Free Fire Me Up by Kimberly Kincaid Page A

nearly empty stomach still churned like it was on the spin cycle.
    Which became infinitely more problematic when he realized Joe’s parking lot was empty and the only lights on were the overheads brightening the asphalt.
    â€œShit.” Between the accident and the groggy nap, Adrian had lost all track of time. Of course Joe’s wasn’t open at . . . He paused to let the soft glow of the digital clock in his truck register.
    Nine thirty on a Friday night.
    Adrian’s gut dropped to his knees. He might have lived here for a little over a year, but the only path he’d taken since landing in Pine Mountain was from his apartment to the resort and back. Hell, the only reason he knew the location of the grocery store in the first place was because it lay between the two.
    But he couldn’t go to the resort, not even in the name of a hot meal he desperately needed. Carly had made it clear she didn’t want him there, and his showing up, even just to eat, would reek of awkward. He threw the truck into drive and pointed it back at his apartment. He’d have to settle for the rest of those saltines, although he knew he’d be starving again an hour after he downed them.
    And then it would be just him, the four walls, and the molasses until morning.
    Jerking his knee up to steady the wheel, he jammed the window control to the down position until lush spring air replaced the glass. Christ, how was he going to manage six weeks of this when the thought of even one night was enough to suffocate him?
    And wait. Where the hell was he?
    Adrian scanned the road in front of him with a disgruntled curse. The hunger tangling his belly, coupled with the realization that Carly really wasn’t going to change her mind, must’ve distracted him into missing his turn. He guided the truck into the next turnoff, which opened directly into a wide, rectangular parking lot, and he took stock of his new surroundings to regain his bearings.
    A decent handful of cars littered the spaces, and even though the gray and white clapboard building beyond wasn’t much to speak of, it was brightly lit. A couple of giggling women made their way past his idling truck, allowing a blast of loud music to escape from within the building as they moved through the front door, and Adrian squinted at the weathered sign over the entryway where they’d disappeared.
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    THE DOUBLE SHOT BAR AND GRILL
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    This is a bad idea, came the ingrained survival instinct from the back of his mind, and Adrian knew it was spot-on. Keeping his nose spic and span meant giving places like bars a very wide berth when he was in a bad mood, even if they did have food inside. He tightened his grip over the grooves on his steering wheel, bypassing the front of the building with every intention of making a full circle around the place.
    But the strained overtones of an argument, coupled with a glimpse of flame-red hair from beneath the light over the side entrance to the building, had him jamming his foot on the brake.
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    Teagan folded her bottom lip between her teeth and tried with all her might not to scream as her only cook walked out the Double Shot’s side door and into the night.
    â€œLou, wait!” She scrambled after him, both shocked and relieved that he’d stopped a few paces into the parking lot. “You’ve got to help me out here. I’ve got a bar full of hungry people and it’s Friday night. You can’t walk, not right now.”
    But the expression on the cook’s scruffy face and his cross-armed stance said otherwise. “I’m not working for free, Teagan. One bounced paycheck, I can forgive. But today’s was the third one, and you can’t give me any answers.”
    â€œMy dad does all the payroll,” she said, genuinely apologetic. For as many tasks as Teagan juggled behind the bar, the books had always been her father’s job, through and through. “I’m sure