Page 46 of The Marrying Kind
“Fuck.” I hissed as I flexed my sore hand.
Maybe I was catastrophizing just a touch. Scowling, I analyzed my banged-up knuckles. Yeah, maybe just a little. It was going to take me some time to get Ella out of my system.
Even if I didn’t want to.
19
MOVING ON
Austen
Eight weeks later
Getting Ella out of my system was impossible, especially because we managed to text each other almost every day. It was probably stupid, and I knew that, but I didn’t care. Texting her was the only thing that made me feel less like shit. Somehow feeling like I was still connected to her, like I still mattered in her life.
So far, she had worked her way to the West Coast. She’d climbed rocks, toured vineyards, attended a gay rodeo—I didn’t know that was a thing—and so many more bucket-list items. I wanted her to finish that damn list already and come home to me, even though this wasn’t her home, and we were essentially just pen pals. Still, I was letting my delusions run away with me a little bit.
“Earth to Austen.”
CJ waved a hand in front of my face as I stared at a picture of Ella surfing in Hawaii on my phone. I couldn’t help but notice the muscular man near her in the photo. I was already planning on sly ways to ask her who that was.
“Huh?” I looked up at the intrusion.
“Do you want another beer, big guy?” CJ gave me a half smirk.
“He does,” my friend Tripp answered for me. “Then maybe he’ll stop staring at his phone and listen to my idea about the beer festival.”
I clicked to turn the screen black on my phone and set it facedown on the bar while CJ delivered a fresh brew.
“Okay, what bright idea do you have this time?” I said with a groan.
Tripp smiled wide and held his hands up. He liked to talk as if he was simultaneously directing an orchestra. I’d have to tell Ella about that later and see if she’d laugh.
“We invite a bunch of other vendors and get a panel of judges. Get the local campgrounds on board and use your finished rentals. Tompkin’s Inn should be open by then too, so we could easily accommodate a hundred or so people in this town alone. Maybe organize with some of the neighboring towns to get in on this. And then sit back and let the babes roll in.”
“The babes?” I snickered at him.
He nodded with certainty. “Hell yes. Girls like beer, in case you hadn’t noticed. And if we want more tourism around here to bring more women around, we need events.”
It was pretty sad that my happily married friend and my happily engaged brother were both constantly scouting out ways to insert a new woman into my sad little life.
“And my company should spend resources making all this happen?” I shot Tripp a questioning look.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I’d volunteer to help you plan it all.”
“Where would you even advertise something like this? How could you be sure people would come?”
The easy smile returned to Tripp’s face. “When alcohol is involved, build it and they will come.”
“That is a shit business model, but I’ll think about it. And not because we need to trick women into coming to town.”
“True, that worked out pretty shitty for you,” Tripp said before quickly shutting his mouth. He gave me an apologetic grin. “Sorry, that came out wrong.”
“It’s fine. It did work out well for me. I have a lifelong friend, thank you very much.”
“But not a wife,” he said, unnecessarily reminding me.
“Not yet, but she’s out there.” I hated that my mind immediately went to Ella when I said it.
