Read Online Something to Prove by Shannyn Schroeder - Free Book Online

riders and cancer-inducing smoke
     included. I hate every minute of being there. I’m so glad I decided to call you.”
    “So am I. How long do you think you’ll be in town?”
    “A month. Maybe a little longer.”
    “Good. Then we can hang out like old times. Maybe we can even talk Lori out of the
     guy she’s into.”
    “Sounds like a story.”

    Morning sun glared through the windshield of her car as Elizabeth nursed her coffee.
     She definitely should’ve stopped drinking earlier in the evening. Three in the morning
     came faster than she had remembered. But it had been fun to talk, really talk, with
     a good friend. They’d managed to discuss jobs, family, and everything in between.
     They’d overindulged in drinks and food. Elizabeth had loved every minute of it.
    She was paying for every enjoyable moment now. She should’ve said no to the last drink.
     Hell, she should’ve refused the last three drinks. It was good that Colin had pushed
     their meeting to eleven. At least she had time to grab a coffee on the way. The coffee
     burned a path down her throat and splashed into her stomach as she parked in front
     of IP. The sight of the ugly building made her ill. Her stomach roiled and she swallowed
     hard.
    Stepping from the car, she shaded her eyes and willed the throbbing in her head to
     go away. Hopefully, the caffeine would help and she’d be more like herself before
     Colin arrived. She let herself into the bar and flipped on all the lights. The stench
     was even worse than the last time she’d been here in the morning.
    She propped open the front door for fresh air. She moved the CLOSED sign into plain
     view so people wouldn’t take the open door as an invitation. Staring at the disgusting
     floor and the bar that wasn’t much better, she shook her head. Her stomach heaved
     again, so she pressed her hand to her abdomen. Although she’d never been much of a
     drinker, she’d never gotten sick from it either.
    “It’s not that bad,” a voice said behind her and she jolted.
    Colin stood in the doorway holding a box of doughnuts.
    “Good morning,” she said.
    “Same to you.” He lowered his sunglasses and stared at her. “Are you feeling okay?”
    “I’m fine.” She turned back to the bar and swung her arm wide. “As you can see, the
     place needs a lot of work. I’m not sure it was even cleaned nightly. The smell makes
     me want to vomit, so I think we need to get rid of that first.”
    He put the box on the bar and ran his fingers over the wood. “The bar looks to be
     in good shape. I can’t tell much about the floor with this crappy lighting. Do you
     have brighter bulbs we can put in?”
    She shrugged. “I have no idea what’s here. I haven’t looked at any of the inventory.
     In fact, I was hoping that would be one of the things you could handle. I have decorators
     coming in later as well as a slew of vendors.”
    “Like to move fast, don’t you?”
    She was suddenly grateful for the dim lights as she felt heat creep up her neck again.
     “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Do you know what you want to do with this place yet? How are you going to have decorators
     in here if you don’t have a plan?”
    “My plan is to get rid of the crap and start new.”
    “You don’t need decorators to get rid of crap. They’re going to charge you for stuff
     we can do ourselves. That doesn’t make sense.” He fished into his pocket and pulled
     out a pile of napkins. “I have ideas.”
    She took a napkin and used it to wipe down one of the stools to take a seat.
    “Hey, those are my notes.”
    She looked at the crumpled paper. “You took notes on cocktail napkins?”
    “I used what I had handy.” He snatched it from her.
    After shuffling through the pile, he looked up. “I think this bar has a lot of potential.”
    “As what, a dump?”
    “You said that you wanted to turn this bar into a profitable business.” He looked
     at her like she was a child playing a game.