six hands flew up around the table and then a riot of giggling erupted.
    “I’ll take that sausage off your hands, Jax,” a breathy blonde, fluttered her eyelashes at him. Moon Beam Parker, with her waist-length, stick straight hair and pale blue eyes, wasn’t one to shy away from the Pierce men. In fact, if memory served him, she’d been Beckett’s first.
    She took the plate from him, her mint green manicure dragging over his hand. He bobbled the plate, nearly sending the food to the floor. Moon Beam gave him a slow wink and the rest of the table erupted again.
    He could feel color rising to his face and danced out of Moon Beam’s minty reach, seeking asylum behind her mother’s chair. Mrs. Parker accepted the grilled Portobello salad from him and patted her platinum perm. “Imagine us getting the special treatment. Food delivered by the owner,” she said, eyes roving Jax like he was an appetizer. Her gaze moved below his belt and he could feel the sweat flowing freely now.
    “Did you know Moon Beam’s divorce is final now?” she purred, twirling a curl around her index finger.
    “Congratulations,” Jax said to the plate of spaghetti in his hand.
    “Divorce is so lonely,” Moon Beam sighed dramatically. “At the end of the day, it’s just me all alone in my king-sized bed.”
    He all but dumped the other four plates on the table and ran to the bar. Cheryl eyed him up.
    “What?” he demanded.
    “Just checking for teeth marks,” she grinned.
    “I feel like a piece of meat,” he shuddered.
    “Those Parker women are like a Venus fly trap for men.”
    “Yeah, and they’re trying to line me up as Moon Beam’s third husband.”
    Cheryl filled a pint glass and shrugged. “Well, isn’t some Moon Beam action better than no action at all?”
    Jax glared at her. “No. No, it’s not. Because I have a feeling she’d macramé me to her headboard and I’d never escape. Now, I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you take over that table of giggling vampires.”
    “Done. But why can’t Deke resume service?” she asked, uncorking a bottle of Pinot Grigio.
    “I’m in the middle of firing his ass.”
    “About friggin’ time.”
    “Yeah, yeah. Now, go divvy up the rest of his tables and don’t let anyone with the last name Parker within twenty feet of me.”
    “Aye, aye, captain,” Cheryl said, throwing a mock salute.
    Jax returned to his table and collapsed in the chair.
    Beckett shook his head and sighed. “It wasn’t even two months ago that Mrs. Parker was trying to set me up with her daughter. Fickle, fickle women.”
    “I blame you,” Jax groaned and drowned his sorrows in the beer in front of him. “So, what business involves buttering us up with another round?” he asked, changing the subject.
    “Joey.”
    Carter had Jax’s full attention with her name.
    “Christ, you didn’t have an aneurysm and are thinking about firing her?” Beckett asked.
    Every muscle in Jax’s body tensed for a fight.
    Carter choked on his beer. “Jesus, no! Where did that come from?”
    “I don’t know! The way you said it made it sound really serious,” Beckett said, tossing Carter a napkin. “You have beer in your beard.”
    “Can we get on with this?” Jax didn’t like unfinished business attached to Joey’s name.
    “Yeah, Carter. You’re making Hollywood nervous.”
    “I’m thinking we should make her a partner in the stables.”
    “No shit,” Jax said succinctly. “I vote yes.”
    “Oh, come on. I prepared an argument and everything,” Carter said with a mock pout.
    “What’s there to consider? There wouldn’t be a riding program without her, the stables would be a pigsty — no offense to Dixie and Ham — and we wouldn’t have ninety percent of the horses we do,” Jax said, ticking off the points on his fingers.
    Beckett’s face remained impassive. “So why now? What brought this on?”
    Carter tossed them each a stack of papers. “This is