Page 16 of Pitcher Perfect

Who knew I had an inked forearm kink? And a bit of a flannel kink. Maybe I have an Austin kink.I forced myself to focus on the words coming out of his mouth instead of enjoying his lips moving.

“This is the tricky part. We can go one of two routes. One route is better for the recipe, and one is better for the timeline.”

I nodded for him to continue. Him talking strategy was an aphrodisiac.Focus, you horny dumbass.

“In a perfect world, we’d have more time.”

I snorted. “In a perfect world, I’d have the body of Jason Momoa.”

Austin scanned my torso. I resisted pulling the collar of my Henley away from my neck.

“Okay,ideally, we’d have more time so we could use all the home brew equipment the guys and I have. We could simultaneously make five or six recipes, taste them, pick our favorite, tweak the recipe, then make the full batch with our professional equipment here.”

“Why can’t we do that?” It sounded ideal.

“Home brew takes longer than the commercial equipment we have. Most kinds of beer take four-to-six weeks at home and two-to-four weeks here with the necessary fermentation. It would cut it pretty damn close to go through testing.”

I grimaced. “Got it. And the more-time option?”

Austin frowned. “I’d have to do some calculations, but my initial guess is we could do a max of two beers here but probably only one. I’ve got a tight rotation going with our limited equipment. Tyler is possibly on the verge of closing some deals, and if he does, I could only dedicate one tank to the competition. I’m sorry.”

I reached out and placed my hand on his forearm without meaning to. I pulled away before I creeped him out. “Don’t be sorry. This shouldn’t affect our daily work. Let’s agree our businesses come first. What’s the point if we can’t handle the influx of customers once we win, you know?”

Austin’s shoulders relaxed further as he smiled. I was growing addicted to the sight.

“Unless you have a half dozen incredible recipes lying around and ready to put in your home brew equipment tonight, it sounds like our only option is door number two. It’s probably better that way anyway so we have time to come up with recipes before we commit.”

Austin nodded. “Agreed. Let’s set a time to reconnect with some ideas.”

“I’m currently running my truck from seven until I run out of food after lunch. My afternoon and evening schedule is pretty flexible most days.” In Portland, I had worked much longer hours with the pod always being busy. Since I wasn’t sure how busy I would be in Dahlia Springs, I didn’t want to eat into my profits by buying food that would go to waste. “I usually need to do some food prep and pick up from suppliers, but those aren’t set times. You tell me what works with your schedule.”

We pulled out our phones and added our agreed-upon time to our calendars.

“I’ll give you my number,” I said as casually as possible but was already planning the things I would text him.

“Finally.” He winked.

I bit my bottom lip and handed him my phone so he could add himself as a contact. When I got it back, I sent him a GIF with a mug of frothy beer and “Vitamin B” on the image.

I had two days before I saw Austin again, two days to find my chill.Who am I kidding?I wouldn’t find my chill until after the competition in two months. They would be a great two months, though, if it meant I had the chance to get to know Austin.

TEAM TAP THAT GROUP TEXT

Dom:how’d it go with the food truck guy?

Austin:his name is Caleb. And it went fine

Dom:[eyeroll emoji] pardon me. How did it go with CALEB?

Ty:[laugh-cry emoji]

Austin:like I said, fine. We’re getting together again Friday to brainstorm

Dom: so… who’s organizing the bet?

Ethan:bet?

Dom:when CALEB and Aus are gonna [eggplant emoji] [water droplets emoji]

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