A Simple Request by Lacey Black

Collin
I’m not a fan of change. So, when I hear the old bar I work at a couple of nights a week has sold, I wonder if it’s time for me to give up that side gig. It’s not like I need the cash. My job as a full-time firefighter is more than enough to keep me comfortable and plenty busy.
Then I meet the new owner, my new boss, Lizzie Meyer.
She makes me a deal: give her thirty days. If I don’t like the direction she takes the place, I can quit. Simple, right? But nothing feels simple once I’m around her. I try to ignore the pull, but her easy smile, hypnotic green eyes, and that stubborn streak wrapped in determination makes it impossible. The line between professional and personal is clear…until it isn’t.
Just when something real starts to take shape between us, my past stirs—ready to drag its way back into the light and threaten everything we’re beginning to build together.

Lizzie
I’ve spent years dreaming of a place to call my own. Growing up inside the biggest bar and restaurant in my hometown, I learned early on what my calling was. But lately, I’ve wanted something more. Something that isn’t tied to my family’s legacy. I want to build my own.
That dream leads me to Cooper Town, Ohio, a quaint small town with an old bar for sale and enough possibility to make me pack up my life and take a chance.
I know it will take hard work to bring the place back to life, and I’ve got the drive, the grit, and a modest savings account to get started. What I’m not prepared for is Collin Miller, the brooding bartender with a rare, disarming smile and a work ethic that mirrors my own. He’s impossible to ignore, even harder to resist. I try to keep things strictly professional, really, I do, but being around him feels like standing too close to a flame.

My simple request is that he doesn’t break my heart along the way.