Page 24 of Break My Heart
Chapter 6
Sawyer
Now I get why Gina was so picky about the apples she wanted. She chose an unripened one because of the unique flavor it would give the cider. Should I do that? Now she’s got me doubting myself. I thought I’d finally figured out the perfect cider recipe, only to be second guessing myself because of Gina. Damn! Why do I let her get to me like this?
‘Sawyer!’ I hear my dad yell.
‘What?’
‘Get up here!’
I walk up the hill through the orchard and find my dad standing by the barn.
‘What is it?’ I ask. ‘I don’t have much time. I need to get back to the brewery.’
‘Sit down.’ He nods toward one of the picnic tables.
We walk over there and sit across from each other.
‘You want to explain what happened in there?’ He glances back at the barn.
‘You mean how you allowed the enemy onto our property andgave her the ingredients she’s going to use to compete against your own son?’ I huff. ‘Yeah, let’s talk about that.’
‘And why is she the enemy? Because she owns a brewery? You think you’re the only person allowed to do that?’
‘In Haydon Falls? Yeah. There aren’t enough people here to support two microbreweries.’
‘Then why do we have so many restaurants? We got a lot more than two and they’re all still in business.’
‘Restaurants are different. A place that only serves beer isn’t as popular as a place that serves food.’
‘Sounds like an excuse if you ask me, to explain why your place has been slow this week.’
‘It’s not an excuse. It’s a fact. This town just isn’t big enough.’
‘If I’d believed that, I never would’ve started this orchard. This town was a lot smaller back then and people could buy apples at the grocery store. I could’ve decided that an orchard could never make it, that there weren’t enough people who’d want to come here and buy apples. And at first that was true. We’d get maybe a half dozen people a week stopping at that stand we had along the road. But look at us now. We get thousands of people coming here.’
‘Yeah, well, my situation is different.’
‘How? If anything, you’ve got it easier. You got a good location and people know who you are. And you were lucky enough to have your cousins come up here and do all those renovations for you for next to nothing.’
He’s right. I was fortunate to have their help, and my last name is an advantage, but that still doesn’t make it okay for my family to be helping out my competitor.
‘I just don’t get why you let Gina use our apples to make the cider for the competition. She could get apples anywhere.’
‘Anyone can buy our apples, and they can do whatever theywant with them. And if Gina makes a better hard cider than you, you can’t be blaming our apples because you’ll be using them too.’
‘So what are you saying? That she’s better than me?’
‘I think you’re saying that to yourself.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It means you’re letting her make you doubt yourself.’ He leans toward me. ‘This girl has been getting under your skin since the moment you two met at camp. There’s just something about her that has you acting like a damn fool. If you weren’t so ornery around the girl, I’d think you were in love with her.’
I burst out laughing. ‘Dad, have you been drinking? Because that’s the craziest thing you’ve ever said. Gina Slater is the most annoying person I’ve ever met. I didn’t like her when we were seven and I don’t like her now. She assumes she’s better than anyone else and thinks she’s going to win before the competition’s even started.’
‘You’re the same way, except when this girl is involved. Before you found out she’d be entering the competition, you were talking like you’d already won it. If any of the other competitors came here to buy their apples, you wouldn’t think twice about it, but Gina does and you get all angry about it.’
