Somebody to Love Excerpt

Somebody to Love-by Lily Sawyer

Coming July 25th from Secret Cravings Publishing

http://www.secretcravingspublishing.com/LilySawyer.html

The Corner Pub was crowded for a Thursday night and several large TV sets were tuned to baseball games.  Sam Warner loved baseball, he decided to take a break from his flower store that was up the street and wandered in here. He settled into one of the comfortable seats and watched the game.

Sam couldn’t help notice a dark haired man-tending bar. He wore a black t-shirt with the bar’s name emblazoned onto the front.  He must be a new guy cause Sam didn’t remember seeing him here before.

Sam watched as one of the patrons sidled up to the bar and asked, “Hey, Matt, give me another beer, will you?”

‘Matt, so that’s his name.’  Sam thought; he couldn’t keep his eyes off him. Something about him made him want to go over and say hello. He also needed a refill, and seeing that as an opportunity to speak with him, he got up and wandered slowly over to the bar.

“Come on, hit a home run!” a burly guy was screaming at the screen.  He quickly stood up just as Sam arrived at the bar and his beer landed all over the front of Sam’s green polo shirt that his mother had given him for Christmas.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” The man grabbed some napkins and was dabbing the beer stained shirt. “Let me buy you a drink.”

“It’s okay.” Sam smiled reassuringly and the guy disappeared back into the crowd.   He looked over at the bartender, he could tell he was trying to hide an amused smile.  He offered him a roll of paper towels.

“Here, use some club soda.” He offered him a glass filled with the bubbly drink.  After getting most of the stain out of the material he put the paper towels on the bar counter.   The bartender threw them into the trash.  He leaned over and said,   “I’m Matt Doyle,” and offered his hand.  Sam looked down at their clasped hands and his blond hair dripped down partially covering his eyes.  Sam’s brown eyes locked onto Matt’s blue ones.

 “Mine’s Sam Warner.” He managed to get out without embarrassing himself.  He could feel his palms becoming sweaty,  he didn’t know why he was getting so nervous in Matt’s presence.

“Pleased to meet you Sam,” Matt took a glass and poured some beer from the tap and placed it on the counter in front of him.

 Sam looked up and smiled.  “You must be new, I’ve never seen you before.”

  Sam could feel something was going on between them, but he hoped it wasn’t wishful thinking. It wasn’t that long ago that he’d been in a serious four-year relationship that had ended badly. Ever since then he’d been reluctant to date again.

“Yeah I just started a week ago, I used to work at Daffy’s over on Second Street.”

“I’ve never been there.”

“You’re not missing much, the drinks are watered down and the pay was lousy.”  Matt was restocking the shelves behind the counter when he asked him “So you’re a baseball fan?”

“Oh, yeah been a fan ever since my dad took me to a game when I was seven years old.” He didn’t know why he was telling this man his life story, but it was true about what they said about bartenders being like your father confessor.   And Matt certainly was not only easy to talk to, but easy on the eyes as well.

“Who do you like?”

“Well don’t laugh, but I like the Mets.”

“Those guys? So you like routing for the underdog.” Matt chuckled.

“Hey, what can I say? My dad got me hooked on them, couldn’t stop telling me enough about when they’d won the World Series.” Sam took a sip from his drink.

“I’m not knocking it, I think rooting for the underdog is admirable.” Matt’s smile lit up the room and it made Sam’s heart skip a few beats. 

“Really?” Sam asked shyly.

Matt smiled back.  “Sure is.”

“Well, I better get going.” Sam noticed how late it was getting. He needed a good night’s sleep ‘cause he’d need to start filling more flower orders in the morning.

“So soon?”  Matt sounded disappointed.  “It was nice meeting you, Sam.” He held out his hand for Sam to shake.

“Same here.” He shook Matt’s hand and put his coat on.

“Hey, there’s a game here on Sunday afternoon. Think you can make it?” Matt told him. 

“Nah, I’m busy, but maybe sometime next week?” For some reason Sam was reluctant to tell Matt he was a florist.

“I’ll catch you another time.” Matt said hopefully.

“I’ll be back,” He leaned in close to Matt and met the blue eyes with his own, “Count on it.”

“Night, Sam.”  Sam felt Matt’s eyes on him as he left. 

Sam left the bar feeling better than when he’d come in.  He wasn’t sure if this was going to turn into something, but he wasn’t going to close the door on that possibility.