Page 10 of Break My Heart (The Haydon Falls #2)

Sawyer

Now I get why Gina was so picky about the apples she wanted.

She chose an unripened one because of the unique flavor it would give the cider.

Should I do that? Now she’s got me doubting myself.

I thought I’d finally figured out the perfect cider recipe, only to be second guessing myself because of Gina.

Damn! Why do I let her get to me like this?

‘Sawyer!’ I hear my dad yell.

‘What?’

‘Get up here!’

I walk up the hill through the orchard and find my dad standing by the barn.

‘What is it?’ I ask. ‘I don’t have much time. I need to get back to the brewery.’

‘Sit down.’ He nods toward one of the picnic tables.

We walk over there and sit across from each other.

‘You want to explain what happened in there?’ He glances back at the barn.

‘You mean how you allowed the enemy onto our property and gave her the ingredients she’s going to use to compete against your own son?’ I huff. ‘Yeah, let’s talk about that.’

‘And why is she the enemy? Because she owns a brewery? You think you’re the only person allowed to do that?’

‘In Haydon Falls? Yeah. There aren’t enough people here to support two microbreweries.’

‘Then why do we have so many restaurants? We got a lot more than two and they’re all still in business.’

‘Restaurants are different. A place that only serves beer isn’t as popular as a place that serves food.’

‘Sounds like an excuse if you ask me, to explain why your place has been slow this week.’

‘It’s not an excuse. It’s a fact. This town just isn’t big enough.’

‘If I’d believed that, I never would’ve started this orchard.

This town was a lot smaller back then and people could buy apples at the grocery store.

I could’ve decided that an orchard could never make it, that there weren’t enough people who’d want to come here and buy apples.

And at first that was true. We’d get maybe a half dozen people a week stopping at that stand we had along the road.

But look at us now. We get thousands of people coming here. ’

‘Yeah, well, my situation is different.’

‘How? If anything, you’ve got it easier. You got a good location and people know who you are. And you were lucky enough to have your cousins come up here and do all those renovations for you for next to nothing.’

He’s right. I was fortunate to have their help, and my last name is an advantage, but that still doesn’t make it okay for my family to be helping out my competitor.

‘I just don’t get why you let Gina use our apples to make the cider for the competition. She could get apples anywhere.’

‘Anyone can buy our apples, and they can do whatever they want with them. And if Gina makes a better hard cider than you, you can’t be blaming our apples because you’ll be using them too.’

‘So what are you saying? That she’s better than me?’

‘I think you’re saying that to yourself.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘It means you’re letting her make you doubt yourself.

’ He leans toward me. ‘This girl has been getting under your skin since the moment you two met at camp. There’s just something about her that has you acting like a damn fool.

If you weren’t so ornery around the girl, I’d think you were in love with her. ’

I burst out laughing. ‘Dad, have you been drinking? Because that’s the craziest thing you’ve ever said.

Gina Slater is the most annoying person I’ve ever met.

I didn’t like her when we were seven and I don’t like her now.

She assumes she’s better than anyone else and thinks she’s going to win before the competition’s even started. ’

‘You’re the same way, except when this girl is involved.

Before you found out she’d be entering the competition, you were talking like you’d already won it.

If any of the other competitors came here to buy their apples, you wouldn’t think twice about it, but Gina does and you get all angry about it. ’

I pause to think about that. ‘Okay, so maybe I overreacted, but she’s still my competition and I don’t think it’s right for my own family to be helping her out. She could’ve at least bought the damn apples.’

‘Sawyer, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I didn’t raise you to be this way.’

‘What way?’

‘Wanting what others have. Making excuses instead of doing the work. Being angry at someone for doing well instead of focusing on doing well yourself.’ He looks over at the fields, then back at me.

‘You know how many orchards I went to before opening this place? I don’t know the exact number, but it was close to 30 and they were all doing well.

Some were bringing in thousands of dollars a day during the season.

I could’ve seen that and decided I could never compete with those orchards, but instead I committed to doing the work to make this orchard what I wanted it to be, a place people wanted to go that would make me enough money to support my family.

I didn’t go after my competition or even worry about them.

That would’ve been time and energy wasted that could be better spent building my business. You see what I’m saying?’

‘Yeah,’ I say, just wanting this to be over.

I love my dad, but I’m too old for these lectures.

I get his point that I need to focus on my own business instead of worrying about Gina’s, but the fact remains that we’re both competing for the same customers and one of us is going to come out ahead.

I can’t just ignore what she’s doing and pretend her place doesn’t exist. ‘Dad, I need to get going.’

‘Think about what I said. And don’t be giving that girl any trouble. She’s got it a lot harder than you do. A lot of the old timers won’t even step foot in her place, saying she’s an outsider and shouldn’t be doing business here.’

‘There aren’t enough old timers left to make that a problem.’

‘It only takes a few of them to make up stories about her and spread them around town so people won’t go to G’s.’

‘How do you know they’re doing that? I haven’t heard anything.’

‘Your mother heard Harriott talking at the fabric store, telling people Gina’s tattoo is some kind of gang symbol and that she’s going to be attracting the wrong kind of people here.’

I laugh. ‘Harriott thinks Gina’s in a gang? Seriously?’

‘She heard it from Orson, one of the old timers who wants Gina to leave. He doesn’t think it’s right for an outsider to be taking money from the locals.

That’s what the girl’s up against. So stop trying to put her out of business because there’s people who are already trying to.

And I don’t want my son being one of them.

I didn’t teach you to be like that.’ He gets up.

‘Say goodbye to your mother before you leave.’

He’s angry at me, but he doesn’t know what I’m going through.

Things aren’t the same as they were 40 years ago when he opened the orchard.

And an orchard isn’t the same as a microbrewery.

The orchard is a destination, an activity, a place for parents to bring their kids for an outing.

My brewery is a place people only go to if they like the beer.

And the beer has to be something different than they could get at a store.

If it’s not, they have no reason to come to Kanfield Brewery.

It’s all about the beer and I’m starting to realize I need to do better.

Maybe there was some truth in what my dad said. Maybe Gina makes me angry because deep down, I know her beer is better than mine. But that doesn’t mean I can’t improve. I just need to work harder and stop thinking the Kanfield name is enough to get people in the door.

‘Hey, Sawyer,’ Lyndsay says as I return to the barn with my basket of apples. She’s the orchard’s bookkeeper, but sometimes she fills in at the barn if Nick or my parents need her to.

‘Hey.’ I pour the apples I picked into one of the bags next to the register. ‘You filling in for Mom?’

‘Just for a few minutes. Are those for your hard cider?’

‘Yeah. I’m kind of in a hurry. Is Mom coming back soon? I want to tell her I’m leaving.’

‘She went to get something in the house.’

‘Okay. See ya, Lyndsay.’ I go into the house and find my mom in the kitchen. ‘Mom, I’m heading out.’

‘Not without some apple fritters.’ She walks up to me, holding a paper sack. ‘They’re fresh from the oven. ’

‘Thanks.’ I take the sack and give her a quick hug. ‘I’ll see you later.’

‘Here.’ She takes another sack of fritters from the counter and brings it to me. ‘Take another.’

‘Mom, one is enough. I can’t eat that many.’

‘They’re not for you. They’re for Gina. Give them to her next time you see her.’

‘When would I see Gina?’

‘It’s not a very big town. You never know. You might run into her.’

‘If I see her, I’ll be walking the other way.’

‘Don’t be like that. Gina’s a very nice girl and she’s new to town. She probably doesn’t have many friends. The least you could do is be nice to her.’

‘To the girl who could put me out of business?’ I shake my head. ‘You sound just like Dad. I don’t get you two. You’re acting like it’s wrong for me to compete with her when it’s not. It’s just business.’

‘Take the fritters, just in case.’ She shoves them in my hand, then reaches up to kiss my cheek. ‘Goodbye, honey.’

‘Bye, Mom.’ I race out of there before Nick shows up and gives me my third lecture for the day. I feel like my whole family has turned against me ever since Gina came to town. They’re acting like she and I should be friends, which makes no sense. You don’t make friends with the enemy.

Or maybe I should. If I became friends with Gina, maybe I could find out how she knows so much about making beer, where she learned this stuff and who taught her. Maybe if we were friends, she’d stop running price specials that make people choose her bar over mine.