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)
And fuck anyone who said that I couldn’t do this because I was a woman.
“I put in a word for you,” he said, leaning forward. “You’ve got friends in the Brewers Association.” He took another long sip of his lager. “I wanted to give you a heads up and tell you to hang in there—there are a lot of people who have your back, and Matthew’s still a newcomer, you know? This is going to work itself out. You just keep brewing awesome beer.”
“Beer solves all problems, right?” I said with a wry smile.
“Always.” Andy came around the bar to give me a hug.
Andy left after draining the rest of his beer. I watched the door shut behind him and wondered how long I was going to have to hang in there before Matthew’s poison lost its strength. How long it was going to take before the universe decided I’d learned my lesson and he stopped being such a fucking pain in my ass.
Ford wandered back over, shoving his hands in his back pockets. “Matthew again?”
“Yeah,” I said, rolling back my shoulders and lifting my chin. “I can handle it.”
“I know you can, Ave. Maybe you should think about asking for help.”
I had no idea what he meant by that. Before I could puzzle it out, he said, “Show me your new beer. The one you’re formulating to replace the fall brew.”
“There’s not much to see,” I said. After glancing around to see that no one needed a fresh beer, I led Ford back into the brewery. The door swung shut behind us, and I brought him to the long table in the corner covered in rows of brown bottles, all neatly labeled XP 2: experimental version two.
“If it’s in bottles, can we drink it?” he asked, glancing at me with curiosity bright in his eyes.
“Not yet. I was thinking we’d try it on Thanksgiving.” I’d been toying with the idea. Maybe it would be awful. And if it was, we’d laugh it off and I’d try again. Doing it as a family felt right.
“So, you’re almost there.” Ford wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. I leaned into his side.
“Maybe. If it sucks, I’ll tinker with the recipe some more.”
“It’s not going to suck,” he said.
We stood there for a moment, staring at the rows of brown bottles. My new beginning. Maybe.
Ford spoke quietly into the silence. “He’s not worth it, Avery.”
“Who? Matthew?” I didn’t understand what he meant.
“No. Dad. He’s not worth you risking your life. You’ve got talent and a good business, and a man who cares about you. Don’t throw it away over Prentice. You’ll get yourself killed trying to find out who shot him. The world is a better place with Dad dead, and we both know it. Don’t throw away everything you have trying to get him justice.”
I stepped back and glared up at my older brother. “This isn’t about Prentice. They threw you in prison for a year.”
“And now I’m out,” Ford said. “I’m here, and I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.” How could he say he was fine? He was a shadow of the man he’d been.
“Did it ever occur to you that I deserved what I got?” he asked, his tone so reasonable it knocked me back a step.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Avery, I was complicit in so many of the things Dad did. I was involved in letting our brother get kidnapped and almost killed. I could have stopped it, and I didn’t, and he—” Ford’s voice cut off, and he looked at the floor. “We almost lost Finn, Avery, and it would have been my fault. And that’s not even the worst thing I did. If my penance is spending a year in prison and everyone thinking I’m a murderer, I can live with that. If you get yourself killed trying to clear my name…” His voice cracked, and my breath caught in my chest.
“Ford, I…”
His eyes met mine, raw pain burning in the green depths. “Everything I’ve already done is bad enough. Don’t make me live with losing you, too.” He blinked, and the intensity of his emotion dimmed. “Go talk to West,” he said seriously. “I get that after Matthew, you’re wary of being manipulated or controlled, but that’s not what’s happening here.”
I sighed, seeing it clearly for the first time in four days.
“Yeah, okay,” I said, feeling like the biggest jerk on the planet. Did I only think about myself and what I wanted?
“You’ll back off and let the investigation go?” Ford pressed.
I nodded. “I’m sorry. I was so focused on finding the answers, I didn’t think about getting hurt or how you’d feel about it.”
“I know you didn’t, Ave,” he said, pulling me into a tight hug.
He hung around for another stout, and we played a game of checkers at the bar before his phone chimed and he pushed back his seat. “My ride back to the Manor is here.”