Bartender's Beauty (Culpepper Cowboys Book 11) (11 page)

Epilogue

It seemed that all of Culpepper had come out for the grand opening of Bob’s Burger Barn. Austin realized it may not be the place anyone else in the world would go to celebrate making an offer on land where he planned to build his wife’s dream house, but he didn’t care. It suited him and Dallas just fine. They’d also received an offer on Kurt Gustafson’s property just the night before, so it was a double celebration. They’d be rid of her dad’s property and the memories that went with it, and they’d have their own place to create good memories together.

He led Dallas and Megan to the only open booth and slid in beside his wife, his fingers twining with hers under the table.

Bob Bickel, the proprietor himself, came to the table to get their drink orders. “We hear there’s a celebrity coming to help you open the place,” Austin said. “Who is it?”

Bob shook his head. “Not saying, but he should be here in about ten minutes.”

“Is it Jesse or Valerie Savoy?” Dallas asked, knowing they were the local celebrities since they’d moved into town.

“It’s not them, and I’m not telling. What do you want to drink?” Bob asked, his notepad at the ready.

Megan frowned at him. “Come on! We won’t tell anyone!”

“Nope. No one knows. Drinks?”

Dallas shrugged at Austin. “Do you have the makings for a Shirley Temple?” She could see several of her students were there, helping out with the grand opening. If nothing else, all the new businesses Sly was bringing into town were going to help the teenagers be able to be more self-sufficient.

“Yup. Cherry Cokes and Cherry Sprites are specialties of mine.” Bob made a quick note of her drink preference.

“I’ll have the same,” Austin said, obviously a bit perturbed he couldn’t get the celebrity’s name out of Bob.

“Diet Coke for me,” Megan said. “What burger do you recommend?”

Bob shrugged. “They’re all fabulous. Read the menu, and you decide.” He hurried off to fill their drink order.

Megan frowned after him. “He could have been more helpful.”

Dallas shook her head. “Maybe he feels that picking one of the burgers would be like choosing between his babies since he created them all?”

“Maybe.” Megan stared down at the menu, reading over the different choices. “There are a lot of burgers on here.”

Dallas shrugged. “He does seem to be some sort of burger expert.” She looked down. “There are onion rings. I like onion rings.”

“He’s also got fries and sweet potato fries. And something called fried cheese curds? I’ve never even heard of those. Maybe we should get an order of each and split them.”

While they discussed what they wanted, their drinks were dropped off and Bob scurried away. They were still talking about the menu when a silence descended about the room.

Dallas looked over at the doorway and laughed softly. She understood immediately.

A man in a cowboy hat, jeans, and a Western shirt, who didn’t look at all out of place in the room full of Culpepper residents, stood with his arm around a woman, who looked almost afraid to be the center of attention. She stood rigidly beside him as he spoke.

“Hi all! I’m not sure who here knows me, but I’m Bob Bodefeld, and I play Bob on
Lazy Love
. This is my sweet wife, May, who would rather I didn’t introduce her, but when a woman is this beautiful, who can resist?” He paused for a moment, giving his wife a loving look. “When I heard someone was opening a restaurant called Bob’s Burger Barn, I knew I had to be part of the grand opening, so I flew up here to say hi!”

Bob Bickel hurried toward him with a pair of scissors, handing them to him. Someone had strung a huge red ribbon, bedecked with burgers, across the middle of the room.

The actor cut the ribbon to the cheers of everyone before turning to the proprietor, Bob Bickel. “These had better be good burgers, Bob, or I’ll have to ask you to take my name off your building.”

Bob Bickel laughed. “If you eat one of my burgers, and you don’t like it, I can promise you, I’ll do just that.” He led the couple to a booth that had ribbons roping it off from the others, and pulled the ribbons out of the way. “You just tell me what you want, and you and your wife eat on the house.”

Bob Bodefeld grinned. “That’s a good thing, because we’ve got a hungry baby growing, and I just bought myself a ranch here in Culpepper.”

“You’re moving here?” the proprietor asked them.

Bob Bodefeld nodded. “We’re buying the old Gustafson place. It’ll be like Jesse and Valerie. We’ll be here between taping and between seasons.” He looked at his wife and winked. “May here will probably write about all of you. She seems to do that. She’ll travel back and forth with me most of the time, because she loves me too much to be away from me for more than an hour or two.”

May blushed, remaining quiet.

“Welcome to Culpepper,” Bob Bickel said as he hurried off to take more orders and get people settled in.

As Austin watched the scene, he grinned. Bob and May seemed like good, down-to-earth type people. With as many good people as there were moving into Culpepper, he knew his sweet wife would continue to be happy.

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