Love Me Nots Read online

  Love Me Nots

  Lydia Michaels

  Contents

  Love Me Nots

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  Untitled

  Also by Lydia Michaels

  PINING FOR YOU

  About the Author

  Love Me Nots

  A Jasper Falls Novel

  Book 3

  * * *

  Lydia Michaels

  LOVE ME NOTS

  Jasper Falls 3

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  ISBN Print: 978-1-7354677-8-8

  ISBN eBook: 978-1-7354677-7-1

  * * *

  Written by Lydia Michaels

  Published by Bailey Brown Publishing

  Cover Design by Lydia Michaels

  Edited by Theresa Kohler; Oxford Comma Editing

  * * *

  All rights reserved.

  * * *

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  * * *

  Lydia Michaels

  www.LydiaMichaelsBooks.com

  © Lydia Michaels Books 2021

  Created with Vellum

  For Perrin.

  Thank you for everything—including the use of your beautiful name.

  Chapter 1

  “Hey, Perrin, I’ve been waitin’ on that beer for over—”

  Perrin cracked open a bottle of bud and slid it across the counter to Mac, one of the more restless locals. “I know,” she said patiently, eyes on her regular while mixing a pitcher of sugar-free mojitos for the group of female tourists that just sauntered in. “Cut me a little slack. Singles Week is kicking my ass.”

  Jasper Falls used to be just an average, nameless, small town lost in the middle of Center County. Since the new mayor got elected, the town’s been really revamping itself.

  Singles Week was just one of the new events Jasper Falls was running—part of the town’s revitalization project. It was great for local business owners like herself, but small-town folk generally preferred to move at a slower pace, which tourists did not, especially the New York ones.

  “Sorry, sweetie.” Mac plugged up his mouth with his beer and leered at the group of long-legged blondes. “Women certainly didn’t look like that when I was shoppin’ for a wife.”

  Perrin tsked and shot him a disapproving look. “Stop that. Nadine’s a catch.”

  “Yeah,” he chuckled. “The kind you throw back.”

  Topping off the pitcher with a shot of simple syrup and another handful of fresh mint from the farmers’ market, she shook her head. “You’re rotten. Someone should throw you back.”

  “Hey,” he called, just as she lifted the tray of mojitos and glasses. “How come you ain’t signed up for those singles events?”

  Perrin’s lips pressed in a tight-lipped purse as she shot him a sidelong glance. “You know perfectly well why. I don’t date.”

  He shook his head and sipped his beer. “You’re wastin’ your youth, missy.”

  “Better to waste my youth than to waste my time.” Before he could offer another unwanted comment, she carried the tray over to the blondes.

  O’Malley’s was packed with the typical Friday night crowd. Each weekend the crowd increased, which was great for business, however not so great for Perrin’s poor aching feet. It was long past the time to hire another waitress, but Perrin didn’t want to spare the expense, despite what her sister Maggie had to say about it.

  “Here you go, ladies. Can I get you anything else?”

  She pulled a notepad out of her apron pocket when one woman asked, “Are your salads farm to table?”

  Perrin grit her molars and grinned. “Actually, all our produce is locally farmed.” Thank goodness for Ashlynn and her farmers’ market. The more New Yorkers they got, the more she was getting these sorts of questions. Next would be the bread.

  “It says your salad comes with a dinner roll. Is it gluten-free?”

  “We have handcrafted breads with an almond flour option,” thanks to Maggie’s amazing mother-in-law.

  Once Perrin answered several more questions about the menu and if the lettuce could be substituted with kale, she finally had an order together. Sue was going to kill her.

  She walked the order to the kitchen, catching six more drink orders on the way. “Sue, I need some salads.” Sticking the slip on the order rack, she quickly slipped out the back.

  “What the fuck, Perrin!” Sue bolted out of the kitchen. “These aren’t on the menu”

  Perrin smiled and uncapped two light beers. “Everything’s on the menu. We’re adapting.”

  “Well, we need an actual cook! And do we even have kale?”

  Luckily, she just bought some that morning. “In the back. Check the bottom crisper.”

  She returned to the kitchen grumbling something about bullshit hipsters and their high maintenance diets. Sue was O’Malley’s senior bartender—came with the purchase of the bar, sort of like the dusty old pool tables and vinyl stools, when they bought the place last year. She was great at bartending, passable at cooking, but best as a waitress. Unfortunately, they were understaffed in all three areas, so Sue was a constant fill in.

  “Here you are, boys.” Perrin dropped the two beers off at a high-top and worked her way through the crowd, zigzagging between the bar and tables for the next few hours.

  By the end of the night, she’d have well over twenty-five thousand steps on her pedometer, blisters on her toes, and sweat stains on her clothes, but it was worth it. She finally got her sister to agree to expand the bar—if Perrin could figure out a way to scrape together the down payment.

  The land behind the bar had been listed for about six months. They needed twenty thousand down, if they wanted to get approved for financing. They had the bar as collateral and, luckily, the bank still loved supporting local merchants. She was crossing her fingers that was enough to get them approved, even when they were offering sixty thousand less than the asking price. Perrin was pretty sure she’d do anything short of giving up both her kidneys to own the property.

  Lots of ifs. But buying O’Malley’s with Maggie had been one of the greatest investment risks of her life, and it’s been paying off ever since. Jasper Falls was rising as one of Pennsylvania’s greatest small towns. O’Malley’s used to be the only night spot—just the average hole-in-the-wall Irish pub, but now, with all the revitalization projects and new restaurants cropping up, they had some competition.

  O’Malley’s needed to rebrand and get with the times, cater to the younger crowd. Perrin was all over that—in a sort of trash to treasure way. She’d been researching affordable ideas to hit that earthy hot spot vibe that was trending.

  “Yo, Perrin!”

  Before she could turn, her body was hoisted into the air and the bar spun. “Put me down!” Then the bear-hug came, and she recognized the giant arms squeezed around her waist. “Luke.”

  He dropped her back to her feet and gave an unabashed grin. “Hey, beautiful. How’s it going?”

  “Busy. Can’t you tell?”

  He followed her back to the bar. “Busy’s good. No Ryan tonight?”

  “No. He and Maggie are having a date night.” She used air quotes to show her disregard for such rituals. Ryan and Maggie were married. Wasn’t every encounter a date?

  She slid Luke a beer, and he took a long sip, eyeing her with plenty of palpable judgement. “Bitter’s a bad color on you.”

  “Who says I’m bitter?” She was. It wasn’t a secret. But she liked to know who was talking crap, so she could mind her six.

  Luke chuckled, deciding not to respond and eyed the crowd. The band had started to play, which meant more people dancing and less drink orders for a few minutes. “You need a hand?”

  “It’s calm right now. But if it picks back up…” She leaned on the bar, taking some of the weight off her tired feet. “Where’s Tristan?”

  “He’s helping Alexia with her school project. She has to build a diorama, and apparently, to my husband, that means power tools and upcycling anything we’re not using around the house.”

  She smiled, because they were possibly the cutest blended family in the world. Luke wasn’t Alexia’s biological father, but Tristan, Luke’s husband, had stepped up when Luke’s brother-in-law, Alec, had been unable to get Sheilagh pregnant. So although Luke didn’t share Tristan’s biological link to Alexia, he still treated her as his own, so Alexia technically had three fathers who spoiled her rotten—Luke, Tristan, and Alec. Poor girl was going to have a hell of a time dating when the time came.

  The door opened, drawing her attention, as a tall man with a head of black hair stepped in. Another New Yorker. She could always tell by the clothes and polished appearance of their skin. The locals tended to favor denim, cotton, and flannel. They also had skin that seemed slightly…weathered. More sun, less makeup, and plenty of freckles from outdoor work.

  Luke studied the man as he sat down at the bar. She shot him a look and hid a smirk, silently agreeing that the newcom
er was worth looking at.

  Despite his overly GQ clothing, his dark eyes hid something rugged. Something that drew a girl in as much as it warned her to stay away. He slid a black card across the bar.

  “I’ll take a glass of Glenfiddich, please.”

  Wow. That voice cut through her like a knife through butter on a hot day. She shook her head and cleared her throat. “Glen what?”

  His full lips curved into a half smile. “Glenfiddich. It’s Scotch.”

  “Oh.” She placed an O’Malley’s coaster in front of him. “Sorry. We don’t carry that. And we don’t accept this.” She pushed his card back. “Can I get you a standard whiskey? We have Jameson and Tully. Or if you prefer Scotch, we have Dewar’s.”

  He nodded without any show of irritation. “Dewar’s. Neat.”

  She poured the drink, and when she turned back around, a fifty rested on the bar. She quickly changed it out.

  Luke eyed the newcomer. “You coming in from New York?”

  “Houston.”

  His brows shot up in surprise. They didn’t usually get visitors from that far south.

  “My husband’s from Texas,” Luke said, eyeing the man for any unwanted reaction. It was well-known that Luke and Tristan had faced their fair share of harassment back in the day.

  The locals had done a good job of chasing the bigots out of Jasper Falls, but with so many newcomers, one never knew who they were dealing with. The world was a crazy, sometimes hateful, place.

  Surprise flashed in the man’s dark eyes, but he made no other physical response. “Which part?”

  “A little backwoods town called Luckenbach.”

  “Yeah, I know where that is. Just outside of Fredericksburg, right?”

  “Right.” Luke put down his beer and held out a hand. “Luke McCullough.”

  “Gage King.”

  Perrin drew in a breath, and the testosterone coming off the two of them nearly choked her.

  “This here is Perrin. She owns the bar.”

  Gage tipped his head in a casual nod. “Perrin.”

  “Hi.” She couldn’t quite work out a bigger greeting, because her brain seemed to have disintegrated into ash the moment he locked eyes with her. As the corners of his mouth curved upward, her ovaries exploded. “I gotta go check a…thing.”

  Shooting a thumb over her shoulder, she escaped to the kitchen. Sue was rummaging through the back freezer, cursing as she jostled several filled bins.

  “Sue,” Perrin hissed, her gaze peeking through the order window at Luke and Gage.

  “What?” she snapped.

  Perrin frowned at her tone but only glanced over her shoulder and then back to the men. She only had a few seconds before someone needed a refill. “There’s a hot guy at the bar.”

  Sue was suddenly beside her. “Well, hello handsome. Who is he?”

  “He’s from Houston.”

  She frowned. “What’s he doing all the way up here?”

  Perrin shrugged. “I don’t know, but he’s not wearing a ring.”

  Sue’s brows shot up. “You noticed that?”

  “I…I guess I did.”

  “Then you should ask him out.”

  Now it was Perrin’s turn to frown. “Get real. You know I don’t date.”

  “Girl, you have got to get over your shit.” She tipped her head toward the bar. “I bet getting under that hunk of man out there would get you over it really quick.”

  When she walked away, Perrin did a double take. “Aren’t you interested?”

  “Nope.” She disappeared back into the freezer.

  “Why not?”

  “Because finders keepers. You saw him first.”

  “I’m not interested.” Three customers stepped up to the bar at once, expressions going from searching to impatient in two seconds flat. “You’re wasting a perfect piece of man candy.”

  “Then you better step in.”

  Rolling her eyes, she went to help the customers. For the next hour, she barely had time to think. As the rush slowed, the bar was less full and the tables were starting to thin. Luke still sat at the bar, but he and the man no longer spoke. They seemed content to simply stare at the flat screens and watch some sports show Luke had put on. Since the bar used to belong to his family, he often helped himself to the remote.

  “Refill?” she asked.

  Luke waved her off, but Gage slid his empty glass forward. “How long have you owned the bar?”

  “A little over a year.”

  “How’s business? Is this an ordinary crowd?”

  She refilled his Scotch. “Actually, this is a little busier than the norm, but each weekend seems to generate a bigger crowd than the last—especially since the revitalization project started.”

  He nodded his approval. “So business is good? Steady?”

  Business was great. “I can’t complain. What do you do?”

  “Ever hear of King’s Construction Outlet?”

  Luke turned, his eyes narrowing and his ears practically perking.

  “Yeah, I’ve seen their commercials.” Everyone had. They were the country’s leading hardware and lumber distributor. Pop-up box stores were in every town, but Jasper Falls did their best to avoid the larger chain companies in favor of mom-and-pop stores.

  “I’m Gage King,” he said as if that explained everything.

  Perrin’s eyes widened. “Like King as in King?”

  He chuckled. “Correct.”

  “As in you’re the King.”

  He chuckled again. “That’s one way of looking at it.” He reached in the breast pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a business card, sliding it across the bar.

  It didn’t have the orange logo of King’s Construction on it, and it wasn’t a normal paper business card. This one was thick like a credit card and pearl white. It only said Gage King on the front. The back had a phone number and email.

  “That’s my personal card.”

  Luke’s gaze narrowed. “You hear on business or pleasure?”

  “A little of both.”

  Oh boy. That wasn’t going to go over well. Everyone knew Jasper Falls was most famous for its lumber. McCullough Lumber was owned by three generations of McCullough men. Everyone worked there, including her brother-in-law, Ryan, who also happened to be a co-owner with Luke and his twin brother Finn.

  “What kind of business?” Luke all but growled. Gone was the friendly bar patron attitude from earlier.

  “Just keeping my options open.”

  And apparently, keeping his plans to himself. Perrin shot Luke a look, warning him to play nice. This guy was still a paying customer.

  Luke tossed some cash on the bar and grabbed his jacket. “I’ll see you later, Perrin.”

  “Bye, Luke.” She sighed. Within ten minutes, every McCullough in a ten mile radius was going to be gossiping about this guy. And there were a lot of McCulloughs.

  “Something I said?” Gage asked, glancing over his shoulder as Luke left the bar.

  “His family owns the lumberyard up on the mountain.”

  “Ah.” He sipped his Scotch.

  Since he didn’t offer any further information about his intentions, Perrin did her own digging. “So, are you really thinking about putting one of your stores here?”

  He eyed her skeptically. “Do you have an opinion on the matter?”

  “I’ve got lots. But it’s rude to answer a question with a question.”

  He chuckled. “I’m undecided. I could be convinced either way. How about we have dinner and you do your best to persuade me?”

  She frowned. “You don’t know which way I’ll try to sway you.”

  He glanced at Luke’s empty seat and arched a brow, as if somehow challenging her. Crossing his arms on the bar, he leaned forward. “If I hesitated every time I came across a family-owned business, I’d barely own a single store.”