Brew Ha Ha Box Set: Books 1-4

by Bria Quinlan

  He choked, looking toward the door as if he needed help or wanted to escape. “Well, no I guess it wouldn’t. But…”

  “Also, it was kind of weird because I didn’t know if he was serious or not.”

  “That would make a difference.” Shawn slumped against the wall and slid down it, letting his legs stretch out next to me.

  “And so, he just put it out there and then high-fived me and left… I’m not sure if I should even address it when I see him later.”

  “He high-fived you?” Shawn sat up, looking confused. “He suggested whatever it is he suggested, then high-fived you and left?”

  “Yes. Right? Weird.”

  “So…I take it… Hailey, maybe you should just tell me what he suggested.” He mumbled something under his breath I was pretty sure was Not that I really want to know. But he’d started this, so he was on the hook.

  “He said he thought maybe he should ask me to marry him.” It sounded just as confusing now as it had with Connor and then later at The Brew.

  Shawn sat up, looking at me as if I’d changed the subject. “He asked you to marry him?”

  “No. He said he was thinking that maybe he should ask me to marry him, then basically left.”

  Shawn studied me. Then he looked off into the distance. Then back at me. Then he shook his head.

  “Sorry, Hailey. I got nothing.”

  “What do you mean you’ve got nothing?” I could feel the panic rising again. “What happened to being the bartender of fitness?”

  “Well, I don’t know what his point is. He didn’t actually ask so he’s just thinking about it. Maybe he wants to ask so he was trying to gauge how reciprocal you’d be to it. I mean, that’s a big risk for a guy to just drop to one knee. He’s never had to fight for a girl before and now he’s thinking about forever with one who won’t take his crap. I’m betting you scare the snot out of him.”

  It never dawned on me that this could be Connor’s freak out, not mine.

  Okay.

  All right.

  Okay.

  I stood, brushing my hands off and rolling my mat up.

  “Thanks, Shawn. That actually helped.”

  Kind of.

  He smiled and waved, looking more relieved than I felt as I wandered out the door.

  4

  I was almost done with surprises when I got home from the gym. Luckily Shawn had kicked my butt, letting me burn off some of the frustrated confusion I'd been carrying around all morning, and gave me a bit of insight into the male mind.

  Or as much as any woman was ever going to get.

  I started home, happy to be headed to a place of comfort and consistency. I planned to spend the afternoon brushing off Connor’s guy moment and just enjoying working on my next series…or something that could become my new series.

  Of course, I couldn't have foreseen the construction going on at my building.

  Actually, yes. I should have known about construction going on. Unless there'd been structural damage that needed emergency repairs there should have been meetings and notices.

  I stood back, watching guys in bright vests and safety helmets measure different parts of our entryway. As I watched, they eventually realized I was behind them and stepped back, waving me through.

  It's always interesting when guys in safety gear have no problem letting a girl in sneakers wander through a work zone.

  "Is something wrong?" I glanced at the entry's frame, looking for cracks or other damage.

  The biggest guy slapped his clipboard against his thigh and glanced down at me, apparently confused—and a bit annoyed—by the question. "Nope."

  Wow. Thanks for your clarity.

  "So, what's going on?"

  I wanted at least the basics of the story before I tracked down Marjory, the president of our condo association, and asked why work was going on without a vote or notification. Marjory thought she was the dictator of a small country not a volunteer for a small HOA. And you'd think the info was confidential the way the guys kept working without giving me anything else to go on.

  Finally, when he saw that I wasn’t going anywhere, one of the guys stopped to answer. “We’re pulling the entryway forward and putting double doors on them.” He didn’t glance my way again.

  I closed my eyes and decided this was not the day I wanted to deal with my HOA money being wasted.

  But, tomorrow? Tomorrow I would definitely be dealing with this stuff because I had absolutely no money to waste since I was between contracts.

  I stromped up the stairs to my little tiny condo, ready to crash since I’d been up since what is technically the middle of the night…and no, the clock police couldn’t convince me otherwise.

  When I reached my door, there was a little notice half-shoved under it.

  “Dear residents: This week we’re having some work done on the front of the building. The added foyer will make our building safer and more attractive.”

  Wow. Talk about the horses already having left the barn.

  But Marjory and I were still going to have a talk.

  I didn’t know what was going on, but I wasn’t going to be kept in the dark much longer. I saw a mission coming on.

  As soon as I showered and had caffeine and some words in on my new project.

  So, maybe tomorrow.

  5

  The next morning, I woke up to noise—lots of it.

  It took me a few moments to remember I now lived in a construction zone instead of the peaceful oasis of a century old brick building with walls thick enough to resist an explosion.

  When I’m starting a new series it’s hard enough to get into a new world, but when you aren’t even sure what the world is, creating it is nearly impossible with all that noise.

  Unless I was going to write a YA construction story.

  Huh, maybe there was a market for that.

  Nope. Probably not.

  And, since I really didn’t want to deal with the pounding and noise going on outside there was only one real option.

  No. Not the library. They don’t have caffeine there.

  I packed up my work stuff and headed to The Brew, knowing it would be more peaceful in a public café than in my own little office today. As soon as I got there I felt more relaxed than I’d been in my own home for the last couple days with all the change and surprises.

  Nothing changed at The Brew. Everything was good. I’d have a chocolate muffin and some tea and sit in my typical comfy chair and—

  “Hi! Can I help you?”

  I glanced up at some strange girl standing behind the counter.

  “Who are you?” Because that didn’t sound rude at all.

  “Emily.” She pointed at the little homemade nametag shaped like a flower she’d pinned to her shirt.

  I stood there, waiting for something a bit more. But she continued to smile at me from behind the counter, looking for all the world as if giving her name was enough to explain what she was doing there.

  “Where’s Abby?” Because I couldn’t imagine Abby letting this girl in her domain.

  “Ummmm…” The girl glanced toward the kitchen.

  I started to get a little nervous. What if someone had been able to overpower Abby and then locked her body in the kitchen. I mean, it would take a small army just to get past the snark, but what if…

  “Emily,” Abby peeked her head out, “what’s going on?”

  I looked at her, not tied up and suffering from Café Takeover, and an odd sort of relief swept over me.

  “Abby!” I almost rushed to wrap her up in a huge hug. But I was afraid of the death that awaited me down that lane. “What’s going on?”

  She glanced at the girl and let out a long-suffering sigh.

  “Did you get her muffin? She needs the muffin like ASAP.” Abby glanced at the pastry display, probably having an exact count of what was there and noting that there was no missing muffin. “And make sure you heat it on low so the edges don’t get too crispy.”

/>   The girl looked at me a bit panicked. “She didn’t order a muffin.”

  “She didn’t order anything,” I said, wondering where the panic was coming from. “Abby, what is going on?”

  Abby glanced at the girl and snapped, “Heat up the muffin and start an iced green tea,” before coming around the counter and ushering me toward the overstuffed chairs.

  Once she settled in across from my normal seat, she watched the girl over my shoulder, only shaking her head slightly as I heard something glass hit the floor.

  “John hired her.” I could hear Abby’s annoyance ground through every word. “She just showed up this morning.”

  She said it as if John had found a kitten that was actually a skunk in disguise.

  “John?” I glanced around looking for John, but realized the man was smarter than that. He must have sprung her on Abby then hit the road.

  “Yes.” Obviously Abby was not thrilled about this development.

  I hated to be the one to point out that John actually owned The Brew. I wasn’t stupid enough to do that. I just kind of waited, looking at her like this was completely a surprise.

  “He said I work too much.” She huffed this out and rolled her eyes, obviously put out by the idea.

  But honestly, as I thought it over, she really did work too much. And this was coming from a writer who loved to work and basically carried a notebook everywhere for emergency work sessions.

  Emergency meaning something inspired me and I needed to ignore everything else to fall into my world right then.

  Abby was here if The Brew was open and she lived upstairs so her going home time seemed to be limited. John probably had a really good point. But that might not be what she was worried about.

  “Can you afford fewer hours?”

  She waved the questions away with the flick of her hand as she watched Emily doing something at the counter behind me.

  “He promoted me to manager and made my salary what I got paid every week anyway.”

  “Oh.” John, that big softy. “That seems like a pretty good deal.”

  “Yeah.” Only she didn’t sound thrilled about it.

  “How is she?”

  “She has no idea what she’s doing.” Abby sounded so put out by this that I almost laughed.

  “Well, it is her first day.”

  Abby turned her glare on me, but was quickly distracted when the door opened with one of the regular, mid-morning drop-ins.

  “Hi!” Emily greeted from the counter, and I gave into temptation to turn around to watch how things went.

  The guy stutter-stepped at the new face behind the counter, before his gaze landed on Abby, a bit confused.

  Emily stood there, smile frozen in place.

  Giving up pretending to be subtle, I swiveled in my chair to more comfortably follow the guy’s progress to the counter to order his coffee. All of us watched closely as Emily made the coffee and brought it back to him, ringing him up on the little iPad register John had upgraded to last month.

  “Have a great day!”

  “Oh for the love of—” Abby mumbled under her breath at the over-perk going on in her new barista. Abby waved the girl over and waited for her to come, cleaning rag in hand, join us. “She’s going to make people expect joy, happiness, and kittens when they come in here.”

  “Well, that wouldn’t suck,” I accidentally said out loud. “I mean, kittens probably go against health codes, but still.”

  “No.” Abby gave me A Look. “They get the best coffee and baked goods in the region. We don’t want people having absurd expectations.” She raised her voice and pointed at Emily. “Tone down the cheer and joy.”

  Emily just nodded and smiled, probably realizing there was no way she was winning this argument. Apparently John had hired a smart girl.

  Abby could only hold up under Emily’s unwavering smile for a moment before she broke. “Okay. Go.”

  Emily sweetened her smile, but as she turned away from Abby I saw the little eye roll she allowed herself.

  I think I was going to like this girl.

  “So.” Abby sipped her tea, glancing around the café and shaking her head. “John thinks I should go to college.”

  That was…actually a really good idea. Abby was super smart and had apparently aced her GED.

  “And…you don’t want to go to college?” I knew there was a landmine in this conversation somewhere.

  She shrugged, looking indifferent. Which, Abby looking indifferent usually meant she was anything but.

  “What would you go to school for?” It seemed like something I should know, but I couldn’t even guess.

  She leaned to the side, watching Emily disappear into the kitchen.

  “I’m doing what I want to do right now.”

  “Sitting with me, having tea, and obsessing about the new girl and what she’s doing in your kitchen?”

  The look she gave me…well, the equivalent words weren’t coming out of my mouth anytime soon.

  “No. Running a café with the freedom to create new baked goods as I see fit.”

  It never occurred to me that working here would be her dream. But the more I thought about it the more it made sense. She loved to bake, was extremely talented at it, liked to be in charge. And even though John owned the place he was incredibly gifted at letting her think she ran it…even as he hired someone else around her.

  “Maybe John thinks you want to run your own…or maybe he just thinks you’d like college.”

  She dropped her head, giving me a look from under her bangs that said it all. “College students come in here every day. If they’re the best and the brightest, I think I’d rather just learn through life.”

  “Don’t forget, in a lot of ways they’re also a lot younger than you.”

  She nodded, magnanimously agreeing that the little people did not have the life experience that it took to circle her sphere.

  “Maybe,” was all she finally said.

  I listened to the banging around in the kitchen and watched Abby’s hands tighten on her teacup as she struggled not to go find out what was going on. It was bizarre.

  “You know what? I can’t take this anymore!” I tried not to wave my hands around since that seemed a little dramatic even for me. “What is going on with all the change?”

  Right then Emily set down a tray painted with bright flowers and holding two cups of tea and a chocolate muffin.

  I couldn’t help but smile at the little addition to our table even as Abby glared at the tray like it was a betrayal of maximum capacity.

  “Anything else?” Emily asked with a smile

  “Don’t ask them that. We don’t want them to expect that kind of service.”

  “But—”

  “No.”

  The girl nodded at Abby then headed back to the counter where she stood like a sentinel watching us.

  “Why?” Abby took a sip from her fresh tea, obviously looking for a reason to not like it. “What else is going on? I mean, besides the fact that you don’t know if you’re engaged or not.”

  There’s the Abby I know and kinda-loved.

  “Just…everything. Okay?”

  She looked at me like I was making even less sense than normal, so I went with the most distracting topic that came to mind.

  “So, college?” That was just one more thing that might change.

  “Yeah.” She didn’t sound thrilled about it. Maybe I wasn’t the only one not enjoying all the change.

  But then, I wasn’t a teenager…or however old Abby was.

  “Abby, how old are you?” It dawned on me we all assumed a lot of things about her, but as I’d gotten to know her, even with the amount of snark she managed to toss out, I started to think she couldn’t possibly really be seventeen.

  Even Abby had to age. I’d seen her in sunlight.

  She gave me a look like I’d asked her something really personal. I hadn’t thought age was a big secret.

  “Twenty-one.”

>   “Really. Huh.” That made her only four years younger than me.

  “Well, I will be.” Abby glanced around for Emily, then lowered her voice. “Thursday.”

  “It’s your birthday!” I loved birthdays. Like woot-woot love’m, bring’em on Love!

  “Shhhh.” Abby shook her head and rolled her eyes. This must be a big deal.

  “We need to do something.” I pulled out my phone and started texting the girls. “We’ll go out! Birthday! Wooooo!”

  “Okay, so, you’re insane. I thought you were the sane one, but I’m questioning that now.”

  “Don’t you want to celebrate?” But then I had a thought. Abby knew everything about us, but we didn’t know that much about her. Some of that was on purpose. We knew she had some type of rough history that was not to be asked about, but beyond that… “I mean, unless you already have plans.”

  “No.” She sounded unsure, as if she might have plans.

  “Great!” I went back to texting the girls. Then I texted John to get Abby a night off and ask if his girlfriend, Sarah, wanted to join us. Then I texted Connor to tell him it was Abby’s birthday.

  I finally glanced up to Abby’s sardonically confused look. “Did you reach the Space Station? I’m not sure they know.”

  My phone started dinging back and I just gave her a look and paged through the responses.

  “John will close Friday night. We’ll all meet here.” I gave her a wink. “Bring your A-game.”

  “I need to go get some work done.” Abby stood, shaking her head at me like I was a weird, new creature, and headed back to dictate the world of Emily.

  And with that I headed back to my newly secured condo, afraid of what I’d find after being gone an entire hour.

  6

  I wrapped up my pages for the day, a hard outline with some really great worldbuilding notes and a new creature I had to do some mythological research on. I loved this stuff. These were the days when things felt easy. When the fury of a muse was so great, I was just along for the ride because I was too excited to slow down for anything.