“I…” She opened the water and took a long drink. “Can normally. I just wasn’t… expecting it.”
The woman in front of her looked tall and elegant as she sipped something from a glass that River hadn’t seen available on the table beside her.
“The good stuff is in the kitchen. I think they were hoping I wouldn’t grab any until before dinner, but I was a different kind of thirsty,” Kennedy Gannon said. “You’re River, right?”
“That’s me.” River capped the bottle and held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too. Where’s your girlfriend? Hell, where’smygirlfriend?”
“I don’t know. They went to do a tour. I was thirsty.”
She held up the bottle of water.
“Ah. Want something stronger?” Kennedy asked, holding up her glass. “It really is the good stuff.”
“Um… Am I supposed to?”
River looked around and realized that there were no cameras nearby.
“They’re not supposed to film me right now. I got in trouble with Jessie a minute ago.”
“You got in trouble? For what?”
“Drinking this.” Kennedy laughed a little. “Want one?”
“Sure. If I’m allowed to.”
“This isyourprize, isn’t it?”
“My girlfriend’s, technically.”
Kennedy nodded to the side then, indicating that River should follow her.
“She’s the one who entered the contest?”
“I didn’t even know about it until after she’d won,” she replied and followed Kennedy into a spacious kitchen where she saw a counter with just about every kind of hard alcohol she’d ever heard of. “Damn.”
“Yeah, I know. There’s beer in the fridge, too. I scoped that out, but I’m not a big beer drinker.”
“Really? How come? Have you ever had beer-flavored candy?”
“Sorry; what?” Kennedy said and took a sip of her clear drink.
“I own a candy shop.”
“Right. I remember being told that.”
“Anyway, I’ve tried making different kinds of beers in candy form over the years. Some experiments were better than others. Guinness in fudge isn’t great, for example. It’s like two strong flavors battling each other.”
“You’ve made Guinness-flavored fudge?”
“Yes. But I really like a citrus-flavored beer in my orange hard candies.”
“Do you sell them to little kids?”
“The alcohol cooks off, but no. The kids tend to go for the more obvious flavors anyway. I only make a batch when I feel like it, and that’s usually when I have a case of beer in my apartment upstairs. I sell it to the adults if they want it.”
“Upstairs from…”
