Second Chance Baby

Mason kissed me and smiled encouragingly. “You are amazing, and I know you will make the right decision. And Jesse is perfectly sufficient, and I am confident he will make a decision that you will later modify to make it work.”

He slid his eyes over to the side to where Jesse was standing. The younger brother shot him a look, and Mason laughed.

“It’s going to be great,” I said. “I’m just happy that business is already good enough for us to be able to do this. Having those extra people is going to make a huge difference.”

“I know,” Mason said. “The last time we added somebody, it worked out really well for us.”

I grinned and gave him another kiss. Since we were in such a good moment, I decided to broach the uncomfortable topic that continued to hover around us.

“So, have you had a chance to talk to Tom yet?” I asked.

I wasn’t as worried about it now as I was at the beginning. Mason had already come right out and told his oldest brother that he loved me and we were together. But I knew he wanted to have a full conversation with him and talk the whole situation out. So far, they hadn’t had the opportunity to sit down together.

“Not yet,” Mason said. “He had to fly back to San Francisco for some work emergency. I don’t think this is the sort of conversation we should have over the phone, so I have to wait until he comes back. But he said he’s planning to come back in a week or two. When he gets here, we can sit down and discuss it. All three of us.”

He slipped that in right at the end when I had started to turn away to put my coffee mug in the dish bucket. I paused and turned back around stare at him incredulously.

“Excuse me?” I asked. “What do you mean all three of us?”

“Well, this obviously involves you. I think you should be there to be able to talk about it and speak for yourself,” Mason said. “It’ll probably mean a lot more to him when he sees us together and were able to both explain to him how we feel.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “That makes me really nervous.”

Mason shook his head. “It shouldn’t. There’s no reason for you to be nervous. Tom really likes you. He always has. Besides, it’s not going to make any difference to our relationship in any negative way. No matter what he says, you and I are together.” He reached down and took my hands, holding them between us. “This is real, and it’s not going away. I don’t care how he feels about it.”

“Really?”

“Really. The only thing it could do is make things better. I’m not asking for his permission. I’m not asking for his blessing. All I’m doing is giving him the opportunity to accept our relationship and be happy for us. If he decides not to, then that’s his problem,” Mason said.

“Alright,” I said. “We don’t have much time. Let’s get to work getting everything set up for tonight.”

“Yes, Boss,” Mason said.

I shook my head, and we started getting everything together. We were almost ready by the time Matt and Tyler came in. Mason’s arms were around my waist, my back to him as he tickled me, and I giggled. I squealed as he scooped me up and swung me in a circle.

Matt and Tyler grinned as they watched us. When Mason put me back on my feet, Matt came over and patted him on the back.

“It’s good to see you happy again, brother,” he said. “You too, Ava.”

“I am definitely happy again,” I said.

Mason grabbed me and dipped me back, giving me a long, deep kiss.26MasonIt took almost a week for Ava and Jesse to settle on who to hire for the bartender and cook positions. But it was finally the day for them to start, and everybody was excited to see how they were going to fit in. That was going to be the biggest test. We talked about that a few days before when they were still struggling over who to choose.

Both said there were a couple of different people who had great skills, a lot of experience, and came recommended by other people in the industry. They were applying to work at The Hollow either because they didn’t have the type of position they wanted at their former place of employment, they had just moved into the area, or they had left the industry for a while to do something else but were coming back.

It made it difficult for them to decide which one of them would be the best fit. Eventually, they realized the only way to really decide would be to see them in action. It wasn’t just about how they used their skills in the context of an actual workday. It wasn’t even about how they were able to respond to pressure or deal with how things could change moment-to-moment.