Page 91 of Accidentally in Love

He waved me away. “We’re fine. Actually… I don’t want Gemma to tend bar for us anymore.”

“What?” I snapped.

“Geez, not like that. Gemma’s a great bartender, but she’s a whiz at our social media. You know she went to school for marketing?”

I shook my head.

I didn’t even know Gemma had a degree. I didn’t have a degree. How could I when I had to make sure my brother was taken care of after our parents died? It’s how I got into the beer business. I took the first job at the local bar in town, waiting tables until the bar was short-staffed one night, and I learned how to bartend. Eventually, one of the local brewers and I got to chatting about my interest in homebrew. I left the bar a couple of weeks later to go flip kegs until I was the brewmaster’s assistant. Now I was doing it all on my own, without a fancy degree, but with a lot of experience under my belt.

“What do you think she should do instead?” I asked.

“She should handle all our social, maybe even our entire marketing plan.”

“What did she say?”

Declan sighed. “Hard pass.”

“Really? But she already handles all the social media accounts, and that’s not part of her job.”

He nodded. “I don’t get it. We could pay her better money.”

I shrugged. “Gem’s a people person. She enjoys being up front and helping people. She loves being a bartender.”

My brother nodded. “I know, but I wished she realized her potential. You know we posted the photos of your wedding and lined up a bunch of events in the new year. Gem’s ideas are good. I don’t get it.”

I shrugged. “If she doesn’t want it, she doesn’t want it. I gotta go check on production. I want to work on a new summer beer.”

Declan gave me a confused look. “Besides Radle My Cage?”

I nodded. “Yeah, the lemon radler is great for summer, but something different. People liked that pumpkin beer.”

“So a chick beer?”

I scowled. “No. A beer that non-beer drinkers might be interested in. A beer that will get people who don’t like pale ales into the door.”

Declan leaned back in his chair and stroked his clean-shaven jaw. “It’s not a bad idea.”

“I know! That’s why I make the beer around here.”

I turned to walk out the door, but he stopped me. “Nolan?”

“Hmm?”

“You look really happy.”

“I am,” I said with a toothy grin, and then I walked back into the tank room.

I got to work, and it was a relief that nothing had gotten fucked up while I was on my honeymoon. Allen had my back, and I trusted the brewers on our payroll that they knew what they were doing. It was why I hired them in the first place. I had shouldered the burden of worry for so long that I didn’t know how to stop. Even when it came to my business.

I worked and researched for so long that it was getting rowdy in the bar when I walked out onto the floor again. It was New Year’s Eve, so the place was packed. I even saw Declan standing at the host stand as our regular hostess was rushing around trying to bus tables. I peered over at the bar and saw Felix, Gemma, and Asher busting ass to serve our customers.

I hung up my work apron in the office and called Avery.

“Hey, you,” she said into the phone.

I smiled at her voice in my ear. I hadn’t heard from her all day, and I missed her. God, was I whipped or what?

“Hey, baby,” I sighed.