Page 129 of Small Town Firsts
“So, that’s two people in your corner.” He rubbed my nose with his. “And there are so many more. You just need to believe it and see it. I’m the number one though.” He narrowed his eyes. “Okay, maybe Beckett can stay number one.”
I went onto my toes and kissed him. “I love you, Ronan.”
He stilled. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. I’d kinda figured it out already. I definitely did when we were in the storeroom today. But when you stood up for me.” I couldn’t believe there were any tears left in my body. “When you wouldn’t let me take the blame. No one has ever stood for me like that. Even Beckett. He supported me after it all went down, but he didn’t know about it when it happened.”
“Because he wouldn’t have let you.”
“You know him better than I thought.”
“Because that’s what I would have done. It wasn’t your responsibility.”
“But this thief problem we have is.”
“It’s our responsibility. We’ll figure it out together. But let me tell you one thing—you aren’t paying for it. Businesses take losses for bullshit that happens all the time. Believe me. But we won’t let it happen again.”
I didn’t really like that answer, but he was right.
“No, we won’t.” I tried to step back and he held me tight. “We have to figure out what the heck happened.”
“We will. I just need you to say that one thing one more time.”
I smiled up at him. “Which part?” He lifted me up along the back of my thighs and I grabbed onto his shoulders. “Okay, okay.”
“Say it again.”
I lowered my face to his, my hair falling forward to curtain around us. “I love you, Ronan.”
“Again,” he said against my mouth.
“I love you, Viking.”
THIRTY-ONE
RONAN
BUTTONED UP TIGHT
“Quit grinning like a lunatic.We’re counting.”
“Yep, got it. No grinning.” But I was still smiling as I dug through every case in the storage room.
While we were double checking everything, we took the time to sweep and mop, then rearranged the stock to make things easier on the staff. We’d had the materials on site for a key swipe to get in and out of the room, but we hadn’t set it up yet since things were still a little chaotic.
But that was no more.
Key swipes needed to be used for the registers anyway, so it was time for everyone to get used to them. We also set it up at the front door, but the back door was open most days and evenings, so that wasn’t foolproof in the least.
By the end of the night, we’d counted the entirety of our stock and even found a box of moonshine tucked near the back door.
That, alone, made me suspicious. It would be easy to stash and grab at the end of the night while people took out the trash. We didn’t have parking near the dumpsters, but we also didn’t have cameras over there.
I checked in with Beckett and he sent Justin out to install two of them before he went home for the day.
Beckett was even quieter than usual when he checked in with us, but I knew the orchard was more family than business to him in some ways. Unfortunately, I knew more about theft in the industry than I did about trust.
Recipes for beer could run in the millions for the larger corporations. And while I had no delusions about my ciders, I knew it was something Beckett would need to think about for the future. If Brothers Three Orchard was serious about distributing, then it would be a much higher dollar figure involved than a few hundred cases for a taproom.
