Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Avery tossed her dark ponytail over her shoulder and laughed. “Those elementary school kids are pretty industrious. At least I got one of the skeletons that looks like a skeleton instead of a worm with weird legs. It’s pretty cool. I like how they decorate the whole town. Everybody gets in on it. It’s cute for the tourists, but it’s also...” She shrugged, a little smile curving the side of her mouth. “It makes the town even more homey, you know what I mean? Like we’re all here together, celebrating the season. I can’t wait to see what they do for Christmas.”
“I know what you mean,” I said. My father’s proprietary attitude about the town got under my skin, but I did love the way my mother and whoever else she could rope into community service helped to keep us a community, not just a tourist destination. “I heard Finn’s been around,” I said.
Avery glanced to the side, to a closed door that led, I thought, to a small kitchen. “Yeah, we’re working on some ideas.”
“Good ideas?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and taking a sip of my beer, letting the bitter, bright hops wash over my tongue. Avery knew her stuff when it came to beer. My eyes skimmed the taproom—not crowded, but doing steady business. She knew what she was doing there as well, despite the rumors her former brewmaster was spreading. It didn’t look to me like she was in over her head.
“You two going to team up?” I asked, my mouth watering at the idea of Finn’s cooking being as accessible as Avery’s taproom. I could always bum a meal at Heartstone Manor. Griffen would never turn me away, but then I’d have to deal with the entire Sawyer clan, which, while they were like family, could also be a lot.
“We’re working up to it,” she said slowly. Her eyes caught on something across the room, and she said, “One sec,” headed down to the other end of the bar, took an order, filled it, and came back I was pleased to note that while she smiled at her customer, it didn’t have the same warmth as the smile she’d given me.
Why did I care? I hadn’t quite figured that out. She was Griffen’s little sister. She’d been in the background of my life for as long as I could remember. Until the morning after the break-in, I hadn’t thought of Avery as more than that. Now I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
I wasn’t exactly sure what I planned to do about that.
Ignore it until it went away?
That was the simplest answer. Watching the curve of her lip as she smiled, walking my way, I wasn’t sure it was the most satisfying answer, or the answer I wanted.
“The town could use another restaurant,” I said when she was close enough.
“That’s what we were thinking. Nothing fancy. Small menu. Not every day, to start. I don’t know. We’re tossing stuff around, but I like it,” she nodded. “I’d mentioned it before, but Matthew—” Avery cut off abruptly and shook her head at herself, clearly not wanting to talk about him further. It gave me the opening I wasn’t sure I wanted but knew I had to take.
“You know he got a new job? At Bear Run Brewing?”
Avery shrugged one shoulder. “I guess that’s not a surprise. I was done working with him, but he’s a good brewmaster. He just—” her eyes scanned the bar again, came back to mine. “He wanted to take over, you know.”
”He’s been running his mouth,” I said, slowly.
Avery’s jaw set, and she drew in a breath slowly before letting it out, fighting, I thought, to control her temper. “What’s he saying?” she asked slowly, grudgingly, as if she didn’t want to know.
I lifted one shoulder, wishing I had news that wasn’t going to piss her off. “I only know what my mom heard. Mostly that he was the brains behind the business, and you’re in over your head.”
Avery nodded and didn’t look as upset as I’d expected. “That’s the story he gave me when I fired him. He’s not wrong,” she said. “And he’s also completely wrong. I hired him as brewmaster because I needed to learn from him, and I paid attention over these last two years. If I can’t do it on my own by now—”
She cut off as a group of five came through the door and headed to a high-top table. One of them broke away and came to the bar. Avery moved to take her order.
I watched her talk and smile, charming and friendly, as welcoming as her taproom. She’d created the kind of place you wanted to hang out for a while. In one corner, she had a bookshelf with games and decks of cards. One group had grabbed a board game and a big round table. It looked like they’d been working their way through pints of beer as they played, laughing the whole time.