Chasing Dreams

A Devil’s Bend Novel

Nicole Edwards

Dedication

To my amazing mother and my wonderful mother-in-law:

There will never be any way to show just how much I love you both, but please know that you mean everything to me.

Thank you so much for your love and encouragement.

Love,

~Nic~

Chapter One

“Tessa.”

At the sound of her name, Tessa Donovan glanced up from the beer she was pouring. Not that she needed to. She knew exactly which man owned that sexy, country drawl.

“Awww, hell!” she exclaimed, glancing down to see a mess of foam as it poured over the edge of the glass she was filling.

“Well, don’t get too excited that I’m here,” Eric Lancaster, the only other bartender that The Rusty Nail employed, said with a cocky grin as he headed her way.

“I blame you, Mr. Lancaster,” she grinned sheepishly as she grabbed a towel and wiped the overflow off of her hands.

“You can drop that mister shit right here and now,” Eric teased. “Keep it up and I’ll start callin’ you ma’am.”

“Ok, buddy. No need to start with the threats,” Tessa joked, returning her focus to the new glass she grabbed, paying attention this time as the foam lifted to the top. Once full, she slid it over to the man at the end of the counter as she called out to him, “Hey, Tex, put your hands on the beer, not the lady. You know she’s married, right?”

The stranger who’d bellied up to the bar half an hour ago had the decency to blush. Didn’t stop him from hitting on the bar bunny though. The very same bar bunny with a wedding band on. Tessa glanced down at his hand. Great. He had one on too, and it wasn’t from a matching set. Lovely.

As Eric made his way around behind the bar, Tessa grabbed another glass, filled another beer and passed it over to another waiting customer. Story of her life.

“Ow!” Tessa hollered when Eric swatted her on the ass, as was his usual greeting. “Don’t let your ol’ lady see you doin’ that.”

“She might just be jealous that I got to touch your ass, you know that right?” Eric’s sexy rumble echoed around the bar.

Glancing over at him, Tessa smiled. If it weren’t for the fact that Eric was more like her brother than her own brothers sometimes, she might just get excited. Ok, no. That wasn’t true either. She’d grown up with Eric, and since he was actually married to her best friend, Isabelle, Tessa knew more about him than she cared to. Probably no attraction to be had no matter the case.

He was a decent guy though.

“You’re probably right on that one,” she said, making Eric laugh.

The sexy rumble that followed caused more than one head to turn at the bar. Eric had that effect on women… er, other women. He turned heads. In fact, Tessa was pretty sure he was almost personally responsible for the sheer volume of ladies who flocked to The Rusty Nail on a nightly basis. It was just a good thing that Izzy – Eric’s lovely bride – was one of the most confident women that she knew. Had Eric belonged to Tessa, she couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be at least one cat fight each and every night.

“You see Adam yet?” Tessa hadn’t seen her older brother all day, and that was unusual, especially for a Friday night.

Since Adam was in charge of the entertainment, he generally stopped in early to ensure there weren’t any problems with arrival, setup, that sort of thing. Considering the band wasn’t there yet, and they were closing in on seven o’clock, Tessa figured it was safe to say there were problems. If not, then this was one band that could use a course in time management. She would not be responsible for the chaos that would ensue if the main attraction did not show up on time.

“He texted me earlier. Said he had to run an errand,” Eric explained as he grabbed a bottle of vodka and began rolling shots out as they were ordered.

The bar was quickly filling up, and Tessa knew it was because of the night’s entertainment. She personally hadn’t believed Adam when he said he booked Cooper Krenshaw, but from what her brother told her, he was actually excited to play there.

Right.

Why one of the biggest names in country music wanted to play her bar, she had no idea, but she wasn’t in charge of the music selection, so she didn’t ask. She wasn’t the swoon worthy type, which meant she wouldn’t be swept off her feet by his overwhelming presence either. From the looks of it, she might be the only one though.