Page 44 of Accidental Baby Daddy

I chuckled. “And I’ve never been a bar owner. We’ll learn together. Besides, Clayton has some of the best staff in the world.”

“That’s true. For a dive bar, they make a mean mojito, among other things,” she admitted, smiling at me.

“How were the wings?” I asked.

“To die for, just like you said.”

God, her mouth looked so inviting. Trent could sleep through an elephant stampede, but I didn’t like leaving him alone in the house for long, just in case.

“I gotta go,” I said. “I’ll see you at the Pig tomorrow, let’s say five p.m.”

“See you then,” she murmured, and I tore my eyes away from her, heading out of the cabin and back up to the house before I could change my mind.

I tried to cool my rushing blood on the way back. I peered into Trent’s room as soon as I got home. He was sleeping like the baby he still was in my eyes.

At five years old, he was starting to get a little sassy, but only in the cutest of ways.

I wondered how Lex was with kids. When we were teens, we’d never been around any, and Trent had been asleep while she was here. But she’d always loved kids, always cooing at them whenever we spotted them while we were out in public, so I assumed she’d be great with them.

I just knew she’d be a great mother.

But she wasn’t Trent’s mother, and I'd do well to remember that. I’d also do well to remember what she did with Tristan, how it had torn me apart.

I took in a deep breath and headed to my room to take a hot shower, hoping I wouldn’t dream about Lex.

The preparations involved before opening the bar was a surprising amount of work, and I watched with wide eyes as Krista, who had become head bartender in the past few weeks, bustled around, getting everything set up.

“No wonder you guys get here early,” I muttered. It wasonly three in the afternoon, and we didn’t open for a couple of hours.

“The kitchen gets here at one,” she said flatly. “You’re late.”

I blinked at her. “Is everything okay, Krista?”

She sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping. “It’s just that… you took over the place so quickly and some of us are worried about our jobs.”

“Oh, no,” I said without hesitation. “That was one of Clayton’s hard lines—I was to keep on all of the staff. Besides, I wouldn’t have a clue what I was doing without you.”

Krista smiled. “So I’m not going to get fired?”

“Absolutely not,” I promised. Then I paused. “But I did hire a new bartender. She doesn’t have much experience, though.”

Krista raised an eyebrow. “Girlfriend or sister?”

I stared at her. “Neither.”

She hummed. “We’ll see. What’s her name?”

“Lexie,” I answered, and she nodded.

“Tell her to find me when she gets here. I’ll start training her tonight. It’s a Monday, so it’ll be slow.”

“I’ll pay you a training wage,” I promised her, and she grinned.

“Maybe this buyout won’t be so bad after all.”

For the next couple of hours, I walked around, observing the bar and the kitchen staff, watching how things were run. I wanted to get to know what I was working with, how things operated in what I now owned.

By the time Lex arrived, dressed in a simple A-line skirt and a sleeveless blouse, I thought I had gotten the gist of it.

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