Page 107 of Love Is Brewing

“What does your gut say?” she asked.

“That there is more going on and it pisses me off that I didn’t know it or don’t know,” he said. “But I don’t want to be wrong either.”

What was he missing?

What was he not seeing?

Were his priorities skewed now?

“Ask yourself this. If you do nothing and more happens, will you be pissed you let it go?”

“Extremely,” he said.

“Then be cautious if you can afford it. I think you can’t afford to not do anything when you look at the bigger picture. What did Foster say about it?”

“He agreed to talk to Travis. That I based a lot of things on Fierce when I started. What I could. I admired how they did things and studied them more than anyone else when I was setting up my business. But because I knew I was going in another direction, I adjusted.”

“You needed a base to follow,” she said. “You picked a good place for it.”

“I did,” he said. “This is a dream on so many levels and I can’t let anything happen. Not when I’ve got bigger plans to expand.”

“Let’s talk about that then,” she said. “And don’t worry about the rest.”

“I have nothing in writing yet. I’m searching for land. That’s the biggest part. I’ve got data where beer is purchased.”

“Data like what?” she asked.

“Zip codes on credit card charges. I can see how far people are traveling from and what direction. I ask myself if I go in that direction will I bring even more to me that way? Will it remove business from this site?”

“So you could lose revenue here that will go there,” she said. “But it could mean those people buy more with frequent trips because they are traveling less to do it.”

He smiled. “I’ve thought of that too.”

“It’s all a crap shoot,” she said. “And you can’t be in two places at once so are you willing to let someone else run it? Someone you can trust?”

“And that is the kicker,” he said, sighing. “That’s what I need and don’t have.”

If he had a family member interested in his business it’d make life easier.

“It will come to you when it’s meant to,” she said. “Just like you came into my life at the time you did.”

“You’re getting sappy on me,” he said. “I didn’t expect that of you.”

“Neither did I,” she said.

“How would you feel if I was around even less?” he asked. It had been weighing on his mind.

As much as he wanted to expand he also knew that it would pull him away from Phoebe.

A life he never realized how much he wanted until it landed in his lap.

“Don’t put this on me,” she said. “I mean it. You have your priorities and I’ve got mine.”

It wasn’t what he wanted to hear her say.

It went back to her never wanting to talk much about the future. It always came back to her saying she was giving it one to two years.

If she hadn’t put her head on his shoulder, he’d be a lot more hurt than he was.

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