Old Fashioned Sweetie by Megan Wade
Vaughn
“You right there, bro?” Remy asks as I walk past the bar for the second time inside a minute. I feel like I should be somewhere, but I know that I’m supposed to be here. It’s like there’s some kind of dizziness muddling up my brain, and it’s only been happening since Charity got here. Weird.
“Yeah,” I say, pausing and tapping out a drum beat on the counter with my fingers. “I’m fine.” I’m not fine.
He looks me, quirking his light brown brows. “You seem nervous.”
“Maybe I’m feedin’ off Kellen’s energy or something,” I say, turning away from my youngest brother to find my oldest brother talking to our parents and laughing like he doesn’t have a care in the world. Kellen is a big man who puts his whole heart into everything and everyone around him, and when he met Jade last night, I could see it in his eyes that he’s found that one girl he’d always been talking about—the one who he’d look at and just know they were meant to be together for all eternity. And while our other brother, Otis, loves to scoff at the idea of love at first sight, not one of us Valentine brothers can deny its existence. Our parentage is the result of the phenomenon, after all. And now, it’s our big brother’s turn.
All up, there are four Valentine brothers. We’re not the only Valentines in Whisper Valley, but we are the only ones working at Valentine’s Bar & Grill. And while the business our grandparents built doesn’t make us rich, it does provide us with plenty of freedom. Being our own boss and having each other’s backs means none of us has to work ourselves into the ground like we would working for someone else. It’s a good life.
“I don’t think he’s nervous at all,” Remy says with a laugh as he shakes a little Angostura bitters over a cube of sugar in a glass. “I think he’s happy as a pig in mud.”
“Maybe I’m just holding onto his nerves then,” I muse, watching as he muddles the sugar and bitters together with the back of a spoon.
“You think he’s makin’ a mistake?”
“No. I reckon he’ll be really happy. I’m just…I don’t know…antsy.”
“You think it’s got anything to do with her?” he asks, nodding toward the stairs where Charity just stepped out, setting my heart beating like crazy the moment we’re in the same room. “Every time I see you come back down those stairs, you seem lost.”
He’s right. When she arrived a little over an hour ago, I took her upstairs to the apartment Kellen lives in so she could help her friend get ready for the wedding. And when I came back down here to continue setting up with my brothers, I found myself constantly checking that staircase in case she came back down needing something. I checked so often, that when it was time for one of us to go up there and let them know we were ready, I jumped at the chance. Now I’m down here stair watching again, suddenly relieved that she’s now in my line of sight. I don’t know what the hell is happening to me.
“Jade’s ready to go,” Charity says, beaming bright as she wanders over to us and looks between me and Remy. “Where do you want us?”
I want you sitting on my face…
I clamp my mouth shut so those words don’t spill out and clear my throat.
“I think you’ll be standing up the front with Vaughn and Kellen,” Remy fills in for me. “You’re maid of honor, I’m guessing?”
“Best friend duty,” she says with a smile. “I’m Charity, by the way. You look like another brother.”
Remy chuckles and picks up a bottle of bourbon. “I sure am. I’m the baby of the four. Name’s Remy.”
“Nice to meet you, Remy,” she says, shaking his hand across the bar. “And is that an Old Fashioned you’re making?”
“It sure is,” he says as he stirs the mixture in the glass. “I figured I’d create a cocktail menu in honor of the newest member of our family.”
“Well, color me happy,” Charity says with a big smile, “because an Old Fashioned is my most favorite drink ever. My grandmother used to have one every night, so the smell and taste bring back good memories.”
“In that case,” Remy says, “you should be the first to try it.”
Charity’s eyes light up. “Really?”
Remy drops a curly orange rind on top and hands it to her.
“Consider it a welcome to Whisper Valley,” I say, smiling and willing my dick not to go hard as I watch her plump lips press against the side of the glass as she tips the drink back and swallows.
“Yum.” She licks her lips and I stifle a groan. “This cocktail menu is going to be a hit.”
“Glad you think so,” Remy says before excusing himself to go and speak to Otis.
“Can I escort you down the aisle?” I ask as soon as we’re alone, longing to be closer to her, and not sure if that makes me creepy, but going with it anyway.
She places the glass on the bar then slips her hand through my offered arm. “I’d love to, Vaughn,” she says, just as the music starts and the small gathering of friends and family turn our way.
I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t suddenly imagine this as my own wedding. Walking arm in arm with Charity up the aisle fills me with a kind of desire I didn’t know I had. I’ve never considered marriage before this moment. I wasn’t even sure if I ever wanted to settle down and have a family. But now…I don’t know if I’m getting caught up in Kellen’s certainty that love at first sight exists or if something is really happening, but now, anything seems possible.
