Page 85 of Pitcher Perfect

Caleb marched his dad over to me with intention. His dad had a knowing smile.

“Austin, this is my dad, Rick. Rick, this is Austin.” He gave an ever-so-slight pause before my name.

I held out my hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Larsen.”

He held my hand between both of his as he gave me a firm handshake. “Rick, please. Caleb has told me lots about you.”

I wanted to kiss both of Caleb’s blushing cheeks. “Hopefully, not about how I’m a stubborn ass to work with.”

Rick let out a hearty laugh. “Nah. I’m surprised you’ve put up withhim.”

I felt my own cheeks warm. “It’s been easy.”

Caleb looked like he wanted to crawl across the table dividing us and kiss me breathless. He blinked it away then turned toward the brewery side of our area. “And here are the guys.”

Here’s… Austin. Oh, and here are the other guys.I hadn’t missed how I’d been called out as special. I glanced over at my found family, and judging by their grins, they hadn’t either. Caleb introduced Rick to them. I noticed Rick didn’t do a double-handed shake with anyone else. If I had a peacock’s tail, it would be on full display. I wondered what he’d told his dad about me.

While they chatted, Ethan sidled up next to me. “You guys are doing things all out of order. Meeting the boyfriend’s parent before you’re officially dating? I guess, at least that’s out of the way now.” He elbowed me in the side.

I let out a rough laugh. “Glad I didn’t have a chance to get anxious about meeting his dad.”

“Not even arguing with me about meeting the boyfriend part? I’m liking this new attitude. Finally pull the stick out of your ass?”

A hundred quips ran through my mind, but I discarded them all. “Yes.” I held Ethan’s gaze.

He positively glowed as he clapped me on the back.

We both turned and watched Rick chatting with the other guys. He beamed with pride as Caleb explained his food and how it went with the beer while Ty and Dom interjected with compliments about the salmon.

“Good afternoon, Portland Pairing guests and participants. This is a five-minute warning that the program is about to begin. Participants, please finish passing out samples. Attendees, please place your votes. Gather at the stage in five minutes,” the voice over the sound system said.

“We did it,” Ty said. “High five!”

He held up his hand and stared at us in a way that said he would accept nothing less than a group high five. Caleb, Ethan, Dom, and I indulged him by forming a circle and slapping each other’s hands.

“Epic high five, guys!” Ty groaned. “C’mon. That can’t count.”

“Freebie since it’s a special occasion,” Dom decreed.

Ethan and I nodded.

“Thank god.”

To be honest, it was pretty epic. Perfect landing with the right amount of palm sting.

We set out the last of our samples then wandered over to the stage. My heart rate kicked up since I no longer had work to distract me. I wasn’t delusional enough to think we truly had a chance against some of the giants in the room. There were breweries that had been Portland staples for decades and award-winning restaurants. But I was proud of what we’d accomplished, proud of Caleb, and glad the guys had pushed me to enter my favorite home brew.

As we stood there, the energy in our little group was electric. We kept shooting hopeful glances at each other. Rick and Aunt Carolyn chatted near us, and I loved seeing them hit it off.

Two men wearing Portland Pairing polo shirts took the stage and introduced themselves as the directors of the state’s brewery association and restaurant association, respectively.

“Thank you for joining us today,” the guy from the brewery association said then thanked the sponsors and participants. “We’ll open the brewfest shortly and hope you stick around for that portion of our day.”

A part of me wished we’d purchased a vendor booth and stayed to sell beer, but it would’ve been too much our first time out.

“Our judging panel has completed their scoring. We will take a brief intermission to count the public votes and do the final score tally. If you haven’t voted with your tokens, now’s your last chance.” He gestured to the voting area at the side of the stage, where several people scrambled to drop their tokens. “At the conclusion of that, we will return to announce our grand prize winner.” He briefly explained the scoring system.

“The brewer grand prize includes one of the three lead spots at this year’s Portland Winter Ale Fest at no cost beyond supplying your own beer for sale. That includes your brewery logo on all the attendee cups, marketing materials, television advertisements, and more. You will receive free advertising in several publications, an interview onGood Morning, Portlandas well as inclusion for three years in Oregon’s prestigious Beer Trail program.”

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