Page 10 of Her Hometown Man
Gwen was wearing those summer pants that ended halfway down her very shapely calves, with a loose, flowered tank top that showed off skin that either rarely saw the sun or saw alotof sunscreen. Her hair wasn’t free, but it was pulled back so loosely that it still framed her face.
“You okay?” Lane asked, and he realized he’d not only stopped walking but was staring at Gwen.
“Yeah.” He forced a chuckle. “I’m hungry and she’s carrying a plate of burgers.”
Lane’s gaze bounced between Case and Gwen before his mouth quirked up in a half grin. “Sure. But those burgers are still raw, so put your tongue back in your mouth.”
What am I doing?That was Gwen Sutton he’d been staring at. The bossy girl from across the street. The older sister of the girl he’d taken to winter carnival and... Well, more. There was a lifetime of reasons she wasn’t his type. Sure, she was attractive. And she had that laugh. But it was Gwen, and what was he even thinking?
“Boys,” Ellen called from the backyard, because it didn’t matter how old they were. The Sutton sisters were hergirls, and he and Lane would always be theboys. “The burgers won’t take long, but there are some chips and salads in the gazebo if you’re hungry.”
A big perk of the Sutton house having once been an inn was the gazebo in the backyard that overlooked the river. It was a big one, meant to accommodate wedding photos and such, back in the day. Now it accommodated a long picnic table and the Suttons ate a lot of their meals there. David had suggested screening it in more than once, but Ellen insisted it would feel too closed in and defeat the purpose of eating outdoors, to say nothing of impeding the view.
Once he and Lane were in the gazebo, each with a first helping of macaroni salad, he tilted his head toward the grill, where all four Sutton women had gathered. While he’d be content to eat his food and watch Gwen, tension was emanating from Lane so strongly, Case could practically feel it pushing against him.
“You’re going to have to talk to her at some point,” he said, not bothering to clarify whoherwas.
“I know. It’s not that big a deal,” Lane replied, and Case wondered how his cousin managed to talk with his jaw clenched like that. “It’s been a long time and we’ve both moved past it.”
Case nodded, though he wasn’t sure that was true. Evie hadn’t looked in their direction once, and her sisters looked relaxed, but she certainly didn’t. She looked almost as tense as Lane, and that was even more out of character for her than it was for him.
Two hours later, when they’d all eaten their fill, including Boomer, who was gifted half of Eli’s burger in addition to his own, Case realized Evie and Lane still hadn’t spoken directly to each other. With two kids and a dog running around and six adults trying to have something that resembled a business meeting, it was probably easy to hide from most of them, but he knew Evie was definitely not speaking to her ex-husband. And Lane was either too proud or too stubborn to break that awkward ice.
“Okay,” Ellen said, setting her pen on top of her notebook with a sigh. “After everything is taken into consideration, the bottom line is that the brewery needs to be paying for itself by the end of the year or we’re all in trouble. Making a profit would be nice, but the end of the year is when we’ll start having to rob Peter to pay Paul, and Peter’s got very shallow pockets.”
Because he was sneaking yet another glance at Gwen, Case saw the way her expression tightened when Ellen saidthe end of the year, but she didn’t say anything. The thought of staying in Stonefield for a month was probably enough to set her teeth on edge. But six months? She wasn’t going to be happy about that.
But Case? He didn’t think he was going to mind having Gwen around at all.
“Now.” Ellen picked up her pen again. “We know what we have to do. Let’s figure out how we’re going to do it.”
Chapter Four
The library will be holding their annual book sale on their lawn during the Old Home Day festivities! The proceeds will go toward fun activities for the Summer Reading Program, so if you’d like to donate books, drop them at the library during business hours. There will be several copies ofA Quaking of Aspensavailable for a dollar, but as you know, Gwen Sutton is in town. If she signs them, they’ll be five dollars, so if you see her, be sure to tell her to grab a Sharpie!
—Stonefield GazetteFacebook Page
Gwen didn’t have a lot of experience with business meetings outside of the occasional lunch or dinner with her agent or editor, and the similarities between those and this one stopped at her getting a free meal. At least atherbusiness dinners, there was almost always a cocktail involved.
She wasn’t a big fan of beer. And shereallywasn’t a big fan oftalkingabout beer. And sitting on a picnic table bench hadn’t been a big deal when she was younger, but she wasn’t a kid anymore. Her butt hurt and her back was protesting, and she was more focused on how her mother was tolerating the bench than she was on the so-called meeting.
“I don’t think we’ll have to hire any staff for quite some time,” her mom was saying, and that got her attention because a business didn’t run without staff. “Maybe even to the end of the year.”
“Um,” Gwen and Evie said together.
“I have a job,” Gwen continued. “And I don’t live here.”
“I’m not staying that long,” Evie said at the exact same time.
Gwen had known coming into this visit that it was going to be longer than she would like. She’d packed what she needed to get by, but she wanted to be back in Vermont by the end of the summer. Not only was she behind on her book, but fall and winter were her most productive times of the year. There was something about heading into the crispness of autumn that made her want to curl up with her laptop and write. The end of the year definitely didn’t work for her.
“It’s just for a little while,” Ellen said, but her words weren’t very reassuring, considering she’d just casually thrown out a six-month time frame. “We just have to figure out who’s going to do what and work out the kinks before people start depending on us for their paychecks.”
“I’m brewing the beer,” Lane said, and Gwen threw him a look letting him know that, as far as she was concerned, that didn’t let him off the hook for helping out wherever else he was needed.
“I already called dibs on not being the dishwasher,” Evie reminded them.
“Obviously, you’ll be the bartender, Evie.” Ellen gave her youngest daughter a bright smile. “You have experience doing that, and you have the best personality for it.”
