26. Volunteering Your Boyfriend
VOLUNTEERING YOUR BOYFRIEND
“ I t’s nice to meet you, Elias,” Phoebe’s mother said, extending her hand.
“Elias, my parents, Tim and Grace, and my brother, Matt. You know Ben, and this is his fiancée, Eve.”
He walked to everyone, shaking hands. “Nice to meet you all too,” he said.
“We offered for Phoebe to stay with us last night but understand that she didn’t feel comfortable doing that,” her mother said.
“No,” she said. “I’ve never stayed the night here with a guy and don’t need to start now.”
“You could have stayed in the pool house,” Matt said, smirking at her.
“So you could embarrass me,” she said. “No way.”
“What am I missing?” Elias asked.
“Phoebe is afraid of the pool house,” Ben said, wiggling his eyebrows.
“I think the pool house is lovely,” Eve said. “What is there to be afraid of?”
“Ask Matt,” she said, lifting her chin.
She turned to her brother and fixed him with a stare. “Phoebe had a sleepover with five friends when she was a teen.”
“Fifteen,” she said. “My fifteenth birthday. You got to stay there with your friends all the time when you had sleepovers. The same with Ben. It was my turn.”
“Matt decided to sneak out around midnight when the lights went off,” Ben said. “He’d been watching for it.”
“You were in college,” her mother said. “How do you know?”
“Because we were texting and he told me what he was doing,” Ben said. “I might have given him some suggestions.”
She got up and went over to smack her brother’s arm. “I never knew that. I’m going to have my boyfriend beat you both up.”
There was silence over that and she realized she might have slipped there.
“Don’t you think you should let the story be told before you start volunteering your boyfriend to be your bodyguard?” Matt asked.
“I don’t need the details,” Elias said. “If she wants me to take care of something for her, I will. No one would consider messing with our sisters.”
“You said Laken was the boss,” she said, laughing. She had to turn this into a joke now that she slipped with those words.
“She is but that means nothing,” he said. “Stand behind your woman. Always.”
“ Your woman? ” she asked, clearing her throat.
Matt laughed. “I don’t even have to say anything else. This is entertaining. Give it to him, Phoebe.”
“No disrespect,” Elias said. “It’s only a term. It’s not like I’m calling you my little lady. I know damn well you can take care of yourself. If you tell any woman in my family otherwise I’m going to have many people pissed at me.”
If he wasn’t looking like he was nervous she might have thought he was joking, but then he winked.
Her mother was smiling and her father shook his head while he hid his smile.
She moved over and pinched his arm. “I expected Matt to pick on me today but not you.”
“You were telling a story,” he said. “Does she always avoid or, I’m sorry, redirect her stories and thoughts?”
“Dude,” Ben said. “This seriously is entertaining. Good for you. Saying she was scattered got me into trouble.”
“I’m not scattered,” she argued. How the hell had this turned into everyone ganging up and airing out all her traits and fears?
“Of course you’re not,” her mother said. “You have Elias with you and no one is going to get you in the pool house. Matt knows better.”
“Is someone going to tell me what happened?” Eve asked.
“Matt and one of his friends came out at midnight and made noises. Animal noises. Some girls were scared. They thought a bear was going to get us.”
“A bear?” Elias asked, laughing.
“She wasn’t the smartest of my friends,” she said. “We all told her she was being silly.”
“But then I knocked over the garbage cans,” Matt said.
“And made other noises. He opened the glass doors too and sprayed this horrible scent inside.”
“I wanted them to think there was a skunk that got inside. The girls screamed and ran out,” Matt said, roaring with laughter.
“Which woke us up,” her father said. “And we got all the girls in the house and had me looking around the yard until Matt confessed.”
“I got grounded for three weeks,” Matt said, shrugging. “Totally worth it.”
“That is kind of funny,” Elias said. “We did nothing like that. My mother would kill us. But we did a lot of wrestling. My brother Rowan could be convinced to try anything. When someone got in trouble, Rowan was involved, or Foster since he was a hothead.”
“Meaning someone egged on Rowan to get on Foster’s nerves?” she asked, looking at him.
“Maybe,” he said. “But the two of them started wrestling. Rowan kneed Foster in the groin or something. I’m not sure, but Foster decked him. That was the end of it and everyone got grounded for a month.”
“That’s not fair you got grounded,” Phoebe said. “If you didn’t participate in the fight.”
“Yeah, legal reasoning means nothing in my house when people are fighting. Anyone within sight got grounded. If for no other reason than they should have been trying to stop it.”
“I like your mother’s thinking,” her mother said. “And if I had known Ben had a part in all of that, he would have gotten in trouble too.”
“Guess I got lucky,” Ben said, putting his arm around Eve. “But I was in trouble enough for other things.”
“What’s for lunch, Mom?” Phoebe asked.
“Redirecting at its best,” her father said. “Always.”
“I’m onto her,” Elias said. “She thinks she gets away with it.”
She frowned. “My parents used to be the only ones that let me get away with it,” she said.
“Then I’m glad to know you’re around her, Elias,” her mother said. “I’ll know someone is keeping her grounded.”
She wanted to sputter over that, but Elias pulled her close to him on the couch where they’d been sitting. “I think we are doing what we both need right now equally.”
She turned her head to see his smile and noticed that her brothers and father were watching, but no one said a word.
Her mother nodded and that was all she needed to know.
Hours later they were on the road heading home. “What was going on with you and Ben before I left? Work talk?”
“About what?” he asked. “And by the way, your family was fine. I’m used to dealing with more and much worse than that. You’ll be fine with my family too.”
She cleared her throat. “Now it’s you who is avoiding me,” she said. “But you can just tell me it’s none of my business.”
“I’m not going to say that,” he said. “Just making a point. As for Ben, something happened at work a few weeks ago. Many might consider it insignificant, but I was annoyed, and the news circulated.”
“What happened?” she asked. “If you want to share.”
She listened while he explained the order mess-up and how many people didn’t speak up when they could have and cost the company money.
“It’s frustrating. It’s taken me a long time to delegate a lot of things and ordering was one of them so now I’ll be taking that back. Or at least making sure someone I trust is double-checking it.”
“Ben would be the same way. The person who messed up on the order, has it happened before?”
“Not that I’m aware of. At least not with supplies like that, but she orders everything.
That is her job. We go through so much that she is full time talking with many to get the right supplies and staying on top of them.
It’s possible she just punched in the wrong number.
Or someone told her to change it, but she would have said that, I’d think. ”
“Did you talk to her about it?” she asked.
“I did,” he said. “Her name is Tracey and she swears she ordered the right stuff. That she knows, but there wasn’t much she could do when the invoice showed something else.
Skip is one of my guys in the plant and he signed for the shipment.
He claims he looked it all over. I think because everything was in boxes and pallets, he went through and checked the numbers matched but not what was inside. ”
“I can see both sides of it so far,” she said.
“When the supplies were unloaded by someone else, they should have been checked also, but at that point, no one was paying attention. Not even the brewers who opened the barley and knew it wasn’t what I normally use.”
“I think people find it easier to stay silent than speak up,” she said. “In life in general.”
“Agreed,” he said. “I made it clear at all levels to double and triple-check everything. We made the best of it and moved on. Your brother commented about us changing barley in some of our brews. I was stunned he’d find out and asked how he did.
I explained what happened. The last thing I need is to lose this contract over a mistake. ”
“I doubt that would happen,” she said.
“Don’t be so sure,” he said. “If I sign a contract for a specific formula and it’s going to be attached to my name, I want what I’m getting. It could be a nightmare for both of us if something went wrong. Thankfully it wasn’t anything that had to do with the collaboration.”
“Then nothing to worry about,” she said.
His head went back and forth. “I don’t see it that way,” he said. “I asked how Ben found out about it. He said it was on a message board about us trying something new in an upcoming beer. Nothing about throwing out several batches, thankfully.”
“How would that make it to a message board unless it was staff involved?”
“Exactly,” he said. “Staff all sign every form they can that binds them from not releasing formulas, and trust me when I tell you, the base of all our brews, only a few know.”
“That is how it is at Fierce. Ben is one that knows,” she said. “I’m aware of that.”
“Exactly,” he said. “But for this collaboration, the part that I’m sharing with Fierce is being made by me.
No one else’s hands are touching it. I’d already decided that to begin with but had never told anyone.
Mason has to do the same when he gives me their portion that I’m producing at my brewery. ”
“Smart,” she said. “What are you going to do about that information leaking at work?”
“See, I’m looking at it that way too,” he said. “I have to decide if I let Braylon know. He’ll show up with West and I’m not sure if that will cause more issues.”
“Do you want my opinion?” she asked.
“Sure,” he said.
“From a legal standpoint, that is a scare tactic. People are afraid of attorneys most times.”
“You’re grinning,” he said, looking at her. “You like that power, don’t you?”
“Just a tiny bit,” she said. “But I don’t hold it over people unless I need to.”
“Braylon and West know when to do things and when not to,” he said. “But this is more personal than other businesses.”
“This is family,” she said. “I think if it were my client, I’d send out a mass email as a reminder that any information on boards or spoken to unauthorized personnel about operations is considered a breach of contract and could result in immediate disciplinary action or termination of employment.
You’re not pointing fingers, but there might be a lot of guilty parties doing tiny things and it will stop with any luck. ”
“Like Tristian telling his wife information,” he said.
“That’s right. It falls under it,” she said. “I’m positive you are familiar with a lot of message boards for beer.”
“I am,” he said. “Though this one I wasn’t and thankfully it’s small enough. All it said was we were working on a new recipe. Nothing more, but it’s still insider knowledge and I’m not sure where it’s coming from.”
“No damage was done, right?”
“Not yet,” he said.
“Then start small,” she said. “See what happens. Then plant traps.”
He laughed and turned to look at her. “You’re joking, right?”
“Nope,” she said. “I can’t believe I’m saying this. My grandfather was a very untrustworthy man. He was always planting traps to catch people.”
“That’s sad,” he said.
“It is, but sometimes to protect what is yours you need to play dirty. Wouldn’t you rather know now before more damage is done?”
“I would,” he said. “I’ll think about it.”
“Is there anyone you trust one hundred percent in the brewery?” she asked. “I mean, you can buy some people, but I’m getting carried away and thinking like a lawyer now.”
“I trust myself,” he said. “And my family. Kyle is about as close as I could get, but maybe it’s best to not have anyone else involved. There is nothing to set because it was a mistake and then talked about.”
“There you go,” she said. “But you’ll be watching and thinking.”
He turned to look at her again. “Like I’ve been doing with you.”
She lifted her eyebrows. “Me?”
“Watching you every minute I can. Thinking of you all the time. Am I alone there?”
“No,” she mumbled.
He put his hand out and she slapped hers into it. “I know your family liked me.”
“They did,” she said. “You’re full of yourself though.”
“No, I’m not. Matt told me I’d do when you were in the bathroom. Then he said he almost felt sorry for me.”
Her jaw dropped. “What a jerk. Why would he say that?”
“Because he loves you like I love my sisters. It didn’t bother me.”
“There is no reason for him to feel sorry for you,” she argued. “I’m not that hard to be around, am I?”
“I think you keep me on my toes,” he said. “I need it. It goes back to what my mother said.”
“Having to work at it,” she said.
He squeezed her fingers. “You’re worth it, Phoebe. I might not be around enough, but I want you to know I’m always thinking of you. Maybe more than I should, but I can’t seem to stop it.”
“Neither can I,” she said.