Page 6 of Break My Heart (The Haydon Falls #2)

‘They do, but .?.?.’ I don’t want to tell him about Sawyer. I never have, and if I did, he’d say I’m being ridiculous, letting my personal feelings get in the way of business.

‘But what? Gina, you can’t make a good product without good ingredients. Cider is all about the apples. What you use could make a huge difference in the end product.’

I sigh. ‘You’re right. I’ll go there and see what they have.’

‘Why didn’t you just start there? Why’d you drive a half hour when you have an orchard right there in town?’

‘I don’t want to tell you. It’s embarrassing. ’

‘Gina, it’s me. Just tell me.’

‘Okay, but I don’t want you making fun of me for this.’

‘Now I’m intrigued. What’s this about?’

‘There was this boy. A boy I met at that camp I went to when I was seven.’

‘Yeah? What about him?’

‘We didn’t get along. He’s really competitive, and as you know, I am too, so I wasn’t going to let him beat me. I ended up winning all the camp competitions and Sawyer got really mad. He hated me for it.’

Maybe hate is too strong a word, but he was definitely angry that I kept winning.

‘I’m still not getting the connection here.’

‘His family owns the orchard.’

‘And why is that a problem? You knew this guy when you were kids. I’m sure he’s over being angry at you.’

He might be, but now he has a new reason to be angry.

My brewery competes with his, and it sounds like I’ve been getting a lot more customers.

But it’s not like I purposely opened a brewery here to complete with him.

When I decided to do it, I didn’t know about Sawyer’s brewery.

It hadn’t even opened yet. And if it had, I still would’ve opened my brewery.

The only thing I know how to do is brew beer and bartend, and I wouldn’t have been able to afford to have my own place somewhere else.

Owning the building means I don’t have to pay rent, a huge savings that made it possible for me to do this.

‘It’s Kanfield Orchard,’ I say, then wait for Ryder to put it together.

‘As in the same Kanfield as Kanfield Brewery?’

‘Exactly. Sawyer Kanfield is the kid from camp. He owns the brewery and his parents own the orchard, or actually I think his brother runs it now, but his parents still live there. ’

‘This is why I hate small towns. You get these big families that own everything in town and try to get rid of anyone new.’

‘They’re not trying to get rid of me.’

‘Not yet, but they will. You better watch your back. I told you it was a bad idea to open your place there.’

‘I like it here. I like the town and the area, and the building I inherited is here.’

‘You could’ve sold it and used the money to open a place somewhere else.’

‘I’m already here, and business is going great.’

‘For now, but just wait until that Sawyer guy gets everyone in town to go against you. If his whole family is there, you don’t stand a chance. They’ll do everything they can to ruin your business.’

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ I say with a sigh. Ryder can be so negative sometimes, which is another reason I broke up with him. ‘I’m choosing to believe that if my beer is good enough, people will come back, even if I’m not a local, or a Kanfield.’

‘Guess we’ll find out. Isn’t that a conflict of interest? The guy’s parents having the cider competition? I’m guessing he’s entering.’

‘I don’t know. I assume he is, but it’s not a conflict of interest. His parents aren’t judging the contest this year. They’re just hosting it.’

‘Who are the judges?’ he huffs. ‘Their cousins? Siblings? Family friends?’

‘I’m sure they’ll be impartial judges. If they weren’t, people would find out and the competition wouldn’t happen. It gets a lot of press for the orchard. The Kanfields aren’t going to put that in jeopardy just so their son can win.’

‘I think you’re giving them too much credit. Do you even know these people?’

‘No, but everyone in town seems to love them.’

‘Which is why you better watch your back. ’

‘Nobody’s going to do anything. So far, everyone’s been really nice.’

‘So far being the key words.’

There he goes again, assuming the worst in people. I was feeling good before he called and now he’s got me worrying about my business.

‘Ryder, I need to go. We open soon and I have a lot to do.’

‘Yeah, see ya.’

I end the call just as Aria walks in. We were friends back in Green Bay.

When I told her I was moving here to open G’s, she offered to come work for me.

She’s 23 and worked for me at Ryder’s brewpub as one of the waitstaff.

She’s like a little sister to me, something I never had since I’m an only child.

‘Who were you talking to?’ she asks, after dropping her stuff in the break room.

‘Ryder. He was just checking in.’

She comes up to me, smiling. ‘Are you sure he wasn’t calling because he misses you?’

‘That ended months ago. He doesn’t see me that way anymore.’

‘Then why are you guys still talking?’ She hops up on the counter as I look over my hard cider recipe.

‘Because we’re friends. And Ryder knows a lot about the brewery business. He’s a good source of information.’

‘It doesn’t bother you to talk to your ex? You guys were serious. You lived together. You were practically married.’

I laugh. ‘We weren’t even close to getting married. Ryder isn’t the marrying type.’

‘Are you?’

I check the clock on the wall, noticing it’s almost four. ‘We should get out there, make sure everything’s set up. ’

‘Stop changing the subject.’ She jumps off the counter and stands next to me. ‘Do you? Want to get married?’

‘To Ryder?’ I turn to her. ‘No. We’re not a good match.’

‘But to someone else?’

‘Maybe. It depends.’ I walk to my office, which is also the break room.

I need a better office, one that’s private, but I don’t have the space.

When I renovated this building, I reserved most of the space for customers and my brewing equipment, choosing to combine my office with the employee break room.

Aria follows me in there, stopping just in front of my desk. ‘What’s going on with you and that guy?’

‘What guy?’

‘The one from last night. Tall. Dark hair. Really hot. Don’t try to pretend you don’t remember him. I saw how you kept talking to him.’

‘I was taking his order.’

‘You never take that long to get an order, and we were getting slammed last night. You were racing around all night until that guy showed up, and then I look over and see you having a conversation with him.’

‘It was business,’ I say, my gaze on my laptop as I look over our numbers from last night.

I’ve already looked at them several times today and they’re not good.

I’m selling a lot, but at $2 a beer, I’m not covering my costs.

Today is our last day of the opening week special and I’m worried when it ends, the place will be empty.

‘What do you mean it was business?’ Aria asks.

I look up at her. ‘That guy I was talking to. He owns Kanfield Brewery. He was here to check out G’s.’

‘Oh,’ she says, sounding disappointed. ‘I thought he was asking you out. ’

‘Sawyer?’ I laugh a little. ‘He hates me, and hates that I’m his competition.’

‘He didn’t act like he hated you last night.’

‘He was being polite to get information from me,’ I say, but I don’t think it’s true. Sawyer was nice to me even before he found out who I was. I even saw him put extra money down for the jerk who was sitting beside him and left me a quarter for a tip.

‘Are you going to his place?’

‘For what?’

‘To check out his brewery.’

‘Oh, I thought you meant his apartment,’ I say with a laugh as I get up and go back to the counter to get my cider recipe.

Aria follows behind me. ‘Why would you think I meant his apartment? Was I right? Did he ask you out?’

‘No, just forget it.’ I put the cider recipe in the folder with all the other ones I’ve tried. ‘Let’s get to work.’

We go out to the front. Aria goes behind the bar as I go to the door to unlock it. When I open the door I don’t see anyone in the parking lot. ‘I guess the rush is over.’

‘We don’t open for another few minutes,’ Aria says, running her hands over her long reddish-blonde braid. ‘I think I hear Lexi in back.’

Lexi is my other waitress. She’s going to college in the next town over and works here part-time.

‘We may not need her if nobody shows up,’ I say.

‘They will. It’s still early and it’s a weekday. People are still at work.’

‘Yesterday was a weekday and we had people waiting at the door.’

‘Why don’t you go to that other brewery and check it out?’

‘Right now? We just opened. ’

‘But we’re not busy yet. Just go. I can handle the bar while you’re gone.’

Lexi walks in from the back, pulling her long dark hair up in a ponytail. ‘Where is everyone?’

‘We’re not open yet,’ Aria says.

‘We are now,’ I tell her, joining her behind the bar. ‘It’s four. Why isn’t anyone here? We still have the special running.’

‘Relax,’ Aria says, getting the glasses lined up next to the taps. ‘They’ll be here. Just go. Lexi and I can run the place until you get back.’

I really should go check out Sawyer’s brewery. I’ve been putting it off since I got here, not sure how to handle Sawyer given our past, and now our current situation of being the only two breweries in town.

‘Okay, I’ll go,’ I say, deciding to get it over with. ‘I won’t be gone long. Call me if it gets busy.’

‘Take your time,’ Aria says.

As I go to the back, I hear her quietly talking to Lexi, probably making up some story about me liking Sawyer. She really is like a little sister. One minute I love her and the next she’s driving me crazy.

On my way into town, my stomach knots as my nerves take over. I don’t know if I’m nervous about spying on the competition or nervous about seeing Sawyer. I think it’s a little of both.