Page 94 of Love Is Brewing

Their first beer together.

The next would be at his place, the same process as what he’d done with Mason. By then everyone would know it was closely guarded.

“I know,” Kyle said. “But you don’t want it to look as if you can’t control things either.”

He snorted and didn’t need that reminder.

“Nope,” he said. “I’ll reach out and let Mason know what is going on.”

“Sorry to hit you with this before you’re leaving. It’s not like you can come back and do something.”

He could if he had to and catch another flight, but he wouldn’t.

“It’s fine,” he said, lying.

It wasn’t fine because that told him there was more going on under his nose that he didn’t know about.

Could this be a coincidence again? He wasn’t leaning that way.

But was he so distracted by his personal life that he didn’t see things happening at work?

“I’ll keep you posted via text on what is going on,” Kyle said.

“Thanks,” he said and hung up.

“Not good news,” she said. “Right?”

“I know you didn’t care a lot for your grandfather, but that advice to set a trap caused something to be shaken loose.”

“Really?” she asked. “So though something happened it didn’t cause too many issues?”

He forced out a laugh. “It’s always an issue when you have to dispose of beer.”

“That isn’t what you set up though?” she said, frowning. The setup was no one knowing this morning's mash wasn’t really going to Fierce.

“No, but I’m wondering if one was a distraction for something else,” he said. “My mind doesn’t normally play that way, but it’s doing it now.”

“Tell me what happened,” she said.

He told her about the events at the brewery. “Can temperature gauges fail? Sure. But not that far off and not the same day there is a leak.”

“How do you mess with a temperature gauge though?” she asked.

“Calibration,” he said. “When I’m there I’m always double-checking with two gauges or a hand-held thermostat. My staff know to do that too.”

“But it sounds like this staff wasn’t doing their job?” she asked.

“He was called away to work on another problem. Kyle checked things prior to calling him away and thought it’d be fine.”

“So the question is, do you think Kyle or this guy had something to do with what happened today?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I hope it’s not Kyle. My gut says no, but anything is possible, right? There’d be no reason for him to do it though. The success of this with Fierce will reflect on him.”

“You make a good point,” she said. “You’ve got cameras, don’t you?”

“I do,” he said. “But there are blind spots.”

Her head went back and forth. “Did Mason tell you what they do at Fierce? Not sure if I should say anything, but I don’t think it’s a big secret. The staff all know and it’s how they have little to no problems there with theft.”

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