Dare Me

by Jo Leigh

  Phillip nodded at Simone, who continued. “We’d like you to come to Bordeaux. You’ll work at the vineyard to become familiar with our grapes, but mostly we’d like you to work closely with Phillip. We think you’re ready to learn about the real home of wine, which you’ll need to do if you’re ever going to become an important voice in the industry.”

  Move to France? To work with Phillip?

  Molly didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. All sorts of things were swirling inside her head. Simone, who was usually very reserved, actually seemed excited at the prospect of her moving to Bordeaux. For the first time ever, she would actually have one job that would provide her with a decent salary instead of struggling to piece together a living. Or so she assumed... “Would this be a salaried position?”

  Phillip smiled. “Yes, of course.”

  Before Molly could ask about the compensation, Simone asked, “What do you think?”

  “I’m overwhelmed.” It was the truth. She hardly knew what to make of the offer.

  Then there was Cam, of course. Her breath caught at the thought of him.

  Simone cleared her throat, and Molly remembered she’d been asked an important question. “Thank you so much. I’m thrilled and honored. Was there a particular date you had in mind?”

  “The end of October would be best. Of course, you’ll need to make sure your exit is well played. Every contact is a potential ally.”

  The wine arrived, an excellent Soave, and Phillip raised his glass for a toast. “To the next phase of your career.”

  She lifted her own glass in return, but she was still reeling that they wanted her to leave so soon.

  She wouldn’t have three more months to get used to saying goodbye to Cameron, but six more weeks.

  * * *

  MOLLY’S DARK ALE for Wine Lovers was coming along nicely. The secondary fermentation had just gotten started, and since it was a small batch, it would be ready for presentation in two weeks. The timing was perfect: in two weeks he was escorting her to a party. After, he could bring her back to the pub and, even though the beer would be stored in a beer tank, he was going to surprise her with her very own bottles. He’d even done a short run of labels so she could keep a few. He wanted the beer to be a staple in The Four Sisters’ repertoire, to win prizes and accolades. He wanted it to be as special as Molly herself.

  Molly. They hadn’t spoken since yesterday morning. He still held out hope that she’d be able to go with him to the Albany Charity Beer Fest tomorrow, but it didn’t seem likely. The urge was strong to whine about her lack of availability, especially when this particular festival was one of the most important ones for the brewery, but he was sticking to the vow he’d made to give her all the room she needed.

  This afternoon, he’d received an email from Dr. Inaba. Things were in motion. That was all she’d said, but that was all he’d needed to hear. It meant that he could get a call anytime. While he still figured, with how slowly the wheels of the government turned, that three months was the most likely window, in theory they could get word five days from now. The project hadn’t been tabled or thrown out, which was good news. Hell, any motion on the part of those committees was good news.

  Sort of.

  He looked around the brewery, at his friends, his coworkers. His dad was in a huddle with Eric, both men with their baseball caps on, their arms crossed over their chests. They weren’t looking at each other, but at an empty space by the aging tanks. That told Cam they were still discussing the possibility of buying some bourbon barrels. They were easy to come by, what with bourbon having to be aged for two years in oak and the fact that the barrels were used only once. And because they could add a distinctive new flavor range to the beer that wasn’t available from their current stock of tanks, it might be a great, cost-effective way to expand their customer base.

  Cam wanted them to try a few barrels. But mostly he wanted to be here to experiment with them. Sure, he could write up potential recipes and have Eric and the others try them out, but tasting was everything. All the senses needed to be in play when using new techniques, and he was jealous that someone else would be at the controls.

  He thought about staying around. Putting off going to Syracuse for a while. He was reasonably sure he could steal a few months without them having to replace him, although that might have been his ego talking.

  He didn’t think Dr. Inaba would mind, especially because he’d never really stopped working since he’d arrived back in Queens. He’d sent her a number of ideas and theories, and she’d been enthusiastic about several of them.

  Besides, an extra few months here would give him more time with Molly. What he wasn’t sure about was if she would have more time to give him.

  Eric waved him over, but first Cam checked to make sure he hadn’t missed a call while he’d been working. Nothing. It wasn’t easy for him to wait patiently for her to call. But he wouldn’t place his own call until after she finished with her NYU class.

  * * *

  MOLLY HAD BEEN home for half an hour, and she still hadn’t called Cam. She’d been dying to tell him about being invited to go to France, but it wasn’t going to be great news to him. She’d be leaving before him.

  Although things between them had been a little odd lately. She’d been the one to initiate almost every call. Certainly every visit. Maybe he was just being careful not to bother her, but it felt as if Cam might be pulling back a bit.

  They’d had those mad few days of the beach and the blackout when they’d been in each other’s pockets, and then things had slowed to a crawl. Her fault, of course. She’d imagined they’d find a rhythm, some kind of equilibrium. They hadn’t.

  Calling him with news this major didn’t feel right. She wanted to see him in person. Discuss it with him. But he’d be at his beer festival tomorrow. She could make a trip out there now, spend the night. But she wasn’t ready.

  She’d never thought she’d be the one to leave first. To cross an ocean. She’d figured Syracuse was a long way away from Brooklyn, but she could get there by train. Even work on the way up and back. It was doable. The fact that Cam would be in the same state had made all the difference. His departure wouldn’t be a real goodbye.

  France, on the other hand...

  She dialed his number and Cam picked up on the first ring.

  “If you’re still awake, I assume you can’t make it tomorrow.”

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t let you know earlier. Phillip and Simone stopped by to see me on their way to California. My day has been chaos, and I can’t possibly go with you tomorrow.”

  “Wow, that must have been quite a surprise. Hey, I’m glad you got to see them. Don’t sweat it about the festival. Besides, I’ll be crazy busy myself. I’d rather see you when we can actually talk and have some time to ourselves.”

  “Good, because I do want to see you. As soon as possible.”

  “I’ll call you when I get home if it’s not too late,” he said. “Maybe we can figure something out for Sunday.”

  “I’d like that. And good luck tomorrow. I hope you win.”

  “Thanks. You get some decent sleep, huh?”

  She said goodbye, then stared at her phone. She hadn’t lied. But she hadn’t told the whole truth, either.

  As she readied herself for bed, it bothered her that she wasn’t over the moon with joy and anticipation. Her thoughts were still on Cam, so of course she wasn’t 100 percent thrilled. Not yet.

  It wasn’t a surprise, though. She’d had her chance to exit earlier and hadn’t taken it, knowing this would be the result. No matter who left first, it was going to hurt. But it shouldn’t break her heart.

  After all, they were never meant to last.

  Right?

  18

  THE BEER FESTIVAL was jam-packed, especially because it was he
ld in the Albany Convention Center, where it was cool and easy to roam from booth to booth. Several members of the Four Sisters crew had driven up the day before to set up their booth and put their bottled beer on ice, but Gordon, Cam, Emmy and Amber were part of the second team that had left this morning. It had taken them more than three hours to get to the state capital and then they’d had to set up the coolers for the kegs, set out the tasting glasses and arrange the washing station. Since it wasn’t their first rodeo, they managed everything in time for the grand opening, which, thank God, wasn’t until eleven.

  Cam had entered five beers in the competition, a couple of old favorites and three of their new seasonal brews. He expected great things from the fruit wheat and the light lager, but it was a much bigger field of competition than his last time competing here.

  There was so much foot traffic that he had Tommy, the assistant manager at the brewery, rent another van and drive up all the kegs they had left of the competition beers.

  Three-thirty came and went without a break for Cam, and when his phone rang he considered letting it go to voice mail but decided to check in case it was Molly. It wasn’t. He answered anyway.

  “Dr. Inaba. How are you?”

  “Excited. Where the hell are you, in the middle of Times Square?”

  “Beer festival.” He cupped the phone closer to his face. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re a go. We not only got the funding we asked for, but we’re getting the upgrades to the equipment and facility. We should be able to officially start work by the end of October, but I’d like to get a running start. It would help if you, Lasky and Schroeder could come a bit earlier.”

  He let that sink in for a minute. Fully funded? Upgrades? Thank God the committee had taken the forecasts seriously. But the end of next month? While he knew it was possible, he honestly hadn’t expected things to move this fast. He’d have to go early anyway to find a place, get his things out of storage, buy a car. “This is great news,” he said. “Outstanding.”

  “You’ll be able to make the date?”

  “Honestly, you’ve caught me by surprise. It’s so much earlier than expected. I’ve got some things to wrap up here.”

  “I understand. Of course. You should know, though, that Dr. Becker won’t be rejoining us.”

  Becker wasn’t his favorite person, but he was their leading geneticist and his work on mutating resistant microorganisms had been critical to their research.

  “But don’t worry. I’ve known for a while, and I’ve been in touch with Hartig from Cambridge and Whitman from Johns Hopkins.”

  “Still, that’s a blow to the team. Let me know who you choose and I’ll study up on their work. Damn, this happened startlingly fast. I know you’ve worked your ass off for this. Thank you. I wish I could be more confident of my ETA, but I’ll do my best to make it work.”

  “I’m just glad you’re still part of the team. We need you there.”

  “Why, so you won’t run out of beer?”

  She laughed. “Is there a more important reason?”

  “None that I can think of. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Good. Talk to you soon. Go win some gold.”

  Cam put his phone away, his excitement tempered by the atmosphere. He’d been wishing all day that Molly could have been here, but now he wasn’t so sure. Having a firm start date made his departure utterly real and awfully imminent. It wouldn’t be the end of the world to tell his boss he was going to be delayed. She’d be fine with it. But could he really put off his arrival, knowing how much was riding on their work? Especially if the players had changed? It always took a while to get back into a working rhythm after a hiatus, and this would be even tougher.

  He should be ecstatic. This was huge news, better than he’d dared hope for. But it would be difficult to leave The Four Sisters. His family.

  Molly.

  Of course, he’d known he’d be leaving, but the news had hit him like a blow. Which made no sense. This work was the most important thing in his life. Wasn’t it?

  “You gonna stand there all day, princess?” Emmy asked. “There’s a line of people waiting to talk to you.”

  “Shut up. And that’s Dr. Princess to you.”

  She laughed and went to refill the ice in the casks.

  He didn’t take another break till seven, when the judging was finished. They still had to keep serving their two-ounce samples, but Cam was ready to bolt up to the front of the auditorium if their name was called. The awards ceremony was a long one, given they had eighty-four beer categories, not to mention the prizes that went to the different types of breweries. They could have entered two more categories—best brewery and brewmaster of the year for a small brewpub—but as a group they’d decided to hang their hopes on the beer itself.

  Fifteen minutes in, they won the damn gold medal for best fruit wheat beer for their Sweet Sisters Blueberry Wheat Ale. Cam was lifted off the ground by his old man, hugged to gasping by his insane sisters and given a hard smack on the back by Eric, who’d worked harder than anyone to keep the brewery running like a well-oiled machine.

  Of course, he dragged his dad up to the front of the auditorium to claim the medal, but there were no speeches, not with so many awards to be handed out. But it set the tone for the rest of the night and made Cam’s decisions about his future harder than ever.

  * * *

  THE NEXT DAY Molly arrived at The Four Sisters at a quarter to five. The atmosphere in the bar was as celebratory as expected, and all she wanted was to join in the festivities and be thrilled for Cam and the family. They’d worked so hard and accomplished so much. She was bursting with pride for Cameron, especially. It was his genius that had earned them two gold medals and two silvers.

  She didn’t see him. In fact, she recognized only a couple of people behind the bar, so she made her way next door to the brewery—where she found herself swept into a hug by Gordon Crawford. “Did he tell you?”

  She was still dangling in his arms, her feet not touching the floor, but she managed a “Yes. Congratulations!” before he put her down again. His smile could have lit up the city.

  “He’s a born brewmaster,” he said. “Right from the beginning, he was all about the chemistry. He studied water properties, yeasts, carbonation, cooling, fermentation. All of it when he was just a kid in school. Probably would have gotten me in big trouble if his teacher ever found out about us making beer together. Tell you the truth, there was a time I thought I’d been a fool to let a ten-year-old try beer, but he turned out a champion. I couldn’t be prouder.”

  Molly was grinning pretty brightly herself. Not just for Cam, but for his father, as well. He was clearly so proud of his son.

  “He’s upstairs, changing. It’s been a mess in here, cleaning out the kegs and the cooling systems. But nobody begrudges him leaving early. Especially to be with you.”

  “That’s a very nice thing to say.”

  “My son’s taken his own sweet time to find the right woman, and I believe it was worth the wait. I’ve never seen him so happy.”

  Molly didn’t know what to say. She’d never thought of herself as special, outside of certain wine circles. She hated that Gordon’s opinion was based on a sham. Even more, that he was mistaken. Cameron hadn’t found the right woman. The right woman wouldn’t have chosen France over his son. Over the chance to build a family.

  “Hey, you’re here!”

  She spun around at the sound of Cam’s voice, resolving to be nothing but happy for the rest of the night. She’d tell him about her news another time. Not while he was flying so high.

  As if the two men had rehearsed the move, Cameron picked her up exactly as his father had and spun her around. “We kicked ass at that festival. I wish you could have been there, because, honey, we just—”

  “Kicked ass.�
�

  He laughed, spun her around once more, then put her down, but not before he’d stolen a kiss that continued long after she was back on planet Earth. By the time they did break apart, everyone in the brewery was either staring at them or pointedly not staring. Cameron rolled his eyes, unconcerned, but she felt her face heat and her heart beat faster.

  “Come on. Let’s leave these jokers to their work. I’ve missed you. A hell of a lot.”

  “I want to hear all about the festival and what you’ve been doing. It seems like we haven’t seen each other in ages.”

  He sobered a bit, caught and kept her gaze. “I know. I won’t lie. It hasn’t been easy.” Then he took a quick look behind him and led her straight to the exit. Not the one that led to the bar. “You want to come upstairs?”

  “Now? I thought—”

  “We can go out to dinner if you want,” he said. “But Karla’s made us something special, which won’t be ready until about six-thirty.”

  “That’s so nice. Of course we’ll wait.”

  “Good. I’ve put in a specific order for no blackouts, no emergencies, no interruptions at all. Before and after we eat.” He took her hand as they walked to the staircase. “You can still stay, right?”

  “I can. But I have to be up—”

  “Before the sun. I figured. Hey, if you want, after we eat we can go back to your place so you can sleep in.”

  She didn’t answer him as they climbed the staircase. It was very likely that she’d never again meet a man as terrific as Cam. He was exceptional in so many ways. She wished she could just be grateful for the brief time she’d had with him, instead of dreading their goodbye.

  He’d just set the bar so damn high.

  “Iced tea? Soda? Iced coffee?”

  The door hadn’t even closed behind him yet and he was already making sure she was taken care of. “I’ll get the drinks. You tell me about your spectacular wins.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment. Just stared at her, the joy that had him practically glowing mere minutes ago dimming with each passing second.