Page 13 of Break My Heart
‘I’m already here, and business is going great.’
‘For now, but just wait until that Sawyer guy gets everyone in town to go against you. If his whole family is there, you don’t stand a chance. They’ll do everything they can to ruin your business.’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ I say with a sigh. Ryder can be so negative sometimes, which is another reason I broke up with him. ‘I’m choosing to believe that if my beer is good enough, people will come back, even if I’m not a local, or a Kanfield.’
‘Guess we’ll find out. Isn’t that a conflict of interest? The guy’s parents having the cider competition? I’m guessing he’s entering.’
‘I don’t know. I assume he is, but it’s not a conflict of interest. His parents aren’t judging the contest this year. They’re just hosting it.’
‘Who are the judges?’ he huffs. ‘Their cousins? Siblings? Family friends?’
‘I’m sure they’ll be impartial judges. If they weren’t, people would find out and the competition wouldn’t happen. It gets a lot of press for the orchard. The Kanfields aren’t going to put that in jeopardy just so their son can win.’
‘I think you’re giving them too much credit. Do you even know these people?’
‘No, but everyone in town seems to love them.’
‘Which is why you better watch your back.’
‘Nobody’s going to do anything. So far, everyone’s been really nice.’
‘So far being the key words.’
There he goes again, assuming the worst in people. I was feeling good before he called and now he’s got me worrying about my business.
‘Ryder, I need to go. We open soon and I have a lot to do.’
‘Yeah, see ya.’
I end the call just as Aria walks in. We were friends back in Green Bay. When I told her I was moving here to open G’s, she offered to come work for me. She’s 23 and worked for me at Ryder’s brewpub as one of the waitstaff. She’s like a little sister to me, something I never had since I’m an only child.
‘Who were you talking to?’ she asks, after dropping her stuff in the break room.
‘Ryder. He was just checking in.’
She comes up to me, smiling. ‘Are you sure he wasn’t calling because he misses you?’
‘That ended months ago. He doesn’t see me that way anymore.’
‘Then why are you guys still talking?’ She hops up on the counter as I look over my hard cider recipe.
‘Because we’re friends. And Ryder knows a lot about the brewery business. He’s a good source of information.’
‘It doesn’t bother you to talk to your ex? You guys were serious. You lived together. You were practically married.’
I laugh. ‘We weren’t even close to getting married. Ryder isn’t the marrying type.’
‘Are you?’
I check the clock on the wall, noticing it’s almost four. ‘We should get out there, make sure everything’s set up.’
‘Stop changing the subject.’ She jumps off the counter and stands next to me. ‘Do you? Want to get married?’
‘To Ryder?’ I turn to her. ‘No. We’re not a good match.’
‘But to someone else?’
‘Maybe. It depends.’ I walk to my office, which is also the break room. I need a better office, one that’s private, but I don’t have the space. When I renovated this building, I reserved most of the space for customers and my brewing equipment, choosing to combine my office with the employee break room.
