Page 58 of Gin and Bear It

I spent a lot of time on the road trying to nail down some kind of routine—just enough to keep me sane when Caro and Gordon were driving us nuts. I don’t like the idea of doing the same thing every day, but having some stretch of time where I don’t need to think that hard helps. Working at the bar scratches that itch more than I thought it would.

Are some of the guests irritating? Yeah. But knowing I need to be at the bar at a certain time and having a prep routine isn’t that bad at all.

Plus, Wes isn’t a bad boss. I can see why the other bartenders like to work with him. He’s laid back without the place being completely lacking in structure.

“Ready for trivia night?” Jasper, one of the longtime bartenders, asks me. “It’s going to get busy, but the tips are always good.”

“Yeah, ready as I can be.”

Jada is coming tonight, too. Just the thought of seeing her makes my body thrum with anticipation in a way I haven’t felt in a long, long time. Fooling around at the drive-in was pretty tame compared to what I’ve gotten up to in the past, but it flipped some switches I didn’t realize were off inside me. Her soft little sighs and the feeling of her body under my hands…shit.

We have another eleven months of this ruse, and building tension when I can’t relieve it elsewhere is going to be the death of me.

“It’ll be fine,” Wes says from the door of his office. He stretches and yawns. “I can jump in to help if you need it.”

Greta, who runs trivia, comes in a few minutes later and starts setting up the sound equipment, and a few guests start trickling in. I’ve always been able to able to peg tourists versus locals (probably because it’s easy to know basically everyone in this town), and these people are tourists.

Jasper takes the first batch, and I serve the next ones. I’ve gotten used to the flow of things behind the bar, and most of the time, people want basic drinks like a margarita or rum and coke rather than something niche.

The bar starts picking up about a half hour before trivia is supposed to start, and I see Jada come in. She looks around, almost like she’s afraid someone will whack her with a dodgeball, before she spots me. I can’t help but smile. She really is fucking cute. Her hair is up in little buns, and her lipstick is hot pink.

Jeremiah is behind her and gives me a cool look. I nod in greeting and he nods back.

Jada gestures to an open table, and Jeremiah sits down at it. I wipe down the bar as Jada comes up.

“Hey,” I say.

“Hi.” She pauses, like she isn’t sure what to do, and glances down the bar at the tourists.

“What can I get you?” I ask, leaning with my hands on the bar.

“Two moonshine Shirley Temples, a rum and Coke, and a moonshine margarita,” she says. “I get the first round.”

“I assumed you weren’t getting plastered. Can I see your ID?” I ask. She huffs and rests a hand on her hip. I grin. “I’m just messing with you, Jada.”

“I know.” She glances around again and says with a low voice, “Greet me like a normal person. A normal husband.”

“Like a normal husband?” I suppress a laugh, but a small one escapes me anyway. “Since when have I been anything but a normal husband?”

I motion for her to lean across the bar and lightly kiss her on the lips. She gets flustered and gently swipes her thumb across my bottom lip, leaving a few tingles behind. I can’t get the memory of her soft skin out of my head from the drive-in.

“My lipstick,” she says, clearing her throat. “Is it messed up? You got a little on you.”

“Looks perfect.” I grab a few glasses and start making her drinks. “Waylon and Bianca are coming, too?”

“Yeah, in a bit. Waylon is getting the food.” She pulls at her earring, which is shaped like a hot pink book, and watches me. “You look like you’ve gotten the hang of things.”

“I have. It’s not too hard.” I shrug and grab the soda gun for the rum and coke. “Dealing with a rush is the hard part.”

“Hey, can we get some service down here?” A man at the far end of the bar asks. He’s probably around my age, with a thick reddish beard and a shaved head. “Or are you just going to talk to her all night?”

I glance at the clock on the wall to make sure I haven’t been ignoring this guy for ages. What a dick. I’d just refilled his drink five minutes ago.

“Be there in a second,” I say. I put down the first two drinks for Jada to take and bring the other two drinks to the table for her.

“Thank you,” she says.

“Really?” the same asshole at the bar says as I walk past him. “She couldn’t make two trips?”