Laurie's cousin Ashley was a Torben through and through, which meant she was over six feet tall, blonde, and prone to rumbling loudly at people in ways that made them think twice about crossing her. She was between Jon and Laurie in age, which meant she'd been dealing with their shenanigans her entire life. In fact, she'd been part of those shenanigans formostof her life; they had been the Three Musketeers, sticking together through thick and thin up until their early twenties. She had also taken over running the Thunder Bear Brewpub eighteen months ago and had yelled at the brothers for not doing their part.
Charming her was therefore completely out of the question, and since that was how Laurie usually got things, he wasn't quite sure about how to handle this one.
It was about four o'clock by the time he and Briana finished their extremely late breakfast and went down the road to the brewpub. This early on a Monday afternoon, it wasn't busy yet, although there would be a crowd in later to watch sports on the big screens in some of the back rooms. For the moment, Ashley was sitting at the bar doing paperwork, afternoon sunshinestreaming in the open windows to turn her honey-colored hair to gold. The whole building was log-cabin style, with pale stain on the walls and raw-looking rafters above the main bar, where trans and pride flags hung along with the state flag.
Laurie breathed, "Can I start by introducing you as my mate?" as they approached his cousin. "You know, soften her up a bit?"
"She can't be that bad," Briana murmured back, amused. "But sure, if you think it'll help."
"I can hear you, you know," Ashley said from the bar. She straightened and turned around, giving Laurie a judgy look and Briana a wide smile. "Sorry you got stuck with him."
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it turns out he's got some potential," Briana said with a crooked smile of her own as she offered a hand. "Briana Gilson."
"Ashley Torben. I'd love to believe that, but I've known Laurie a long time." She eyed him, then spread her hands. "Okay, what is it. Tell me what you want, and I'll tell you what a bad idea it is and why we can't do it. Last time he did this, it was a charity event for two hundred held on four hours' notice, at the height of the holiday season," she told Briana sourly.
Laurie spluttered. "It was a day's notice! And we pulled it off!"
"We pulled it off because my fated mate is the most fantastic person who has ever existed," Ashley said tartly. "No offense, Briana."
Briana laughed. "I won't take it personally. Would it help if I made the pitch?"
Ashley turned her sharp gaze from Laurie to Briana, eyebrows rising as she did. "Wait, he's got an idea somebodyelsethinks is good?"
Laurie couldn't say exactly what happened, except Briana tilted her head a fraction of an inch to the side and thetemperature in the pub seemed to drop about forty degrees. Briana somehow settled into herself, becoming something of an immovable object, and she met Ashley's eyes with an absolutely unforgiving stubbornness.
Oooooh,Laurie's bear said, clearly love-struck.Our mate is prepared todefendus.
That was ridiculous. Briana had just barely come around to liking him.
Well. Maybe a bit more than liking, at this point, but still. A week ago she would have been fully on Ashley's side of things. But a lot really had changed since then, because now that the bear had said it, Laurie could basicallyseeBriana's goat squaring up in her stance, and her entire vibe had changed to 'try me.'
Ashley was a twelve-hundred pound grizzly bear, and just then, in that moment, Laurie wasn't sure he'd put his money on her.
Her eyebrows also crawled a bit higher, and she pursed her lips, staring down at Briana. Laurie had a brief, extremely clear vision of both of them shifting and absolutelydestroyingthe entire pub. He obviously didn't want that to happen, but part of him was also fascinated by the possibility. He wondered if Briana would be offended or pleased if he actually laid a bet on her winning that throw-down.
Ashley, however, drew a deep breath in through her nostrils and let it out in a controlled exhalation. "All right," she said. "All right, fine. I can't say I'd like it if somebody went around making snide comments about my mate, either, so okay, fine. Sorry, Laur."
She didn't take her eyes off Briana as she apologized. Briana didn't unwind at all, either, not until Laurie said, "It's okay. It's fair, really. I have a lot of bad ideas."
Briana twitched then, another micro-motion that acknowledged both the apology and Laurie's acceptance of it.She did not, however, relax back into the friendly, open stance she'd started out with, and Laurie realized there was no way she was going to make the Faire pitch to Ashley now. He cleared his throat. "I'd been thinking we've got a food and liquor license and a lot of acreage here, with a lot of cleared ground and permanent structures. I also know there are at least two music festivals over the next six weeks, but I was wondering whether using the beer gardens as a temporary, scaled-down Faire site might be a possibility."
Ashley's gaze finally snapped back to his and she stared at him, nearly expressionless, for what felt like approximately forever.Nearlyexpressionless: he could almost see her making calculations, considering possibilities, and judging factors before she eventually said, "That's a pretty good idea."
Laurie realized he'd been holding his breath when he let it out so fast he got dizzy. He also realized a stupid smile was beginning to spread across his face. "You think so?"
"They've got…" Ashley turned and walked away, pressing her fingertips against her forehead as she thought. "The Faire already has all the security and personnel they need, so the Thunder Bear wouldn't have to provide it. We've already got festival insurance, and I've expanded it to fifteen hundred people for the summer, so we would need to keep a tight grip on the number of people coming and going, but…" She turned back to Laurie, a hint of respect in her eyes. "Yeah, I think we might be able to accommodate that. Not full-time, because wedohave the two weekends completely booked for music festival acts, but…yeah, I think we could make it work, Laurie. It actually is a good idea."
Laurie beamed at her. "Great. I've already been down to the Faire council to volunteer with them, so I can talk to them about the idea?"
"You're volunteering?" Ashley's voice went up and down on the two words, like she couldn't decide which one needed more emphasis. Then she shot a look at Briana, whose smile was still edged, and brought her attention back to Laurie with a complicated expression in place. "Well, that's… That's great. Good for you. So yeah, let them know they can get in touch with me if they like the idea and we can begin to work out the details, but if the brewpub can help, we will. The Faire is a huge part of Renaissance's identity. I don't want us to lose it, even for a summer."
"Thanks, Ash," Laurie said, genuinely grateful. "I'll head down to talk to them now. Maybe we can have something set up by this weekend."
"We're scheduled over the Fourth of July weekend and the first weekend of August," Ashley warned. "So they'll have to work with that."
Laurie nodded. "We'll figure it out. Thank you again, Ashley." He still held Briana's hand, and as soon as they were out of the pub and out of Ashley's line of sight, he scooped her into a hug and spun her around, hooting incoherently. "You're a genius!"
"Me? What'd I do?" Briana smiled as he put her back on her feet, though there wasstillan edge to it. "Your cousin is quite something."
