It still wasn’t fun watching other men salivate over her, but I realized that for the most part it was harmless. They weren’t saying inappropriate things or trying to touch her. Those very few and far between occasions when somebody did get close to being out of line, she cut them off swiftly and firmly. She maintained control at all times and gave people just enough attention to keep their spirits up without leading them on.
It made me feel good, and I had a strange surge of pride watching her. That was my girl. The woman I loved, and who loved me. All these other guys watched her and wanted her. They were drawn to her and tried everything they could to figure out how to get her attention. But none of them would be able to, and that made me smile.
A few times throughout the night, I indulged myself with a quick kiss or two, and when I felt like we were adequately alone, I gave her a swift smack on her cute round ass.
Every now and then I checked around to see if Tom had shown up. He didn’t have a specific time when he arrived every night. Instead, he tended to just wander in and find his spot among the crowd. He waited until we noticed he was there to interact with us. But I didn’t notice him on any of the times I checked around. By the end of the night, he still hadn’t shown up, so I didn’t get a chance to tell him anything.
My brothers left Ava and me to do the closing like usual, and as soon as the last person closed the door behind them, I swept her up into my arms. We held each other for a few moments in the middle of the bar, and I rested my lips to hers in a long, soft kiss.
“Do you need a ride home tonight?” I asked.
She laughed and shook her head. “No. I brought my own car.”
“Oh, you have your car,” I said. I made a face like I was thinking for a couple of seconds. “So, do you need a ride home tonight?”
Ava wrapped her arms around my neck. “Absolutely.”23AvaI popped another of the tiny miniature funnel cakes from the basket in front of me into my mouth and let out a moan of appreciation. Pointing to them, I looked at Jesse.
“Those are ridiculously delicious,” I said. “I could probably eat my weight in them.”
Jesse laughed and shook his head. “You’re the one who is ridiculous. I’m really glad you like them, though. I figured they could be served just like that in a basket and have dipping sauces on the side. Regular things like strawberries, cherry pie filling, whipped cream, chocolate sauce. But then maybe we could add some interesting twists, too.”
“What do you mean by interesting twists?”
“Just things that are little more unusual. Maybe some charred corn and cotija cheese or grind up hot chili peppers and put them in powdered sugar. Things that are more like experiences rather than just the normal flavors everybody’s expecting,” he said.
“That sounds fantastic,” I told him. “This definitely has to go on the menu for the carnival night.”
Jesse smiled and headed back into the kitchen. I had no doubt he would be back within the next couple of minutes with his next offering. Ever since I got go to the bar that afternoon, he had been plying me with the new creations he had come up with to coordinate with my plans for upcoming theme nights.
The Halloween event was still the one I was most excited about. Mason and I had talked through it so much and come up with so many ideas, some of them ended up splitting off and becoming their own theme nights. Our whole conversation about caramel apples transformed into a night dedicated to the carnival. As fall crept up, the idea of a fair sounded like so much fun.
I sat at one of the tables with papers spread out in front of me as I put finishing touches on the plans for that night while also brainstorming ideas for future nights. When I first recommended us doing theme nights, it was on a whim. The idea had just popped into my mind, and I’d developed it into a basic concept before pitching it to them.
I hadn’t admitted it to any of the guys, but there were some moments when I worried I wouldn’t be able to come up with the next idea. People were enjoying the theme nights so much I worried I would suddenly dry up and not be able to come up with the next thing to excite them.
But it seemed like the more I put together, and the more the guys helped me develop the small kernels of ideas into full-on events, the more I was inspired. The floodgates had opened, and now I couldn’t stop churning out new ideas. Not all of them would actually make it into development. They weren’t all logical or realistic, but I still wrote every one of them down. It was better to have too many things to think about than not enough.