Page 82 of Saison for Love

He gave a little thought to checking out the job situation in Antero, hanging out at a few friendly bars around town and listening to gossip. He might have been able to get some leads about who’d just gotten a great offer from that new place in Barrington, and who was likely to be down a bartender now that the summer was winding down.

But any Antero job would have to go some distance to equal the one in Park City. He’d be running the place part time along with bartending, getting ready to make the leap from service to management. Another bartending job wouldn’t be enough, not if he wanted to stop spinning his wheels as a part-time brewery assistant.

He did a little asking around anyway, just to see if serendipity could work for him. The result was about what he could have predicted—nobody was hiring, and nobody was quitting. At least, not right now. After a while, he headed for the management company to take his medicine. Park City was it.

The office was at one of the resort hotels, small but upscale. Liam studied the dark wood interior and the slate-topped bar of the cocktail lounge as he walked in. Not all that congenial. But the tips were probably better than he got at Black Mountain. Hell, anything would be better than the tips he was getting right now, given the way they’d gone downhill.

He headed down a hall near the lobby toward Rick Magruder’s office. Magruder was in charge of hiring for the local place. Liam had met him a few times during the application process. If anyone could tell him about the move to Park City, he figured Magruder could. He took a breath and knocked on the doorframe. “Mr. Magruder?”

Magruder glanced up from his computer. “Yeah?”

“I don’t know if you remember me—Liam Dempsey. We met at Beer Fest last month. I’m the one with the job at Provo Canyon Lodge in Park City.”

Magruder narrowed his eyes. “Dempsey. Antero Brewing, right?”

Liam nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“I’ve been talking to your sister about buying some red ale, but I haven’t made any decision yet.” He leaned back in his chair.

“Right. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about my new job.” Liam tried a smile, but it didn’t amount to much. “I need to know when the hotel is opening. I just found out I’m going to be available earlier than I thought.”

Magruder frowned slightly. “You’re the bartender at Black Mountain, right?”

Liam nodded, his partial smile fading to nothing. “Yeah. At the moment.”

“Stanton’s really closing the place down?”

“On Saturday.”

Magruder shook his head. “Too bad. That used to be a good bar—the beer list was outstanding. Was that your doing?”

Liam shrugged. “Some of it. I kept Stanton up to date.” Until Stanton had decided it was more important to save a few pennies than to have an outstanding beer list.

“You’re looking to move to Park City ahead of schedule. Not work at the brewery?”

“I’ll still be at the brewery until I leave, but I’m ready to head for Utah.”

“Right. Well, let me check. They might be ready for you now.” Magruder began clicking around on his computer.

Now? Immediately? Liam managed to keep his expression bland. “Thanks.”

“It’s at the Slalom Cafe, right?” Magruder shook his head, as he consulted something on his monitor. “It’s still going to be a few weeks until they open, but if I were you, I’d head there now. You’ll need to find a place to live, and you probably won’t be able to find anything in town you can afford. Take some extra time to look around the area.”

Park City, Utah. A day’s drive away. More in the winter. But you knew that when you took the job. “What’s the rental market like there?”

Magruder shrugged. “Expensive, like most resort towns. You can make good money, though. Some of the guys I know there clear around forty or fifty thousand a year when you figure in tips, which means you can afford a decent place. But rents can run three to four thousand a month, if you stay in town. Lots of people share.”

Forty or fifty thousand was more than he was making now. But he wouldn’t find anything like the place where he lived now, and he’d be on the other side of the mountains. Might as well be the other side of the moon. He managed a slightly tense smile. “It’s a big move. I guess I’ll need some time to get set up.”

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