Page 31 of Love Is Brewing

He opened her can of beer and poured it into a glass. It almost looked like an orange smoothie. When she lifted the glass close to her face to sniff, it smelled like one too.

“You’re smiling. Why is that?”

“This smells like something I’d get at a smoothie bar,” she said, taking a sip. “And it’s nice and sweet. Oh boy, I like this a lot.”

“Score one for me tonight,” he said. “My sister Talia had a hand in that. She’s the baby. She likes sweet things and kept asking me to make something that tasted more like a dessert.”

“And you wanted to make her happy?” she asked, taking another sip.

“I guess. I wanted to see if I could do it. It was new this summer and a big hit.”

“Sounds like most of the things you make are a big hit,” she said.

“I like to think so,” he said.

She followed him to a door off the kitchen and then through the garage. Another door at the back opened to reveal a mini-brewery the size of a small house.

“Did you add this to the house?” she asked.

You couldn’t see it when you pulled in, but it didn’t look to be the same as the rest of the house.

“I did,” he said. “Have to consider it like another home office. I spend more time in here than the office at the front of the house.”

“I always thought it was odd that Ben experimented with things at home, but he said smaller batches were easier at home and better to control. That Mason does it too.”

“That’s it exactly,” he said. “I’ve got over sixty beers for sale at once.”

“Wow,” she said. “I know Fierce doesn’t have that many.”

“No,” he said. “I rotate what I make but have over two hundred active ones. It’s my goal to create a specific number of new ones a year, but we always have our base that is available.”

“Which would explain why your place is so massive. I’m impressed. I don’t know a lot about it.”

“But you know more than the average person because of your brother,” he said. “And that is why I’m testing things at home. I bring it in and let my staff rate it. We go from there.”

“Like science experiments,” she said.

“You could say that,” he said, nodding.

They turned to leave and went back to his house. He pulled patties out of the fridge that were made.

“Anything I can do to help?” she asked.

“Nope,” he said. “I’ve got it. I hope. Don’t hold it against me if I burn them. I figured burgers were a safe bet since you had a steak last night.”

“I eat just about anything,” she said.

“I pictured you as someone who was more into fancy food. So yeah, probably failing here.”

She laughed. “I won’t lie. My brothers are picking on me about moving here. I do love my sushi.”

“Yeah, no,” he said, feigning a gag. “Not my thing. Too much work and it doesn’t fill me up.”

“I understand. I’m talking real sushi though. Not that stuff you get at a grocery store.”

She shivered over the thought of that processed prepackaged stuff.

“Ewww,” he said. “Raw fish doesn’t do it for me. You can get parasites or something from them, can’t you?”

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