Page 11 of Renaissance Bear

"He's smaller than I expected," Jon added, thinking about the armored knight from earlier. "I thought he'd be…" He gestured at himself, and Alis laughed again.

"Ginormous?"

"No, no, you should meet my older brothers. Laurie and I have nothing on ginormous, compared to Bill or Steve. We got smaller as we went along. But yeah, I figured he'd be a big dude. He's small and fast instead. Notsmall," since the knight had probably been about six feet tall, "but not as big as I expected."

"I imagine it's hard living up to everybody's expectations," Alis murmured, then glanced toward the rowdy tavern. "So that's your day job?"

"Hah. Speaking of expectations? Yeah."

"Oooh." Alis's dark eyebrows rose. "Is that the sound of a discontent younger brother, faced with expectations he doesn't want to fulfill? Will you challenge the heir to the empire for his throne, or join the Merchant Marine to make your own way in the world?"

Jon squinted at her. The half-lit fairgrounds softened her sharp features, but he thought he kind of liked the bright light of day and the hard angles of her cheeks and jaw. Either way, though, she was breathtakingly beautiful, a temptation in green that the night turned to forest-black. "I'm not sure 'Merchant Marine' fits into the same story as an heir to the empire. Although I'm gonna be honest, I'm not actuallysurewhat the Merchant Marine is."

"You know what, neither am I." Alis dipped her fingers into a pocket and came up with her phone, its light glowing blue over her face as she did a search and came to Jon's side, leaning on the table beside him. "Oh. Okay, that's way less…I don't know, sexy? Than I thought it was." She turned the phone toward him so he could read it more easily. "Basically it's just a country's merchant ships owned by civilians instead of the Navy."

"Oh. Yeah, that's way less sexy than…" Jon fell silent, trying to pinpoint exactly what he'd thought the Merchant Marine was, then shrugged. "Let's go back to pretending it's whatever kind of romantic thing we vaguely thought it was up until this point."

Alis grinned up at him. "Yeah, let's. But we now know heirs to empires and merchant mariners can definitely exist in the same storyline, so we solved that problem, at least."

"Oh, right. I forgot we were making up my future history here." He glanced back toward the tavern and shook his head."No, I don't think I'm running away or fighting for the throne, there. Steve definitely wanted to get away, and he did, but what I really love is this." He gestured around the fairgrounds. "Getting out and performing and being the face of the brewery as we expand. I'm not as crazy about the day-to-day running of the business, honestly, but Laurie and I are on the road with the marketing six or seven months a year, so…" He felt his eyebrows draw down, and tried to shake off the thought that bothered him.

Alis's eyebrows rose in turn, though, curiosity in her eyes. "What was that thought?"

"Oh, you're reading my mind already, is that it?"

"Just your face. If I could read your mind I wouldn't have asked what the thought was."

"Hah. Right. Um, I don't know. This is the first year I've gotten to fight in ages?—"

"And I almost ruined it for you! I'm sorry!"

Jon shook his head, smiling crookedly at her. "As long as it led to meeting you, it would have been worth it."

"Anothergood line. Damn, mister, you must have all the girls lining up."

"That's more Laurie's gig. So's the fighting. I was just thinking that when we're on the road he's really mostly fighting, not selling the company's wares. I don't know. I guess I kind of hadn't noticed before. Not that he doesn't do his part," he said, feeling weirdly guilty about underselling his brother. "We both work the tavern and everything, it's just…"

It was just that for a lot of the evening meetings, the business aspects that took place around and during the faires, Laurie either had the excuse of a sword fighting tournament to be in, or insisted he'd be fine running the tavern on his own while Jon took the meetings. It had always seemed like a reasonable way to split the work load, but now Jon's viewpoint on thatwas slipping. "I don't know," he said again. "I just hadn't really noticed it before, I guess."

"And now I've come along and thrown everything into disarray," Alis said, not very apologetically. "Sometimes it's good to get things shaken up a little."

"If we're being totally honest, it wasn't you. Laurie blew his knee out yesterday so he can't fight, and that's probably what really threw the balance off."

Alis managed an expression that was one part pout and one part obviously laughing at herself. "Right, yes, of course. Because it is not, in fact, all about me."

Jon turned to her and deliberately dropped his already-deep voice into a lower register. "My lady, I'd be delighted to make the whole rest of the faire all about you."

Her eyes widened and she took a short, shallow breath. "Oh wow. Wow, that voice, holy moly. Yeah, I think I like that. Uh. I mean. The faire being all about me? I mean, not all about me, obviously, but—suitor! Courting! You know! The storyline! You! Me! We should do that!" As Jon started to grin at her verbal fumbling, Alis smooshed a hand over her face, pulled it down to leave her expression rueful but less starstruck, and added, "Assuming you can advance in the fight ranks, anyway," in a much dryer tone.

"Do you doubt me?" he asked, mock-injured. "Also, aren't you allowed to just pick a hot bro and hook up with him? In story terms, I mean."

"I like your self-assurance there," she said with a laugh. "And I suppose I am, but people want to see it all acted out, which is easier with the really obvious contestants in the fighting ranks. Although I suppose you could be the farm boy who captures my heart and I marry below myself."

"The Dread Pirate Roberts at your service, madam." Jon swept a bow.

"Buttercup was a farm girl! Westley wasn't below her station!"

"No, but you're not a farm girl," Jon pointed out, gesturing at her lady-of-the-court costume. "And I'm not a member of the court, so if I win your hand, you'll definitely be marrying below yourself."

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