“Of course you can have the party here,” Jane said, looking more excited about the idea than I had been.
“Thank you so much.” I pushed down the urge to hug her.
“Of course,” she repeated. “There isn’t a thing I wouldn’t do for that man.”
I believed her. I had suspicions that might have included many a sexual favor, despite the fact that Jane was almost old enough to be Gage’s mother. But at this point, with so little time left, I might even be willing to loan him out for an hour or two if it got me a place to throw the party.
“I just want this to be perfect, you know? He flies so far under the radar most of the time, and he’s never had a proper birthday celebration.”
“He’s about to.”
The door flew open, a gust of sharp, frigid air passing through the room as Barrett Anderson walked in backward, hauling a dolly with a keg of beer over the threshold and toward the bar. “Afternoon, Jane. Hey, Holden.”
“Just the man I wanted to see,” I said. “I was going to head over to Copper Creek after this to talk to you. You saved me the trip.”
“Oh yeah?” He set the dolly upright and pulled his gloves off, tucking them into the back pocket of his jeans. “What can I do for ya?”
“Gage’s birthday is coming up on the twenty-third, and Jane just agreed to let me throw him a party here that night. My friend suggested a signature cocktail, but that’s just not Gage. I was wondering if you could come up with something for him. Put some cinnamon in a small batch of beer maybe?”
“You want me to put cinnamon in my beer,” Barrett repeated, his voice absolutely dripping with disbelief.
“Yeah… or something. I dunno. Don’t you just dump flavoring in and it’s good to go?”
He looked at me like I’d just asked him to take a shit in the vat of lager.
“No.”
“Okay, well, is there anything else you could do?”
“Just because it’s good in toast doesn’t mean it’s good in beer.”
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, second-guessing my idea to ask him in the first place.
“What would you suggest, then?”
I thought he was going to tell me I was shit out of luck, but instead, he paused, thinking.
“I debuted a new holiday ale this year. It’s got some warm flavors in it—no cinnamon, but a similar family. We’ve already sold out. I hadn’t planned on making more since Christmas is only a couple of weeks away, but I could probably get a batch ready in time for the party… print up a handful of special labels for it.”
“You’d do that?”
Barrett shrugged. “Sure. Gage is a good guy.”
I resisted the urge to hug him too. “Thank you.”
“You wanna try it? See what you think?” Jane asked. “I still have a little left, but it’s been one of my best sellers all season.”
“Come to think of it, I think that’s the one Gage was raving on about a couple of weeks back,” I said, the excitement starting to roll through me.
Barrett seemed pleased and joined me on a stool at the bar while Jane poured three pints. “Might as well join you,” she said as she slid two of them toward us.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and when I pulled it out, I saw Gage’s name lit across the screen. I hoped he wouldn’t be able to hear the low thrum of the other customers in the background.
“Hey.”
“Hey, where are you?”
“At the hospital,” I lied.
“Where? I just got here.”
“I’m… uh… I’m up on the second floor, just checking in on Mrs. Rivera… Wait… Why are you here?”
“There was a surgical report I forgot to sign off on this morning, so I had to come back in. You finished all your errands? Wanna grab an early dinner?”
“I’d love to, but I’ve barely started.”
“Oh. What do you have to do? I don’t mind tagging—”
“Just a bunch of boring stuff. Honestly mind-numbing. I’ll get them done and meet you back at home in a couple of hours,” I said with a little too much fervor and hoped he didn’t notice. “I won’t be long.”
“Okay then,” Gage said, sounding a little dejected. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Yep.”
I hung up and tucked my phone back in my pocket. That had been close. God, I hated lying to him, but it would all be worth it to see the look on his face when he walked into J’s and half the town was there for him.
I took a sip of my drink, already half a pint behind the other two, and nodded vehemently.
“This is perfect,” I said. It tasted like Gage, if that made any sense. Not like him, like him, but it reminded me of him in a way. He’d love it.
“Great. I’ll drop by the hospital this week with a label concept. One of the guys here does them for me, and he’s a genius with graphic shit.”
I didn’t know Barrett all that well—Gage was closer with him than I was—but I liked him now more than ever.
“And you’ll be there? At the party?”
Barrett nodded. “Yeah, I could stop by for a few.”
I beamed. “Gage’ll be happy to have you there… I mean, I will too.”
Barrett laughed. “I knew what you meant.”
I tipped the last of the beer down my throat and set the glass on the smooth wood of the bar. “Make sure you let the other guys know they’re invited as well. The more the merrier.”
“Will do.”
I thanked Barrett and Jane once before heading out to check the next thousand things off my to-do list, but as I did, I felt better about everything than I had the hour before. This whole thing might turn out after all. Armed with Frankie’s suggestions and the kindness of my friends, I was two steps closer to pulling it off.
I paused just inside the door. “Neither of you happen to know a DJ, do you?”
“Do you think he has any idea?”
I leaned in closer to Logan until only a couple of inches separated us and lowered my voice to make sure we weren’t overheard. Gage was doing rounds on the second floor, but he’d almost busted me talking about his party more than once in the previous week. I couldn’t take any chances now.
Logan tilted his head up.
“What are you looking for?”
“Mistletoe. You’re so fucking close to me I thought you wanted to make out.”
“Sorry.” I backed up a couple of inches, laughing. “So do you? Think he knows?”
Logan looked at me like I’d asked him if I thought I could fit a cantaloupe up my ass. “You’ve met your fiancé, right? You’ve spent time with him that didn’t involve playing with your naughty bits?”
“You don’t give him enough credit.”
“I give him plenty of credit. Just not when it comes to shit like this. Excellent surgeon, check. Poster child for observationality, not a fucking chance.”
“That’s not a word.”
Logan rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
“So you don’t think he suspects.”
“Seriously?” He cocked his head to the side in an exasperated gesture, then straightened again. “I know you want to make this a birthday to remember for him, and it will be. Quit stressing about it because you’re starting to act like a crazy—scratch that—crazier person, and even the staff has noticed.”
“The staff has noticed what?” Dawn asked, peeking her head through the door just far enough that I could see her hot pink scrubs.
“How Holden has suddenly become even more batshit crazy than usual,” Logan said.
She laughed. “Oh. Yeah. If it weren’t for the party, we’d think you’ve hit your midlife crisis a few years early and it’s just a matter of time before you’ll be driving a Porsche to work in the snow.”
“Midlife crisis,” I grumbled. “You know, it wouldn’t be so hard to replace you…”
She planted her hands on her hips and shot me a cocky smile. “You’d be completely lost without me, Dr. Prescott.”
She’d come so far from the shy, wet-behind-the-ears nurse she’d been when I first showed up in town. “I probably would. And since you’re so good at running things, maybe you could help me with some stuff that’s less… hospital related.”
“And maybe you could sound less like you want her to join your sex ring,” Logan added.
Dawn’s gaze shifted between the two of us, and I realized how that had sounded.
“What? No.” I shook my head. “I meant for the party.”
She laughed. “Given how moony you two are around each other, I didn’t figure that’s what you meant.”
“What?” I said again. “We’re not moony.”
“The mooniest,” Logan said.
“I just need a hand with prep,” I said, ignoring them both. “Gage has already been on my case about what I’ve been up to lately, and I don’t want him catching on.”
“I really don’t think you need to worry about that,” Logan said.
“I’ll help out in any way I can,” Dawn assured me. “It’s too bad we can’t shut down the hospital for the night. Everyone wants to go.”
“They can stop by in shifts. As long as nothing major happens.”
The ER in Sawyer’s Ferry tended to quiet down around the holidays. People held out for Christmas to pass before they sought medical attention unless absolutely necessary. It was a nice, momentary reprieve, but the post-holiday shitshow more than made up for the temporary quiet.
“Well, you just fucking jinxed us all, so thanks for that. You’re lucky I’m the one covering that night,” Logan teased. “You and Loverboy are free to enjoy your party without worrying.”
I laughed. “You’ll be fine. And if the world ends, we’re only a couple blocks away.”