Page 24 of On The Rocks

Kain did the same and put his hands on his hips. “Yeah. I’ll work up some drawings. See which works best.”

I nodded. “I appreciate the help. Couldn’t have gotten this far without you.”

He grunted. “See ya around.”

Kain crossed the gravel drive to his beast of a truck and climbed in without a backward glance.

Maybe I was delusional, but it seemed like a good fucking day.

I went back inside and cleaned up. I broke down the scaffolding, as well. It was a simple construction, and my brother might need it for the kitchen. By the time I had it all loaded into my own truck, I was gritty and sweaty.

I glanced at my phone. It was Thursday—generally known as Lennon’s day off. I could probably drop off the scaffolding and get out without running into her.

I scraped my hand over my beard. It was getting as shaggy as Kain’s. Maybe I should take a shower, just in case she was there.

Hell, I wasn’t going to overthink it. And it wasn’t worth trying to impress her. She didn’t give a crap.

“Just go and get it over with.”

I slammed the door behind me, climbed into my truck, and took off toward the taproom.

Chapter 7

Lennon

I Need An Answer

“Have you forgotten how to pour a pint, Dean?”

The exceptionally attractive bartender gave me a rueful smile. “No.”

I lifted the foamy pint glass. “You know, this is pretty impressive to have this much foam on cider, right?”

He sighed. “Sorry, Len. I was distracted.”

I glanced over at the new girl, Ronnie, who had just started. She was stretched over the long table, scrubbing it down. There was no denying she had a great ass—even I could appreciate the level of workouts she had to do to produce that outcome—but she was driving me bananas. It was bad enough a new person threw off the rhythm of my people. Add in that everyone was rusty, and I was beyond annoyed.

She was a good waitress. And she’d probably make a decent bartender with some training, but she was distracting as fuck for my whole staff. Sure, she was a knockout, but most of the staff were attractive in one way or another.

The problem was, Ronnie knew it and enjoyed the attention.

Leanedinto it.

I cuffed the back of Dean’s head, and he turned back to me with a flush to his cheeks.

“Sorry.”

“Ronnie? Can you go wrap silverware with Annette?”

She straightened and turned to me. Her jet-black hair was tied back with a red, paisley bandana and her cerulean blue eyes were made up with a black wing that leaned into the pinup style she favored. “Sure.” She glanced over at Dean and gave him a wink before she sauntered over to Annette in the corner of the dining room by the tree paintings.

Well out of sight, thank God.

“Roll back in the tongue, pal.”

Dean swallowed and picked up the tap to pull another half pint. “Okay, what’s next?”

This time, it looked as it should. I took him through the paces of the new drink I’d created for tonight’s soft launch. We’d invited our food truck people here to have a night of food and drinks on us.

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