It was almost one o’clock in the morning when his group got up to leave. Ryan stood there staring at me while he put his jacket on. He left out a sigh then turned and headed for the door. And just like that, with no words, no goodbye, he was gone.

Fortunately when the celebrities left so did most of the crowd. The pub was trashed. We went through most of the bottles of beer I had stocked in the coolers as well as most of my liquor reserves. Bottles, glasses, and empty pitchers covered most of the tables.

“How freaking crazy was that?” Pete shouted as he helped collect the garbage.

Marie had tray after tray of dirty glasses lined up on the bar top, but despite the huge mess that awaited clean-up, she was still smiling from her celebrity encounter.

“I cannot believe that they came here!” she giggled. “I’m still jittery!”

I smiled at her. Ryan and his friends were just people who wanted to have a good time tonight too.

“One thing is for sure - Ryan Christensen couldn’t take his eyes off of you!” she teased me.

I groaned at her for pointing that out.

“And don’t you roll your eyes at me either!” she reprimanded.

I let out a big sigh while visions of Ryan flashed through my mind. We did stare at each other a lot tonight.

Why did he try to protect me? I started washing dirty glasses trying not to think about it, but I was failing miserably.

Chapter 4 - Games

“You made the paper,” Tammy announced, tossing the Monday local section of the Seaport Times newspaper in front of me. My dear friend Pete was holding Tammy’s other hand. He pulled out a chair so Tammy could join me at the big, round table in the middle of the pub.

I was so glad when Pete put that engagement ring on Tammy’s finger. He loved her so much and she surely made him happy. Tammy was a sweetheart and a great friend.

“We did?” I asked as I paged through the newspaper to find the article.

“Yep, you’re on page two,” she replied.

“Where?” I didn’t see an article.

“There, the picture.” Tammy pointed.

I studied the photo of people standing outside my front door. The caption read “Local night spot Mitchell’s Pub had a long waiting line Saturday as visiting celebrities were reported to be inside.”

“That’s it?” Marie asked as she read over my shoulder. “No story?”

“Whatever. I’ll take the free advertising,” I joked. “And speaking of long lines… here, this is for you.” I pulled two envelopes from my pocket and slid one to both Pete and Marie.

“What’s this?” Pete asked, peering inside the envelope. He counted it out. “This is five hundred bucks!”

“Well, we had a monumental Saturday night and I wanted to share the profits with you. You both worked very hard and I wanted to say Thank You in more than words.”

“Thanks!” they both said in unison.

Marie’s husband Gary tried to grab the envelope from her.

“Hands off, mister!” she yelled, smacking his hand. “I busted my ass for this!”

“Yeah, Gary! Keep your hands off that money!” I scolded him. “Marie needs all of that. Maybe that way she’ll be able to stay in the game longer tonight.”

“Oh, I see!” Pete bellowed. “You think you’re going to win this money back tonight, do you?” He grinned at me.

“That’s right! We’re upping tonight’s bets from quarters to dollars. And the sooner you shuffle the cards, the sooner I’ll be rich,” I teased him.

“Marie… while you are over there, can you grab a bowl for the pretzels, pretty please?”

“So we’re not playing for quarters?” Pete’s face fell.

Tammy nudged him in the arm. “I’m pretty sure Taryn is joking.”

Marie was digging in one of the cabinets behind the bar when the telephone rang. “Good evening, Mitchell’s Pub.”

I looked over at her, confused by her actions. “Don’t answer that. We’re closed, remember?”

“No, I’m sorry. We aren’t open tonight. The pub will be open tomorrow at one o’clock. Sure, hold on a minute.” Marie held the phone to her shoulder. “Taryn, phone call.”

“Who is it?” I whispered at her.

She shrugged her shoulders, not bothering to ask. ”I dunno.”

“Hello?” I answered.

“Taryn? Hi, it’s Ryan. How are you?”

“Good! And you?” Why is he calling me?

“I’m good. I was just wondering if you were open. Cal and I were looking for something to do and I thought about shooting pool,” Ryan rambled.

“Well, actually I’m closed on Mondays,” I said regrettably.

“Oh, what are you up to then?” he asked.

“I’m just hanging out with a few friends. On Mondays we play poker.”

“Did you say poker?” It sounded like he didn’t believe me.

“Yeah,” I laughed nervously. “We play every Monday.”

“That sounds like fun!” Ryan stated.

I could hear another male voice in the background asking Ryan to explain.

“Playing poker,” Ryan spoke to someone else.

“Oh hell yeah!” the voice in the background replied loudly and enthusiastically.

“So I guess this is the part where I ask if you want to join us?” I snickered.

“I don’t know. Are there a lot of people there?” he asked worriedly.

“No, just four of my friends. That’s it.”

“Just four? Do you mind if we come over?” He sounded hopeful. “We’d love to play; we need to get out of the hotel.”

“No, I don’t mind. That is as long as you don’t bring your psycho fans with you. By the way, we play for money.”

Ryan laughed in my ear. “You’ll have to sneak us in then. We can come through the alley.”

“Hmm, sounds like you thought about this already,” I accused him.

“Maybe,” he shot back. “We’ll be there in a half hour.”

“Who was that?” Marie asked. Her eyes narrowed in on my face.

I sat back down at the big table and ran my finger around the rim of my beer glass.

“That was…” I took a deep breath. “Ryan.”

“What? You mean like Ryan Christensen?” Marie just about shot out of her chair.

“Yep.” I was fighting back a smile.