Against All Odds Choices (2ndt in a series of contemporary romance books for Kindle) by Sarah Amerson Page A

Sarah's
ex-boyfriend. Thankfully, we all remained friends so everything was cool.
    “I thought you
went to graduate school or something,” I said.
    “Yeah,” he
smiled. “Harvard. Typical, huh?”
    “No, not
really,” I laughed.
    I didn't know
much about his family, but I knew enough to know that they were loaded.
Probably not as wealthy as a particular person I didn't want to think about
right now, though.
    “So what are
you doing around here? Does Sarah even know you're in town?”
    He shook his
head. “Nah, I'm not around for long,” he breathed out. “Just had to get back to
take care of a family thing.”
    I nodded.
“Well, what do you want to drink? It's on the house.”
    “You don't
have to do that.”
    “For old
times' sake,” I offered, wiggling my eyebrows.
    He laughed.
“Okay, just a Corona. Thanks.”
    “No prob.”
    I gave him a
smile before turning to get his order. When I returned to give him his beer, I
had a tingling feeling that someone was looking at me. My eyes wandered around
the bar briefly and caught a pair of steel blue eyes staring back.
    Crap. Leo was
here. In the bar. Right now.
    I swiftly
looked away and handed George his bottle.
    “How's
Ariana?” he asked. “Is she doing well at her school in the Upper East Side?”
    I inwardly
felt grateful to him for the distraction.
    “Yeah, she is,”
I confirmed proudly, completely ignoring the fact that I could still feel Leo's
eyes on me. “She's still a part of the scholarship program they're offering.”
    “That's nice.
I'm happy for you guys.”
    There was
genuine sincerity in his voice that made my heart melt. Old friends knew what I
had been through – what my sister and I had been through. It was nice to hear
that other people could see a big improvement in our lives.
    “Thanks,” I
replied. “It means a lot, G-man.”
    He burst out
laughing. Hysterically, I might add.
    “Holy shit,”
he managed to say through his laughs. “No one has called me that in a long
time. I can't believe you still remember that.”
    “Duh.” I
rolled my eyes, smiling at how amused I made him.
    On the corner
of my eye, I saw movement from a black silhouette. It wasn't rocket science to
know whose black suit and tie were walking towards the counter and directly
towards me.
    Dang it. Can't
Leo wait until I've come up with a reason not to talk to him?
    Apparently, he
couldn't. Because he was now right beside George, the counter serving as the
only barrier between us. And he was staring straight at me.
    I didn't look
at Leo, and pretended to be busy cleaning the glasses on my side of the
counter. It wasn't until I heard George speak that I looked up.
    “You look
familiar,” he commented, studying Leo.
    Leo nodded in
quick greeting to him. “Probably,” he merely said. Then, he turned his eyes to
me.
    There was a
mixture of emotions I saw in them. It was as though he was amused at my attempt
of indifferent expression, but at the same time he was serious that he seemed
like he really meant business.
    “We need to
talk,” he told me in an urgent tone.
    I frowned. “We
talked last night.”
    “Unfortunately,
you walked away before we got to finish it.”
    “I thought the
conversation was over,” I shrugged nonchalantly, even though I knew he was
right. I left before we got the chance to settle things, leaving the matter
unresolved. Before Leo could respond, I added, “Look, I'm working.”
    He gazed at me
for a moment, before nodding once and reaching a hand to his pocket. He pulled
out his wallet, then a hundred-dollar bill.
    “Here,” he
said, placing the money on the counter. “JD on the rocks. Oh, and a Budweiser
for the big guy,” he added, nodding to the other end of the bar.
    There, sitting
with his intimidating quietness, was Marco. Of course, he'd be here. He was
Leo's bodyguard, after all.
    I took the
money and went on to get their orders. Marco didn't say anything when I put the
bottle of beer in front of him. He just gave me