Page 31 of Break My Heart (The Haydon Falls #2)

‘No, not that cider. I meant the hard cider, the one I’m working on for the competition. I haven’t been checking it. I’ve been so distracted lately that I almost forgot about the cider competition.’ I toss my hands up. ‘See what happens when you get distracted by romance?’

‘Yeah.’ He pulls me back into his arms. ‘You have great sex. You sleep better. You have someone to talk to.’

‘Okay, yeah, those are all good things, but I need to win that competition. I can’t be distracted by the great sex.’

‘But we’ll still have it, right?’ he asks, kissing my neck. ‘Like tonight?’

‘Yes.’ My eyes fall shut as he kisses his way back to my lips. ‘But tomorrow I’m working on my cider.’

‘Sawyer!’ someone yells. ‘Are you out here?’

Sawyer backs away, sighing. ‘That’s Jason. I told him I’d take over driving people to the orchard so he can go inside and get some food.’

‘Can I ride with you?’

‘You want to ride on the tractor?’

‘Yeah. I think it’s sexy watching you drive it.’ I look him up and down, smiling. ‘Especially when you’re dressed like that. It’s like I’m dating a sexy ranch hand.’

He laughs. ‘Not quite, but hey, whatever does it for ya.’

He takes my hand and we walk over to the tractor .

Jason is helping people into the wagon when he sees Sawyer. ‘Hey, can you cover for me? I’m starving. I need to eat.’

‘Yeah, go ahead,’ Sawyer says. ‘We got this.’

‘We?’ Jason smiles at me. ‘You’re helping?’

‘Yeah, it sounds fun!’

‘Must be serious,’ he says, smiling at Sawyer.

‘Shut up and get out of here,’ Sawyer says as he helps a little kid into the hay-lined wagon.

‘We get to pick apples!’ a little girl squeals, jumping up and down in front of me.

‘She’s a little excited,’ her mom says, smiling at me.

‘Let me help you up.’ Sawyer picks up the little girl and sets her in the wagon. ‘Did you get your basket?’

‘Daddy has it,’ she says, pointing to a man holding a basket and a little girl who looks to be around three.

Sawyer smiles at the guy. ‘Hey, Matt. You guys just get here?’

‘We got here a couple hours ago. The girls have been doing the pumpkin painting.’

‘Gina, this is Matt and his wife, Tessa,’ Sawyer says to me. ‘I went to school with Matt. He was in Nick’s class.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ I say to both of them.

‘We’ll have to talk to you later,’ Sawyer says as he hoists a little boy into the wagon. ‘It’s a little crazy right now.’

Matt and Tessa get into the wagon as Sawyer greets the people next in line.

He knows most everyone here, even some of the out-of-towners who come every year.

It makes sense why his brewery is packed.

People want to support someone they know, not a stranger, which means I’ll have to work even harder to get people into G’s.

We spend the next half hour taking people to the orchard.

Seeing Sawyer driving the tractor and answering questions about the apples, I’m seeing a whole different side of him.

He’s really sweet with the little kids. I had no idea he was so good with them.

And he knows a lot about apples, not just the varieties, but about how they’re grown.

‘I’m impressed,’ I tell him when we’re walking back to the barn. ‘I didn’t know you knew so much about apples.’

‘I grew up here. It’s all we talked about.

I couldn’t get away from it.’ His phone rings as we go into the barn.

‘I need to get this.’ He answers the phone.

‘Wade, what’s up? You need help?’ Sawyer smiles.

‘Great, thanks for letting me know. Oh, and Tom is dropping off the t-shirts tomorrow morning. He might get you some tonight if he can.’ He nods. ‘Yeah, you too. Bye.’

‘Problems at work?’ I ask.

‘No, just the opposite. Wade said the place is packed and that the two temp guys I hired are doing great. Wade’s a good manager. I’m lucky I found him. I can leave when it’s busy and not have to worry.’

I’m annoyed that his place is busy, especially since Aria just texted that only seven people are at G’s.

Why isn’t anyone going there? The first couple weeks G’s was open it was just as busy as Sawyer’s place, and now it’s dead.

What happened? I know people liked the beer, so why aren’t they coming back?

We walk over to the drink station where Mitch, Sawyer’s uncle, is working.

He smiles at us. ‘What can I get you?’

‘A couple beers,’ Sawyer says, joking with him. They aren’t allowed to serve alcohol.

‘How about some cider instead?’ Mitch says, handing us each a glass.

‘You been busy over here?’ Sawyer asks.

‘It’s been nonstop. We’ve raised a lot of money.’ Mitch points to the collection box set up on the table. The cider is free, but they’re asking people to donate what they would’ve spent on it to heart disease research. Mitch’s wife died of heart failure and Sawyer’s dad recently had a heart attack.

‘You get any new business?’ Sawyer asks, pointing to the stack of business cards and brochures on the table. They’re promoting Wheeler Construction, which Mitch and his sons own.

‘More than I can handle,’ he says. ‘I’ve got 30 people already signed up for an estimate.’

‘You wouldn’t do the work if it’s up here, would you?’

‘We might, if one of the boys wanted to take the job and live here for a few months. But only some of the requests are up here. Most of them are around Chicago.’

I forgot to ask if I could put my flyers out. I’m surrounded by potential customers. This is my chance to reach them.

‘Sawyer, could I talk to you a minute?’ I ask.

‘Yeah. See ya later,’ he says to his uncle.

We walk away from the booths and tables to a quieter area near the back, where the band is setting up. ‘It’s so loud in here. What were you saying?’

‘I brought some flyers to put out. Do you think your parents would mind?’

‘Flyers for what?’

‘G’s. I’m doing a new promotion to get people to come in.’ I pull a flyer from my pocket and hand it to him. ‘The rest are in my truck. Do you think your parents would be okay with me handing them out?’

‘I don’t know, Gina,’ he says, giving me the flyer back. ‘It seems kind of .?.?. strange.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘This is Kanfield Orchard and I own Kanfield Brewery. Why would we hand out flyers telling people to go somewhere else? It doesn’t seem right.’

‘The orchard sells baked goods and you’re still letting people from town sell baked goods here.’

‘That’s different. Those are fundraisers. They’re church groups and moms raising money for their kids’ sports teams. They aren’t businesses.’

‘Sawyer, what’s the big deal? It’s just a few flyers. I won’t even hand them out. I’ll just put them on one of the tables.’

‘I don’t even have flyers promoting my own place. Don’t you think it’d look odd if we promoted yours and not mine?’

‘No, because yours doesn’t need to be promoted. You’ve got people lined up down the block. I can’t even get people in the door.’ I walk away as the band starts warming up. It’s loud and I’m angry and need some fresh air.

‘Gina, wait!’ Sawyer yells.

I keep going, through the crowds of people until I’m out front where I came in. Brody’s there with his golf cart, dropping people off.

He sees me and smiles. ‘Did the band start yet?’

‘No, they’re warming up. Hey, could I get a ride?’

‘Sure.’

‘Gina.’ Sawyer grabs my hand before I get on the golf cart. He comes around in front of me. ‘Don’t leave. Let’s go talk in the house.’

‘We’ll talk tomorrow. I need to get back to G’s. And you need to help with the festival.’

‘You coming?’ Brody asks me. ‘If not, I need to go pick up more people.’

‘She’s staying,’ Sawyer says, his eyes on mine.

Brody drives forward.

‘No, wait!’ I tell Brody. He stops.

‘Gina, please,’ Sawyer says. ‘Don’t do this. We’ve both been looking forward to this all week. ’

‘I need a decision here,’ Brody says. ‘I’ve got a lot of people waiting.’

I want to stay with Sawyer, but I’m angry he won’t let me promote G’s. Almost every business in town is promoting itself at the festival, so why can’t I? I know G’s competes with Kanfield Brewery, but Sawyer’s place is doing great. Putting out a few of my flyers isn’t going to hurt his business.

The real question is if I’m willing to let this get between us. I like Sawyer more than any guy I’ve dated. I don’t want to lose him, but I also don’t want to lose G’s.