All Bets Are Off Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  About the Author

  Also from Marguerite Labbe

  Copyright

  Published by

  Dreamspinner Press

  382 NE 191st Street #88329

  Miami, FL 33179-3899, USA

  http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All Bets Are Off

  Copyright © 2011 by Marguerite Labbe

  Cover Art by Anne Cain [email protected]

  Cover Design by Mara McKennen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 382 NE 191st Street #88329, Miami, FL 33179-3899, USA

  http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/

  ISBN: 978-1-61372-251-0

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Edition

  December 2011

  eBook edition available

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-61372-252-7

  Dedication

  For Melissa K., my fellow displaced New Englander and lover of baseball, I hope we get to commiserate and anguish over future games for many more years.

  Acknowledgments

  Alaina Pincus was invaluable in helping me figure out the inner workings of college departments. She answered my many notes as I was writing the story and then graciously read through and corrected my many mistakes afterward and offered her own insights into the story.

  KJ Reed helped me with military terminology and answered my many questions regarding the Marines and the Reserves in particular, even when those questions came late at night or when she was working on her own deadline.

  CM Torrens and Jen McJ provided wonderful critiques and suggestions that helped keep me on track.

  I thank them so much for their time and patience.

  Chapter One

  “Oh, fuck me,” Eli Hollister muttered under his breath as he pulled his motorcycle to a stop in front of Dingers Sports Bar and Grill. His heart sank at the sight of the “Closed” sign over the doorway and men crawling all over the roof. Not that he normally minded seeing a bunch of sweaty and shirtless men working hard in the sun, just not when his stomach was trying to gnaw a hole through his spine. Eye candy was one thing, food was another.

  He took another glance at the men on the roof, who were tearing up shingles and tossing them into the dumpster below. Eli knew all but one of the men up there. Jonas Quantrill ran the local construction company with Craig and Lee, two of his sons. However, it was the man Eli didn’t know who caught his attention.

  He had the hard, muscular build of a man who used his body to make a living. It was difficult to make out any more details with the sun glaring in his eyes, but Eli watched his silhouette. Eli liked the sure, agile way he moved across the sloping roof. The man set down the boards he was carrying and straightened, wiping the back of his hand across his forehead. The action sent a quick punch of lust to Eli’s gut. He bet the guy had rough hands and Eli did enjoy the feel of rough hands on his bare skin.

  “Move your bike away from there before you pick up a nail.” Neil Ryder, the owner of Dingers, emerged out onto the sidewalk with his arms crossed over his chest. “I’m not coming to pick you up if you get a flat halfway up the mountain.”

  Eli could see the sense in that. Some of those shingles were barely ending up in the trash bin. Eli moved his bike further down the street and walked back toward Dingers. Neil stared up at the men working on the roof, his bald pate gleaming in the sun.

  “Neil, what are you doing to me?”

  “You?” Neil turned a hard look at Eli, who grinned back at him. Neil looked like he belonged more on a lumberjack crew than tending a bar. He was a big, rangy man with a thick, silvering brown beard. Sweat glistened on his bald head, and he mopped it with a handkerchief before glaring back up at the men on the roof. “The damn thing sprang a bad leak over my office. Dumped a shit-ton of water all over the place. Now I’ve got to replace the whole thing. You know how much money I lost over the Fourth of July? This is going to set my budget back months.”

  “You’re exaggerating. You’ll be fine.” Especially once the college town of Amwich filled with the autumn glut of students. “Why didn’t you use the opportunity to take off for a few days and relax?”

  “And leave them to mess with Dingers unsupervised? I don’t think so. Not all of us can go prancing about the country like you do.” Neil growled, scowling again up at the roof where the men were hauling up supplies through the scaffolding and tromping all over his beloved bar. It looked like a hot mess with a chimney jutting out like the last forlorn soldier standing amidst the carnage of a battlefield.

  Once again, Eli’s gaze strayed to the newcomer as he dropped a load of shingles over the edge. He thought their eyes might’ve met, at least he hoped that’s what the hot tingle he felt meant.

  “It was just a suggestion.” Eli pulled his eyes away from the other man. Neil’s sour expression made Eli decide not to poke any more fun at him. It was one of those rare scorching summer days, and Neil’s face had taken on a florid cast.

  “A bad one.” Neil turned toward the bar and held open the door for Eli. “It’s too hot to stand outside and jibber jabber. Want a beer?”

  “Is it safe to go in there?” Eli followed Neil into the slightly cooler, dim space of the bar. Inside, the sounds of the men moving about overhead and tearing up shingles were amplified tenfold.

  It was strange to see the bar empty of customers, the flat-screen TVs quiet and dark, covered up by the heavy blankets that movers used. The baseball memorabilia that wasn’t nailed tight to the walls had been taken down and stored in more wrappings on the tables, leaving pale patches on the walls. The rock-hewn chimney stood solid amid the polished wooden tables with worn and faded red leather padded benches and chairs. At least that hadn’t changed one bit.

  “Sure, the break happened over my office, but Jonas says I should get the area over the kitchen replaced too.” Neil poured some water over his head and mopped it up with a dishtowel.

  “Are you going to listen to him this time?”

  “Yeah, smart ass. I told him to go ahead since they’re already ripping the rest of the shit up.” Neil shot him a sour glance. “I bet you’d like to know where your cousin is, since I’m not feeding you. Lu should be here soon. She promised Jonas and the boys some lunch.”

  “Oh thank God, I do not want to suffer the horror of my own cooking.” Eli would be doing enough of that on his backpacking trip and didn’t want to start early. It wasn’t that he couldn’t coo
k; he just hated it with a passion he reserved for the New York Yankees and closed-minded bigots in equal measure. And as much as he wanted to eat, he was also looking forward to getting a real look at that new guy. It was impossible to ogle properly with the sun in his eyes.

  “I don’t know how the hell you’d survive if everyone stopped feeding you.”

  “Don’t even joke like that. Come on, I’ll help you push some tables together. Lu is liable to bring enough to feed half the town.”

  They cleared off two tables and pushed them together, setting up a mini buffet off to the side of the bar. Eli dragged the chairs to the back so they wouldn’t get in the way of the hungry workers and cleared some more tables so they could sit and eat.

  Eli straightened when the familiar honk of Lu’s horn came from outside. “I’ll go help her unload.” He left Neil setting up sodas and bottled water. His cousin had parked haphazardly in front of the bar, the tail end of her car two feet out onto the street. “Lu, you’re the only person I’ve ever met who cannot park alongside a curb when there’s nothing hindering you,” he said to his cousin as she emerged from her hatchback.

  Lu Pelland paused, hands on her narrow hips, and with pursed lips she surveyed her parking job, then shrugged. “Close enough for me.”

  Eli enfolded his cousin in a hug. She was all bones and angles, her graying chestnut hair pulled back into a braid. Out of everyone in his family, Eli felt the closest to her. She’d been older sister, confidante, and counselor for as long as he could remember. And when he’d been banished here to Amwich for six months when he was fifteen, it had been Lu who calmed his fears and taught him that being different didn’t mean there was a damn thing wrong with him.

  “When did you sneak in?” Lu asked. “I woke up this morning to find that crazy mutt of yours gone and a scribbled note that I couldn’t make any sense of.”

  “It was almost two in the morning. I didn’t want to bother you.” Eli lifted a heavy pot out of the back. “So, what have you gifted me with today?” Whatever it was, the aromas made his stomach rumble even more.

  “I didn’t make it for you, glutton, but there is enough for you to mooch. It’s chilled tomato basil soup, turkey and havarti on ciabatta rolls, and a pasta salad.” Lu frowned as she looked over the array of food. “Do you think I made enough?”

  “Name me one time when you ended up short,” Eli said with a chuckle.

  “One time is all it will take to make me neurotic,” Lu said, following Eli into the bar with the pasta bowl.

  “I don’t understand why you insist on waitressing when you could run my kitchen,” Neil grumbled as he took the bowl from her.

  “If I take over your kitchen it becomes work and no longer fun. I cook when I want to. I get to decide what I’m making, how much, and who I want to give it to. Besides, I’d miss talking to everyone.” Lu tied on an apron and flipped her hands at Neil. “Go get the boys while Eli brings in the sandwiches.”

  Eli shook his head as Neil opened his mouth to retort. “I wouldn’t. It’s just easier to do as she says. You know, you should marry her,” Eli teased, then burst out laughing as Neil shot him a horrified glance.

  “Don’t I have enough gray hair?” Lu asked.

  “Are you crazy?” Neil burst out. “I’d never know any peace. The woman would take over and run the whole thing, leaving me with just the bartending.”

  Eli refrained from pointing out that Lu had already taken on far more than waitressing and that Neil would be in hog heaven if all he had to do was run the bar, talk baseball, and buy more memorabilia.

  “I was just throwing it out as an option.” Eli lifted his hands in surrender as he backed out.

  By the time he finished carting in the last tray of sandwiches, the crew had climbed down from the roof and congregated in the restrooms to clean up. Lu was nowhere to be seen and Eli took full advantage, loading up a plate with sandwiches and pasta salad before grabbing a bowl of soup.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Lu asked as she returned from the kitchen carrying small dishes filled with condiments.

  “Getting lunch before the hungry mob appears.”

  “I can see that.”

  “Then why’d you ask such a silly question?” Eli gave her a cheeky grin and then took a step back as she brandished a wooden spoon in his direction. “Besides, I had to taste it all to make sure it’s okay for the audience you wish to dazzle.”

  “Don’t try to charm me, Eli. I know you too well.” Then Jonas appeared and she stopped her lecture to smile at the foreman. “How’s Rebecca doing, Jonas? I haven’t seen her in a few weeks.”

  Eli greeted Jonas, then took his purloined food over to his favorite table in the far corner of the bar and cleaned off his space. He bit into his sandwich, watching the rest of the guys trickle in. His gaze immediately honed in on the newcomer, and his senses sizzled. That man was worth any amount of anticipation.

  His height and broad shoulders kept his muscles from bulking him up too much. The wifebeater he wore showed off his chest, flat stomach, and tight nipples. God, Lu would flay him if she discovered Eli ogling nipples during lunch, only he couldn’t help himself. The man was tasty from head to toe. As he turned to get his food, Eli bit back a groan. The cargo shorts he wore clung to his muscular ass just right, and what an ass it was. Eli would love to get his hands on it, just a quick squeeze to see if it was as firm as it looked.

  He’d have to ask Lu who he was and when he had drifted into Amwich. The town held an interesting mix of people. On the northern side were the locals who had lived here for generations and who knew everything about everybody, or so they believed. The southern part of town was where everyone else lived, in a series of refurbished apartments: the students from Amwich State College who didn’t want to stay in the dormitories, along with the short-term professors and specialists who wanted to stay close by campus.

  At that moment, his cousin caught Eli’s gaze and gave him a small shake of her head. Eli could almost hear her tsking under her breath. That he was openly gay did not bother Lu one bit. In fact she had been the first person he’d talked to when he started suspecting that he was different from the other boys around him. Only after Eli had gotten decked for casting glances at a guy had she become overprotective about his discretion.

  Eli grinned and shrugged, deciding to humor her. It wasn’t as if he really wanted to engage in a flirtation before he left town again anyway, unless that flirtation translated into a night or two of hot sex. Provided that the guy even swung his way. Still, he couldn’t help one more glance as the other man turned back around with his loaded plate. His red-gold hair had been cut short in a Marine-type buzz. And damned if he didn’t have freckles, too, a nice smattering of them across an open and friendly face.

  As the man pulled out a chair at the same table as his coworkers, he glanced over and caught Eli looking. Eli’s stomach fluttered, and he couldn’t help the mischievous grin that crossed his lips. Hey, no harm no foul, right? Maybe the guy wouldn’t take offense. Another, stronger flutter went through him when the other man smiled back with a wink before Craig said something and drew his attention away.

  The new guy had a nice smile too. One of those genuine smiles that lit up his face. Eli gave a mental sigh at that and wondered what color his eyes were. Maybe hazel or a warm brown that would offset his hair.

  Eli was definitely going to have to grill Lu for details. Neil set an old TV on the bar and fiddled with the cable on the back until the screen cleared and he was able to change the channel to ESPN for a recap of last night’s game between the Red Sox and the Orioles.

  “The man has only two things on his mind,” Lu huffed as she joined Eli. “Beer and baseball. And you, Elijah Hollister, need to keep your eyes where they belong.”

  “Neither of us are going to change at this point, Lu.” Eli chuckled and moved his chair over as Neil approached, so he could sit with them. “So how long is Dingers going to be closed?”

  Ne
il grimaced as he reached for the pepper. “Jonas said it would take about four days to do the job right. Then I figure I’ll need at least another day to clean up and put everything back. We should be open by Sunday’s game if the damn noise doesn’t drive me crazy before then.”

  “I’m not leaving until Monday so I can help you put everything back together,” Eli offered.

  Neil’s face brightened and he gave Eli a rare smile. “Thanks. You’re still not getting that photograph, but I’ll agree to feed you in exchange.”

  Eli glanced at the bare spot on the wall where the picture of Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams in their respective uniforms usually hung. Eli coveted that photograph and nothing would induce Neil to part with it, no matter how hard Eli tried. He really needed to get a replica of his own. “I think I can agree to those terms. It’ll be good to see Dingers back to normal before I go. So catch me up on the gossip. I’m not going to be able to get any messages soon.”

  “That’s because you’ll be out in the middle of nowhere, gallivanting about the States with that crazy mutt of yours,” Lu retorted.