Kiss My Cupcake(87)

He’s been in such better spirits lately. So happy with how the bar is doing, glad to see it full of life and people again. And honestly, so am I.

Blaire slips her arm through mine. “Come on, let’s go talk in your office.”

“Are you going to try to distract me with sex?”

Blaire laughs. “I could, but I won’t. Especially not while Gramps is here.”

I slip into the office first so I can quickly shuffle some of the papers around on the desk, hiding the ones I’m not sure I’m ready for Blaire to see yet. I close the door and sit on the edge of the desk, giving her the new executive chair. As much as Gramps loved the old one, it was falling apart. Literally. One of the arms fell off two weeks ago and it was really all the encouragement I needed to buy something comfortable.

“So what have you and Gramps been talking about behind my back?” I go for light, but I’m not sure it comes out that way.

Blaire reaches up and takes one of my hands in hers, skimming along the design on my wrist. “It was just something I mentioned a few weeks back, more as a joke than anything.”

“Okay.” I wait for her to elaborate, but after a few seconds of quiet, I press. “Blaire? Are you gonna tell me?”

“I just made a comment that it would be a lot easier to run all of our cohosted events if we put a doorway between B&B and The Knight Cap.” She laughs, but it’s high and nervous.

I have to give it to Gramps; he really knows how to force a conversation I wasn’t sure I was ready to have. I lace my fingers with hers. “Oh yeah? And what did Gramps say about that?”

She waves her free hand in the air. “Oh, you know Gramps.”

“So you were just joking about that? About a doorway between our places?”

Her expression is somewhere between embarrassed and nervous. “I’m already moving in with you. It’s not like you want me in your face all day every day, too. Besides, Gramps has had to manage enough change with all the renovations this year.”

Last month I suggested she move in with me. It’s maybe five minutes farther from the bars, but my place is also twice the size of hers and nicer, and my bed is bigger. And she actually kind of lives in a shithole, not that I would say that out loud. But it isn’t great. So she’s been driving stuff over by the carload.

“I’d be more than happy to have you in my face all day every day and every night.” I raise our twined fingers and kiss the back of her hand. “But I totally understand if that would be too much of me for you.”

“I can’t ever get enough of you, Ronan. You know that. Anyway, it was just a silly idea I threw out, because it was cold and rainy and I didn’t have an umbrella with me.”

“What if I said I didn’t think it was that silly of an idea.”

She blinks up at me. “What do you mean?”

“I mean what if we joined forces permanently? I love you and I love this place, and I think we work really well together.”

“So do I, and I love you, too.” She gives me a gentle, inquisitive smile.

“I know how important it is for you to do this on your own, and I don’t want to take that away from you, but my favorite nights are when we cohost events. And the thing I look forward to the most every day are the times I get to see you.”

Blaire’s fingers go to her lips. “You’re serious?”

“I think we make a great team.”

“Me, too.” She smiles, and then her expression turns serious. “We’d have to open up a wall.”

“The adjoining wall doesn’t have anything but electrical to worry about, and that’s easy to shift around.”

She cocks her head to the side, considering. “What about the booths and the wall of photos?”

“We’d only have to lose one booth to put the doorway in, and we could have a host stand between the two.”

“You sound like you already have a layout for this.” She laughs.

“I might have drawn up a rough sketch and looked into a few things.”

“Wait. You’ve already thought about this, too?” A small wry smile tips up the corner of her mouth. “So that’s what Gramps meant by we’re on the same page.”

“I don’t want to push you into this either way, Blaire. I know how important your independence is, and how hard you’ve worked so you don’t have to compromise your dream. I just want you to know that if you’re ever interested, I’d love to do this together with you, but it’s really okay if you don’t like—”

She launches herself out of the chair and wraps her arms around me. “I’m interested. I know I’ve always talked about not compromising my dream, but I realized I really love having a partner. Having the right partner. I only wanted to do it on my own because no one ever thought I could, and now I know I can. My favorite place to be is right next to you. I want us to do this together.” She smooths her hands down my chest. “But what about the brewery?”

“I don’t want to let this go—us, the bar, the connection I have to you and this place is far too important. I came into this thinking I would make it work and then move on, but I got so much more out of it. I got you.”

“And cupcakes. Don’t forget about those.”