By the time Maia said she had to run, Jenna felt ridiculously optimistic. Like maybe she had a handle on all of this. Like maybe everything was going to turn out okay.
She stayed at the table for another couple of hours, her laptop in front of her as she shot off email after email and filled her electronic to-do list with so many tasks it was a wonder her computer didn't howl in protest.
"You're looking very productive."
She twisted in her chair, smiling, as Reece laid his hand on her shoulder. "That's because I'm kicking ass and taking names. I've pretty much got feelers out to the whole city at this point. Before I'm done, we'll have local celebrities as contestants, local female celebrities as judges, and every person in the city stumbling all over themselves to get coveted tickets to the Wednesday night contests."
"Tickets?"
"We have to have a way to control the door. I figure we give some away--I'm thinking radio as one possibility--but charge a premium for the rest. There's more panache with a price tag."
He bent over and kissed her head. "I love the way you think."
"Reece!"
She scooted her chair away from him as she shot to her feet, her eyes scanning the bar for Brent. For anyone who might have noticed the kiss.
"He's in the office talking with Tyree," Reece said, reading her mind.
"But Aly and Eric and Tiffany are here," Jenna said, heading toward the back of the bar and the door that led to the alley. "We have to be careful," she added. But as soon as the service door shut behind them, she was in his arms, sighing against his chest as he held her tight, one hand lightly cupping her ass as the other rubbed gentle circles on her back.
"Come home with me tonight," he said.
"Soon," she promised, as nerves twisted her stomach.
He cupped her chin. "He loves us both, Jen. If he's upset, it'll be with me. But at the end of the day, he'll be okay with it."
"Maybe." She wanted to believe him, but she couldn't shake the fear. Reece and Brent were her family. The only family she had near here now that her mom had moved away.
And even though she trusted Brent with all her heart and loved him like a brother, Jenna knew only too well that even family can let you down. And the people who claim to love you can leave just like everyone else.
Chapter Fifteen
Eeyore's Birthday Party had been held in Central Austin's Pease Park on the last Saturday of April for longer than Jenna had been alive. And she'd been a regular attendee all her life, having missed only two that she could recall. Last year, when she'd been in LA interviewing for jobs, and her sophomore year of high school, when she'd been in the hospital recovering from an emergency appendectomy.
Founded in honor of the gloomy character from the Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne, the party had grown from a simple gathering that some University students had put together to an event so large it sometimes seemed that the whole town turned out. Including, always, a flower-draped donkey a
s the donkey-of-honor.
All proceeds from the event went to various non-profit organizations, and dozens upon dozens of local vendors showed up with games, crafts, food, and enough drinks to keep the party going. Even in the new millennium, the party had a hippie vibe, and it was much more kid-friendly in the early hours when children and adults lined up for face-painting, giant soap bubble games, kites, henna tattoos, and lots and lots of costumes.
"There he is!" Faith called, jerking free of Jenna's hand so she could run pell-mell across the park toward where this year's Eeyore stood inside a pen looking appropriately gloomy.
Jenna squeezed Reece's hand. "What time are we supposed to relieve Brent?"
He glanced at his watch. "Soon. But he knows what we've got on our hands," he added, with a nod toward Faith, who had entered the pen and was gently stroking the donkey's nose. "He won't care if we're a little late."
Brent was currently manning the booth that The Fix on Sixth was sponsoring, selling beer, wine, and a limited selection from the menu, with this year's proceeds benefitting the Austin Zoo, a small local zoo dedicated to animal rescue and rehabilitation. Jenna had loaded him and the rest of the staff up with stacks of flyers announcing The Fix on Sixth's Man of the Month calendar model contest, and giving details on both how to sign up and when the contest would be running live on stage.
"Maybe we should be a lot late," Jenna said as she and Reece parked themselves by the pen's exit. Then she turned in his arms and tilted her face up for a kiss. She and Faith had gotten their faces painted less than an hour before, and glittery pink rubbed off on Reece's nose. She wiped it away with her thumb. "We could enlist Elijah to watch Faith, and you and I could go escape into the trees." Not that there were many trees where they were, but Jenna was motivated enough to walk a ways if it meant some privacy with Reece.
"Tempting," he said. "How about I kiss you again now, and we'll call it a rain check for later?"
"That's a plan I can live with." She rose up on her toes, her arms going around his neck as she lost herself in the kind of slow, deep, demanding kiss that had her imagining long nights in bed with that tongue doing even more amazing things to her body.
"Well," she said when they broke apart. "Is it later yet?"
His mouth curved up. "Anticipation, baby. It's the best aphrodisiac there is."