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 be 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?”
“Practice my lines in front of the mirror like you told me to.”
“Good boy. Remember to enunciate your words, and are you practicing the vocal exercise I gave you?” It was the same one she’d learned after her first failed audition. It was a way to help exaggerate pronunciation so people who had nosebleed seats could still hear.
“Yup!”
“Let me hear it.”
“A proper copper coffee pot,” he said, perfectly enunciating every word.
“That’s sounds awesome. You’re going to knock them dead.”
“Why would I want someone to die?” he asked.
“That’s not what it means.” Daisy laughed. “It means you’re going to perform so well that you’re going to impress everyone. You’ll be the talk of the night.”
“Awesome,” he exclaimed.
“I got to go, bud. But at Sunday dinner let’s practice in front of Dylan one more time. What do you say?”
“Yes!”
“All right go practice.”
“Bye, Aunt Daisy! You’re the best.”
A warmth filled her heart until it felt like it might burst. “You’re pretty great yourself.” She hung up the phone and hugged it against her chest. “Now if that wasn’t the sweetest damn thing.”
She tossed her phone onto the passenger seat and headed to her grandparent’s house where she got caught up in her research. She wrote down a few more ideas then changed out of her Five Leaf Brewery t-shirt and into something a little more Saturday night appropriate. Not that many people dressed up for a night out at Calhoun’s, but she wanted to celebrate.
Mason liked her ideas, and the more research she did the giddier she got. She loved the idea of adding entertainment, but what she loved even more was the opportunity to give locals a chance to showcase their talent.
Growing up, she’d never had that, and maybe a brewery wasn’t a place for a high school kid, but at least they knew when they got older they would have a venue where they could perform. It might not be a big stage, but sometimes size really didn’t matter. All that mattered was having an outlet to share your talent.
Maybe she would even grab a mic and sing a few songs. It would be nice not to have the pressure of a casting director staring her down.
With one more final touch up of her makeup, she grabbed her bag and headed out, excited for all the new possibilities to come.