Page 82 of Small Town Firsts
“I’ve been busting my ass since I got here. What’s between her and me has nothing to do with that.”
“You sure about that?”
Guilt churned in my gut as I looked around. It looked less like a workshop and more like a man cave after a rager. I didn’t even remember half of what happened in here. That moonshine should never have been mixed with whiskey.
When my attention was on Beckett again, he spoke. “She’s an adult and what and who she chooses to do on her off time isn’t of my concern from a business standpoint. Now as her friend, I’d say you better watch yourself.” His face was expressionless, but his blue eyes were hard.
“Not your business.”
“You’re wrong, there. I won’t have her hurt. Now I don’t know if this is a game, or a…dalliance.”
Kain snickered. “Dalliance? Not sure I’ve heard that word since my aunty passed.”
I pointed at Kain. “Not now.”
“Right—zipped.” He twisted a key over his lips and mimed throwing it over his shoulder. A moment later he rocked back on his heels. “Still hungry though,” he whispered.
“Later.”
Kain rubbed his belly with a sigh.
“I need to go talk to her,” I gritted out between my clenched teeth.
Beckett stuffed his hands in his back pockets. He wasn’t quite as tall as I was, but he was rangier and honed where I was bulky. My brother would call him scrappy. And those were the ones you had to be careful with.
“You need to get cleaned up and give her some space, then maybe you can talk to her.”
I shook my head, eyes steady on his. “Wrong play.”
“How about we don’t play with her at all? She’s had plenty of that in her life.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
His eyes went from hard to blank. “You’ll need to talk to her about that.”
I fisted my hands at my sides. “Goddammit.”
I hated to be in the dark about her, but I was trying to be patient. The fact that Beckett knew all her secrets made me wantto punch something. I knew it would be worth it if she told me about her past on her own. And that would take time, but it was another thing keeping her just out of reach.
“She’s a complicated woman.”
“No fucking kidding.”
He pulled his hands out of his pockets. “Look, why don’t you just take twenty and clean up in here? That should give her enough time to cool down.” Beckett swung his ball cap so the brim was around the back. “I’ll help.”
“You don’t need to do that. I made the damn mess.” I stared hard at Kain until he picked up the pizza boxes with a grumble.
I shook my head when he peeked into one of them and found a slice. I would not have eaten that, but Kain had a cast iron stomach. With a pizza crust sticking out of his mouth like a cigar, he started stacking the larger buckets over in the corner with the others.
As I cleaned, the anger brewing rolled back to a dull annoyance and finally, resignation. I got myself into this, now I’d have to beg my way into her good graces again.
Half a dozen large pails were busted from our game last night and I tossed them to the side. I’d use them for some bucket plantings along the side of the barn. I had some ideas for aromatics to go with the fall apples. While the flash frozen fruit I had was great for accelerating fermentation, I was anxious to try some new blends with fresh apples.
I preferred a dry cider, but I knew I needed three solid options for the opening. That would need to include a sweet one for variety. Instead of stewing about Kira’s reaction—and the more annoying aspects of her relationship with Beckett that twisted me up—I methodically put my workshop together. Distracting myself with flavor profiles I still had to try evened me out.
Beckett and Kain took direction well, thank God. Kain had switched out the music on the stereo to some 80’s Springsteen, and by the end of our cleaning spree we were howling to “Glory Days” while the two of them swept the cement floors and I followed with a mop.
I had a lot of work ahead of me before the end of August. No matter how much I wanted to focus on Sunshine, the two of us needed to work together to get this place ready. With the added complication of Kain, I needed to get my head on straight before I did something stupid like push her completely away with my jackassery.
