Read Online Hero - The Assignment: A Military Romance by M. S. Parker - Free Book Online

little town had no more than four hundred citizens, the Corner Tap was sure to be crowded since it was the only bar on Main Street.
    I adjusted the motion sickness bracelets and tugged my shirt cuffs down over them. If I was careful, nothing would happen.
     

Chapter 6
    Haze
    The Corner Tap looked the same as it had the first time I'd snuck in just after my seventeenth birthday. Snuck in and kicked out. Even though my family had only arrived a few months before, everyone had already known who I was. Like I said, small town.
    Neon beer signs glowed in the narrow casement windows and obscured any view of Main Street. Dark-stained wooden booths edged the walls with matching square tables scattered down the L-shaped room. Hanging lamps of bottle brown dangled above the bar with low watt bulbs and in the corner a jukebox pulsed.
    As my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, I noticed there were actually a few changes. The low ceiling tiles were new and surprisingly white. The old ceiling, hanging like a brown cloud of nicotine stains, was gone. The ripped vinyl stools and chairs had been replaced with sturdy, dark-stained wood. And next to the bar, the new dartboard still retained its red and green colors and readable numbers.
    “Hardly recognize it, right?” Blake said.
    The biggest change, though, was the clientele. The Corner Tap had always been a scattered crowd of older men and boys who thought they could drink. Now women sat in groups or clustered around the bar. They were young, bright, and not at all bothered by the scowls of regulars. It was a definite improvement.
    Blake noticed my eyes scanning the new crowd, and he chucked me on the shoulder. “Better watch out, Haze. These ladies have been starving for new blood.”
    “There's a booth in the corner. It looks good,” I said, ignoring his statement.
    Blake laughed and led the way, nodding at a lady here and there. I glared at him.
    “Just being friendly,” he said, holding his hands up.
    “And about to be a father,” I reminded him as I slid into the booth. “How's that going?”
    “Easier for me than your sister,” Blake said. He gave me a knowing look. “She's not good at slowing down. Guess you can relate.”
    I laughed. My family had never been known for taking things slow or easy.
    Tap beers arrived at the table before the waitress asked for our order. The Corner Tap assumed it knew what its patrons wanted, and nine times out of ten, it was right.
    “This is good, thank you,” I said.
    “No problem,” the waitress said with a wink. “I'll keep 'em coming. And you just let me know if there's anything else you might need.”
    Blake grinned at me as the blonde walked away. “Could be a good night for you. What was it your brothers used to say, 'Haze's got it made'?”
    I choked on my beer and grimaced. I coughed, tensing as I waited for the wave of dizziness. Relief came instead. “Like any of my brothers have room to talk. None of them have ever had a hard time getting a woman's attention.”
    The beer tasted good and the booth afforded us both an easy view of the entire Corner Tap bar. One of the things I always liked about Blake was how easy it had always been for the two of us to be quiet together. We watched a group of four women down a round of shots at the bar and make their way to the new dartboard. Giggles and more drinks punctuated a decent game, and I kept an eye on them as they played.
    “You used to be pretty good at darts, I recall.” He elbowed me.
    “It's been years,” I said.
    “Nah, gotta be like riding a bike.” He gave me a sideways look. “No harder than dropping bottle caps in a can from across the barn.”
    Of course he'd noticed the hobby I'd started at home. Tossing the bottle caps from all over the barn into an empty bean can was my new way of testing my hand-eye coordination. Or that's what I told myself. Sometimes the angle I leaned to make the throw triggered the vertigo, but that made the practice all the more