Page 65 of Brewing Up a Bad Boy

“No. Also, it will take three to ten days to add flavors in the sealed bottles. So if we want them for August 15 and the Tea Society tasting, we’re going to need to sample and then bottle them which might be pushing it.”

“Yeah. What do you think?” she asked. Instead of asking the question she really wanted an answer to.Why did you leave your family company? Why abandon the one place that dominated your life?

“I like the idea of doing it at day ten,” he said.

“Good. So are you working tonight?” she asked.

“Yeah, and Owen has a date,” Ali said with a teasing tone.

“He does? I’m not sure why I’m shocked, but I am. I mean, he’s always just in the tavern.”

“According to Lars, you should be shocked. She’s from Bangor and they met online,” Ali said as they walked back to her house.

“Nice,” she said. She was happy for Owen, really she was. But Ali’s past was heavy on her mind. And so was what that meant for the two of them.

He stood next to her, his head cocked to one side after he’d whipped his shirt off and tossed it on the back of a chair. “The heat... I hate to be that British guy, but I’m ready for some rain.”

“It is hot,” she admitted. “Speaking of England...”

“Were we?”

No, of course they weren’t, but there was no way to ease into the prying questions she had for him. No way to let them lie either. She needed to know. It was time for answers, and she’d about run out of ways to distract herself.

It would be different if she wasn’t falling for him. But she was. There was still so much about him she didn’t know.

“I was,” she said. “Why did you leave Lancaster-Spencer?”

“That’s a long story,” he said. “I’m not sure I can do it justice before I leave for my shift.”

He took his shirt off the back of the chair and walked into the house.

Of course she wanted to know why he left. It was surprising she’d waited this long to ask.

“Fine. I just... It feels like you’re hiding something from me,” she said, following him into the house. “It’s okay, we don’t have to be each other’s confessor or anything like that, but this feels important.”

It was. Way more than she’d ever guess.

But he didn’t want her to know what had happened. That he’d lost it in such a big way that even his family, with all their connections and influence, had been left with no option but to put him on a permanent leave and in therapy.

It wasn’t the way he wanted her to see him. The work he’d done since that moment was what helped him keep it together now.

Anger and guilt and shame were a potent cocktail running through his veins. He’d be unpredictable if he didn’t take control.

“You’re right.” He bit the words out angrily.

Poppy took a step back from him.

He clenched and unclenched his hands, breathing deeply through his nose.God, don’t let me be like this.He repeated the words until he felt more centered.

“You’re right,” he repeated, the words calmer and more rational this time. “Trust me when I say it’s not something I want to tell you about and then leave. But I said I’d be at the tavern at seven, and it’s six thirty now. I will tell you,” he promised.

An eternity passed before she nodded and then came over and hugged him. She wrapped her arms around him, putting her head on his chest.

He circled her with one arm, blinking to keep tears back. Her acceptance of this broken version of the man he wanted to be got to him, hard. He cleared his throat. “Want to come to work with me?”

“And hang out while you work? Maybe. Let me see if anyone’s free to join me. I think Wes and Sera are both back from an estate sale. Could you save a table for me?”

“I will,” he said.

---