AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Waking up with no sexy Frog next to me was totally fine. It wasn’t like I was expecting him to stay over, obviously. It had only been a one-time thing. If he’d still been there when I’d woken up, I would have kicked his ass out anyway.
So when I found myself snapping at Dan for the tenth time since opening the Tavern, I decided it was because he was incompetent.
“The Daydream Brew bottles get the orange caps, not the blue,” I hissed. “Jesus, Dan. Fucking pay attention to what you’re doing.”
I didn’t look back up from the temperature gauges again until I realized he hadn’t acknowledged my correction. When I glanced up, I saw anger simmering on his face. His jaw ticked, and his nostrils flared.
“What’s the problem?” I asked, politely leaving off additional judgy commentary.
“The problem is my boss. He’s a total asshat. What the hell has gotten into you today? I know the Daydream gets orange caps. Know how I know? I designed them.” He turned the ID card on the bottling tank toward me. Moose Call. The brew that used the blue caps. Fuck.
“Carry on,” I muttered, going back to noting the temperature of the batch of must I was working on.
“No. You need to tell me what’s up because if you’re stressing about Brew Fest, we’re in good shape. We’re even ahead of schedule.”
“We need to have those bottled and stored and still do setup before the dinner rush,” I said, nodding to the racks of bottles he had lined up.
“No shit. You’re acting like we haven’t done afternoon bottling three times a week since the day you hired me. Besides, Kendall’s coming in to help with the dinner shift. What’s going on?”
I bit my tongue to keep from telling him there was absolutely nothing going on. Nothing involving anyone who gave a shit about anything, least of all me.
God. I fucking hated JT Wellbridge. Every damn time I let the man in…
“I’m fine. It’s fine. Let’s just get this done.”
He stared at me for a few more beats before sighing and returning to his task. I went back to work and tried to calm down. It didn’t work. Within minutes, I’d ruined the batch of must and had to start over. I cursed and kicked the wall to keep from kicking or punching my beloved equipment.
“Ow, fuck. My foot. Shit.” I hobbled over to a nearby bench and dropped my face into my hands. Dan joined me and placed a tentative hand on my back.
“Want to talk about it? I know a lot is riding on this Ren Faire contract, but I think our chances are really good. You’ve done an incredible job preparing, and whatever supply we don’t end up using can be sold off at the fall festival here in town. Is that what you’re worried about? Leftover inventory? Because I really think we’ll get the contract.”
I straightened back up and tried to give him a smile. “Thanks, I appreciate it. Sorry for biting your head off earlier. It’s not really Brew Fest. It’s just… other stuff.”
He kept his hand on my back and began to rub soothing circles across it. “You did the right thing turning that Wellbridge guy down.”
I turned to him, shifting so his hand couldn’t reach my back anymore. For some reason, the comment rankled, even though he was right. “Why do you say that?”
Dan shrugged. “Who knows if that company would even do right by Honeybridge Mead? What if they decided to sell it into discount stores and change the entire image of the brand?”
“They wouldn’t do that,” I said automatically. “Surely things like that would be covered in the contract.”
Dan shrugged. “Maybe. But then you’d have to get a really good lawyer to make sure you were protected. And I can’t even imagine how much that would cost. They’d be going up against some fancy New York firm, probably. How would you even find the right attorney? It’s not like you could use Taft and Hobbs here in town. They’ve probably never even seen a corporate contract like that.”
Considering I’d smoked up with Lela Taft in high school, I wasn’t sure she’d be my first pick anyway, but I didn’t say it out loud. Dan was right. I’d have to protect myself. Not that I was considering it, of course. Because I wasn’t. All my prior objections were still in place. Honeybridge Mead belonged in Honeybridge, and I didn’t trust JT Wellbridge’s fine ass as far as I could throw it.
“Then let’s make sure we get that Ren Faire contract so we don’t need a company like Fortress to make it to the next level, okay?” I patted his knee and stood up. “Let’s finish up here so you can get back behind the bar and I can get a few invoices paid.”
We worked for another hour before things started picking up on the Tavern side. Dan got to work at the bar, and I moved to my office to get some bookkeeping done. After half an hour, Alden popped his head in. “Close it down. Cookout time.”
I sighed. “Changed my mind. I’m not going. I’ve had enough family time for a while.”
He threw himself in the chair across from my desk. I caught a familiar whiff of the high-end styling products he used at the salon. “This is the last one before Willow and Huck leave, and I promised Moose we’d come.”
Alden knew McLean was my Kryptonite. I glared at him. “Stop using Moose to get what you want. You could have just told me it was important to you.”
“It’s not important to me. But it’s important to Pop. Come on, I told him we’d pick him up at the General Store.”
I sighed and finished up a few things on my financial app before closing down the laptop and following Alden out of my office. After stopping to tell Dan where I was going, he waved me off with a wink. “Go, have fun. You clearly need some time away from here. I’ve got this.”
