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  “It’s not the same thing,” I said.

  “But it could be. Something drew you two together.”

  “Yes, her need for money and my need for someone to work at my bar. Look. Ava left me. Or don’t you remember that? Without any consideration, without even a thought. She just left. She didn’t even say goodbye. As far as I was concerned, she was my past and I didn’t want anything else to do with her. She ended up working at the bar out of necessity, but that’s it. And it’s all it’s going to be. Now please drop it. Nothing is going to happen between us,” I said.

  “Fate finds unusual ways to work sometimes,” Mom insisted.

  I chose to ignore the comment.

  But I couldn’t ignore the thoughts of Ava. Even after I managed to redirect the conversation, she stayed in my mind. I thought about her for the rest of the time at my parents’ house, and the images were still there when I got home.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about how gorgeous she looked. The years had done well for her. She was beautiful when we were younger, but she was stunning now. The years had matured her features and filled out her body in all the sexiest ways. Being near her at the bar woke my body up and stoked desire that only strengthened with every new thought and image.

  Getting into the shower to get ready for bed only intensified the need. The water streaming down on me made me hard, and I couldn’t ignore it. With thoughts of Ava’s sweet mouth fueling me, I wrapped my hand around my cock. Soap made my hand move smoothly as I stroked hard and fast, bringing myself to a shuddering climax. I leaned against the wall and let the water wash over me as I enjoyed the aftershocks. Ava always had that effect on me. I didn’t know how I was going to deal with her around all the time.

  9

  Ava

  After my first week working at the bar, I felt settled into the position. The tips I got went straight into a jar when I got home every night, and the deposit I made into the bank at the end of the week convinced me I’d made a good move accepting the job. I wouldn’t say I was rolling in money, but it was definitely something. It motivated me to keep working harder and find ways to make more.

  I remembered what Mason said about me helping them with the business. It was thrown out there during the uncomfortable encounter at my apartment, and part of me thought he didn’t even mean to say it. He had to realize how awkward it was for him to show up at my door in the first place. He could have just picked up the phone if he wanted to check in on my decision. My number was listed right there next to the address he’d skimmed.

  I spent the morning before going to work coming up with some basic ideas and outlining them for the guys. Then I headed into the bar early to grab some time to talk with them. Jesse was behind the bar when I got there. He raised the towel he was using to dry a glass and gave me a smile.

  “You’re here early,” he said.

  I nodded. “I wanted to talk to you guys. Where is everybody?”

  “Mason’s in the office, Tyler’s in the kitchen, and Matt just went to the basement to look for some decorations the former owner said were still down there,” he said. “Why? Is everything alright?”

  “Everything’s good,” I said. “But I want to get a chance to talk to all of you. Hopefully Matt finds those decorations. They might play into everything.”

  Jesse looked at me curiously but didn’t ask anything further. He went back to drying the freshly cleaned glasses so he could put them away. I went to the largest of the booths and sat down, twisting my hair up behind my head and securing it with a clip to get it off my neck. While I waited for the guys to come, I took the notes I’d put together out of my bag and set them on the table in front of me.

  “Can I get you a drink?” Jesse asked.

  The question made another idea pop into my head, and I pulled up the note feature on my table to jot it down before I forgot it. “Um, yeah. Orange juice and lemon lime soda, please.”

  “Um… okay,” he said.

  As he was setting the drink down in front of me a few seconds later, Mason came out of the office.

  “Hey, Ava,” he said, glancing at his watch. “You didn’t need to come in for another hour.”

  “I know,” I said. “But I wanted to get a chance to talk to you guys a bit before customers started coming in.”

  Just as I was telling him that, Matt came around the corner from a hallway leading further into the building.

  “Did you find anything?” I asked.

  He lifted a cardboard box he was carrying to bring attention to it. “There’s got to be more down there, but this was all I was able to find.”

  “You mean all you were able to find until the spiders started creeping you out,” Tyler said.

  He had just come out of the kitchen and was carrying a plate of grilled cheese sandwiches cut into triangles. They formed an interesting structure stacked up on the plate, and I pointed them out.

  “Is that on the menu?” I asked.

  He held the plate out to me, and I took one of the crispy golden triangles.

  “No,” he said. “It’s just something I make sometimes when I’m hungry.”

  I took a bite of the sandwich and had to hold back a groan. “This is incredible.”

  “The secret is the outside of the bread. Rather than just using butter, I use mayonnaise with a hint of onion powder and garlic.”

  “Look at this,” Matt said. We turned our attention to the table a few feet away where he had set the box down and was going through it. He withdrew an oddly shaped object and removed a layer of paper. “It’s a glass boot. Like a real, genuine glass boot.”

  I grinned and reached for the glassware. Matt handed it to me, and I set it on the table alongside the plate of grilled cheese triangles.

  “This is the perfect visual aid for what I wanted to talk to you about,” I said.

  The guys looked at each other questioningly but gathered around the table.

  “You want to discuss the questionable decor choices around here?” Matt asked.

  I laughed. “Not exactly. When you first offered me the position, Mason mentioned you could use some help increasing business.”

  “That’s right,” Mason said.

  I nodded. “You want to bring in more customers and increase sales. That’s an important distinction you can’t overlook. When it comes to growing your business and making it more successful, you can’t just look at the number of people who come in or how frequently. Think about the collection of regulars who are in here basically all afternoon and evening. They are consistent. They come every day. But they aren’t exactly an impressive element of your nightly earnings.”

  “Because they only buy the same thing over and over,” Tyler said.

  “Exactly. You want to make sure you are both increasing the number of people who come in, and how much each of them spend. If you’re consistently offering the exact same experience, that’s going to be a challenge. Of course, there will be people who come in constantly because of that consistency. They know what to expect, and that’s what they want. But there are other people who will come once or not at all because it never changes. Offering something new and different that your customers haven’t seen and give you a leg up.”

  “New and different like what?” Mason asked.

  “Well, there are the basic things you can do on a fairly regular basis, like drink sales. You don’t have happy hour here. If you offered happy hour with discounted drinks and snacks, it would appeal to the after-work crowd. Then there are things like menu specials. The grilled cheese is a perfect example of that. You find things that are appealing, and make them even better, then offer them occasionally. They become a special treat people look for, and once they’ve tried one, they are going to be more interested in seeing what else you might have to offer,” I said.

  “I like that idea,” Jesse said. “We could also find local sources for ingredients and highlight them.”

  “Now you’re thinking,” I said. “Which brings us to the o
ther idea.” I grabbed the glass boot and set it in front of me, holding my hands out to it to display it. “On my first day working here, my best friend, Stephanie, came over with a gift for me. It was a Barbie lunchbox like the one I had when we were just little girls. She also brought along sandwiches from my favorite diner. She said it was a theme.”

  “Childhood favorites?” Matt asked.

  “Lunch,” I said. They looked at me strangely, and I shook my head to push past it. “I know. It sounds odd, but it made sense once she explained it. The point is, there was a theme. It was cohesive. And that’s what we should do here. Theme nights. People love creativity and things that are interesting, limited edition, and exclusive. It makes them feel special and included.”

  “So, what are we talking about here?” Mason asked.

  “Decorations, special food, drinks with names that go along with the theme. People could even come in costume or at least dressed to go along with the theme. Then there could be a costume contests or events and activities that go along with the theme. The point is to encourage them to feel involved again offer things they can’t get on a regular basis,” I said.

  “What kinds of themes?” Tyler asked.

  “The possibilities are essentially endless,” I said. “There are all the usual suspects. Halloween, Valentine’s Day, holiday things. Under the sea. Things like that. But then you can do other ones like a country night,” I said, gesturing toward the glass boot. “Or a black-and-white night. On the marketing materials, tell everybody to wear black and white, then use black lights. It creates a glow, and it’s really neat. You would be amazed at some of the creativity you’ll see in people’s clothes. Then find ways to make black and white the theme behind special menu items and drinks.”

  “That’s actually a really good idea,” Mason said. “Tom bought some black light bulbs when we first opened this place. He ordered them by mistake, but just put them in the storage room rather than returning them. This would be a perfect opportunity to use them.”

  “I know a couple of bakers in the area,” Jesse said. “We could ask if they want to come up with unique desserts or cookies or something, then have advertising for them.”

  “That’s perfect,” I said. “They can also advertise the event from their end. It works out for both of you. We can create cocktails using Irish Cream or Amarula. Both are creamy and would come across as white under the lights.”

  We talked about the event for a little while longer until the first of the town drunks filed in right as Mason unlocked the door. I took my place behind the bar and started filling orders. Half an hour later, Stephanie arrived with another set of friends. She was doing her best to be subtle about it, but I knew she was slowly trying to infiltrate me into her group so I would find more reason to stay.

  While I made their drinks, Tyler came behind the bar to bring appetizers the girls ordered. Stephanie’s face instantly lit up, and she started flirting hard. All I could do was shake my head and laugh. My best friend had always had a crush on Tyler Anderson. There was even a time when she dreamily planned a double wedding while musing this was the only way we would be able to be sisters. Since we were both only children, her marrying Tyler and me marrying Mason was our only option.

  It had sounded perfect to our young minds. While I had my go round with Mason and it didn’t happen for us, she was still working on Tyler. Her being there had the added benefit that some of her friends were from a neighboring town. They promised to spread the word about The Hollow, especially when Mason emerged from the office with fliers for the Black and White Night we had discussed.

  He passed out a few of the flyers, and immediately people started getting excited about it. They were pumped to come back and see what we came up with. When he was done handing them out, he came behind the bar and stood beside me.

  “Thanks again,” he said. “You’ve done wonders in a short time.”

  I grinned up at him. “I think it worked out really well. And I’m sure I can come up with more ideas too.”

  “Good. I look forward to hearing them,” he said.

  We looked at each other for a few seconds, then glanced away. Things were still awkward, but it was calming down some, as if we were starting to get used to occupying the same space again. Jesse called over from the other side of the bar, asking for a glass. Mason and I both reached for it at the same moment, our fingers brushing. We paused at the touch of our skin. A rush of butterflies filled my stomach and it took everything in me not to drop the glass and run out of the bar.

  10

  Mason

  Putting together the entire Black and White theme night in one week was a challenge, but I felt like we really pulled it off. When the day finally came, I was at the bar before anyone else to get everything set up and ready to go. Both excitement and anxiety churned around in my stomach. This could be fantastic for the bar. It could also be a colossal failure and make things worse.

  It was a toss-up, but I decided to go into it with optimism. Ava’s idea really was incredible. I never would have thought of doing theme nights, especially not something like she concocted with the blacklight. But after testing the bulbs after hours a couple of days before, I could visualize it even better.

  Jesse and Tyler had been hard at work all week coming up with the menu. Jesse managed to get the bakers he knew to provide customized desserts for a percentage of the profits, and both were working on savory dishes. All of us had been working through the week to find cocktails we could rename to fit the theme and come up with new drinks that worked. It made for some late nights and a lot of mistakes, but we ended up settling on offerings I thought were going to be extremely popular.

  I had most of the decorations put up and was testing the lights when my brothers showed up together. They hauled in crates and bags of materials for the event and dragged me out with them to the truck waiting out back so I could help bring in the rest. After our third trip, we started unpacking and washing the dozens of tiny black-and-white dishes we bought to accentuate the menu. We decided to stage them on a table set off to the side of the kitchen so it would be easier to serve.

  As we set them up, I noticed the three of them exchanging glances. Anybody with close siblings could recognize that look. They were communicating with each other without saying anything, and it was all about me. I let it go on for a while, waiting to see how long it would take before one of them finally said something. But by the time most of the dishes were in place and we had started prepping the more complicated dishes, I lost patience.

  “Are one of you actually going to say something, or is this going to go on all night?” I asked.

  “We were just talking while we were picking everything up,” Matt said.

  “About anything in particular?” I asked.

  “It’s been a couple weeks since Ava started here,” Jesse said.

  “It has,” I agreed.

  “And?” Tyler asked.

  “And she’s doing a really good job. People like her, and she came up with this really awesome theme night idea,” I said.

  “Yeah, that’s not what we were getting at,” Tyler replied.

  “I figured as much,” I said. “But I thought I might be able to detour the conversation.”

  “Has anything happened between you and Ava?” Matt asked.

  “And yet, we still end up here,” I said with a sigh.

  “You can’t seriously think no one was going to ask,” Tyler replied.

  “Actually, I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t,” I said.

  “Is that a no?” Jesse asked.

  “Yes, that’s a no. Nothing has happened with Ava and me. And nothing will happen between Ava and me,” I said.

  Just as I was finishing the sentence, the kitchen door swung open and Ava walked in. She went right past us to the cooler to pull out fruit to prep. She didn’t react to what I’d said, but I didn’t know if she didn’t hear me or if she was just pretending to have not heard me.

  We
didn’t have much time left before the event was supposed to start, so we rushed to get everything set up. As we were putting the final finishing touches on the decorations and getting the lights turned on, Ava went outside with a large chalkboard. She’d written all the drink specials and menu items on it so we could display it and entice people to come in. When she walked back in, her eyes were wide.

  “What?” I asked. “Is something wrong?”

  “I don’t think we’re going to need the chalkboard,” she said.

  “Why not?” Matt asked.

  “There’s a huge line outside the door. You’ve got to see it,” Ava said.

  My brothers and I glanced at each other, then rushed to the window to get a peek. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The entire outdoor patio positioned just outside the front door was stuffed with people, and more overflowed onto the sidewalk. Almost all of them were wearing black and white the way the marketing materials instructed.

  I let out a shocked, happy laugh, and Matt rushed to give Ava a hug. He swept her up into the air, and as soon as her feet touched the ground again, Tyler took his turn.

  “Thank you so much for doing such an awesome job,” Matt said. “This is above and beyond anything I could have hoped for.”

  “It really is amazing,” Jesse said, giving her a squeeze.

  Ava was flushed and grinning when she stepped back from my younger brother. She looked over at me. I couldn’t decide if I should hug her or not. I wanted to, and it would have just fallen into line with the rest of my brothers. But I finally decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Instead, I gave her a high five.

  “I knew it. Right from the beginning, I told you guys, didn’t I? I said Ava was going to come in here and show us how to do this right.” She grinned at me, but there was a flicker of something in her eyes that made my stomach tighten and my heart thud. “I’m going to dip into the office really fast and make sure everything is ready to go. I still have to print out the games.”