Page 7 of Love Is Brewing

This beer would go out for distribution only. His customers wouldn’t be happy, but they’d be getting their chance months later with another one only sold here. Those were details he and Mason and their attorneys would work out.

That meant his brother Braylon and Mason’s brother Cade.

He’d been told that was the big appeal for Fierce to do their first ever collaboration with Fifth Kid Brewing too.

The family dynamics of it.

Hey, whatever worked.

“I’m on it,” Kyle said. “Just like I’ll be on sandwich number two in a minute.”

Elias smirked and went to his office. He’d be on the floor soon enough, but being the owner meant more responsibilities than just brewing his beer or working on new products.

By the time he was turning on his laptop and finished with his sandwich, he noticed it was close to eight and gave his brother a call.

His brother Braylon to be exact, since he had five brothers total. Two sisters too. He’d be talking to both women today also.

He closed his door and pressed the button to dial on his desk phone.

He enjoyed being hands-free on the phone and not always having earbuds in either.

“Elias,” Braylon said. “I thought you would have called before now.”

“I planned on being here earlier, but we got some snow last night.”

“That has never stopped you before,” Braylon said. “Not like it does any of us.”

He snorted. “You don’t drive in this. You get a taxi or West’s driver brings you in. Otherwise you work from home. I don’t have that luxury here.”

“You can work from home and you know it,” Braylon said. “Don’t give me that sob story.”

He laughed. “No sob story here. I’ve got a good crew, but those that worked last night are going to cover until the next shift can get in. You know very few drive in this down here. You’d think the world was ending from a few inches of snow.”

“The way people drive in the South when it snows, it’s better that they don’t come out. It’s one of those things I don’t miss and will never forget.”

He laughed. The last place they’d lived as a family before his father died was in Fayetteville, North Carolina. They’d seen snow a few times in their life. Nothing major but enough to keep people in the house as if aliens were landing.

And those that ventured out drove white knuckling the steering wheels while praying to Jesus and tapping the gas and then the brake and alternating back and forth the whole time.

“You’re right. Had someone slide into me this morning.”

“Shit,” Braylon said. “Everyone okay?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Didn’t even know it happened. If it wasn’t for the screaming that I heard and the car going sideways behind me when I looked into my mirror, I would have thought my truck shifted when I took my foot off the brake.”

“You and that big ass truck,” Braylon said.

“I need it for work,” he said. Which was a lie. He didn’t really. But it was cool to drive and know he’d never get stuck anywhere.

“If you heard screaming, did someone get hurt?” Braylon asked.

“Nope. Just a woman swearing up a storm loud enough that I heard her in her car and mine.”

It still made him laugh, but he didn’t want to embarrass Phoebe by saying that he’d heard her.

“How much damage to her car?” Braylon asked. “We know it’d take a plow truck to hit you to cause damage.”

“Just a scratch. She’d been braking and slid into me more than anything. Nice Mercedes too.”

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