Love, Exes, and Ohs (Cactus Creek #4)(22)

It hadn’t been a dare, or a challenge. But a nudge. For her to boldly, bravely let her own creativity shine on her newest stage.

And boy did she ever.

Unsurprising, really. Xoey’s mind was one of the most unique, soul-reachingly candid and creative minds he’d ever had the pleasure of seeing flourish. Within days, she’d come up with a project prospectus that had impressed the hell out of Noah, the town’s own homegrown business tycoon/guardian angel, which had resulted in his donating a good portion of the initial start-up for her project.

Fast forward to three months ago, and the town had their first home craft beer brewing invitational sponsored by Ocotillos.

It was a seasonal event wherein townfolk could try their hand at making a new brew for the season with home kits that Ocotillos assembled for them. Finalists would be chosen from all that entered, and for one night, those finalists would get to have their beer on tap at Ocotillos. The town would vote and the winner would have an official Ocotillos beer birth, with its foot-stomping, pub-rocking drinking song salute, which would lead to the writing of their name and the name of their brew on the wall of Ocotillos’ seasonal brews. And then that winning brew would get sold on tap for a month, with all proceeds going to the townfolk brewer’s charity of choice.

To say that it was a smashing success last season was an understatement.

From the looks of it, this season was going to be even better.

After making sure to first toss a warm wink at the woman responsible for everything, Isaac headed over to the sole empty table in the place, being guarded by Luke.

“Hey, man.” He sat down and thumped his friend on the shoulder in greeting. “Connor and Brian coming out tonight?”

Even though he and Luke had been friends with the older of the Sullivan brothers first, with Tessa having married Connor’s brother Brian, both the brothers usually came out together to guys’ night out while their wives stayed home with the kids. Then the reverse would hold true when either Xoey or Dani would call the Sullivan women for a girls’ night out.

“No, they’re having a double date night. And Lia’s helping Skylar babysit the kids.”

Since there were still two chairs that hadn’t been swiped by neighboring tables, he assumed that meant Rylan and Hudson were going to be joining them. Made sense since Hudson’s fiancée Lia was the Sullivan brothers’ go-to babysitter—the woman was basically Mary Poppins, Barney, and Pink Power Ranger rolled into one.

Admittedly, Isaac had always thought himself good with kids but whenever Lia was around, he and most other adults were basically invisible to children.

“Hudson’s coming by in a bit,” confirmed Luke. “He’s just finishing up a meeting with Lia’s brothers. Rylan will head down after he finishes playing his set upstairs.”

“Where’s Coop?” Isaac scanned the room for Rylan’s stepson Cooper, who usually never missed a show. He was a cute kid, and already quite the charmer at six years old. On the nights Rylan and his band played, he usually got just as much adoring attention from the women in the audience as the band did. And the last few times they’d had the little man join them for guys’ night, the waitresses had gushed over him all night long, sending root beer floats the size of his head and every item on the dessert menu.

“Quinn took him over to hang out with Lia and the kids. According to Quinn, he’s gotten pretty protective of Connor’s daughter, who has apparently just informed her preschool teachers that she’s going to marry him someday.”

Well, that was just adorable as hell.

And he didn’t blame the kid at all—heck, he’d choose the girl over boy’s night, too. Every time.

Mugs of beer arrived on the table moments later, courtesy of Xoey and Dani.

While Xoey practically lived behind the bar, he was surprised to see Dani back in the trenches. He looked over at Luke. “I thought Dani was only going to be working in the brewery from now on.”

“That’s still the plan,” replied Luke, as they both raised their mugs up to the girls in thanks. “But she was feeling nostalgic tonight so she jumped in to help.” After doing some Jedi flirting with his wife across the room, Luke shifted his attention back to Isaac. “Okay, so explain to me again what you’re doing about this Xoey’s man-quation thing. I still don’t fully get it.”

Glancing up to see Xoey across the room taking off her bartending apron, Isaac shook his head and slapped a few bills on the table. “Sorry man, I’ll explain next time. I have to go.”

Amusement lit Luke’s questioning brow arch. “Ditching us on guys’ night? Dare I ask why?”

Lifting his shoulders in an apologetic shrug, Isaac grinned back. “I choose the girl.”



*



“WOW, IT’S GONNA be tough to choose this season, Xo.”

“Great selection, Xoey. Some real unique fall brews.”

“I just can’t decide. Maybe one more round of each juuust to be sure…”

Xoey hadn’t stopped smiling once all evening. The raves had been coming throughout the night, and the mingling finalists were positively glowing from the praise.

And with Dani making a welcome comeback to fill out the already fully-staffed bar, Xoey had been able to settle back for the last hour to just take it all in.