Page 49 of Love Is Brewing

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FEISTY AND ALL

“I’m glad we could meet for dinner,” Phoebe said at six thirty.

She’d gotten out of work later than planned. Not enough time to go home and shower and change either.

It looked to her Elias had been able to at least sneak home to change.

He was in jeans and a button-down shirt she was positive he didn’t wear to work daily.

“Me too,” he said. “Not a lot of restaurants around.”

“I don’t mind coming back here,” she said. The place where they had their first date. The spontaneous one. “The food was good.”

“It is,” he said. “I eat here a lot.”

“I noticed that,” she said.

It was different staff and they knew his name when the two of them walked in.

He shrugged and picked up his soda.

“It’s not a bad thing,” he said. “I spent most of the day talking to my sister and showing her more things. She needs to find a focus in her career at some point and I think she might have.”

“That’s great,” she said. “She wants to work with you?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Not at all.”

She smiled. “Doesn’t like manual labor? Or is it the smell of beer? Don’t take this the wrong way, but the smell isn’t that pleasant.”

His hand went to his wrist. “Yep, I still have a pulse. I thought my heart stopped there for a second.”

She burst out laughing and a few heads turned. It wasn’t what she wanted, as she was positive that people knew Elias by the looks she kept noticing.

“My brother always says something similar to that too. I swear you both might have hops running through your veins.”

“If it were possible, I would,” he said. “But I understand it’s a smell you’ve got to get used to.”

“Maybe if I drank more beer,” she said.

“I’ll convert you,” he said.

“What is it your sister might have figured out?” she asked.

She found it very sweet that he was so vested in his sister and concerned about her.

“She wants to help people,” he said. “She found out about the Christmas drive donations we did this year. Customers rounding up their purchases. We used that money to help families in the area for Christmas. Gifts and meals, things like that.”

“That’s wonderful,” she said. “I might have to consider doing something next year. A donation to a not-for-profit or something. I need to get my name out there more. Not bribing, but you know.”

He snorted. “I do know,” he said. “I’ve given a lot back in the area. A lot of it was because my business brings so much traffic through. I need to make sure I’ve got people on my side supporting what I’m doing, not rebelling.”

“You make a good point,” she said. “But I’m sure there were some that weren’t happy about it. You can’t please everyone.”

“Of course there were,” he said. “I’m far enough off the main road that it’s out of the way. It was an existing brewery we purchased and I expanded it on the land I owned. Money I’ve donated to the city has helped with roads and repairs since I’m bringing people through. It’s helping local businesses too.”

“All good things,” she said.

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