Jessa decided she was only going to sleep in Momma's bed tonight as I was trying to convince her she needed to sleep in her own room.

I gave up after a half an hour argument with her. I woke up a thousand times and moved her to get more space. For such a small little thing, she sure took up a lot of it. She punched and kicked me; one time, I even woke up with her feet across my face. She really needed to start sleeping in her own bed so I wouldn't feel like a zombie all the time.

Sore and bruised, I woke up the next day with little blue eyes staring at me as she sat on top of me, bouncing. I groaned as my body ached under the movement.

"Hi, Momma." The little voice said.

"Hi, baby." I reached my arm around her and pulled her to me to kiss her head. She giggled at me when I ran my fingers up and down her arm causing goosebumps to rise.

"No tickle Momma." She said, laughing. Her face turned serious and her demon voice came out when I kept going. "I said no tickle."

I busted out into laughter at the sudden change in her facial expression. She was trying to look so serious. When she did, she looked more like me.

"Do you want some cereal?" I asked her, moving to sit up and stretch. Since I had her, my body was feeling a lot older and it took me a minute to get up. It probably had a lot to do with lack of sleep and the fact I was a punching bag for her while she tossed and turned.

"Marsmellos." She said with a huge smile.

"You know you are supposed to eat the cereal too?" I winked at her and pulled her up off the bed to carry her to the kitchen.

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful. My Mom would be getting home from work soon and would watch Jessa so I could go work my shift at the bar. My Mom wasn't the biggest fan of me working there, but I was pretty good at it and Jules paid me a ridiculous amount of money to manage it.

Jules had bought the bar about a year ago after he and Rachel got married. He asked me to take over as manager so he could focus on growing the business. He recently opened a new location about fifteen miles away and spent most of his time there. Unlike the bar I worked at, the new one had a stage and boasted live local music every weekend.

I pulled my hair in a high messy bun and applied makeup to my face. Jessa sat on my bed, watching me the whole time. She was a little observer, which reminded me of how Ezra used to watch me when he thought I wasn't looking.

"Pretty Momma." Jessa complimented me when I turned around to look at her. She reached her little hand out for the light pink lip gloss. I walked over to her and lightly dabbed some gloss on her lips. She loved it when I let her use my makeup. She jumped off the bed and ran to the mirror to admire her reflection.

"Jessa is very pretty too." I said, smoothing her hair and pulling it into a messy bun that resembled mine. She drove me crazy when she pushed her hair out of her face. It was just another little movement that made my heart flutter because she looked so much like him.

The front door opened and I checked the clock. Mom was running late from work, which meant I would probably be late getting to work. Gone were the days when I got to places when I planned on it.

I grabbed Jessa's hand and walked downstairs for the handoff to my Mom.

Mom grabbed for Jessa immediately and barely acknowledged my existence. Jessa was everything to her.

"I'm going to be late." I grumbled, grabbing my purse and keys.

"I'm sorry, peanut, you know how my boss is."

"Be good for your Mammaw." I reminded Jessa as I leaned in to kiss her.

"Bye, Momma." She waved as I ran out the door.

My phone buzzed as soon as I got into the car. I looked down and it was from Jules.

Jules: Change of plans. Head to the new bar. The driver is waiting for a delivery and I am down two bartenders. I'm desperate. Rachel will run the other bar tonight.

Me: You owe me.

Jules: Wouldn't be able to survive without you.

I groaned. I was looking forward to the usual crowd tonight. I didn't want anything complicated. The new bar was four times bigger than the other location. It was going to be a long, tedious night. I turned the car on and sped the whole way to work.

When I got there, I was the first one to arrive. The scuzzy driver was being a jerk and complaining. I apologized over and over again as he unloaded cases full of beer and liquor bottles. I signed the shipment manifest and he complained one more time before handing me the copy back. I was glad when he finally left. I was not in the mood for his attitude.

I went to the walk-in fridge and started organizing the new shipment and rotating stock. The cases were heavy and the height was awkward since I was so short. The walk-in at this location was much taller than the other one. I couldn't reach the top shelf of the rack.

The employee door opened and I saw one of my servers, Kiera, walk-in. Kiera was a very pretty, very young girl. I guess she was not as young as I made her sound. She was my age, but without all the mom stress. She had beautiful olive skin with the longest shiny dark hair. Her eyes matched her hair perfectly. She had piercings in her perfectly placed dimples. She was definitely stunning and about seven inches taller than me, which meant she could help me get the boxes on the top shelf.

"Clock in and give me a hand." I hollered from the walk-in.

Kiera popped her head around the corner and smiled when she saw me. I had trained Kiera when she first started working here, so she was always happy to see me again.

"Jules called in the big guns tonight. He must think we're going to be busy." She walked in and started loading the top shelves for me. Kiera was a good worker, a little ditsy, but it worked for her.

We both looked at the employee door when a few more servers came through the entrance. I hadn't met any of them yet. They must be new. I could see why Jules called me to come over tonight.

"New blood?" I asked Kiera as I watched them walk by.

"All hired in the last week." She grimaced.

"You aren't serious, are you?" I gawked back at her as I shuffled some bourbon around.

"Jules didn't say anything?" Kiera asked.

"Nope, not a word." I huffed.

We finished prepping the bar and I was shocked when the doors opened and folks started pouring in to find seats. I dispatched the servers to their sections and saddled up behind the bar. Jules should have been here by now and there was no way I could run the bar on my own in a place this size. I grabbed my phone and texted Jules.

Me: Where the hell are you?

I saw the little bubbles indicating he was typing.

Jules: Not going to make it. Just got rear-ended. Filling out police report now.

"Son of a..." I started to say when I saw a dark blond woman in a maroon cocktail dress walk up to the bar.

"Can I get a Sex on the Beach?" She asked, tapping her nails against the bar. I began pouring the vodka and peach schnapps into the hurricane glass. When I looked up at her, she was staring at me like she wanted to say something.

She looked vaguely familiar. I couldn't recall where I had seen her before, but I know this wasn't the first time we had run into each other.

She was a lot taller than I was and was probably around six feet in her heels. She had a long thin, perfectly toned torso. The fabric of the dress was thin and very unforgiving. If she wasn't completely flawless, she could have never pulled it off the way she did. She looked like a tall elvish princess. She was a very stunning woman. I probably looked like a little girl standing next to her. I was always so jealous of those girls who were tall and perfectly put together.

"One Sex on the Beach." I repeated, smiling as I handed her the glass with a napkin under it. Something glittered on her hand when she took it. On her ring finger was a beautiful large solitary diamond ring. It looked shiny and new. Someone must really love this girl to give her something so perfect.

"Beautiful ring." I said to her, pointing to her finger in case she didn't hear me over the crowd noise.

"I know right! I just got engaged a few months ago." She yelled back, beaming. She took a sip of her drink and then turned her head sideways and looked at me. "That is so good."

"Thanks, I'm glad you like it."

"You look so familiar. Have we met before?" She asked, narrowing her eyes to study me.

"I'm not sure. I thought the same thing when I saw you. My name is Riley." I extended my hand to her to introduce myself.

"My name is Jenna." She said back to me as she took my hand and shook it firmly.

She started to hand me some bills and I waved her away. "This one's on me. Enjoy your drink and congratulations on getting engaged."

Jenna politely thanked me and walked back to go find her table. I watched her as she walked away. It was bothering me that I couldn't place where I had seen her before. Mom brain was the worst; the only thing I can remember nowadays were things about animated singing princesses. It was such a curse.

Something about the woman had my stomach in a knot. 

Who was she?