Chasing Dreams Read online

  Chasing Dreams

  Alison Mello

  Chasing Dreams

  Copyright © 2016 by Alison Mello.

  All rights reserved.

  First Print Edition: April 2016

  Limitless Publishing, LLC

  Kailua, HI 96734

  www.limitlesspublishing.com

  Formatting: Limitless Publishing

  ISBN-13: 978-1-68058-560-5

  ISBN-10: 1-68058-560-6

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  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 locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

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  Chapter 1

  Skyler

  “Sky, are you coming out tonight?” Sadie whines at me as she heads into her room to get some clothes together.

  “I don’t know.” I roll my eyes because we go through this every time I have a weekend off.

  “Listen, you have been in LA for two years now, you got yourself a job, and you’ve been landing some decent gigs at a few different clubs. It’s time to land you a man.”

  I laugh at her because she knows full well every time I hook up with someone, it’s either a one-night stand or if I give them a chance, I sabotage the relationship because I’m not happy.

  I moved to LA two years ago to chase my dream of a singing career and met Sadie when I came across her ad in the local newspaper. She was looking for a roommate, because the girl she had been living with moved out to live with her boyfriend. I called her up, and we met at a local coffee house. We hit it off and have been best friends ever since.

  I’ve tried dating a few men since living here, and because they are so damn boring sexually or they’re simply assholes, I end up cheating on them or just stop calling them.

  “Sadie, I’m a barmaid and I sing in bars, so I don’t know if I feel like hanging in another bar.”

  Sadie rolls her eyes at my lame ass excuse. “I get that, but Jonah said the club is kicking ass now that some new owner has taken over. He’s working the door tonight so we get in for free.”

  “Cool, so we save what, like ten bucks?” I say with total sarcasm.

  Sadie laughs and launches a pillow around the corner. It slams me right in the face.

  “Real mature, Sadie!” I yell from my spot on the couch.

  “It’s about time you have a night with something other than that battery-operated boyfriend of you yours, and besides, Jonah says the new owner is single.”

  I burst out laughing, first because she brought up my battery-operated boyfriend and second because the truth comes out. “Ah, so truth be told, you’re hoping we will bump into the owner so you can try to hook me up?”

  “Only with a new singing gig.” Sadie winks at me and heads to the bathroom to jump in the shower. “Go pick out your clothes. You’re coming out tonight!” she yells from behind the bathroom door.

  “At least B.O.B doesn’t drag me out of the house on my night off!” I yell back, knowing full well she probably can’t hear me and couldn’t care less about what I have to say.

  I climb off the couch with a grunt and head to my bedroom in search of something to wear. I settle on a pair of jeggings with a tank top and a pink off the shoulder fitted tunic top. I start looking for some jewelry to wear when I come across my mom’s wedding ring, and I’m tempted to put it on so no one will hit on me tonight but I know Sadie will give me shit so I leave it there. I smile, thinking about my mom, and it makes me realize how much I miss her.

  My parents were in a serious, fatal car accident a few months before I moved out to LA. Being an only child, there was nothing keeping me on the East Coast. It was time to shoot for my dream of becoming a singer, so I sold most of my belongings and what couldn’t be sold I donated. I sold my parents’ house, taking the money from the sale and whatever I had in savings, along with my clothes, and flew out west in search of a new life. I met Sadie, and now I have some great friends thanks to her. She got me the job as a barmaid at Dugan’s, the local bar, in between singing gigs.

  Sadie comes out of the bathroom wrapped in nothing but a towel with her hair dripping wet.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Shelly is meeting us at the club with Rick.”

  “Okay, cool. I’m going to jump in the shower.”

  Sadie can be such a pain in my ass, but I love her dearly. She’s a great friend and an incredible artist. She’s been busting her tail to get her artwork into some of the bigger galleries here in LA. She says it’s all displayed in smaller art galleries and that isn’t good enough. I guess I can understand that. It would be like me saying I have some singing gigs at local clubs, so I don’t need to shoot for the big recording deal I want. We all want to be the best at what we do in life and we all want to be noticed; it’s all about how hard we’re willing to work at it. I’m willing to work pretty hard.

  I get out of the shower and quickly dry up before I wrap my hair in a towel and throw on my robe. Unlike my roommate, I actually own a robe. Sadie chooses to walk around half naked, and I can now honestly say my lack of being happy with the men I have slept with has nothing to do with my sexual preference. Sadie is gorgeous and I have seen her naked more times than you can imagine. I still have no desire to switch teams.

  I’m standing in front of our full-length mirror checking out my clothes and making sure I look okay when Sadie comes to stand next to me.

  “You look hot, girl.”

  I have flat ironed my light brown hair to perfection and done my eye makeup in a smoky gray and pink blend. I’m wearing my favorite jeans. I love them because they make my ass look amazing. Sadie slaps me hard and tells me she wishes she had an ass as good as mine.

  “Oww.” I rub my now throbbing ass. “Oh please, girl, you have the most gorgeous blonde hair and your blue eyes are so bold and beautiful. And don’t act like you don’t have a killer body.”

  She runs her fingers through her hair. “Yeah, but you have great boobs and an ass. I’m pretty flat in both those areas. Plus you have some killer brown eyes.”

  I look back at the mirror to my perky boobs, thankful I’m pretty equally proportioned. I also stand at 5’7” compared to her 5’4”. I smile and walk away from the mirror feeling pretty confident.

  When we get to the club, I notice as we are walking from the parking lot it’s now named Club Thrive and has a pretty slick new sign outside. I give Sadie a questioning look. She gives me a sideways grin and raises her eyebrows. “Wait until you see the inside. It has been redone.”

  We approach the front of the very long line and find Jonah standing there.

  “Good evening, ladies,” he says in his deep voice, moving the red rope. We walk on in while everyone at the door grunts and groans because they have to wait. Jonah gives
Sadie a quick kiss before he takes his place back at the door. They are so adorable together. He towers over her, but they make a cute couple. He’s a really big guy with broad shoulders and huge arms. He acts rough and tough, but Sadie says he’s a big teddy bear.

  ***

  Logan

  Jonah’s girlfriend Sadie is heading over to the bar with a friend, who is absolutely stunning. They snag two seats that just cleared out, and I shout, “Hey, Sadie!”

  “‘Sup, Logan?” She looks happy to see me.

  “Are you going to introduce me to your friend?”

  “Sure. Logan, this is Skyler. Skyler, this is Logan.”

  I give her a full-on smile. “How’s it going, Skyler?”

  “Good.” She looks down, fighting a smile. It makes me think I got me a shy girl on my hands, and I think it’s cute as hell.

  I wipe the bar in front of them and ask, “What can I get you two gorgeous ladies tonight?”

  “Can I get a Blue Hawaiian?” Skyler asks, finally showing me her gorgeous smile. She really is pretty.

  “Sure thing.”

  “And I’ll have a Sex on the Beach!” Sadie shouts over the music.

  “Be right back, ladies.” I walk away to make their drinks, realizing my night just got a hell of a lot better, though I wish they had come in on a night when it wasn’t so busy or I wasn’t stuck behind the bar so I could actually talk to Skyler. With Kelly, the regular bartender, out sick, there’s no way I’ll get away to find out what her deal is.

  I glance over and they are giggling and laughing. I would give anything to know what they are talking about but can’t hang around to find out because I have more drinks to make if I want to make some money tonight. This is the first time since I bought the place that I have gotten stuck behind the bar, so this is my chance to show my crew I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.

  I get back with their drinks, and I notice she’s all but staring at me. Hopefully I affect her as much as she affects me. Two more of her friends are approaching, so I stick around to take their order, and once I get back with the drinks, I tell her, “I’ll check on you in a little bit.” I look her in the eye and give her a wink before I walk away.

  This place is so jammed it feels like forever until I can get to them again, but I keep an eye on their drinks because I don’t want Shane to beat me to them. They’re in the middle of the bar so it would be either of us serving them. Once I see their glasses are about empty, I head over.

  “Can I get you all another round?”

  Sadie laughs. “Yeah, same drinks please.”

  When I get back with their drinks, Skyler and Sadie are switching places with their friends. They all take sips of their drinks and Sadie shouts, “We’re going to dance! He’ll save our seats and drinks.”

  They all head to the dance floor.

  ***

  Skyler

  “Sadie, he is seriously fucking hot. Why didn’t you tell me the bartender was amazing eye candy?”

  She shrugs. “He doesn’t usually bartend.”

  I narrow my eyes at her. “What do you mean he doesn’t usually bartend? You clearly know him from hanging here with Jonah.”

  “He’s the new owner I was telling you about.”

  I turn beet red. “Fuck me.”

  She bursts out laughing. “I’m pretty sure from the look on his face he would love the chance to.”

  He is incredibly sexy with his neatly kept dark hair and his big chocolate brown eyes. He’s muscular without being overly bulky, and his hair is short on the sides but slightly long on top, brushed back with a slight wave to it. I look over to the bar and I swear he’s watching us dance. I smile, hoping he sees me. I’m a bit braver now that I have some liquid courage in me. He smiles but I can’t tell if it’s at me or someone that he’s making a drink for at the bar. Secretly I hope it’s me, but I won’t admit that to Sadie yet.

  We’ve spent the entire night drinking and dancing. Well, Sadie does the drinking. I only have a couple because I have to drive us home. I know Sadie well enough to know that even if she says she’ll drive home she won’t. I’ve had a few guys try to dance with me, but I shake them off because I can’t stop think about Logan and his killer smile. Sadie has to be wrong. There’s no way a guy that hot is single, and if he is, there has to be something wrong with him.

  It’s now almost closing time and people are starting to leave. We’re sticking around because Jonah has to close and he’s going to walk us to our car after he’s done. Once they are done emptying the place out the employees all get a drink on the house, so we will have a drink with him before we head home.

  The music is finally off but we are all still talking loud from having to talk over the music for so long. It makes us all laugh, and we try to turn it down a notch. Jonah comes over to the bar with a few other bouncers. Logan and the other bartender serve them up a round of drinks before they start cleaning up the rest of the glasses from the night. There isn’t much because they kicked ass cleaning after last call, but they’re still not done for the night.

  Everyone’s talking and having a good time. I find out that the other bartender working with Logan is Shane. Logan’s only behind the bar because someone else called out sick. Jonah, Patrick, Trey, and Paul are the bouncers that stayed behind for drinks and are now hanging out with us.

  Logan comes over about thirty minutes later and tells us he wants to lock up in about fifteen minutes so he wants us to finish up. I flash him a smile, and his gorgeous chocolate brown eyes lock with mine.

  “You okay to get home?” he asks me.

  “I cut myself off a while ago so I can get us home. We’re roommates.” I want to say ‘why, you want to drive me?’ but I don’t have the nerve so I look down shyly instead.

  Club Thrive may not be such a bad place to hang after all, especially if I get to check him out.

  Chapter 2

  Logan

  I walk into the club ready to look over my inventory reports so I can order the liquor we are going to need. All I can think about is Skyler. Though she doesn’t realize it, I watched her dance every chance I got last night. She has the most beautiful smile and an ass that any man would love to get their hands on. I noted that she wasn’t dancing with any men either. Every time someone approached her, she brushed them off and continued dancing with her girls. I even dreamed about her shaking that amazing ass of hers on the dance floor, though this time she was dancing with me rubbing it against my throbbing cock.

  I shake my head. I need to talk to Jonah as soon as he gets here so I can find out what her deal is. I almost asked her to dinner last night but was too worried she’d turn me down in front of everyone. I’ll shoot him a text.

  Logan: Hey can you see me in my office when you get here?

  Jonah: Sure, is everything good?

  Logan: Yeah we’re good, man. I just need to talk to you.

  Jonah: Cool, see you in a bit.

  How sad am I? I have owned this club for about six months and I texted one of my bouncers to get the scoop on his girlfriend’s friend.

  I pull out my report and head into the back so I can see what we have in comparison to my report. I’m going through when I notice we are missing one bottle of rum, one bottle of vodka, and one bottle of Crown Royal. Now one bottle missing, okay, maybe it broke. One bottle of three different things missing and no one told me they broke anything seems suspicious to me.

  I make a list of the things we need for the bar and add wine to the list. I want to see if we serve some nice wine if people will order it. I want the club to have a nice image, and nothing says nice like bottles of wine and champagne. I order some to sell by the bottle and some by the glass. I can’t help but think about the fact that I may have a thief working for me and it’s pissing me off, so I walk back to my office to think about how I’m going to catch this thief and what I’ll do when I do catch the person. I’m finishing up placing the order when there is a knock on my office door. “Come in!” I
shout in a bad mood.

  “Hey, Logan, you wanted to see me?”

  I rub my forehead and ask Jonah to come in and shut the door.

  “‘Sup, man? You look pissed.”

  “I am but that isn’t why I texted you. Jonah, I think you’re pretty loyal to me and the club, so I’m going to trust you because I need some help and then I’ll tell you why I texted you.”

  “I think you have done good things with the club and I love bouncing, so if you’re worried about me you can stop. Just tell me what’s up.”

  “I think someone’s stealing alcohol from the club. I’m missing some rum, vodka, and Crown Royal and I need to figure out how to catch them so I can fire their ass and make it known you don’t steal from me.”

  “Who has access to the back room?”

  “The seven bartenders do, Troy, my assistant manager, and me. I’m going to have to cut access to two bartenders a night, as well as me and Troy.”

  “I’ve never run a bar, but isn’t there a sheet that they have to sign out what they took and for which bar?”

  I raise my eyebrows in surprise. “Hey, that’s a good idea. I’m creating something right now and revoking keys. I’ll have to issue them out as the bartenders are on, so I can keep an eye on the room.”

  “I’ll keep my eyes open and let you know if I see anything shady,” Jonah tells me.

  “Thanks, man. On a way better note, what’s up with that hottie Skyler that came in with your girl?”

  He bursts out laughing. “Dude, you texted me to hook you up with my girl’s roommate?”

  I grin. “Yup.”

  “I don’t know. She’s a pretty girl and she’s sweet, but she has serious commitment issues.”

  “Maybe she hasn’t found the right man yet.”