Page 16 of Mistletoe Kisses

Arlo’s bright laughter was like a prize.

I told him more about my rowdy kid failures while we finished walking several blocks to the far end of Main Street. By the time we reached the brewery, Arlo was smiling.

“Did you get in trouble for dumping a bottle of dish soap into the fountain?”

“Oh yeah. Mom managed to negotiate the expulsion to a two-day suspension. I still don’t know how she managed it.”

“You were such a troublemaker.” He said it like it was a delightful secret.

“Middle child.” I grinned. I used to be known as the troublemaker before I was known as the laughingstock of the Making Spirits Bright event during the Festival of Lights.

I held the brewery door open for Arlo and waved at Tyler, who was seated at a table with his laptop open.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Seth greeted from behind the bar. He wore his usual black-rimmed glasses, and his bow tie of the day had royal-blue polka dots. A patchwork of tattoos covered his forearms. He’d become a regular fixture around the brewery since moving back to town. Seth and Tyler were brothers, both older than me. Seth and I were two years apart in school.

“Good. You?”

“Can’t complain. Who’s your friend?”

“This is Arlo. He’s visiting town for the week.”

“Good to meet you. I’m Seth. Welcome to Dahlia Springs. Want a few minutes to look at the menu, or do you know what you’d like? I can answer any questions if you have them.” He looked to Arlo, who stared, wide-eyed, at the giant chalkboard behind the bar with the beer offerings.

“I’m not sure yet,” Arlo said.

“I’ll give you guys a couple of minutes.” Seth smiled kindly, then turned to unpack a rack of clean glasses.

“Are you a beer drinker?” I asked.

“Sometimes, but I don’t know what I like.”

“Are you feeling adventurous?”

He snorted, then stared at me with wide eyes behind the hand he’d shot up to cover his nose. Too cute.

I grinned. “Let me rephrase. Are you willing to try something new?”

He studied me for a long moment with his wide eyes. He scratched his cheek above his trimmed copper beard. It was just beer, but with how he watched me, the moment felt weighted.

“Why not? This week is all about obliterating my comfort zone, I guess.”

“Want to grab a table? I’ll be over with our drinks in a minute.”

He nodded, then turned to survey the space. I wished I knew what was going on in his head as he seemed to compare the merits of each table. Eventually, he walked over to a two-top in the far corner.

“He’s cute.”

“He is.” A flare of possessiveness roared through me, but I squashed it because A) I had no right to feel that about Arlo, and B) Seth wasn’t on the market, the last I’d heard.

I made my order, then balanced the weight of two rainbow-shaped sampler trays as I walked over to Arlo a few minutes later.

His eyes grew round as he watched me approach. “That’s a lot of beer.”

“It looks like a lot, but if you dumped them all into a pint glass—which I don’t recommend doing because these flavors wouldnotblend—it would be like a beer-and-a-half.

“Oh. That’s way less than I expected.”

I placed one tasting tray with eight small glasses in front of him and the other at my seat. “It’s suggested that you drink them from left to right to start with the lighter beers. The darker ones have a stronger flavor that can influence how you taste the lighter ones. But if you’re not too worried about ‘proper’ tasting protocol, you could do what I do.”

---