Page 8 of Merry with a Brewmaster

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“You’re too easy.” She snickers as she follows me.

“Yep,”—I sigh ruefully—“that’s always been my problem.”

3

VIENNA

Of all the people in all the places, Wells Reiser has to show up in my town at my damn bar. My blood feels like it’s boiling when I replay the conversation in my head because heknewI’d be here.

And he still didn’t tell me.

Snatching my phone off the counter, I type out a message to the little brother I never wanted.

VIENNA: 911

JACE: I just got off a 48-hour shift

VIENNA: Perfect timing

JACE: No

JACE: I need to sleep for like a week

VIENNA: I’ll pick up coffee

JACE: No

VIENNA: And that Danish thing you like from Cakeology

JACE: Fine

VIENNA: That’s why you’re my favorite

JACE: I’m telling Reece

VIENNA: You wouldn’t dare

JACE: No but it’s fun to pretend

VIENNA: Unless it’s about orgasms

JACE: It’s too early to deal with you

VIENNA: You say the sweetest things

VIENNA: (kiss face emoji)

JACE: Okay no more talking until I get coffee

VIENNA: xoxo

True to my word,I don’t text Jace again as I swing through Love Beach’s newest bakery, Cakeology. The owner, Marigold, had become fast friends with my best friend, Reece, and by default, got me too. The place is slammed this early on a Thursday and I’m happy for her as I breeze in and out with a smile and a wave.

I’m not in the mood to put on a happy face for the general public. But Jace is different. I’d met the twenty-one-year-old firefighter at the beginning of the summer when I’d tried, and failed, at my first paddleboarding attempt.

People in my hometown of Blackstone Falls, Tennessee, did it all the time on Cedar Lake, but it had never appealed tome. But Love Beach was supposed to just be a vacation, time away from teaching for Reece and me to rest and recharge, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

It wasn’t such a temporary hobby anymore and neither was our stay in Love Beach.

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