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“Ask your sister,” I said over my shoulder as I walked to the other end of the bar to help a new group of patrons.
I served the customers their beers, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nolan walk out onto the floor. He grumbled at Gemma, but when he saw Avery, his entire demeanor changed. Whatever stress he walked in with faded away when he saw his wife and baby. He kissed Avery and bent down to kiss his baby’s head. Nolan was the grouchiest asshole I’d ever met, but not with Avery. It was awe-inspiring how the petite woman brought him to his knees.
I watched Gemma take a few photos of the couple until Nolan got annoyed with her. She scurried away, probably to ask Declan for his approval on the postings for social media. Declan cut me a separate check for my designs whenever we had a new beer, but I wasn’t sure he was doing the same for Gemma. That was shitty if she wasn’t getting paid for all the extra stuff she did outside her role as a bartender. I shouldn’t care about that, but I did.
“You look stressed,” Avery said to me as I refilled her glass of water between customers.
The baby had stopped crying now that she was strapped to Nolan’s chest. Huh. His wife was right. The baby was a daddy’s girl. It was cute to see the big gruff guy melt at the sight of his tiny daughter.
“He needs a vacation,” Ryan said, taking a swig of his beer.
I threw a rag at him. I didn’t need my boss to know that.
“Dude, if you need time, talk to Declan,” Nolan said. “We know how hard you work.”
I shrugged. “I can’t really afford to go anywhere.”
“Oh!” Avery said, and her eyes lit up with excitement. “My dad has a cabin in the Poconos. You could totally go!”
I stared at her. “Really?”
She nodded. “It’s not in the middle of nowhere, if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s on a big resort lake, but it’s beautiful. Think about it and let me know.”
“It’s a nice place, too,” Nolan said. “That’s where we went for our honeymoon.”
I rubbed a hand across my beard. The idea was appealing. Getting away from town could be fun. And I could take Skye with me. I’d still have to spend money I didn’t want to, but it wouldn’t be a lot, mostly gas and supplies.
I saw a flash of pink in my peripheral. If I left town, I’d have an entire week where I didn’t have to endure Gemma’s glares and snappy retorts. It would have been a welcomed break.
“I gotta talk to Declan about the schedule. I’ll get back to you,” I said to Avery.
She gave me a big smile. “No one’s using it this summer. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
I knocked on Declan’s open office door after closing down the bar for the night. He looked up at the noise. “Hey, man. You about to leave?”
I nodded and took a seat in the chair across from his desk. “Hey, can we talk about me taking some time off?”
“Man, I’d thought you’d never ask! You’re just as bad as me and Nol.”
“It doesn’t matter when. I’m looking to take a week sometime this summer. Avery offered her dad’s cabin in the Poconos, so it’d be nice to get away for a little.”
He eyed me like he was calculating something silently in his head. “Actually, I’m hiring some help for the summer, so I can shuffle around the schedule. Dude, you work so hard for us. You deserve a break.”
His words surprised me. I didn’t know we were looking for more staff. We had a lot of college kids come back during the summer, so we were usually full up.
Declan pulled something up on his computer. “I have you on the schedule this week, but I could shift things around to give you next week off.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Yeah, man. Nol already told me you were gonna ask, so I’ve been messing around with the schedule.”
“Okay, man, that would be great.”
He pinned me with a hard look. “Maybe if you get out of town for a while, Gemma will get over whatever the hell you did to piss her off again.”
I cringed. Declan had already reprimanded us for a loud fight we got into yesterday. I didn’t blame him for that, it was unprofessional. Some breweries had toxic work environments, and Declan had been very clear about not having that here. He was a good boss, and I felt bad I put him in a tough situation.
I ran a hand through my beard and sighed. “Yeah, man, maybe.”
