Excerpt: Henry's

Several burgers and half a dozen beers later she looked up at the jingle of the door to see Sam come through the door. Anna couldn’t help the smile that pulled at her lips or the skip in her pulse. For some reason Sam’s presence always made her feel a little happier, and he was a sight to be admired in t-shirt in jeans. Shaggy blonde hair, blue eyes, and just a little bit of scruff with a lithe, athletic build, Sam was 6 feet of gorgeous as far as Anna was concerned.
He stopped to chat with a few guys who greeted him and Anna was setting somebody up with a whiskey on the rocks when he finally made his way up to the bar.

“Busy night,” he said, squeezing himself between two stools.

“Here you go.” She said to the whiskey on the rocks drinker before turning her attention to Sam.

“You know how to tend bar right?” she asked a sudden thought occurring to her.

Sam looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “What?” he asked.

“Oh, hell, why am I even asking, of course you know how to tend bar.” She shook her head at herself. “Here.” She pulled an apron out from under the bar and tossed it to him. “Get back here.”

“I just came in for a beer, little lady. I’ve got things to do tonight.” He said, trying to hand the apron back. Then he winced.

Anna’s eyebrow shot up. “Did you just call me little lady?” she demanded.

Sam didn’t answer, just ducked his head.

“All right, either I’ve got to be pissed at you for the next week, or you can get your butt back behind this bar, and give me half an hour of your time. Your choice.” She informed him.

“Just half an hour?” he asked. “And you’ll actually let it go?”

The bell above the door jingled again and a group of five laughing men poured through, at the same time somebody yelled for another beer.

“Yes.” She put a hand on her hip. “Half an hour. And then you can go do whatever it is you’ve got to do tonight.” There was an edge to her voice, and she knew it. She really should have said please, she would have had her way already if she’d played on instincts to provide help to a woman in need, but she was tired, and frazzled, and he’d just called her little lady, which she must have told him not to do a dozen times by now.

“Yeah, okay,” he conceded, “but just a half an hour, Anna. I really can’t stay longer than that.”

“Hey, can a guy get a beer around here?” The same guy yelled again.

“It’s coming! Hold your damn horses!” Sam hollered back as made his way back behind the bar.

“Half an hour.” He told Anna again. “That’s it.”

“You’re a doll,” Anna beamed at him. She grabbed the pad out of her own apron and went out to the floor to take orders from the five men who’d commandeered two tables and pushed them together. If she was lucky she could get all their orders taken and served in the next half hour, before Sam left. That would only leave her with another three hours before she could close the bar. She tried not to cry.