Page 33 of Her Hometown Man
Case was wide-awake now. He’d known something had happened between them, but an almost-kiss had never crossed his mind.
Another text came through from Lane.
Mom’s calling me. We’re doing it at ten. Can you come?
It was just like his cousin to drop a bomb like that and then run. He’d say something and then regret saying it. The belated realization he didn’t actually want to talk about it after all would bring an urgent excuse to leave the conversation.
I’ll be there, Case sent back, even though he would rather have asked a million questions, starting and ending with “Dude, what were you thinking?” But either Laura needed him or Lane was lying about it to get out of explaining. Either way, he’d get no answers right now. He’d need to find a way to sneak a few minutes alone with his cousin later.
That was easier said than done. By the time he and Boomer got across the street, the women were already outside, giving Jack and Eli a list of chores to be done in the yard. The dog loved helping the boys with outdoor chores, so he knew where Boomer would be while they did the tour. There were definitely no dogs allowed in the cellar.
“Case is here,” Ellen said loudly, waving her hands as if to herd them toward the carriage house door. “Laura and I are running to the city later for yarn, so let’s go.”
“Mom, really?” Mallory threw up her hands. “Where are you going to put more yarn? I think if you pulled all the skeins from all the places you’ve stashed them, you would actually havemorethan the yarn store.”
They bickered about the necessity of just the right shade of blue she needed for a new project as they moved inside. They had to navigate around the stacks of Sheetrock that had been delivered but couldn’t be hung yet because the electrician had gone to a cookout the previous weekend and thought it would be a good idea to finish off the potato salad that had been sitting in the sun for three hours.
“I feel like we should have the code written down,” Ellen said, as Lane reached for the digital keypad mounted on the frame of the glass door. “Just in case there’s an emergency. Or you might forget something and it’s easier to call and have one of us do it than drive all the way over here. But mostly in case there’s an emergency.”
“It’s oh-eight-twelve,” Lane said through gritted teeth.
Ellen smiled. “Well, that’s easy enough to remember. It’s Evie’s birthday.”
Case watched his cousin’s jaw clench so hard, he was afraid it would lock in the position and tried to intercede. “Guess that was easy enough for David.”
Ellen frowned. “But the keypad didn’t go in until—”
She stopped talking abruptly, as if a light bulb illuminating in her mind had short-circuited her mouth, which made the moment evenmoreawkward.
Lanehad chosen Evie’s birthday and now they all knew it. Plus, Ellen had squashed any chance they’d all assume David had chosen the date knowing, when he tried to unlock the door, he’d have a one-in-three chance of getting it right the first time. The silence stretched on until Gwen took charge of the moment, stepping forward and punching the code in. There was a slight click, and she pulled the glass door open before gesturing to Lane.
“After you, Mr. Head Brewer.”
“Head Brewer, huh?” Lane said, arching an eyebrow.
“It sounds loftier than Mr.OnlyBrewer.”
They all laughed, popping the tension like a bubble, as Lane went through the doorway. “Cool. Lofty was exactly what I was going for.”
There was a lot of murmuring among the women as they descended into the cellar, and Case wasn’t surprised. It looked totally different than the last time they’d been down those stairs, and this was the first time they were seeing the massive, intricate operation. The cellar was dominated now by huge steel tanks and hoses.
“Wow. I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t this,” Gwen said.
“It’s a seven-barrel system,” Lane said, as if that would mean anything to them. “It’s bigger than we really need right now, but David’s goal was always distribution—at least statewide, if not New England—and it’s a lot harder to expand an operation once it’s up and running.”
Once the tour started in earnest and Lane started throwing around words likemash tunandspargingandfermenters, Case tuned him out for the most part. Once Lane got going, he could be intense, and Case was more interested in drinking beer than knowing how it was made. And he’d like to keep it that way, because he was more than happy to help out with the start-up, but he had his own business to run.
He was also a lot more interested in watching Gwen than he was in listening to his cousin. Unlike him, she paid attention to every word Lane said, and he loved the look of concentration on her face. As much as he loved her smile and the sound of her laughter, the intense and studious look did it for him, too. It seemed there was nothing about her that didn’t work for him.
And he really wanted to get her naked soon.Verysoon.
Once the tour was over, they all went back upstairs except for Lane, who told them to make sure the door lock engaged on their way out. Case guessed it would be a while before his cousin emerged from the cellar. Until Evie was gone, at the earliest.
“I have a list of things I’d like to have done while I’m with Laura,” Ellen said when they were milling around in the taproom again, and all three of her daughters sighed in unison. Case was impressed, but he guessed they had a lot of practice. “We’ve been so busy with the brewery that the house has been a bit neglected, so there’s a chore list on the fridge. But I’ll stop and pick up some ice cream on my way home.”
“So we’re children again,” Gwen muttered as they began dispersing.
Case nudged her with his elbow. “But your mom’s bringing you ice cream, so there are definitely benefits.”
