Page 50 of Her Hometown Man
“Not at all. She said she might come over later, or she might try to write some, depending on what was going on at the house. She didn’t mention it being Evie’s birthday, so they obviously wanted to keep all the cake to themselves.” He shrugged. “But there’s no reason you being here is a problem, anyway. She’d be happy to drink a toast to your paperwork win.”
“You might want to let me make the drink, though.” Lane chuckled. “This drink was so strong, you should feed me supper before you let me go home.”
“It wasn’tthatstrong. I’m more than happy to throw an extra steak on the grill, but my excellent mixology skills aren’t the reason.” They both laughed, and Case shook his head. “My first thought when I tasted it was that you’d go bankrupt fast if you served mixed drinks and let me tend bar.”
“We don’t need a bartender,” Lane said, the amusement gone. “That’s Evie’s job.”
“Only for now,” Case reminded him.
It was a state of being he was pretty familiar with. Gwen was in town—for now. They were enjoying each other’s company inandout of bed—for now. Life was good and Case was happier than he’d been in a long time.
For now.
Chapter Sixteen
Great news, Stonefield! Mark your calendars, because the official grand opening date for Sutton’s Place Brewery & Tavern is Friday, September 10th! They’ll add Thursday night to the schedule the following week, but all the best parties are on Friday nights! We’ll see you there!
—Stonefield GazetteFacebook Page
Once the paperwork and permits were all in order and Sutton’s Place was officially a go, everything kicked into a high gear that left Gwen exhausted at the end of every day. When she finally closed the door of her bedroom every evening, she was too physically and mentally exhausted to even open her laptop. Her own workday had been whittled down to cursory checks of her email before she went to bed. Everybody’s focus was on the brewery now, and getting ready to serve Lane’s concoctions to their friends and family.
And it was about time. She had no idea what Lane was actually doing in that cellar, but it had meant a lot to her dad and it was time to share it. Whenever Lane talked about it, it sounded to her as if he was conducting a giant science experiment and there were a lot of words and phrases she didn’t recognize.
This had been her father’s passion, she thought sadly, and she didn’t know a thing about it. Sure, she’d heard him talk about beer a lot and he’d shown her a few of the recipes and equipment sketches in his notebook, but in her experience, beer was a thing alotof men talked about. But she didn’t think the majority of men who were less than ten years from retirement mortgaged everything to brew their own.
But that line of thinking only stirred up the painful mix of sorrow, loss, resentment and even anger, so she took a deep breath. She was never going to understand why her dad had chosen to do this. All she could do was accept it and do her best to help her mom make it happen.
Right now, helping Mom meant making a massive bowl of salad to go with the chicken and potatoes that Mallory was cooking on the grill. Ellen was upstairs, off her feet for a little while, and Evie was setting the table. As soon as Lane and Case came in from hanging the last of the trim that Gwen and Evie had stained yesterday, they’d eat. It was Mallory who’d made the executive decision to eat inside—in the air-conditioning—rather than in the gazebo.
And when they were done eating, they’d be back out in the carriage house. With the trim and lighting all up, it was time for the guys to carry in the tables and stools from where they’d been stored with the grain. And the women would be setting up the bar area. It was starting to come together fast now, but with only four weeks between the final piece of the paperwork puzzle and opening their doors, sometimes it didn’t feel fast enough.
Her mom walked in, looking slightly refreshed, to see how the dinner preparations were going. “That salad looks good. And I just adjusted that thermostat. Keeping it cool is one thing, but unless we’re expecting penguins for dinner, it doesn’t need to bethiscool. The electric bill’s going to be painful.”
“What else is new?”
Ellen paused, frowning. “What do you mean?”
“The utilities are always painful because this house costs a crap ton of money to cool and to heat, and just think of all the time you spend cleaning. You don’t need all these rooms.”
“I need the carriage house, though, since we’re about to open a business in it. And of course I need the rooms. You’re here, and Evie. Not only would Mallory and I having separate homes probably cost us more in the long run, where would you and your sister sleep if I had a small place?”
“Lord only knows where Evie would sleep, but I’d sleep in my own bedroom, in the house in Vermont I actually live in.” When her mom frowned, Gwen’s stomach knotted. Though she kept her voice as soft as possible, she didn’t want her mom getting her hopes up about Gwen staying. “Me being here is temporary, Mom. You know that because I’ve been very up-front about it since the day I got here. I was willing to stay until the beginning of August and now it’ll be mid-September and I didn’t want to stay this long.”
“But things have changed since then.”
Understanding dropped on Gwen like a granite block—her mother was talking about Case. Somehow the woman had gotten it into her head that Gwen wasn’t going to leave Stonefield because her feelings for a man were going to keep her in town. And she did have feelings for a man, but she wasn’t blowing up her career for him. “Nothing has changed, Mom.”
“We’ll see.”
Gwen’s eyes widened, but she kept herself from opening her mouth until she had a better idea of what might come out of it. The only thing they were going to see was her taillights when she drove out of town after this brewery business was sorted out. But, she reminded herself, she’d made that resolution about being more careful about what she said to her mother. She didn’t want to break it now.
Unfortunately she couldn’t come up with a rebuttal that didn’t sound outraged or snarky in her head, so she kept her mouth shut. Luckily, she heard Mallory and the guys coming inside, so it was time to eat, anyway.
As always, dinner became a business meeting. They talked so much about Sutton’s Place that Mallory had at some point relaxed the dinner rules for Jack and Eli, and the boys ate in the living room with the TV on because it was better company.
“Have you guys settled on the hours yet?” Case asked almost as soon as he’d fixed his plate.
“We think it’s best to be open Thursday through Sunday for now, from three o’clock to ten o’clock, and eight on Sundays. I’ll have to close the shop at two on those days, but people will get used to it.”
