“Okay I did that one time,” she said holding up her finger for emphasis. “And we found it if you have forgotten.”
“Four hours and two miles in the opposite direction later.
She gave his shoulder a playful shove. “You shush, you loved every second of it.”
He grabbed her hand, holding it against his shoulder. His eyes lingered on the gloss of her lips, the way they parted like she had something to say, but thought better of it. “I did,” he said. “I loved all your crazy adventures.”
Her teeth slid over her bottom lip and he swallowed down the desire to reach out and run his finger along the plump edges. His eyes met hers and for the first time since she’d come home he could see her resolve to keep him at a distance come tumbling down.
Just then Terry came back, carrying an even bigger bag. She held it up in front of her face and when she thrust the bag forward she let out a surprised, “Oh!”
Daisy yanked her hand out of Nick’s hold and turned to Terry. “That must be yours,” she said, looking toward him but refusing to make eye contact.
What did you order?” Daisy covered her mouth, but the laugh still slipped out. “
“I thought I ordered soup and a sandwich.”
Terry dropped the bag into his arms and waved her hand at him. “Soup and a sandwich, psh. That is a snack, not dinner, and with the way you work you need to keep fueled. So you also got some potato casserole and apple strudel. too.”
“Then why is my bag so much heavier than hers?”
Terry pointed a red nail at the bag. “I also put in a porkchop or two. They’re so tender; you’re going to love them.”
Nick held up the bag and examined it. “Looks like I’ll have dinner for the next week.”
“Terry,” Daisy said. “Is it okay if we snag a table and stay with our food?”
Terry planted her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at Daisy. “Do you even have to ask me that? Of course you can. Go take any seat you want. I’ll bring you some forks and knives.”
“You heard the lady,” Nick said. “Lead the way.”
Daisy happily took the lead, making her way to the table where they had sat the last time they were here together.
Nick took a seat, and Daisy slid in across from him, placing her bag on the table. “Would it be wrong to go right to the apple strudel?” she asked.
“I won’t judge if you do.”
She smiled at him and damn if it wasn’t the brightest thing in the room. “You never did.”
Terry came over with utensils and glasses of water then slipped away to the kitchen. There were a few families eating in the dining room, and Daisy seemed to study them.
“It’s weird. I’ve been gone for so long there are actually people here I don’t know by name.” There was a sadness in her voice that made Nick wonder if it was brought on by nostalgia or if she was regretting her time away.
Nick shifted in his chair. “That over there is Michael and Judy Lowenstein with their two girls Veronica and Amanda. Michael comes into the brewery every now and again to pick up a growler. I’m sure you’ll get to know him. I mean if you plan on staying a little longer.” He scratched his head and continued. “They moved here a few years ago. And the family over there is… I’m actually not sure of their names, but I’ve seen them around.” He turned back, taking one of the containers out of the bag. “Don’t forget I was away for a bit myself.”
“I can’t believe you actually left Red Maple Falls” Daisy shook her head and looked down at her apple strudel. “I never thought you would.”
It wasn’t the plan. Red Maple Falls was his home and at one point in his life he could never imagine leaving. “Me either but when you left I just…needed a change of scenery for a while.”
Daisy nodded like she understood and of course she did. She was notorious for running away when a situation got to be too much.
She took a bite of her strudel, taking entirely too long to swallow that small bit. Her fork tapped against the container and he watched her, taking in the rise and fall of her chest, the way her tongue slipped out and swiped at the corner of her mouth.
She flicked her gaze to him, blue eyes filled with curiosity. “Did you date at all after I left?”
“Why do you care?” he asked. Whatever happened in the years they were apart didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that after all this time of him wondering if he’d ever be able to forget the anger that had become so much a part of him whenever her name was mentioned, was slipping away with each blink of her eye, sexy tilt of her lips and each rogue curl that fell in her face.
She pushed her food around, keeping her focus on her fork. “I don’t,” she finally said, looking up at him. “Okay maybe I’m curious.”
He could lie but what was the point of that? He’d never lied to her before and he wasn’t going to start. “I didn’t go celibate if that’s what you’re asking, a guy has desires and needs as I’m sure women do, too. There weren’t many, but there was also no one I was serious about. I was too focused on school and then work. I didn’t have time to start something with anyone.”
He couldn’t help but notice the relieved smile on her lips, the way her shoulders relaxed. “I know what you mean. With us it was easy. We already knew everything we needed to know about each other.”
“That did help, but I still learned things about you I didn’t know, as I’m sure you learned things about me, too. How many people know that you hum the Barney theme song when you’re nervous?”
“How do you know that?”
He gave her a look across the table, surprised she would think he wouldn’t know that about her. “It was hard to miss.”
“Still, I can’t believe you remember that,” she said.
He reached across the table, resting his hand on hers. She sucked in a jagged breath as she smiled down at the gesture. He waited until her eyes were back on his. “There’s not much I don’t remember about you, Daze.”
An adorable blush filled her cheeks, spreading across her nose. Her lips parted, a sound stuttered out before she stopped herself. She took a deep breath and looked him square in the eye. “If I would’ve stayed…what do you think would have happened with us?”
He sat back and let out a half sigh half laugh. “I’ve asked myself that question so many times over the years, and I still don’t have an answer. I don’t think I ever will.”
“We probably would’ve got married, grown to resent each other, you would’ve been miserable as an accountant, and I would’ve been bouncing around from job to job until something stuck.”
He laughed. “That’s a horrible picture.”
She laughed, too. “Isn’t it?”
The life he envisioned for them leaned more toward the fairytale side of life. It wasn’t until very recently that he opened up to the possibility of the darker side. He hated to think that could’ve been their life. “Do you really think that’s what would have happened to us?”
She smiled but it fell short almost like the pain was too much to push through. “I have to. It’s the only thing that keeps me from second guessing myself.”
“Well, I think you’re wrong,” he said. “I think that even though we might not have had everything we ever wanted at the end of the day having each other would have been enough to make us happy.”
This time when she smiled the pain was gone. “Always been the glass half full kind of guy.”
He picked up his fork and pointed it toward her. “And you’ve always been the glass half empty kind of girl. It was a good balance.”
“It was.” She held up her water glass. “To finding our balance again.”
Nick didn’t have to find his balance; he was looking right at her, but until she found hers he wouldn’t have his. So he put down his fork, picked up his cup and clinked it against hers. “To balance.”
Chapter 16
Nick had been out on the road all day, and Daisy hadn’t seen him at all. It was only
a day—barely twenty-four hours. It felt a hell of a lot longer, though. How in the world did she go six whole years?
After dinner together last night, she’d wanted to invite him back to her place, but there had been that annoying voice in the back of her head that told her not to. Her situation wasn’t permanent, and if she did leave, she would break his heart again. After being responsible for it once before, she couldn’t consciously do it twice.
He seemed happy despite everything he had gone through in the past year, and she didn’t want to mess that up. She kept watching the door of the brewery, hoping he’d walk in but had been disappointed every time it wasn’t him. The door opened and she held her breath, but let it out when a man and a woman walked in. Daisy greeted them with a smile. “Welcome,” she said. “Have you been here before?”
“No, we haven’t,” the woman replied. “We’re here doing a little skiing, and the resort told us about this place, so we came to check it out.”
“You’re going to be happy that you did. So how it works is you can either order a pint if you know what you like or you can do one of our flights which includes a sampling of five beers of your choosing. I prefer the flight because all the beers are so good I can never decide. If you like IPA’s, our Hippity Hop is an international beer competition gold winner and our stout is competing this week. So hopefully we’ll have a medal to add to it soon.”
“We’re not big beer drinkers, but we’re starting to test the waters. What’s the difference between say a lager and an IPA?”
Daisy smiled, remembering what Cassie had taught her that first day. She explained it to the couple, touching on the different ingredients added in the brewing process. She pointed to the back and explained the different pieces of equipment then decided to give them a complete tour.
Once she walked them through the different components that went into making a beer they ended back at the bar. “Now with all that information, I can give you a minute to decide.”
The couple looked at each other and had one of those silent conversations Daisy had seen time and time again with her grandparents, her parents, and now her siblings and their significant others. “We’ll each take a flight,” the man said.
“Smart choice.” Daisy placed a piece of paper in front of both of them. “Pick your five and I’ll get you started.”
They discussed amongst themselves for a moment then slid the papers across the bar to Daisy. She filled their order and handed it off to them. “We have board games in the corner if you’re interested, or we have cornhole set up in the back.”
“That sounds like fun,” the woman said. They grabbed the wooden boards holding their flight and made their way toward the back of the brewery.
Daisy turned, and her eyes caught on Mason leaning against the far end of the bar, arms crossed.
“What’s up?” she asked. “You look like Dad right before he’s about to lecture me for doing something wrong.”
He smirked. “The exact opposite actually. I’m impressed. You know what you’re talking about. You give a good pitch.”
“I’m a good actress.”
“But you weren’t acting. I can tell the difference.”
She shrugged. “I learned from the best. Between you, Cassie, and Nick I’ve learned so many different aspects of the business and it’s…interesting.”
Not many things held Daisy’s attention for long. She was notorious for jumping from one thing to the next, but there was something about the brewery that touched her on a different level. She was fascinated by not only Mason’s knowledge but his pure passion for this brewery. She loved how much Nick believed in the product and admired Cassie’s dedication and hard work. To think this place was an abandoned dairy farm only a couple short years ago blew her mind.
“I was thinking about trivia night,” she said.
“What about it?”
“It was great and really packed out the place. You had as many in house sales that night as you did for the entire week.” She had taken it upon herself to crunch the numbers and come to that conclusion.
“It definitely helps drive business,” Mason said.
“Exactly, so why don’t you expand the entertainment portion to other nights? You can do karaoke or open mic night for all those aspiring people who can’t make it to the big city to perform. You can have a night with stand-up comedians, even make it a competition where people can vote for their favorite to move on to the next round, get them invested and want to come back each week. You have that big blank wall in the back. You can buy a projector and play movies on it. Put baskets of popcorn on the tables. I love the old movie theater, but there’s only so many times a person can see Back to the Future.
“You can send your schedule to the local hotels and resorts so that way if somebody asked them what’s going on they can point them here. It’ll help tap into the tourist market even more and also to bring people through Red Maple Falls. We love tourists here, and I’m sure the other businesses would be thrilled with the extra traffic.”
Mason eyed her and cracked a rare smile. “You thought of all of this?”
“I’m not done. I have more ideas.”
Mason stared at her with a mix of surprise and delight, but just as quickly, his eyebrows curved toward the bridge of his nose, and the delight faded. “The problem is that I’m already shorthanded. Cassie, Nick, and myself are spread so thin and adding all of these extras would be putting more on our plates. A part of me is saying absolutely not.”
Daisy was used to rejection; she swallowed down her pride and nodded. “I understand.”
“I’m not done… There’s another part of me that loves everything you have said.”
“Really?” she asked unable to keep the excitement from her tone. She wanted to jump up and down and clap.
“I can’t deny a good idea, and what you have are great ideas.” He went quiet for a second, that notorious brooding look on his face. “Can you write them all down and I’ll look them over?”
Daisy couldn’t stop the smile if she tried. She jumped into Mason’s arms and hugged him tight.
“I didn’t say yes,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “You believe in me and that’s enough.”
“If you weren’t only here temporarily I’d hire you to manage it all.”
She looked at him like he was yanking her chain. “I’m not a manager.” She couldn’t even keep a job for longer than a few months no less create a new department for a company and run it.
“One of these days, Daze, you’ll see what the rest of us do.” He squeezed her shoulder. “I expect to see something on my desk by the time I get back from the competition.”
“You got it!”
“Before I go,” he said, his features turning serious. “You know I don’t like to mix business with personal life.”
Of course she knew. It was his motto.
“I know,” she said, wondering where this was going, but pretty sure she already knew.
“Nick’s been through a lot, especially the past few months.” It was obvious Mason cared for Nick and Daisy was happy that Nick had someone looking out for him.
“I know.”
Mason pinned her with a pleading look. “Don’t hurt him again, Daze.”
She leaned against the bar and let her hands fall against her thighs. “I don’t want to. It’s the last thing I want actually. But he’s also a big boy. He can handle himself.”
Mason smirked. “When you hold the key to someone’s heart, it gives you the power and the control. And I’m pretty sure, whether you want to or not, you’re still holding Nick’s.”
She let out an obvious breath. “That’s pretty heavy advice for mid-day.”
A rumble sounded in his throat. “Gives you all day to think about it.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Anytime.” He picked up an empty glass carrier. “I’ll be in the back with the tanks if you need me.”
“I’ll b
e here, carrying the twenty-pound weight on my shoulder that you just dropped,” she said.
“There she is, the drama queen we all know and love.”
He gave her a gentle punch to the shoulder as he passed, and like the adult she was she stuck her tongue out at him.
Mason disappeared in the back, and to distract her mind from thoughts of Nick, she took out her phone, jotting down a few more ideas in her note app.
The ideas flooded her mind, and she couldn’t type as fast as her brain was churning them out. She got down as many as she could and finished her shift.
She said goodbye to Cassie and Mason and headed out. She had an hour before she had to meet up with Brooke and Louise, so she decided to head home and work on a few more ideas. She wanted to do a little research and see what other popular breweries were offering as far as entertainment. She didn’t want to copy anyone, but she also wanted to get an understanding of the competition.
It had been a long time since she was this excited about something. Unable to contain that excitement, she drummed her hands against the steering wheel then started the Jeep up.
Her cell rang as she was about to put the truck in drive. She fished it out of her bag and looked down at it. Cooper’s house number flashed on the screen. It was still weird to think that Cooper had a house number after years of refusing to plant roots.
She smiled when Tommy’s voice echoed on the other end.
“Hey Tommy. What’s going on?”
“Mrs. Littleton is letting us practice on the stage at school on Monday, and she said I can invite you to come watch. So do you want to come?”
“I would love to,” she said.
“Really!”
“Absolutely. What time?”
“Three-thirty. We’ll be in the gym because that’s where the stage is,” he explained.
“I remember. I’ll be there. Now shouldn’t you be getting ready for bed?”
His loud sigh muffled through the phone. “You sound like Mom. I still have an hour.”
“A whole hour? What are you going to do?”
Dreaming of Daisy (A Red Maple Falls Novel, #6) Page 14