Page 86 of On The Rocks

And it was the best date I’d had in years.

After lunch, I drove her to the taproom. Instead of going in with her, I left her to her Saturday night prep.

After I left enough beard burn on her to piss her off, of course.

It was a damn good day.

Chapter 19

Lennon

Just Ten Minutes

Saturday night was a hell of a lot wilder than Friday.

It was date night, and the mild weather let us open up the big back doors to the patio, leaving people to drift in and out with their drinks.

Kain had changed up the menu to more of a pub version of the Irish food. Strong stew by the bowl with plenty of brown and soda bread to go around. Sliders with spicy mustard and corned beef were the hits of the night along with a twist on our disco fries. Instead of bacon, Kain charred up the corned beef to add to them.

But it was the drinks everyone was there for. My taps were working overtime to keep up with the patrons. There was no time for fooling around between the bartenders. The wait staff was working double time, as well.

The good thing was everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Kain did a walkthrough in his green chef’s jacket to make sure people were enjoying the food. Even he was pushed back into the kitchen, thanks to the crush of people.

Bells and Helena came and went. The mood of the evening was more revelatory than chill.

I didn’t mind, since it made the night go by in a blink.

Ronnie stopped at the end of the bar with a tray of empties. “I need six Cider Car Bombs, three Hot Honeys, and one of those Four-Leaf-Clover things.”

“On it.” I took her empties and quickly shuffled them into the rack to be cleaned then pulled down new glasses to fill. “You look shot.”

Ronnie tightened the knot on her green bandana in deference to the holiday instead of her usual red. “If one more jackass pulls my hair or pats my ass, he’s gonna get a face full of cider.”

“I didn’t think we’d need a bouncer tonight, but maybe we should think about it.” I piled up her tray with drinks and added the shot glasses in the center. “Let me know if you need help out there. I can have Dean knock some heads together.”

“Thanks. I can handle it.”

“Handle what?” Justin slid around Ronnie behind the bar, a keg on his shoulder. “Figured you needed a new Hot Honey. I heard lots of people talking about it.”

“My hero,” I said, stepping back so he could change it out.

“What’s going on?” he asked as he frowned toward us.

“Just some handsy guys.” Ronnie shrugged. “I’ve dealt with worse.”

“Yeah, but we don’t go for that.” He swapped the taps and held the empty by the handle. “Who do I need to kill?”

She fluttered her thick lashes. “Appreciate the threats of violence, but I’m good.” Then she disappeared.

“This place is nearly at capacity. We’ve never had to turn people away.” Justin grabbed a can of water from the mini fridge and killed half of it.

“Jess pushed the socials on this one—pretty hard.”

“Yeah, but we’ve done promo before, and it has never been like this.” He leaned against the counter as we both surveyed the room.

My crew was on it with drinks, and we kept up with the demand. The secondary bar was as busy as the main and I even sent CJ out to work the small outside bar to keep the flow going.

“Maybe we need to add a bit of security if it’s going to be like this.”

---