Page 31 of Beyond the Hate

My fingers inch to pinch her chin and lift her face to force her to meet my gaze but I cross my arms before I can give in to the temptation.

“Five Fathomsisn’t some unknown microbrewery. And I didn’t offer you space in the distillery because I feel sorry for you. I offered you space because we have it and you’re a smuggler. Smugglers help other smugglers out.”

The stiffness leaks out of her shoulders. “It’s easy to forget you’re a smuggler.”

I ignore her comment. She’s not the only one who’s mentioned how much I don’t resemble a smuggler recently. I need to work on it. But it’s a concern for later.

“Let me do this for you now. When your brewery is back up and running, we can discuss some kind of repayment.”

“You’re not doing this for me. You’re doing it for the brewery.”

I clear my throat. “Of course. I misspoke.”

I didn’t misspeak. I am doing this for her. But she doesn’t need to know how much I long for her. Especially not considering how she hates my guts.

“Do you want a tour of the facilities?” I motion to the door.

Her eyes light up. I knew she’d want a tour. Paisley is as interested in the actual mechanics of the production as Jaxon is.

She clears her throat. “I believe a tour would be handy. I can plan out where to put equipment.”

I duck my chin to hide my amusement at her attempt to tone down her excitement. She’s cute when she’s excited. I wish I could make her excited more often. And not merely intellectually excited.

I open the door and Kai practically falls into the room. I glare at him. “How old are you?”

“Uh oh. Eli is getting senile in his old age. Do you remember my name at least?”

I grit my teeth. “Don’t make me smack you in front of company.”

He waves to Paisley. “Hello, brewer girl.”

I move to block his view of her but Paisley responds before I have the chance. “Brewer woman. A girl is a female child or adolescent.”

He salutes her. “My apologies. Brewer woman, how are you?”

“I’ve been better.”

He frowns. “I’m sorry about the brewery.” He opens his arms. “Do you want a hug?”

I shove him and he falls to the floor while laughing.

“You shouldn’t shove your brother.”

I raise an eyebrow at Paisley. “And you never shoved your friends in high school?”

“Nova deserved it. Her eavesdropping on Hudson caused me to be late for my AP test in Chemistry.”

“Yes. Let’s pretend it only happened once.” I chuckle. “You forget I was in your grade in high school. I was a witness to all of your shenanigans.”

Kai sits up. “Shenanigans? Tell me more.”

I ignore him and motion down the hallway. “The distillery is this way.”

Rhett steps out of his office. “Did she agree?”

I snort. “Don’t pretend you haven’t been leaning against the wall with a glass to your ear for the past hour.”

“Using a glass doesn’t work,” he claims.

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