The Plan (Capitol Love Series Book 1) Read online

  “Well, look who it is!” Colin said with a grin as he appeared in front of her and slapped down a cocktail napkin. “Looking for Rayne?”

  “Yes. She’s the one who insisted we do trivia night here.”

  “Aw, man, and here I thought you’d come to see me.”

  “Oh! No, I just meant, I was going to stay at work, but of course seeing you is a bonus.” As soon as the words left Savannah’s mouth, she felt herself blushing and wished she could hit the “undo” button.

  Colin grinned, and his blue eyes twinkled as he said, “I’ll take it.”

  Savannah busied herself by looking at her phone to see if Rayne had texted her.

  “Rayne is here, by the way.”

  Savannah looked up. “She is? Where?”

  Colin tilted his head to the far end of the bar. Savannah looked in that direction but didn’t see her. “I don’t—”

  Suddenly a muscular back shifted sideways, and Savannah realized it belonged to Chase. Rayne sat facing him, more starry-eyed and giggly than Savannah had ever seen her.

  “Oh!” Savannah said. “Well.”

  “Yeah.” Colin winced when Rayne laughed at something Chase said. “I told him to stay away from her, but clearly he’s hard of hearing.”

  “Why? What’s wrong with Rayne?” Savannah was instantly on the offensive. She sat up straight and flipped her hair behind her shoulder.

  Colin chuckled as he watched her assume her fighting stance. “Stand down, Red. Rayne is great. But my brother…well, let’s just say she can do better.”

  “Oh, really? They seem to be having a good time.” Savannah watched as Rayne said something that made Chase throw his head back and let out a hoot of laughter.

  “Everyone has a good time with Chase. Until he’s gone.” Savannah gave Colin a questioning look. “He travels for work. A lot. Usually leaves without much—or any—warning. Never really clear when he’s coming back. Somehow never has cell service, that kind of thing.”

  “Ahhh, I see. That’s not going to work for Rayne. She’s not a casual fling kind of girl. She likes stability in her life. And she doesn’t play games.”

  “I figured as much,” Colin said, setting down a class of ginger ale with a cherry in it. “Seeing as how she’s your best friend.”

  Savannah glanced at the drink.

  “Just ginger ale,” he said. “I figured you might not be up for drinking tonight. But I can add a splash of Jack if you want.”

  “No, this is perfect. Again.” Savannah took a sip and marveled at how he really did always know the perfect drink.

  “I’m going to bring you out some of the happy hour apps, too,” he said as he rapidly stabbed icons on the register’s monitor.

  Savannah knew she should protest because if the pattern held, he wasn’t going to charge her much, if anything, but at the same time it felt nice to have someone else make decisions and fuss over her. Especially when that someone was a sexy man with tattoos poking out of his T-shirt that she grew more curious to explore every time she caught a glimpse.

  As she waited for Colin to return, she watched Rayne, who still hadn’t noticed that Savannah was there, and began to dread having to tell her about Chase. It had been a very long time since Rayne had shown so much interest in a guy. Too bad it was the wrong type. Again.

  Colin returned a few minutes later with a plate piled with small triangles of grilled-cheese sandwiches and another plate of french fries.

  “Three different takes on a grilled cheese sandwich and, of course fries because obviously,” he said with a grin.

  “Obviously,” Savannah said, returning his grin.

  “Trivia is about to start. Were you going to play?” he glanced at Rayne, who was clearly not going to be a good teammate.

  “Nope, I’m just going to eat my comfort food and then try to drag Rayne out of here.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” Colin picked up a remote and flipped the channels of the TV behind the bar and the screen that hung behind the small stage set up near the bay window. The screens lit up with a graphic that said, “Welcome to Trivia Night!” and a woman jumped on the stage and grabbed the mic.

  As the woman started going over the rules, Savannah glanced down the bar at Rayne, who seemed to be coming back to earth because she was looking around. Their eyes met, and Savannah waved and smiled. Rayne looked a little sheepish, but when Savannah smiled an It’s OK smile, Rayne smiled back.

  With just her eyes and facial expressions, Rayne said, Can you believe it? cutting her eyes at Chase, who was watching the first trivia question appear on the screen.

  Savannah responded with Uh huh! in a similarly nonverbal manner than only best friends can pull off.

  Rayne silently asked, Is this OK?

  Savannah gave a wave of her hand and made a face that said, No worries.

  Rayne smiled gratefully and turned her attention back to Chase.

  For the next hour, Savannah nibbled on food and kept one eye on Rayne and one eye on the trivia questions. Colin moved around the bar waiting on people, but whenever he had a spare minute, he would wander back to Savannah and they would try to guess the answers or make fun of each other’s wrong answers.

  When the host announced that they were going to take a fifteen-minute break, Savannah decided it was her cue to leave. She hadn’t slept much the previous night, and it was starting to catch up with her. The next time Colin came by, she told him she was going to head out, expecting him to argue. Instead he said, “Yeah, you look exhausted. I’m actually surprised you lasted this long.”

  “Aren’t you a sweet talker?” Savannah said, thinking about how fun it had been hanging out with him tonight. She had enjoyed the easy back and forth they’d established. Maybe they really could just be friends.

  “I try,” he said with a wink. “Are you going to take Rayne with you?”

  “That’s the plan,” Savannah said. At some point in the last hour, Rayne and Chase had moved from the bar to one of the secluded booths in the far back. Savannah looked at Colin. “I’m not going to walk back there and find something X-rated going on, am I?”

  Colin chuckled. “I make no promises. But I will go back with you, and if necessary, I’ll hold Chase back while you grab Rayne and run.”

  “Please be joking,” Savannah muttered as she slid off the stool and threw her bag over her shoulder.

  “Has she been drinking?” Savannah asked as she met up with Colin at the end of the bar.

  “Yep.”

  “Awesome.”

  When they reached the table, Savannah was relieved to see that although they were snuggled in on the same side of the booth, nothing graphic seemed to be happening.

  “Hi, Rayne!” Savannah said loudly to get her attention.

  “Savannah! Hiiiii!” Rayne cried cheerfully, stretching her hands toward her across Chase’s chest.

  “Hi, sweetie,” Savannah said. “We need to go home now.”

  “Already?” Rayne said, looking disappointed.

  Chase looked up at Savannah with a smile and said, “I’d be happy to walk her home later, if you need to go.” He still had his arm around Rayne’s shoulder and reached for his drink with his other hand.

  “That’s nice of you, but we both have to get up early,” Savannah said. “And, Rayney, I haven’t seen you all evening and I wanted to tell you about the big project I got assigned to at work.”

  “What big project?” Colin asked, and Savannah was embarrassed because she’d just been using it as an excuse to get Rayne to move more than two inches from Chase.

  “Oh, it’s the big donor appreciation event next month,” she said. “I talked my boss into letting me be in charge of it. It means a ton of work, but if I pull it off, I might even get a promotion out of it.”

  “That’s great, sweetie!” Rayne said. Then she nudged Chase to let her out of the booth. “I want to hear all about it.”

  Chase slid out of the booth then helped Rayne out and handed her purse to h
er.

  “Thanks for keeping me company tonight. I had a great time,” he said, sounding, at least to Savannah, like he was sincere.

  “Me, too,” Rayne said with a giggle. “Bye.” She gave a little wave and let Savannah steer her toward the door. “Oh wait, I didn’t give him my number!” Rayne tried to turn back, but Savannah kept her arm around her and kept her heading straight for the door.

  “I’m sure he knows how to find you.”

  As soon as Rayne and Savannah were gone, Chase said, “Since when are you in the C-blocking business, bro?”

  Colin glared at him. “You can have any other girl in this city, but you had to go straight for her? I told you to stay away.”

  “She started talking to me tonight.”

  “You moved it to canoodling in the back booth.”

  “She’s hot! And smart and funny as hell,” Chase said. “And who put you in charge of deciding who she can date?”

  “She’s not your type. She likes stability and reliability. All the things you hate.”

  Chase rolled his eyes. “I don’t hate stability. You’re so dramatic.” Colin crossed his arms and stared at him until Chase said, “Hate is such a strong word.”

  Colin started to move toward the kitchen, and Chase said, “At least I’m honest about who I am.”

  Colin stopped and turned to look at him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “Face it, bro,” Chase said. “That girl is messing with your head. You can’t even be honest with her about who you are.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Diana told me about your scheme to pretend to be a lowly bartender until your girl falls head over heels and then the pumpkin turns into a carriage and you slide the glass slipper on her foot—”

  “Go home, Chase,” Colin said.

  “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “I won’t—because I don’t intend to have this conversation with you again. Now get the hell out of my bar,” Colin said, but there was more weariness than heat behind his words.

  On the walk home, Savannah realized that Rayne wasn’t as drunk as she thought, she was mostly just giddy about Chase.

  “We’re basically in the same line of work,” Rayne said. “He takes pictures of nature, and I try to preserve nature so that he can keep taking pictures. It’s perfect!”

  “Sweetie, did Chase happen to mention that he travels a lot so he can take those pictures?”

  “Yeah, he said he travels a fair amount, but it’s up to him whether he goes or not.”

  “That’s not how Colin made it sound. In fact, Colin thinks you should steer clear of Chase. He said he’s a bit...unreliable.”

  Rayne was quiet for a moment. She finally pushed a stray strand of hair away from her face and said, “I should have known. Why are the unreliable ones always so attractive?”

  “Probably because they can get away with it,” Savannah said. She wished more than anything that she could have told her friend to go for it.

  Linking her arm through Rayne’s, she sighed. “God. Men suck.”

  “Mm-hmm,” Rayne said, and they walked the rest of the way home in silence.

  Chapter 14

  Saturday morning was another gorgeous spring day, and Savannah woke up at 7:30 feeling energetic and optimistic about her life. She jumped out of bed and grabbed her laptop then crept quietly down the stairs. In the kitchen she moved on tiptoes so as not to wake Carol as she made a pot of coffee and helped herself to a donut from the box that had appeared on the counter overnight.

  Balancing her mug of coffee, laptop, and donut, she made her way out to the front porch and settled in to see if she could line up at least one date for the next week. She’d taken a little break from it after the Ryan incident, but The Plan wasn’t going to fulfill itself. On Friday, Sarah had told Savannah that she was impressed by how hard she was working and how quickly she was picking things up and offering great insights. Savannah had been relieved to get that reinforcement. So with the career part of her plan seeming to be on track, it was time to get back to the dating side.

  After logging into her “It’s Just Drinks!” account, she found several messages waiting for her from men who wanted to meet for drinks. After eliminating the obviously unsuitable ones, she was left with three options. She sent each of them a message asking if they were available to meet next week. Having all her dates at Zipped definitely made her feel more comfortable, but it also provided some scheduling challenges. She wasn’t going to go in on a Monday again because of the Young Professionals group, and Thursday night trivia was too crazy to be a good first-date environment. And then it hit her that she had no way of knowing whether Colin would even be working at a time she might schedule a date.

  Opening a new browser window, Savannah brought up Facebook and typed “Colin” into the search field. Shaking her head at herself, she realized she didn’t even know his last name, which felt strange given how often she’d pictured him naked. There were several Colins in D.C., and eventually she found a semi-public profile of a Colin Allison with a photo of a guy standing with the sun behind him so his features were in darkness, but he had “bartender” as his occupation and was friends with a Chase Allison and Crystal from Sweet Happens.

  Taking a deep breath, she sent him a friend request then went back to her dating site to look for some more suitable men. Less than two minutes later, a notification popped up on her Facebook page. Colin had accepted her friend request.

  Clicking on the messenger icon, she typed, Hey! I’m assuming this is the Colin who’s the bartender at Zipped?

  His reply was almost immediate. I knew it was just a matter of time before you started stalking me, Red.

  Smiling, Savannah typed, I’m not stalking you! I just realized that I didn’t have a way to contact you to coordinate my dates with your schedule.

  I’m always working. But just in case, here’s my cell number. You can text me to confirm if you want.

  Savannah wondered if she should give him her cell number, too, but before she could decide, another message popped up. Maybe you should give me yours so I’ll know it’s you...and not one of my other stalkers.

  So you have a lot of women checking your work schedule? Savannah teased, although now that she’d mentioned it, she was curious how many women were in his life. Not that it mattered, of course.

  Why? Jealous?

  Savannah blushed at being busted.

  No! She stopped typing, trying to think of something flip or snappy to write back but couldn’t think of anything. Finally she typed, Besides, it’s none of my business.

  A long pause followed before Colin’s response came through. There’s no one else keeping track of my schedule, Red. Just so you know.

  Savannah’s stomach did a full acrobatic roll, and she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. Then she flashed to his cryptic conversation with Crystal last week and reminded herself that she didn’t really know him that well, despite how it felt at times.

  Well, like I said, it’s none of my business. But I will give you my cell number so you’ll know it’s me.

  I’ll take what I can get, Colin replied, followed by a winky emoji.

  A few minutes later, one of the guys Savannah had emailed replied and suggested that they meet that evening for a drink. Savannah felt slightly disoriented shifting from chatting with (and thinking about) Colin to talking to a stranger, but she reminded herself of her goal and told the guy she could meet him at Zipped at 7:00.

  Going back to Facebook messenger, she typed, First drinks date tonight! 7pm.

  Colin immediately responded. I’m not working tonight!

  But you just said you’re always there! Savannah’s mind whirled as she tried to think of how she’d explain to her date that she needed to reschedule.

  Gotcha! Get there by 6:45 so we can decide on a bail-out signal.

  You’re not as funny as you think.

  Yes, I am. S
ee you tonight.

  Savannah picked up her nearly empty coffee mug, feeling a sense of anticipation building in her. But she didn’t know if it was for her date or for seeing Colin.

  Colin couldn’t suppress his smile as he shoved his phone back in his pocket and reached for the door at Sweet Happens.

  “I was wondering when you were going to put that phone down and come in here,” Crystal said as she shoved a tray of hot donuts into the display case.

  “Just finishing up some business.” He was still smiling when he reached over the counter to help himself to one of the to-go cups.

  “Must have been some good business to give you that stupid grin.” Crystal’s voice was light, but Colin knew she was looking for information.

  “Probably won’t amount to anything more than a bunch of trouble,” he said over his shoulder as he filled the coffee cup at the machine by the counter.

  “Speaking of trouble, how’s that brother of yours?” Crystal refused to meet Colin’s eye as she spoke, focusing instead on putting donuts into a bag for him.

  “Hey! I told you—if you’re going to talk about Chase, our deal is off.”

  “I’m just making conversation!”

  Colin cocked his head and stared at her until she glanced up then away with a blush.

  “Fine.” Crystal tossed the pastry bag at him. “But he doesn’t have to avoid me. I’m not going to freak out on him if he walks in here.”

  “What did I just say?! One more strike and you can find another source. I’m risking my neck here keeping you supplied.”

  “Fine!” Crystal’s eyes darted to the door, which was still closed tight. “I won’t mention you-know-who ever again.”

  “Then we’re good.” Colin smiled and pushed through the door and out onto the empty patio, where his thoughts immediately returned to Savannah. He knew he shouldn’t be excited that she was coming to Zipped on a date, but as he’d just told her, he’d take what he could get.