11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Nate

"Nathan and Nathaniel, listen up." At Joanne's words both mine and Dad's heads turned in unison. "I am kidnapping Kit today. We have wedding stuff to take care of and he won't be available for a few hours."

"Mom, in case you haven't noticed, we're packed to the gills again. Kit needs to be here, and we could really use your help, too." What the hell was this woman thinking?

She pointed at Merle. "Get that old curmudgeon to help you. He parks his ass on the stool all day and watches y'all work. Put him to work, offer him free food. He likes that shit." She was on a roll, but she'd lost her damn mind.

Merle raised his hands. "I'm in charge of drinks. I'll be behind the bar if anyone needs me."

"Like hell you will. We'll lose our asses off with you bartending." I shook my head. "It's all right, Mom. We got it, plus Vonda and Stevie will be in today." Right on cue, they walked in. "There you go, saved by the timeclock." Merle huffed but there was no way in hell I'd allow him behind my bar.

"Our first stop today, Kit," Mom rubbed her hands together like a mad scientist. It took all my energy to hold back the eye roll. "Is to go see Percy at Don't Go Bakin' My Heart," she smiled. "That genius name gets me every time. Anyway, we have to meet with him about the cake and if you're undecided on a flavor, we can set up a sampling and you and Nate can go back to try a few and pick one you like."

My boy looked up at me, eyes wide. A silent plea in them that screamed save me . "Sweetheart, I like just about everything, so feel free to pick whatever you want. Or in this case, what you and Mom want, and I promise I'll be more than good with that." His shoulders dropped and he visibly relaxed. I'd made the right choice. I would have pulled the Daddy card and nixed it had that not been the result. Taking that fun from Mom would've sucked, I could see how much she wanted this, but my boy came first. Plus, it would be good for the two of them to spend time together.

"Mom, check our suits off your list. We've already booked an appointment with Ezra and told him what we want so he's on it." One thing Kit and I didn't need was her going over there and adding her unsolicited two cents worth. We'd end up dressed like rejects from an eighties prom.

"Good to know because Ezra was on our list for today."

Whew, crisis averted.

"Where else are you planning to drag my future husband off to?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

"Sassy woman, one of a million reasons why I fell in love with her." Dad smiled fondly at her. Good Lord, when these two got going there was no stopping them. It was time to put the kibosh on this before they embarrassed the hell out of Kit with their PDA.

"All right, all right, time for you two to go. Kit and I have already talked about the food for the reception so if you're heading to the diner or Midnight Pleasure, he's got the list on his phone. As far as decorations go, we want to keep it simple. Keep that in mind, Mom, I know how you get." Not that my words would be absorbed but I had to try.

"Don't you go sassing me, boy."

"Ooh, you done got told," Merle teased.

"Don't make me cut you off at noon already, old man. What the hell have you been watching on TV?"

"There's this show called MTV Cribs ," Merle tried to flash some sort of I don't know symbol with his hands but it didn't work.

"Better watch what you're flashing. You never know what you'll conjure with those digits." Kit sat off to the side giggling and I winked at him. He loved the banter between me and Merle. I adored that man, and as far as I was concerned he was family and Kit was aware it was all in good fun. Merle got me with some zingers, as he called them, from time to time, too.

"That's what all the homies do." Merle was certain of that, whatever that was.

Where do you go with that?

"Better go before the fool starts rapping," Dad shook his head. "Wonder if we should cut the cable connection to his house."

"I wonder if the dentist can fix my grill," Merle said aloud, though I think he meant to keep that to himself .

Kit's head bobbed back and forth watching our exchange. Not sure he understood it all, having grown up with no TV, but he seemed to enjoy it.

"Give me a kiss." He grinned at the silly pucker face I made, a slight blush tinged his cheeks, but he kissed me anyway. "Have fun and buy something for yourself. That money is yours, sweet boy. You deserve a treat." I kissed his nose and sent him off with Mom.

"Should we say a prayer for the local retailers?" Dad asked.

"Ha-ha, not a bad idea. They'll most likely end up here for drinks after she gets through with them."

"Probably should've hid her credit cards." Dad shook his head. "Well, at least I'll go broke locally. Putting back into the economy and all that. Okay, son, where do you need me today?"

"Well, you can bus or play drink master. Which do you prefer?"

"Bussing it is." Dad grabbed the bucket and got to work.

"Hey, Merle, feel like taking a walk?" I asked him. He eyed me curiously.

"You throwing me out?"

"I'd do nothing of the sort, now would I?" Likely not. Probably not. Nah, I didn't have the balls for that, though I would leave him passed out in one of the booths overnight.

"Need to put an ad for a busser, maybe two, for the summer on the bulletin board over at the post office. Any chance you could mosey on over and pin it up for me?" I'd likely not get a chance unless I went over right as they opened in the morning before we did.

"Yeah, I can do that, but don't let anyone take my stool." As soon as he stood I moved it behind the bar. "You're a good man, no matter what they say."

"No matter what who says?" I crossed my arms. "You starting shit, old man?"

"As if you could take me. Give me the ads." I handed over the note I'd jotted down earlier. "I'll be back soon, and I expect my lunch to be on the house."

"For a three-minute walk? You think that earns free food?"

"Well, I gotta tell all those naysayers you're not an ogre. That takes time, ya know."

"Considering the king of the rumor mill is standing right here in front of me, I'd say there's only one naysayer that needs to know I'm not an ogre," Merle grumbled and made his way over to the door without another word. Now it was time to get back to business .

I had been spoiled having Kit here. When Vonda needed a break or to take her lunch, Kit stepped in. When Stevie needed hers as well, Kit stepped in. Now, today, I was the one doing it. How had I handled this in the past? It'd been so long I'd already forgotten. One thing I had better never forget was to show Kit how appreciated and loved he was.

"Where are all the bags?" Dad asked Kit and Mom when they came back.

"We dropped them off at the house. Has it been this busy all day?" Mom scanned the packed bar, not an empty seat in the place. "Shoot."

"Yeah, shoot is right, woman. Now, put on an apron and get to helping." Glad Dad said that and not me or I'd be eating a bar of soap.

Kit took over in the kitchen since it was time for Stevie and Vonda to go. Mom took over on the floor for Vonda. I dared anyone to say a word to her about how long their orders took. Wouldn't be surprised to see her put a smart mouth or two over her knee.

The four of us ran non-stop until closing. I felt terrible for my parents, they were utterly exhausted. I knew Kit and I were, too, but at least we were younger and a bit more used to this. They'd been retired for a good five years now. Plus, I didn't ever remember it being this non-stop crazy. Usually during the day, the visitors were all down at the lake. Maybe this year there was twice as many bodies here. I'd have to check with the mayor and see if he got a head count or any feedback with what was going on.

Was great, though, having the extra hands around helping, especially come closing time. We were wiped out but with four of us doing it we were done in no time. Hopefully tomorrow a few locals would stop by to inquire about the busboy position. I'd landed on hiring two for the summer and should talk with Vonda to see if she wanted me to pull in an extra waitress. Or maybe Kit could do that with more busboys on hand. They should be able to help run orders, eventually, might take a bit of training but not impossible.

Now what I didn't expect to see when we walked into the house was the massive number of shopping bags in the living room. "Did you guys buy out every store on Main Street?" Kit blushed and got a sheepish look on his face.

Mom, on the other hand, did not. "Are you tying to tell me I'm not allowed to spoil my new son? He needed some things. I needed some things…"

Dad cut her off. "You needed nothing, woman. Where are we gonna put all this? There's no room in the RV."

"This isn't all for us, Nathan. About half of it is for the wedding. The market had a great deal on party décor. We went over to Nuts and Bolts and they had the cutest little strings of lights, so we grabbed those. Honestly, I think we've got all the decorations that we need." Kit frantically bobbed his head as he eyed the bags like we got too much , but he was smart enough not to say it. "See," she grabbed the fancy bag from Ezra's shop, "I even found my dress for the wedding and a nice button-up shirt for you, Nathan. Then Kit bought a few things on his own. I was happy to see him spoiling himself a bit." Hearing that made me smile.

I could picture their trip clearly. Every time Kit so much as looked at something, I'm sure my mother talked him into buying it. He was just too sweet to tell her no.

"All right, folks, we've got another busy day ahead of us tomorrow. Let's just move the bags to the office for now for safe keeping until we get the time to go through them all." Together the four of us moved them to the third bedroom that was used as a home office. The one that was in the bar was far too small, so I used the space to enlarge the storage room. One of the best ideas I'd had to date.

During that reno I also invested in my baby girl. The way that I had everything for Belle and with as busy as we'd been, it was nothing short of perfect. Though nowadays she mostly slept, behind the bar there was a food and water dish. Under the stairs behind the bar area was a dog door that led to the fenced walkway that ran from the house to the bar. She was able to go out and do her business anytime she needed. Home was set up the same way with her food, water and the doggy door that led to the dog run. She could access the run from either building. Times when the bar got crazy like it was now, she'd trot home to get away from the noise. My one true best friend had all she needed, and I'd have it no other way.

On the flip side of the summer insanity, we'd experienced a tremendous increase in business and taking a week off for our honeymoon wouldn't hurt us financially. We'd already doubled what I did this time last year and I couldn't wait to see the profits at the end of summer, providing we survived it that was.

Mom and I had been sneaky, working behind the scenes with Kit's mom to plan a huge surprise for him. Well, more like I kinda handed it over to my mom and she ran with it. As if I expected it to be any other way but when I told her what I wanted to do she got so excited I was afraid she'd spill the beans, so I had to keep her busy.

Kit had a large family that was kind of spread out. Some still lived at the compound while others were in a nearby town about an hour away. His mom, Daisy, did her best to wrangle them in the hopes they would be able to make it to Foggy for the wedding. I wasn't sure how many would, but knew as long as Kit saw his mother, he'd be thrilled. Anyone else who came would be a bonus gift.

The plan was Daisy would text me and Mom when they arrived. We'd come and get his brothers and sisters checked into the upstairs room. His mom and dad would stay with us, and my parents would be in their RV. Then when Kit came into work, his family would be waiting and yell surprise ! I couldn't wait to see the look on Kit's face. My sweet boy with the big heart would likely burst into tears.

"Might be a good time while we're on our honeymoon to get some other renovations done that I've had on my mind for a while now." Kit and I had just crawled into bed when the idea hit me.

"At home or at the bar?"

"Mostly here. The last home reno all I did was the main bedroom and both bathrooms. I've considered taking down the wall between the kitchen and living room to open the space up and update the kitchen at the same time. Get new appliances, cabinets, countertops, paint and flooring. I know Mom and Dad are staying here with Belle while we're gone but they'd still have the kitchen in the RV or the bar to cook in. Noel Perkins, the contractor who did the other stuff, I thought to ask if he'd be interested in bidding on it, or if he even had any time in his schedule. Being the only contractor in Foggy Basin, I'm sure he's busy."

"Do you think it might be worth finding more space for another walk-in cooler? I just don't know how you've done it all these years like this. This is insane." Kit shook his head.

"This year has surpassed all others and how I managed before you beats me. I mean, I really had nothing else besides the bar, so I was always there anyway." Getting lost in thoughts of my life pre-Kit was useless. "Not sure what we owe the increase to. Maybe people just decided they didn't want to hang out all day at the lake and instead chose to stay in town, or maybe there were too many bodies in the water so they came back. No clue, but I think you're right about another walk-in. Might be able to find room for a smaller unit."

"What about busting out a wall and adding on? Extending the kitchen would be helpful, too. Speaking of which, did you order the AC unit?"

"I texted Hudson and he gave it a thumbs up. Probably best to follow up tomorrow than to assume that means he's on it. Great suggestion, though, expanding the kitchen. We could add another cook top and double fryer. Maybe extend the prep station, too." I loved how focused my boy was on our business. I always feared another coming in and wanting to change me. It was like I won the partner lottery and gained a perfect match.

"For sure. Won't we need to draw up plans for that if we're adding on to the structure itself? What if we closed off the stairwell that went up to the rooms and extended the actual bar? Then two could comfortably bartend without running over each other."

"That's another great idea, though I do like watching the guests staying upstairs coming and going. Maybe there's another way. Let me get ahold of Noel, his architect will know. He'll have the original footprint to work from, but enough business talk. What all did you guys get done today wedding wise?" The closer the date got, the more excited I became.

Kit sighed. "I love your mother, I do, but that was one long day and boy, can that woman shop. Her energy is exhausting."

"Yes, she can. I love her to death but there are times that woman runs circles around me, and shopping is not my idea of fun."

"Can't say I'm a fan myself. We ordered the cake and I kept it simple. Neither of us are fancy flavor, multiple tier cake people. I chose a lemon cake with buttercream frosting and ordered the food. Brisket, beans, and coleslaw from Blue Star Diner. Roasted chicken, potatoes, and salad from Midnight Pleasure. I didn't want to choose one over the other and make anyone mad, so I split the orders." My boy and that huge heart of his, but he made the right decision. "The drinks we already have. Mom and I picked up all the paper supplies and decorations as well today so that's done. Really, all that's left is our fitting, which is already scheduled so I honestly think we're done."

"Keeping it simple. Nate and Kit style. I love it and I love you."

Kit snuggled up against me and laid his head on my chest. His breathing slowed as he was nearly asleep. "Love you, too, Daddy."