Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
AVERY
“ F uck him,” I said, slamming my phone down on the counter in front of Sterling. “Fuck him and fuck every single person who thinks I can’t do this. Goddammit.”
“What happened? Avery, who was that?” Sterling asked.
I crossed my arms over my chest and started to pace, stomping across the hardwood floor, my boots echoing in angry thumps. “That was fucking Bob James.”
“Do I know who Bob James is?” Sterling asked cautiously.
“Bob James runs Wild Haven Brewing.”
“Oh, you guys were going to do that thing with the toys for kids for Christmas or whatever with Daisy and that barbecue place out on Route 191?”
“ Were being the operative term,” I said, squeezing my eyes shut to fight back my anger.
“What happened?” she asked, shoving back her chair and rounding the counter.
“Fucking Matthew is what happened. Fucking Matthew telling everybody I’m in over my head and can’t handle running the brewery.
That I’m unreliable. And under all of it was the ‘stay in the kitchen’ bullshit line I’ve been hearing since I started this.
No fucking wonder there’s not a lot of women brewing beer.
It’s not that we don’t like it. It’s that we have to deal with fuckheads like this.
I make a goddamn good beer, and I can run a business. Motherfucker.”
I bent over, bracing my hands on my knees, letting my head hang down. “Why did I ever get involved with him?”
“Hey,” Sterling said, crossing the room. She pulled me back to standing and hugged me tightly. “Hey, don’t do this. First of all, you hired him because he was qualified, and you wanted to learn what he knew. And you learned, right?”
“Yeah,” I said grudgingly.
“So, he also turned out to be a manipulative asshole. That happens. Not your fault.”
“I should have known.”
“Jesus, Avery. I mean, we all tell ourselves that after we fuck up, but the truth is none of us are perfect. We use the best judgment we have in the moment, and Matthew puts on a really good front. I’m pretty good at reading people, and even after I sobered up, I didn’t see what a shit he was.
He was cute, and you never have time to date.
Yeah, okay, hooking up with your employee, not great judgment. ”
“Yeah, I figured that out.” I hated remembering what an idiot I’d been.
“Hey, I’m not giving you shit. Lesson learned, but it doesn’t mean you deserve this.”
“Goddamn right.” I spun around and paced in front of the counter, my feet hitting the floor in angry thuds.
Sterling was right. I didn’t deserve this blowback.
But it had happened. So, what came next?
That’s what I had to focus on. “It’s not like this event was make or break for Sawyers Bend Brewing.
I mean, I’m probably better off spending my time really getting a handle on running the brewery by myself. But it was going to be fun.”
“What about Daisy?” Sterling asked.
“Daisy’s a rock star, and she bailed. She told Bob that if I’m out, she’s out.”
“I love Daisy,” Sterling said, “and not just for her brownies.”
“I know. I owe her a thank you. It could have been good for them.”
Sterling shrugged. “Daisy and Grams have more business than they can handle. Those pop-ups that they do? Best lunch ever. Now that J.T. is so busy with school, they’ve had to hire extra hands to keep up.
My guess is Daisy signed on half because it would have been fun to work with you, and half to get presents to needy kids for Christmas.
She and Grams will probably do something.
Maybe you and Daisy can figure it out together.
You could get her to try your new version of the fall brew and make an apple pie that goes with it. ”
“That would be awesome. Sweet and spicy. I can give her the flavor profile—” The idea exploded into my brain, chasing off my anger. “Sterling, you’re brilliant. ”
“I know. It’s a curse.” She slung an arm around my shoulder, giving me a tight hug. “You okay?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. I’m just frustrated and annoyed that the default is always doubt that I can run my brewery.
Because I’m young. Because I’m a woman. Because I’m a Sawyer.
There’s always a question mark. I don’t want to have to prove myself all the time.
I just want to make really good beer and sell it at a decent price so I can keep my doors open and pay my staff. All of the rest of this sucks.”
“Yeah, it really does. You want some good news?”
“Yeah.” I suddenly remembered why I’d been nervous about coming in. But Sterling didn’t look like she was digging for sisterly gossip. This was something else. “What’s up?” I asked.
“I know it’s been a while, but I gave Emmett the name of that jewelry designer.”
I allowed myself a wave of relief that she didn’t know about West, at least not yet. There was no way she’d be talking about the jewelry designer if she knew I’d spent last night with him.
“Emmett?” I asked.
“You know, Hawk’s friend.” She bit her lower lip, pausing.
I decided to take pity on her. “I know, the one we’re not supposed to talk about, who kidnapped Quinn.
He’s helping you learn cybersecurity stuff.
” I knew cybersecurity stuff didn’t really cover what Sterling was doing, but the accounting software on my laptop was as techy as I got, so it was the best I could do .
“Yeah,” Sterling confirmed. “He works for Sinclair Security now. And if those guys can’t find somebody, they don’t exist. He said this one took a little bit because they had an all-hands-on-deck situation over there.
So, he had to put it on the back burner for a few days, and then the name the jewelry designer works under is actually a pseudonym, a DBA, doing business as kind of thing.
So, it took a little bit longer to find out who she is, but—” Sterling lifted a Post-it. “I have an address.”
“No shit. Really?” The call from Bob James and Matthew’s bullshit slid into the background. “That’s very interesting.” I reached for the Post-it, but Sterling tucked it in her back pocket.
“Nuh-uh, not without me.”
The front door opened. “Not without you, what?” I heard West say from behind me.
“Hey,” I said, spinning around to see him filling the doorway, his cheeks pink from the chill in the air, his dark eyes curious.
A stab of pure lust hit me so hard I almost gasped. Fuck. I had it bad.
“What are you doing here?” Sterling asked, one eyebrow raised in suspicion.
“I heard Avery was here.” West looked between us and grinned. “Since the two of you together means trouble, I thought I’d stop in. Where are you going?” he asked Sterling.
“Nowhere,” she lied.
“Uh-huh.” West crossed his arms over his chest. “Sterling? ”
She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. “Nowhere,” she said again.
“Look,” West shook his head. “I talked to Griffen. I know you two aren’t going to let this go. Fair enough. I want to find out who killed your father and put Ford in prison just as much as you do. I’m not having a lot of luck doing it my way,” he admitted. “And I know you can do things I can’t.”
Sterling’s defiant expression cracked, the side of her mouth curving in a grin. “True,” she agreed.
“I’m not going to break the law, but if you have information—something we can follow up on—I can help you with that.
If we find who did this to your dad, to your brother, we need to do it right,” he said.
“So they can end up in prison. The last thing we want is to find out who it is and fuck it up, so they get off on a technicality.”
Sterling dropped her arms to her sides. “Yeah, good point.” She looked at me, raising an eyebrow.
I let out a breath. I was at my limit with men telling me what to do for the day.
But this was West. He wasn’t like that, even when he was being bossy and annoying.
And on top of that, working together wasn’t the worst idea in the world.
It didn’t mean he had to be in charge. I looked at him, absorbing the patience and intelligence in his eyes.
I could trust West. I wanted to trust West. He wasn’t Matthew.
He wouldn’t diminish or disregard me. He could have tried to manipulate, but instead, he’d laid it out.
I turned to Sterling. “I think we should let him help.” Sterling rolled her eyes. “He has a gun,” I added. “Who knows, maybe the jewelry designer is dangerous. ”
“Whatever,” she said. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the Post-it. “This is the address of the jewelry designer we’re looking for.”
West reached for it. Sterling yanked it out of reach. “You have to take one of us with you, if not both of us.”
“I’m not going to investigate while trailing a team of civilians behind me,” he said.
“Not a team of civilians,” I added. “Just me.”
“Hey,” Sterling said.
“You want to go instead?” I asked.
She handed the address to West and shrugged.
“Actually, I get more of a kick out of finding the information, though Emmett did most of the work this time. And that address is up by the Highlands. It’s going to take more time than I have to spare to go out there and talk to her.
So, fine. But you have to take Avery. No going off on your own with our info. ”
“Agreed,” West said. He looked at the address. “We don’t have time today. I’ll pick you up after work. We can look at our schedules and figure it out.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said, trying to keep the flush of pink out of my cheeks and failing as I felt them get hot.
He wasn’t even doing anything—hands to himself, not staring at my boobs, no smirk.
He didn’t need any of that. Just those dark eyes on mine, the promise in them, the way his strong hands folded the Post-it so precisely before tucking it in his shirt pocket.
I knew what those hands could do. And then there was that mouth.
I let out a breath and looked back at Sterling. She was observing the two of us, her eyes bright. Fucking fuck. She didn’t know where I’d spent last night, I was sure. But now...
“You’re picking Avery up from work?” she asked innocently.
West shoved his hands in his pockets. “Griffen, Hawk, and I agreed that since the incident at the Orchard, we don’t want her on her own too much. Not until we figure out what’s going on.”
“Good plan,” Sterling said.
“Hey, you’re supposed to be on my side,” I said.
“Not in this.” Sterling shook her head. “I like you in one piece without, you know, knife wounds and stitches. So, yeah, I’m with them.”
“Do as I say, not as I do?” I asked, making sure my voice dripped with sarcasm, remembering the way she’d gone running off with Forrest on their scavenger hunt with the mob following them. She hadn’t exactly been playing it safe then.
“Something like that,” she said, and sent me a prime little sister smirk.
“Anyway, you should know,” she said to West, “Matthew’s spreading gossip about Avery, like she’s in over her head, can’t handle the brewery, bullshit like that.
Avery just lost the thing she was going to do with Wild Haven Brewing and Sweetheart, and that barbecue place. I just thought you’d want to know.”
“Sterling!” I shouted. I did not need my baby sister telling my—whatever West was—about Matthew’s big mouth.
“Hey, am I wrong?” She looked back at West. “You want to know that, right?”
“Yes,” he said, his eyes on me. “Yes, I want to know. ”
I knew he wasn’t talking as the police chief now. He was talking as my lover. Ugh, weird. “Fuck, Sterling,” was all I could come up with.
She was completely unrepentant. “He should know.”
“Fine,” I spit out.
“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” West said.
“You’re not going to go beat him up?” Sterling demanded.
“I can’t assault a citizen of my town for spreading gossip, even if he is a raging asshole,” West said.
As ticked as I was at the two of them talking about me like I wasn’t there, I found myself smiling at his reaction.
“You’re not going to do anything?” she pressed. “I told you, so you’d do something.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to do anything,” West said.
Sterling grinned. “Ooh, sneaky West. All right, I’ll be patient.”
“I need to talk to Avery, get more information,” he said to Sterling before turning to me. “Are you two done here?”
I knew if I stayed, Sterling would just give me the third degree about whatever was going on with West. I didn’t have an answer, which meant I wasn’t sticking around. “I guess.”
“Then let’s swing by Sweetheart and grab something, and then I’ll walk you back to the brewery.”
“If you’ve got time,” I said. “I wouldn’t mind a cookie and a chai.”
Sterling watched the two of us, her arms crossed over her chest, one eyebrow raised.
I knew she was recording every detail for later, but later was later.
And now I was headed for a cookie and a tea with my new boyfriend, lover—I didn’t know what he was.
I didn’t like any of those words. I just knew as we walked out the door that there wasn’t anyone I wanted to be strolling through town with more than Weston Garfield. And that was enough for now.