Page 62 of Accidentally in Love

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“No, explain it to me.”

“Kath said he was a robot.”

I furrowed my brow in confusion. “Your wife? What does she have to do with it?”

“They used to be married.”

I felt like the floor dropped out from underneath me. I had no idea that my boss’ wife was Nolan’s ex. My heart broke for Nolan, though, because Grayson and his wife had a kid, and he was one of my students. She had a kid with Grayson when all those years she told Nolan he didn’t deserve that. I could never tell him about this; it would absolutely break him.

“I better get to homeroom before the little demons tear it apart,” I finally said.

“Avery, I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

He leaned back in his chair. “I feel like I offended you.”

I curled my hands into fists at my sides and hoped he didn’t see. I clenched my teeth and tried to think carefully about my next words. “I’d appreciate you not talking bad about my fiancé. He’s the father of my child and a good man. Kath didn’t deserve him.”

I sped out of the office before I said something even worse, like something that could get me fired. I was probably going to get a reprimand for that outburst.

A protectiveness had snarled up inside me when he said Nolan was a robot. Yes, the man had a problem talking about his feelings. I dealt with that just this morning, but he was a good man. He didn’t deserve the hurt the world had put him through. He deserved love and happiness, and maybe Peanut and I could give him that.

Chapter Sixteen

NOLAN

I wiped the sweat off my brow as Allen and one of our other brewers, Ryan, worked on bottling more of our holiday beer.

“Did you check the levels on the tank for the next batch?” I asked Ryan.

Ryan was new to brewing. He had started as a bartender when we opened up the taproom. I worked with him at a different brewery before Declan and I started our own operation. He was a quick study, which was why I hired him as our new cellarman.

“On it, boss,” Ryan said with a smile across his golden-brown face as he went to check.

I was still worried about the loss of revenue from when we had to dump that bad batch. It was why I was putting in the extra hours to produce as much beer as possible.

“Ryan’s a quick study,” Allen said with a nod.

I grunted in response and got back to work.

“You’re chatty today,” he teased.

I didn’t respond and moved on to bottling the rest of the beer we were working on. I’d been at the brewery all day, working hard on our production and researching what beer to make next. That pumpkin beer had been an experiment, but people liked it. It brought in beer drinkers that didn’t like IPAs. As a craft brewery, we needed to be more versatile. Craft beer drinkers would always come for the hoppy IPAs and Pale Ales, but I wanted us to reach all beer drinkers.

Allen gave me a concerned look.

“What?” I snapped.

“You need to relax.”

I sighed and stroked my beard. “I’m worried about the tank calibration fucking up production.”

Only partially a lie. Avery and I didn’t leave things on good terms this morning. She prodded me to talk about my parents, and I got snippy with her. I needed to apologize when I went home tonight. She was going to be my wife. I shouldn’t dismiss her like that. I’d felt shitty about it all day.

He eyed me cautiously. “Nolan, we’re gonna be okay. Just because you’re the brewmaster doesn’t mean you need to micromanage every little detail.”