I hadn't had to confront my old childhood phobia until this new ass clown Dunham came on the scene with his stupid, fucking "comedy" show. Bash had found out about the guy when he caught a special on Comedy Central over the summer, and had been torturing me with its existence ever since.

"Hey," he called out, changing the subject. "Anyone up for a game of pool?"

I immediately got to my feet and shot back, "Oh, you are so on, you tubby bastard."

Bash hauled himself off the couch. "Okay, yeah, I'll kick your ass in a minute. Lemme just get another drink first."

He walked away as I stood there, taunting, "What the fuck? You don't come into my dojo, drop a challenge, and leave, old man."

Wyatt just about spit his beer through his nose.

Once the Christmas season rolled around, Avery came up with the idea to do a Giving Tree. We dragged the fake tree out of storage and set it up in the corner of the bar, decorating it with about twenty hanging tags of kids' names she'd gotten from the nearby women's shelter.

I swear, my customers were the absolute best. The tree was stripped of names within a few days, forcing Avery to go back to the shelter and get more. It was my idea to get the other local businesses involved, and when they did holy shit.

We had stacks of donations piled up in the booths, and when they started spilling over onto the square bar, we decided to move everything into the pool room to get ourselves organized. Sneaker Hut had donated fifty boxes of shoes, so Avery paired them with the coats and sweaters from Clothing Town, giving every kid on our tree a winter wardrobe along with their new toys.

In the end, each kid wound up with a stack of presents, which Avery wrapped and tied together with wide, red ribbons. The entire pool room looked like Santa's fucking workshop. Tied to every stack of gifts was an envelope that contained numerous vouchers from all the local businesses. We had gift cards to everything from supermarkets and restaurants to book stores and hair salons. Thousands and thousands of dollars that the people of this town donated in the spirit of Christmas once they heard what we were doing.

The local choir came to sing Christmas carols one evening, and the reception was so well received, I scheduled them to come during a Friday night happy hour. Denny made Hot Toddies and I made sure to stock up on the egg nog. Avery filled some red and green tin cups with candy canes and scattered them all over the bars.

Scott kept a stock of white paper and scissors under the bar so my customers could cut out paper snowflakes-which was a huge hit-and Rachel and Farrah hung them on strings from the ceiling. Denny hung some lights, and Alice planned her wedding. She was spending more time at the bar beyond her usual shifts, and thanks to a Christmas miracle in the form of a fiance who kept her in good spirits, she was actually pretty pleasant to be around these days.

Avery and she had become fast friends during the planning, and that only served to prove how skilled she was at her job. I mean, hell. She made Alice happy. It was magic.

She made everything magic.

On the Monday before Christmas, Avery took over the restaurant's kitchen to bake cookies. She'd been signing up the local ladies to partake in a cookie exchange that evening, which I guess required her to turn into a Keebler elf.

I popped into the kitchen to see how she was doing. She'd been in here for hours, and I wanted to check out her handiwork. Plus, my entire bar was filled with the most tempting smell; I had to check out the source.

"Chocolate chocolate-chip mint. Want one?" she asked, pointing to the work island. "I guarantee it'll be the greatest thing you ever put in your mouth."

I raised an eyebrow but bypassed the dirty remark. Too easy.

Grabbing a cookie, I took a bite and holy shit.

"Holy shit! These are amazing!"

I went to grab another but she slapped my hand away. "They're for the cookie exchange!"

Scowling at her reprimand, I shot back, "Give me a break. You have about a million of them here." I really needed another cookie. When you think about it, it was actually kind of mean of her to make me taste something so delicious when she wasn't going to let me have any more.

Jesus. That sounded way too familiar.

"Zac. There are no less than thirty women coming to this thing. I need to bag a half-dozen for each and every one of them, plus plate a dozen for the party. You can have whatever's left over."

"What if their cookies suck?" I pouted. "You'll be giving away fifteen dozen perfectly good cookies just to get their crappy ones."

She rolled her eyes and tried to appease me. "I'll make you your own batch, okay? It'll be payment for letting me use your ovens."

"Fair enough," I said, as I grinned and swiped another cookie on my way out to the bar.

Once the ladies showed up, it was a regular hen house in my restaurant. I let Avery schedule the event for a Monday, knowing the restaurant would be closed, allowing for a private party that night. I had Felix whip up a bunch of little sandwiches for them and donated a couple cases of wine, so they all thought I was Superman.

Their average age was probably somewhere close to a hundred, but that didn't stop them from fawning all over me. I took their flirting in stride, told everyone how lovely they looked, and flashed each and every one of them a charming grin at every opportunity. All that special attention got me in good with the clubhouse biddies, and charmed the fucking girdles off the ladies from The Norman Society. At one point, Mrs. Grady actually gave a pat to my ass, and I looked over to see Avery practically choking at the sight.

I made my escape and sat down on one of the couches with my fingers at my temple, watching the whole scene go down. It was a relief to finally remove myself from center stage, blend into the background, and just check everything out from afar.

To check out Avery.

She was totally in her element whenever an event was going down. I found it strange that a girl who had spent most of her life shying from parties was now the one planning them. And doing it well.

My eyelids lowered into a lazy, half-lidded glare as I watched her, mentally transmitting all the dirty thoughts that were racing around my brain. The theme of the evening was "Ugly Holiday Sweaters," and even in the stupid elf getup she was sporting, Avery managed to look irresistible.

She was busy playing hostess, but she must have felt my stare, and raised her eyes my way. I didn't bother to break my focus. I was envisioning getting her out of that stupid sweater, running my hands along every inch of her bare skin, devouring those perfect lips with my mouth.

By the way Avery flushed and turned away, I knew she could tell exactly what I'd been thinking. She was visibly flustered, but I could still see her sneaking the occasional glance in my direction.

I could also see she was fighting it.

After the party, Avery and I found ourselves alone in the restaurant. I knew I should probably have checked in over at the bar side of things, but any minute I had her all to myself was too tempting a prospect to pass up.

We took a seat at one of the candlelit tables near the glass wall to catch our breath and polish off the leftover food. In the warmer months, we opened all the doors for indoor/outdoor dining. On this side of my building, there was a large deck that jutted into the lake that offered ten extra tables for al fresco seating. I was excited to think that they'd be put to good use this spring.

It was empty now, though, affording an unobstructed view of the lake outside. Even when it was dark, you could see the outline of its shape from the houses that bordered it, and when there was a full moon, the entire surface of the water was lit up like a mirror. It had frozen solid in the past days, and I knew it wouldn't be long before the ice was swarming with people.

I'd have to come up with a plan to serve free hot chocolates off the deck. It would be a cheap and easy way to keep all this goodwill going.

Avery had helped to turn The Westlake into a staple of the community, and even though I told her all the time, I didn't think there would ever be a way to properly thank her. Even more than that, she'd helped me to recognize how angry I've been these past years. Between my father's death and the death of my career, I didn't feel there was anything to look forward to other than frustration.

She helped me to see there was more to life than that.

Even when your dreams don't pan out, even when you can't rub two nickels together, even when it seems all hope is lost There's always something to look forward to.

I leaned back in my seat, popped a mini sandwich in my mouth, and shot a smile at Avery as I chewed.

"Well, I think tonight was a smashing success, don't you?" she asked, twirling a spoon in her coffee.

"Sure was. Although, I think I'd steer clear of Mrs. Grady's almond crescents if I were you."

"Why's that?"

"They're purple."

That had her sputtering out a laugh. "Hey," she started in once she caught her breath. "I want to thank you for letting me take over your place tonight. I want to pay you back for whatever money you put out for this thing."

"Like that's going to happen."

"No, really, Zac. I'm viewing this as a work thing. Let me pay you something."

I didn't like the idea of her shelling out any cash from her own pocket, considering that tonight was just as much a 'work thing' for me as it was for her. But I knew how stubborn she could be about such things. It would be easier just to cave and let her think she got her way.

I shot her a sham dirty look. "Fine. Fifty bucks."

"Sold!" she giggled. "That's one helluva bargain, thank you."

"You're welcome."

"And I'll be able to pay you back sooner rather than later. I'm pretty sure I've already drummed up some new business."

"Oh yeah?" I asked. "The biddies planning a kegger or something?"

That made her laugh. "No, you dork. The ladies from The Norman Society think I should join their committee."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You're not going to start wearing muumuus and rolling your pantyhose down to your ankles, are you?"

She cracked up and explained, "No! That was exactly their point. They think it's time to bring some younger blood into their club. There'd even be some money in it for me."

"Wow, Ave. That would be great for you. Jesus. I'm glad this stupid bar turned out to be good for something."

She tightened her eyes as she scrutinized my face, mulling over my comment. "Zac, don't you see? This 'stupid bar' brings people together. You're helping them in your own little way. You bring happiness to others. Don't you know how hard that is? How many people can say that about their jobs?"

I eyed her in admiration as a stunned smile tugged at the corner of my lips. The thing was, she was right. And I knew it. I'd spent so many years just looking out for myself, and now, I couldn't believe how incredible it's felt to help others. Selfish, though, because doing something good always made me feel good. It's like I was doing it for me.

"What am I doing to make you happy, Ave?" I asked, not trying to hide the hope in my voice.

Her mouth dropped open slightly as her cheeks turned pink. I caught the spark in her eyes in the brief second it took for her to look away. She picked something off her plate and held it up between us, smiling as she said, "Keeping Felix on the payroll."

She shot a wicked grin at me as she took a bite from her sandwich.

The tease.

Chapter Twenty-Three.

New Years' Eve was one part newcomers, one part old friends, and all parts insane.

The restaurant was still seating people at eleven o'clock, and my bar was packed wall to wall. Aside from my regulars, there were a ton of other faces filling the room, every last one of them drinking their faces off. My brothers had all popped in at some point for a quick shot before heading out for bigger plans, but it was nice that they'd all thought to at least stop by.

Casey was practically drooling over Finn. "Avery. You have access to that and you're hanging around with this? What is wrong with you, girl?"

"Look who's talking," I shot back. "I'm not the one who hooked up with Toothless Wonder over there."

First Rule of Getting Your Balls Busted: Deflect.

"Now that hurts, baby," Simon guilted his wife, "You know damn well I'm ten times hotter than that guy. Even without the teeth." We were cracking up already, but when Simon pulled out his spacer, Avery almost fell off her stool.

It was pretty fuckawesome that the four of us were all together in the same room again. It had been years since that happened. Right before I tore up my knee, Simon got traded down to Philly. Seeing them tonight had me feeling ashamed that I hadn't kept in better touch. But I cut ties soon after coming home from Texas. Being around Simon only reminded me of everything that I had lost.

At least it used to. I didn't feel that way all the time anymore.

Which was good, because what good is Auld Lang Syne without some old friends around?

New Years' wasn't the only reason Casey was in town to celebrate. Last week, as it turned out, Avery's divorce was finalized.

The two of them had spent almost every minute of the past few days together, going to movies, shopping, naked pillow fights whatever the hell girls did when they got together.

Simon and I spent most of that time drinking.

He lifted his shot above the table. "To healthy gums!" he shouted as we all raised our glasses in a toast.

We downed our booze as Avery laughed out a grunt. "Blech! How many of those have we done?"

"Who knows?" I asked. "I lost count hours ago."

I didn't even know what time it was when I finally threw the lock on the door. I'd switched to water sometime after midnight, but the damage had already been done. My skull was already slipping into a hangover and it hadn't even hit a pillow yet.

I crossed my arms over the bar and dropped my head. "Jesus. I'm beat."

When I looked up at Avery, she was just sitting on the stool next to me, grinning like a lunatic.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?"

"No reason. I'm just smiling. Smiling's my favorite."

"Well, cut it out. You're giving me the creeps."

"Ooh. You're an angry elf!"

I didn't know what the fuck she was talking about, but she sure was finding herself hilarious, holding her sides and busting up in a fit of giggles.

"Franciscoooo!"

I ignored her babbling and looked out at the view. It was such a clear night and the frozen lake looked so inviting. I felt a familiar ache grip my chest as I stared longingly out the windows.