Nonofficial Love - Ace Merrill (Stand By Me) (New Version)

Chapter Two: Spark's Fly

His hazel eyes were warm and inviting, a world away from the icy-cold eyes she usually dreamed about.

Rebecca turned around and grabbed her drink, watching him from the mirror on the wall as he removed his linen jacket and hung it over the bar stool.

She admired his reflection. He had a muscular physique that was strong and sturdy but not broad and stocky, and he was tall.

She noticed his tailored shirt barely creased when he sat down beside her, and she could smell his expensive cologne.

"So," he said. "Is it just rum you pilfer, or do I get to decide?"

"Depends on what you want," Rebbecca replied coyly.

"I could do with another beer."

"That's a bad choice!"

"Why?" he chuckled. "Beer's not so bad."

"Irby sees you with another bottle you're caught. He might be half blind but he never misses a trick."

"Only when he's not in the room, right?"

"Right."

"But you see I could hide my old bottle and Irby would think it's the same one?"

"You could," she replied. "But then he'd wonder why you'd been drinking it so slowly. You're better off with something you can mix in."

"You seem to know an awful lot about swindling," he chuckled. "You do this often?"

Rebecca answered with a mischievous smile and he smiled back with such an allure that she could feel herself blush.

"Risky," Rebecca remarked when the handsome stranger had helped himself to a bottle of Rainier beer.

"I like to take chances." He cracked open the bottle. "What's your name?"

"Rebecca."

There was a short pause.

"You don't do this often, do you?" he said as he cocked his head. "You're supposed to ask for mine."

"Why would I wanna know your name?"

"Because you couldn't stop staring at me earlier."

His words took Rebecca by surprise. There was one other guy in town, who oozed the same confidence, that could send her heart racing but she had been trying to forget about him for a long time.

"I think you'll find you were the one staring."

"Maybe I was," he shrugged and leaned in closer to her. "It's Bobby, by the way."

"So, Bobby?" She liked the way his name rolled off of her tongue. "What brings you to Castle Rock?"

"How do you know I'm not from these parts of the woods?"

"It's a small town!" She looked down at his feet. "Nobody around here would be caught dead in those shoes."

Bobby inspected his brown leather loafers before he looked back up at her. "What's wrong with 'em?"

Irby interrupted by stepping out from the stock room. His eyes narrowed to two slits when he spotted the bottle of Rainier in Bobby's hand and the empty bottle that sat on the table across the room.

"Where'd ya get that?" Irby bellowed.

"See," Rebecca whispered to Bobby. "Blind as a bat but doesn't miss a thing."

Under the watchful eye of Irby and Rebecca, Bobby kept his cool. "I wanted another beer and nobody was here to serve me."

Bobby stood up from his seat and shoved his hand in his front pocket and brought out a fistful of change. "Here," he said as he scattered them across the counter.