Page 60 of No Bones About It

Garrett looked at her, eyebrows up. “Care to share?”

She shook her head. “Not yet. Soon, though.” And she hoped she hadn’t screwed it up.

Garrett wondered what name Kimi had come up with for their place and why she wasn’t ready to share. He wouldn’t be surprised if Nina had a hand in it as well. The girl loved to name things.

He and the guys headed to work on the brewery, although he snuck in another kiss before he left. He’d never get enough of this woman. Now he fully understood how his buddies felt about the ladies in their lives and how his grandparents had felt. And why CC had been willing to sell the ranch for more time with his Kath.

Walking into the barn had Garrett and his five friends grinning. Just like old times.

Not only did he now know the names of all the equipment, he understood the process and could read all the machinery. He and Heath had both aced the online course and were official Vermont brewmasters.

Garrett slapped Troy on the back. “I’m glad you kept being a pain in the ass to get us all to come here.”

Troy protested. “I was not a pain in the ass.”

They all laughed, and he shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it? And now we have a new business together and a whole pile of other businesses, too.”

He didn’t addand women to love, but Garrett imagined most of them thought it. Marcus was the only single man standing.

Garrett remembered the woman back in Afghanistan who ran the school for girls. Elina. There’d been something about the way she and Arrow had looked at each other. In other circumstances, that could have bloomed into something.

But after the hellish day when Garrett had lost Shaggy and Marcus had lost his foot, he’d never seen her or heard about her again. He sometimes wondered if Arrow had managed to keep in contact but hadn’t asked. After Shaggy’s death, he’d been dealing with overwhelming grief and guilt. He hadn’t wanted to add to the load Marcus carried.

The man himself slapped him on the shoulder. “We lose you, Scooby?”

Garrett shook himself out of his thoughts. “Yeah. Sorry about that, just thinking.”

Marcus nodded, but Garrett wondered if he knew more of Garrett’s thoughts than were comfortable.

They spent the next few hours loading up and starting the process for the first batch of beer in the new setup. It would take another few weeks to ferment and condition, but the task was started.

After that, they would get it into kegs and the bottles they’d ordered. It would be awhile before the batch would be ready to sell.

When they were done, Sean surveyed the barn. “This is a good place, Heath. Thanks for letting us use it. The barn behind the farmhouse has too much going on to have the room. This is perfect.”

That other barn housed Sean’s construction business and Levi’s farm equipment for growing the hops. Troy’s original plan had been to use it for the brewery but there hadn’t been enough space. Heath had wanted the farmhouse on this land for his family but didn’t have plans for the barn, so this had been the perfect solution.

Now they had five interconnected properties starting with Isla and Levi’s on the north end, the farmhouse with its fields of hops, Heath’s with this barn, and Garrett and Kimi with their animals on the south.

Troy’s plan to get the gang together and help grow his town had definitely worked.

Once the fermentation process had begun, there was nothing to do but wait for a couple of weeks. Garrett walked back to his own property as the guys headed out to theirs.

He spotted the old beat-up truck Aisling Gallagher from Midnight Lake called Buffy parked in Kimi’s yard. He was going to let them do their thing while he worked on setting up a stall for Onigis when another vehicle pulled into Kimi’s yard. This one he didn’t know.

The mess with John Mead might be over, but he wouldn’t ever lower his vigilance when it came to Kimi’s safety. The car parked beyond the truck, blocking his view of the driver.

Instead of wasting time opening the gate, he hopped over and into the yard. Nerves had picked up by the time he rounded Aisling’s truck and realized the driver was no threat.

Terese Fleury, the FBI forensic veterinarian, looked up and smiled. “Hello Garrett, nice to see you again.”

He returned the greeting as the vet got out of her SUV.

Olaf hid behind Garrett’s legs, and the vet squatted down. “Hey there. I’ve heard about you, and I’m so glad you’re healing nicely. You found yourself a pretty good home, didn’t you, boy?”

When Olaf edged closer, she held out her hand for him to sniff but didn’t encroach on his space. It only took him a minute to move in and get her to pet him. She grinned up at him. “He’s socializing well. Good job.” After a few more pets, she stood and looked around the yard. “Is Kimi in?”

He nodded and led the way into the barn with Olaf at his side.

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