Page 26 of Small Town Firsts
There was no answer in the empty room.
Or my very confused and chaotic mind.
EIGHT
RONAN
DO IT WITH FLAIR
Organizingthe batches of apple mash for fermentation took the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. It was messy work and I’d wanted the extra earthier flavor of the peels to be part of the juicing. By the end of it, my arms were shaking from the hand-wringing of the cheesecloth.
It was old school work and not sustainable for big batches—but I wanted to see what the apples could do for me. The soft opening at the end of summer would consist of mostly small batch brews anyway. This was a way for me to try new ideas, and if it worked out well enough, we’d be able to submit our cider for competition.
The more eyes, the better for getting the Brothers Three brand into distribution. Being part of the creative process had always been my ultimate goal when I discovered how much I enjoyed brewing. But Brothers Three gave me the opportunity to also make a name for myself within a brand for the first time in my life.
I’d always been a hired gun with a knack for finding interesting blends—with a heavy emphasis on hired. Sure, I had a reputation for the innovation companies could use to maketheir product better, but for the first time, it was about my vision in concert with someone else.
And if things worked out, I’d get to be a more active part of the company. Not something I’d ever thought I would be interested in.
I straightened up, my back cracking from crouching over buckets. I was gross as hell. Not even the hot, and ever distracting, scent of Kira Webb lingered on my skin at this point.
While looking for supplies, I’d found a crude shower in the back room of the barn. I made good use of it and washed off the first layer of grit and stickiness. My hair was a lost cause, so I just scraped it up into a messy knot on top of my head.
I might have to rethink the length of my hair when it came to the heat of the non-air-conditioned barn, but that was a decision for another day. I swapped out my hopelessly crunchy workpants for an ancient pair of jeans and T-shirt.
Part of me regretted washing off the scent of the Honeycrisp apples I’d been working with today. It would be forever joined in my head with the heavier night flowers scent of Kira since I’d dumped her in my lap this afternoon. The two didn’t belong together in any way and yet it had fueled my work all day.
If I hadn’t had such a tight deadline, I’d have chased her down to convince her to give our unique reaction to one another more time for data and testing.
If by testing, it meant her flat on her back in my truck, or in the storeroom—I wasn’t fussy. Neither was my dick. It just wanted inside her sweet and spicy heat.
Having her crawl on top of me like that had cranked my already dangerous attraction to her up to an eleven. Lust, I understood and had even embraced more than once in my life, but it wasn’t so simple with Kira.
And it wasn’t even just the work situation.
It was a little tricky, sure, especially since Beckett was technically my boss. Right now I was still in the testing phase there too. And it remained to be seen if I wanted to lock myself in here at the orchard.
Even as I thought that, I knew it was a lie. The moment I’d seen the front porch, I had known this place was meant to be part of me. As if my bones knew they were in a sacred space that I’d been searching for all my life.
Was Kira part of that? Or was I just getting her mixed up with the excitement of the job? My instincts were usually a better judge, but something about her clouded my intuition. As if sediment had gotten mixed into the golden liquid of a perfect brew.
Would it settle?
Or ruin it all?
And that was too heavy to think about on a hot fucking day like today.
Not to mention, I had a feeling pushing either of us to figure it out right now would be a mistake.
Kira wasn’t the kind of woman who leaped into bed with someone. She was a careful sort who needed some time to get her thoughts together.
While my dick, and his friend the lizard brain, wanted to pin her down and prove to her how good we would be, she wasn’t wrong. I’d lost my head there for a minute. She’d smelled so good and felt so right in my arms.
And when she’d said those stupid things about no one wanting to see her naked, I’d gone from hot to red-line pissed. How could she not see how sexy she was?
One taste and I’d been a goner. I couldn’t be the only man to see it or experience it. Not with all the wisdom and fire I saw in her eyes, let alone how she reacted to me.
For now, I needed a beer and something to eat. I was getting to know the area and spent most evenings scoping out places to eat in Turnbull. Thankfully I’d brought an extra stack of T-shirts into work when I’d seen the forecast.
