26. Ava
Cameron
What are you wearing?
My cheeks flamed as Bryce started chuckling from the other side of the bar.
“Do I even want to know what that text says that’s turning you into a tomato?”
“No, your brother’s being a jerk.”
“Sounds like him.” He plunked down a rack of clean glasses and went to ensure they were completely dry. “Things with you are still good, then?”
Things with Cameron and I were going so well, I kept waiting for the shoe to drop, even though I was trying really hard to trust not only his words from our first weekend together but also my mom’s. It was after Labor Day weekend, and he was back in Denver, prepping for the first game of the season. I was going out Sunday morning with Isaiah to watch the game with him, and then Cameron and I were headed back to New Haven for the day after we both finished work the following Monday. He’d stay until Tuesday night.
It was the first time I’d not only see him play a professional game in person, but the first time I went back to his house after the summer debacle.
I spun around and took a picture of me in a short-sleeve, crop top gray shirt I had on and a hint of my cutoff jean shorts. Bryce was in the background, holding up his towel and making a stupid face. After texting the pic off to Cameron so he’d stop the ridiculous and salacious texts, I set my phone on the counter.
“So. What is it you’re looking for?”
My full-time work had picked up, and I’d been so busy creating content for Jumpin’ Beans it’d taken me an additional week to get out to Bryce’s brewery. He was closed now, currently only open at four Monday through Wednesday and then longer on the weekends, starting at ten, so we had the place to ourselves.
“Everything.” He sighed and dropped the towel, pressing his hands to the bar. He wore the look of a guy much younger than me, but exhaustion showed in his eyes and his messy hair. Bryce Kelley was three years younger than me, he only recently turned twenty-one, but he was such a spitting image of Cameron and Caleb, it was uncanny. “Honestly, I’m not even sure. But I need to do something to increase business heading into winter, and if I don’t start pulling a larger profit, Dalton’s going to start walking around with his “I told you you’d fail” face on.”
I grabbed my iPad and pulled up the Notes app and grabbed my stylus. Opening a new document for notes, I asked, “What have you done so far?”
“Advertising in the Plum County paper.”
“Okay. What else?”
I glanced up, anticipating there’d be more. The man was only twenty-one, but he grew up in the age of technology. “Word of mouth?”
“Bryce—” I sounded like my mother, chock-full of disappointment.
“I know! I know! I need to do more, which is why I need your help. But everyone knows us, and people are always so curious about us and the ranch, I figured that alone would bring people out there, and it has. I’m turning a profit—a small one, but it’s there. And this summer was good, but no one’s going to want to spend the afternoon with their kids here in the winter.”
“What do you plan to do with the animals once the weather hits?”
Had to hand it to Bryce, he was creative, and he’d thought of a half-dozen great ideas for the brewery. Since I’d avoided it since its opening, I was impressed when I walked through it. The outdoor patio, cornhole games, and petting zoo were by far the biggest attractors, and he was right. He even had a self-feeding station where they could get a bag of feed for one dollar. It was a great place for a family with small children to spend an afternoon with friends, but in the middle of a snowy winter, parents wouldn’t bundle their kids up to go pet goats for hours.
“The animals will stay out here, and I’ll be here anyway, along with the employees. I plan on spending most of the winter creating more craft brews here, so I can eventually make everything here.”
His brew room was small, but still impressive. Through the glass windows behind where he stood at the bar, five large brew tanks were made of sparkling stainless steel.
“How much beer are you currently making on site?”
“We only released two individual brews this year. They did well, but they could be bigger. I’ve been working with some brewer friends I’ve met in Denver that have helped me out with that end. But right now, almost all our beer on tap is from Denver sellers and makers.”
“Okay.” I tapped my stylus against my screen. “So, can you make a holiday brew? You could host a holiday open house. We could also get the word out you’re open for private parties if that’s something you could handle.”
Bryce pushed his lips to the side. “I hadn’t thought of private parties. What would be the cost on my end for that?”
“I’ll look into it. Reach out to breweries who might have something in place.” I scribbled down the note. “First, though, we’ll work on your social media presence. I’ll come out this week and take pictures if customers are okay with that, but I can also take pics of your back room and the animals and things. Get started with building your online presence better. What do you think about TikTok?”
He scowled at me, the move so like Cameron it was unnerving. “I’m not doing none of those dancing videos.”
I could imagine it completely. All the Kelley boys out here, dancing through the tables. Maybe on them… “It’d get the ladies out here,” I teased.
Bryce rolled his eyes, but before he could come back with a smart-ass response, I continued.
“I didn’t mean dancing videos, but we could film you working, zoom in on the drinks being poured, kids at the zoo, again with parent permission, or just take clips of guys playing cornhole, that kind of thing. People don’t want to only see pictures, they like feeling the energy of a place. Set to trending sounds with the right wording, it could really help.”
“How about I think about that, but in the meantime, you start with pictures?”
“I can do that.”
“I… uh…” He scratched the side of his head and frowned. “Probably should have asked first, but how much do you charge for this?”
“Nothing.” There was no way I’d take money from Bryce.
From what I knew, Dalton had been massively opposed to Bryce’s plan, but their sister Meredith had convinced him to let Bryce do what he needed to do to find his own way. Reluctantly, Dalton handed over ten acres to Bryce, and he’d spent the last year getting the brewery up and running. Besides, to me, he was the youngest Kelley and a part of Cameron’s family. I wouldn’t charge him anything.
“I have a marketing budget,” he said. “I just haven’t used it.”
“You let me help get you more traffic and customers, and then we can talk. But honestly, Bryce, this is way more fun for me than it is work. And I don’t mind doing this for free if you let me use the work I do in my portfolio if I ever decide I might be able to do this kind of stuff full-time.”
“Deal.” He reached out and shook my hand. “Sounds good.”
“Great. So you… go do whatever it is you do, and I’ll wander out and snap some pictures. Mind if I take some of you, though? As you’re working? Not planned or posed or anything like that.”
“Seriously?”
He shoved a hand through his longer, thicker hair, much like Caleb’s, and probably three months past needing a haircut. The waves flopped back down. He was wearing a forest green skintight T-shirt that showed his body well, with the words Kelley Brews and a KB logo on his left pec.
Girls would turn frazzled over the image of him doing something simple like wiping down tables.
“For better or worse, you’re the face of the company. It’s all yours, and you’ve done well with it so far. Be proud of that.”
That faint blush popped on his cheeks, and he shook his head like he was attempting to shake off the compliment. “Fine. Do whatever you need. I trust you.”
“You won’t be sorry.” I lifted my phone and snapped a picture of him smiling at me and flipped it around. “See? You’re so cute…”
He tossed a towel at me. “Don’t bully me just because I’m the baby. Get to work.”
“Man. You are one tough boss.”
He went back to drying glasses. I wandered out to the brew room first. It was clean, showing off not only Bryce’s pride in his restaurant but also his meticulousness and talent. I spent another half an hour taking pictures of the indoor, the high-top tables with glistening wood-stained tops and black metal barstools. The entire interior of the place was rustic meets industrial, with pipes showing but dark stained wood that still left it feeling warm and cozy inside. The doors to the back were open, so I took more pictures of the outdoor patio and the games available, ignoring the larger portion still under construction, and then spent the rest of the time playing with the goats and taking pictures. The chickens were in their run, so I snuck into the chicken coop and took pictures that few who visited would ever get to see. Like the inside of the brewery, the chicken coop was cleaned with fresh hay and feed for them. No eggs, which meant Bryce would have collected them that morning.
Once I had everything I needed to at least get started, I went back inside and found Bryce working at the brew tanks. I snapped a few pictures of them, but only a couple.
I’d work up to getting him comfortable with his picture taken.
“Do the chickens lay eggs?” I asked once he was wiping his hands off on a towel he flung over his shoulder.
“Yeah. I gathered them this morning. Why, want some?”
“I’d never say no to that, I was wondering what you do with them.”
“Use them here when I can, take them to Mom. A few of the workers have started helping Mom with her gardens and going to the farmers’ market on the weekends so they get what’s leftover.”
“Oh. That’s cool. Ever think of getting your own tent there?”
Bryce grinned and gave us a nervous chuckle. “I’ve got a gazillion ideas, Ava. But I’m trying not to overextend too fast. Long term, though. Yeah. And once we can produce our own brews, I plan to do off-site sales.”
While I liked him not overextending himself, the farmers’ market was a golden opportunity for relatively little cost.
“You should look into that. It’s the entire county, and who knows who comes from outside of it. A tent is what, one hundred dollars?”
“Something like that.”
“I can work on flyers, or things like business cards for you to hand out.”
“All right. I’d imagine this time of year, the markets would be slower, though.”
“Let me look into costs. Whatever I do print, I’d need you to cover the cost, but even if you could get the brew you do have ready for sales, you never know what could happen.”
“All right. I’ll figure that out. Let me know when you have the costs? For the market and the printing?”
“Will do. You doing anything this weekend?”
“You’re looking at it.” He spread out his arms and smiled. I snapped a picture before that smile disappeared.
“Good. I’ll get back to you next week some time.”
Now that I had a plan for Jumpin’ Beans and enough pictures as well as videos for Instagram Reels and TikToks, I could focus on a new project.
“Sounds good. Thanks again, Ava.”
“No problem. I really am impressed with what you’ve done here.”
“Said with all the doting love of an older sister.” He rolled his eyes.
I made a choking sound. Sister?
“Don’t die on me.” He laughed. “Didn’t think that would freak you out so much.”
It didn’t. Well, it shouldn’t. But yeah, sister. What an odd thing.
My phone buzzed, and I glanced down.
“Another inappropriate text from my brother?”
Since that was most likely exactly what it was, I ignored Bryce. “See you around, kid.”
“Not nice!” he shouted back. “Sister!”
I left the backroom and headed to the bar to gather my things and called back, “You deserved it! Bye, Brycey!”
He was still shouting obscenities as I left Kelley Brews and pulled up Cameron’s text.
Next time I see you, you’re going to be wearing nothing but that pretty smile.