Page 75 of Relief Pitcher

Hayden held eye contact. “Staying.” He looked back toward the office window. “For now, at least. Anyway, I’ll leave you guys to it. If you ever need more work, you know where to find me.”

“Swing by the kitchen before you go. Caleb made you some burek to try. He wants to know if it’s closer to your mom’s recipe.”

Hayden smiled genuinely at Austin, nodded, saluted us, and walked off.

I looked around us to take it all in.

“I can’t believe we made it happen,” Ethan said.

“Me too. We’re not only sustaining but expanding. Pretty damn incredible.” Austin looked around in awe.

Ethan’s eyes grew glassy, and Austin wrapped his arm around Ethan’s shoulder and kissed the side of his head. I moved to Ethan’s other side and wrapped my arm around his waist. We remained silent for several minutes. I smiled at my brother, who stood nearby. Seth hadn’t been a part of our dream coming together or opening it, but he’d been a major presence at the brewery since he’d started working with us last year.

It meant a lot to me that he was part of the most important thing in my life.

Dom joined us with open beers and passed them out. “It’s been a wild ride.”

We sat in the Adirondack chairs perched around the firepit as Dom got it going and moved two heaters closer to us. The rain had dropped the temperature significantly since yesterday.

“Guess it’s time to plan the grand opening.” Austin leaned back and braced his beer on his thigh.

I caught Dom’s eyes and nodded.

Dom cleared his throat. “Seth, what do you think about planning it?”

Seth froze with his beer on his way to his mouth. “Me? Why?”

Dom leaned forward and dropped his elbows on his knees. It wasn’t easy to look serious with an Adirondack’s angle, but he managed it.

“Because you’re by far the most skilled in that area out of all of us. We’d benefit from your expertise.”

We’d all talked about giving Seth that project to bring him into the brewery even more, but I knew the idea would have to come from someone else. We were closer than ever but were still brothers. Anything I suggested would be suspect.

He was quiet for a moment. We’d all learned that he had a thinking look, and he was definitely thinking. “How about a pints and pooches party? Bring your dog and we’ve got the beer? Could be a fundraiser for the local pet rescue.”

Ethan beamed. “That’sexactlywhy we wanted you to plan this.”

I was so damn proud of my brother. He’d gone from playing saxophone and wearing a dorky band outfit throughout high school to a dapper bow tie-wearing guy with a knack for event planning.

We kicked around ideas for a while, then moved on to discussing practice time for our upcoming drag performance for Pride. It was easy to pass the time in the space, which was exactly what we’d wanted. I hoped our customers would dig it as much as we did. It was definitely a great way to spend the afternoon on a day we were closed.

Eventually, the conversation shifted to the latest about Caleb and Parker. Cute things they’d done, recent dates, other schmoopy shit. Then the guys looked at me expectantly. Did they think I had a “boyfriend update” too? The fuck? I didn’t have a boyfriend.

Though, I hadn’t stopped thinking about what I’d learned about the demiromantic umbrella. I caught Seth’s eyes, and he smiled at me. A genuine, supportive one. That gave me the courage to open up. God, I hadn’t had to come out to anyone for a long fucking time. That was a perk to owning a blatantly queer-owned brewery. I didn’t have to find new and inventive ways to let people know I was gay.

“So…had a bit of a discovery.”

“Finally figure out how to wash your stank ass?” Austin gave me a sarcastic thumbs-up.

“My ass is clean as a whistle. You can ask all the guys who have happily feasted on it.” I flicked my tongue back and forth a few times in his direction.

“Fucking gross.” His face scrunched like he’d tasted something sour.

“Don’t ever let them tell you old dogs can’t learn new tricks. Or, uh, new queer identities.” I scratched the back of my neck as everyone grew quiet. “Turns out I might be demiromantic.”

There was a beat of silence, then a chorus of “oh” and “yeah, that tracks.”

I stared incredulously at them. “Really? No surprise? No applause? No heartfelt congratulations?”

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