Page 133 of Small Town Firsts
I scooped her up and tossed her over my shoulder. “You’re damn right, I do.”
THIRTY-TWO
KIRA
THE TAPROOM
The next fewdays were a blur. I was glad I had Ronan in my corner because I needed him every damn hour of the day. Between kegs malfunctioning behind the bar and a billionaire diva in my kitchen who was in a snit about some hot sauce being stuck in transit, I was ready to lock myself in my office and let them all figure stuff out on their own.
But Hayes had the best twenty-fifth birthday party we could hope for.
Sometime in the middle of all our emergencies, Beckett and Ronan had managed to make a special cider for the party using The B3 as a base and making it a sour blackberry. I’d had far too many of them, to be honest.
Ronan’s cider was dangerous.
But it was pretty amazing to see the Manning brothers get their middle brother drunk. He was the serious one of the bunch, but he was laughing and hugging everyone by the end of the night.
The matriarchs of the orchard, Laverne Ronson and Sarah Manning, were holding court. I was pretty sure Laverne was buzzed by the end of the night, as well. She even danced with my guy, which had been pretty adorable.
Kain managed to get Sarah to smile a few times. Beckett’s mom wasn’t exactly the type to get excited at a party. She always seemed to have such a dour expression for some reason. The power of Kain, and a good pork taco, could turn anyone around.
Beckett and Ronan were thrilled with the response from the family and friends who came to the party. Even a few people who didn’t like hard cider were converted. Lennon tried out a few of her mixed drinks on those who were feeling adventurous. I could tell her brain was already whirling with ideas and changes to her cocktails.
From a business standpoint, I was very glad we’d found out about the keg problems before we had a room full of strangers clamoring for drinks.
Justin was a handy one, that was for sure. He’d rigged the taps to work for the party, but came back to fix it properly on the morning of our opening. He ended up helping a lot through the day. I’d even caught Kain and Justin talking over equipment a few times, so I imagined a few more cameras and gadgets would be in the taproom soon.
I was trying not to dwell on the fact that we had a thief working for us and kept my eye on the prize. The opening night we’d all been working for.
Lennon and her crew were doing last minute run throughs of the registers and making sure everyone’s login worked.
I was quizzing my waitstaff on table numbers and making sure the schedule made sense. It was all hands on deck for the first night of our opening, so there were bound to be people bumping into one another.
I was a little disappointed that Laverne wouldn’t make it to opening night. There had been an emergency with one of her nieces and she’d ended up traveling to New York City to take care of her. I didn’t know Rachel well, but I’d seen her a few times over the years.
Zoe and Ian would keep things exciting during the night if things started to slow down. Our family rockstar took his job very seriously when it came to helping out the businesses.
I couldn’t worry about that right now. The buzz of excitement was already in the air, and we still had three hours before the doors opened.
“Hina, get in here.”
I rolled my eyes at Kain’s bellow, but went into the kitchen. I found him in there barking orders at his staff. Jess was dodging and weaving around everyone to take photos of the food and do her thousandth test plating.
“How’s it going?”
“Good. We’ve got it handled. Sit.”
I frowned. “I don’t have time to sit.”
He lightly grasped my upper arm and dragged me around to the small table set up at the edge of one of the prep stations. “Sit. Eat. You haven’t eaten since six this morning, when I made you breakfast. I bet you have a headache.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because your little eyebrows are pinched. Eat.” He set a bowl full of rice and pork on the table. He knew my weakness, dammit. “It’s not too heavy for your nervous stomach.”
“And how do you know I have a nervous stomach? If I had one, I mean.”
He rolled his eyes. “Because you eat like a bird when you’re revved up about something.”
