Page 83 of Love Is Brewing

“Guess I got lucky,” Ben said, putting his arm around Eve. “But I was in trouble enough for other things.”

“What’s for lunch, Mom?” Phoebe asked.

“Redirecting at its best,” her father said. “Always.”

“I’m onto her,” Elias said. “She thinks she gets away with it.”

She frowned. “My parents used to be the only ones that let me get away with it,” she said.

“Then I’m glad to know you’re around her, Elias,” her mother said. “I’ll know someone is keeping her grounded.”

She wanted to sputter over that, but Elias pulled her close to him on the couch where they’d been sitting. “I think we are doing what we both need right now equally.”

She turned her head to see his smile and noticed that her brothers and father were watching, but no one said a word.

Her mother nodded and that was all she needed to know.

Hours later they were on the road heading home. “What was going on with you and Ben before I left? Work talk?”

“About what?” he asked. “And by the way, your family was fine. I’m used to dealing with more and much worse than that. You’ll be fine with my family too.”

She cleared her throat. “Now it’s you who is avoiding me,” she said. “But you can just tell me it’s none of my business.”

“I’m not going to say that,” he said. “Just making a point. As for Ben, something happened at work a few weeks ago. Many might consider it insignificant, but I was annoyed, and the news circulated.”

“What happened?” she asked. “If you want to share.”

She listened while he explained the order mess-up and how many people didn’t speak up when they could have and cost the company money.

“It’s frustrating. It’s taken me a long time to delegate a lot of things and ordering was one of them so now I’ll be taking that back. Or at least making sure someone I trust is double-checking it.”

“Ben would be the same way. The person who messed up on the order, has it happened before?”

“Not that I’m aware of. At least not with supplies like that, but she orders everything. That is her job. We go through so much that she is full time talking with many to get the right supplies and staying on top of them. It’s possible she just punched in the wrong number. Or someone told her to change it, but she would have said that, I’d think.”

“Did you talk to her about it?” she asked.

“I did,” he said. “Her name is Tracey and she swears she ordered the right stuff. That she knows, but there wasn’t much she could do when the invoice showed something else. Skip is one of my guys in the plant and he signed for the shipment. Heclaims he looked it all over. I think because everything was in boxes and pallets, he went through and checked the numbers matched but not what was inside.”

“I can see both sides of it so far,” she said.

“When the supplies were unloaded by someone else, they should have been checked also, but at that point, no one was paying attention. Not even the brewers who opened the barley and knew it wasn’t what I normally use.”

“I think people find it easier to stay silent than speak up,” she said. “In life in general.”

“Agreed,” he said. “I made it clear at all levels to double and triple-check everything. We made the best of it and moved on. Your brother commented about us changing barley in some of our brews. I was stunned he’d find out and asked how he did. I explained what happened. The last thing I need is to lose this contract over a mistake.”

“I doubt that would happen,” she said.

“Don’t be so sure,” he said. “If I sign a contract for a specific formula and it’s going to be attached to my name, I want what I’m getting. It could be a nightmare for both of us if something went wrong. Thankfully it wasn’t anything that had to do with the collaboration.”

“Then nothing to worry about,” she said.

His head went back and forth. “I don’t see it that way,” he said. “I asked how Ben found out about it. He said it was on a message board about us trying something new in an upcoming beer. Nothing about throwing out several batches, thankfully.”

“How would that make it to a message board unless it was staff involved?”

“Exactly,” he said. “Staff all sign every form they can that binds them from not releasing formulas, and trust me when I tell you, the base of all our brews, only a few know.”

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