Page 54 of In For a Penny
“Hey!” Dean responded as Max left laughing. He turned back to Parker. “This is going to be great. I’ve always wanted to be a bar owner. This should finish my father off.” He grinned and followed the rest out of the door.
Parker slumped down in his chair as Astrid flipped the lock. Walking back over to him, she straddled his lap so she could look at him with no distractions.
“Are you pissed at me now?” she asked. He took his time studying her. She had put her hair into a high ponytail. She didn’t have a stitch of makeup on yet and had chosen a T-shirt, shorts, and Chucks to wear. He thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
She had won the love and admiration of his family. She stepped in unasked whenever needed at the bar. She had not only taken the apartment renovations on but had rallied her friends to guarantee the bar would survive.
“How can I be pissed when I’m so fucking in love with you?” he asked.
“You love me?” she responded, her grin growing wide.
“I do. It was love at first sight. Bless that Halloween costume,” he said. “I know though that you’ll be back in school soon with all of those boys studying to be doctors and whatnot, so…” He didn’t get a chance to finish his thought when her mouth crashed against his.
Parker slid his hands from where they had been resting on her back down to her ass, pulling her toward him. She was kissing him like he was her last meal and he didn’t want to miss a single second. When they finally ran out of air, she pulled back, panting.
“I love you too. I don’t want some doctor. I want the sexy bartender with the tightest ass.”
“Damn, I thought you were going to say the biggest dick,” Parker said with a grin.
“Hum, maybe,” she said, cocking her head. “I don’t know, you might need to show me again.”
“That I can do,” he said, standing with her. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he headed for the hallway stairs that led to the apartment.
“Wait.” He stopped to see what she needed. “Do I need to get some quarters for this? I’ve got mad skills at bouncing them, you know?” she asked with a wicked grin. She let out a squeal when he smacked her on the ass before running up the stairs.
* * *
The dorms opened and Parker unhappily moved Astrid’s things into her new room. She only stayed there when she had a late class or stayed for one of Karlie’s night games. The rest of the week, she was snuggled up next to her sexy boyfriend, a moniker that made her grin every time she said it. She had a boyfriend. A sweet, sexy boyfriend at that.
They’d had to push back his dad moving in for a month while they completed the new renovations. The day he came home, Parker threw a ribbon-cutting party before the bar opened.
She met more family than any man should have that day. The fact Parker kept her at his side every moment, introducing her as his girlfriend, made it all worth it. The lopsided smile on his dad’s face did too.
Finn quickly learned to operate the lift and was soon a regular at the end of the bar. He had finally given up trying to intervene in her staying so much with Parker. He accepted her like a member of the family, though he had insisted that they get better at being quiet during sex. Thankfully, he imparted that to Parker and not her. She would have died of embarrassment on the spot.
Summer turned into fall and then winter. She found herself falling even more in love. Instead of acting bitter over Dean becoming a partner, Parker embraced the idea of teaching him everything he could about owning a bar. Dean had even begun prepping to get his bartender’s license “just in case.”
The twins turned sixteen and Parker begrudgingly let them both get their driver’s licenses. The three stayed in a constant fight over who got the Ramcharger for the day. She noticed he usually gave in and had started hunting for something else to drive.
Winter slowly gave way to spring. Dean started bringing up the observation that the old storefront next door would be perfect to expand into. Through Parker’s hard work, Donnelly’s became a very popular place to meet up with friends and relax.
Parker wasn’t sold on the idea of expansion though. Dean recruited the help of Astrid, Sam, and Karlie to convince him. They had begun brainstorming the extra business they could bring in. The bar could host live bands on the weekend and special nights during the week.
“I don’t understand why you’re so hardheaded,” Astrid griped while picking up her tray of drinks for table four. It was a busy Friday night and their friends were sitting at one of the tables watching them argue back and forth. Finn and his cronies had been laughing at Parker for being harassed by Astrid for a while.
“Because I’m not adding a blender just so you can serve some stupid fruity drink at a ladies’ night. When did this become a tiki bar?” Parker shouted back as she crossed the floor. Taking a minute to drop off table four’s food order, she crossed back to the bar.
“It’soneblender foronefrozen drinkoneday a week. How is that a tiki bar? We can put it in the back when it’s not being used.”
This had been an ongoing argument all week. Astrid thought they needed to start ladies’ night on Tuesdays when the bar was slow. Parker just shuddered every time she mentioned it. The idea of a large group of buzzed women seemed to scare him more than adding a blender.
“That’s ridiculous,” he argued. “This is an Irish pub. Irish pubs don’t have blenders.” He had added several pint glasses full of a local draft to her tray. Balancing it on her hand, she turned to take them to table seven.
“Well maybe you just need to broaden your horizons,” she shouted over her shoulder.
“Yeah, well maybe you just need to marry me so you can be in charge all of the time,” he threw back at her. Astrid couldn’t remember ever hearing the full room grow so quiet. She slowly turned around. Even the game on the television near the bar was muted.
“Maybe I do,” she said.
