Forever Blake (Once Upon a Player Book 3) by Elena Matthews (free books to read .TXT) 📗

So, what can I get you? That is, if you’ve decided.” She winks.

I let out a dirty chuckle while I take my wallet out from my trouser pocket. “I will take two bottles of your best champagne, please.”

“Champagne, huh? I definitely didn’t peg you for a fizz kind of guy.”

“What kind of guy did you peg me for?” I ask, keeping our flirtation going despite all the customers still waiting to be served.

She looks me up and down. “In that suit? A scotch guy.”

“What about without the suit?” I ask, my voice huskily low.

Her eyes darken a little while she keeps her smile in place as she takes a few steps back toward the wine cooler, where I’m guessing they keep the champagne.

“I don’t have enough information or any visuals to go from. Also, I don’t even know your name.” She crouches down and takes two bottles of chilled champagne out of the cooler before standing back up.

“It’s Blake. Blake Jensen,” I say as she approaches and sets both bottles down in front of me.

“So, Blake, Blake Jensen.” She smirks. “How many glasses do you need for all this champagne?”

“Eight, please.”

She sets both bottles of champagne on a tray along with eight champagne glasses on another tray. “Anything else?”

That’s when I remember Remi won’t be drinking any. “Actually, my sister-in-law can’t drink. Do you have sparkling cider?”

“Sure thing.”

She disappears to the other side of the bar before returning a few seconds later, setting the bottle of sparkling cider down. “Is that everything?”

My heart sinks a little that I can’t make our interaction last any longer, but with the grunts and complaints from behind, I really can’t take up any more of her time. “Yes, thanks.”

She rings me up. “That’ll be three hundred seventy-two dollars.”

Though I’m making more money now, it’s definitely a little painful as I slide my credit card out from my wallet. Well, I did ask for the best. I manage to conceal my discomfort with a smile as I pay.

When I return my wallet back to my pocket, she grins. “An expensive night, huh?”

Expensive indeed.

I just shrug my shoulders as if it were no big deal.

She glances down at the drinks before returning her gaze back to me. “Let me get someone to help you with your drinks and glasses,” she says just as a hand claps me on my back.

I pivot my head to face my brother Jace.

“Man, I almost sent the cavalry out to find you. What’s taking you so long?”

I ignore my brother and focus on the bartender. Damn, she’s so pretty. “It’s okay. I think I have it covered.”

“It was nice to meet you, Blake. Have a good night.”

And before I have a chance to ask for her name, she’s already serving the next customer.

“Come on. Everyone’s thirsty,” Jace says.

Reluctantly, I grab the bottles while Jace grabs the tray filled with glasses, and we return to the table.

“Damn, champagne!” Logan says with wide eyes as we set everything down in the center of the table. He turns his attention to Remi, a huge grin on his face. “You need to get pregnant more often if it means Blake gets his wallet out.”

I grab one of the bottles of champagne and plop it down in front of him. “How about less talking and more serving up the champagne, dumbass?”

He throws me a smirk that screams, Fuck you, as he gets to work, uncorking the bottle, while Jace opens the other. Once the bottles are open and everyone has a glass, including Remi with her sparkling cider, I stand to make a toast.

“If today wasn’t already incredible with both my and Logan’s promotions at work, we find out our family is growing with a new addition. Today is definitely one for the books. So, let’s drink our champagne and celebrate the hell out of our amazing lives.” I raise my glass. “To living the best life!”

“To living the best life!” everyone hollers before celebrating in style with champagne.

Drinking on a Friday night when you’re in your thirties is definitely not what it was when you were in your twenties. Well, for my family at least. It seems champagne was the wrong call for tonight. Either it made them too tired to function (Kaelyn and Chase), made them stupid horny (Logan and Ally), or made them an emotional wreck after spending the past hour singing “(You’re) Having My Baby” to Remi’s stomach—yes, you guessed it—Nate. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Nate knew all the words, but he just sang the first bit of chorus over and over again. So, you could say, it was a relief when they all eventually left.

Now, it’s just Jace and me…well, I thought it was until he stands and shrugs on his jacket.

“I’m going to call it a night. You want to share a cab?”

My eyes instinctively find the gorgeous, mysterious, new bartender on the other side of the bar, serving the last few customers who still have it in them to continue drinking past eleven p.m. I don’t know what it is about this chick, but she piques my interest in a way a woman hasn’t in the past. I can’t even describe why I feel so drawn to her. I mean, yes, she is smoking hot, and I’d love nothing more than to fuck her six ways to Sunday…but it’s more than that. I just don’t know what. All I know is that my heart beats faster every time I glance in her direction—which has been every few seconds—and I haven’t felt an intensity like this before.

I raise my empty glass. “Actually, I’m going to stay for another drink.”

He frowns down at me. “What, on your own?”

I almost laugh at that. He questions it as if a grown man in his thirties can’t enjoy a drink alone. Though I don’t plan on being alone. I chance another glance at the bartender across the bar, and Jace follows the direction of my gaze. He pivots