Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Damn. It was starting to feel like every person in Jade River was going to hurt me if I ever hurt Shawn. I was glad to know the whole town loved him that much.
“I know it in my bones,” I told her. “You have my word.”
“Good, kid,” she said, squeezing my shoulders. “Now sit down and get ready to help me with the next round of trivia.”
23
SHAWN
I sat down at the bar, running my palms over the smooth, glossy wood.
“Afternoon, Shawn,” Jax said from behind the counter. He was wearing a backwards cap as usual, but he looked happier than he normally was. “Rush has been waiting for you to get here.”
“You look chipper today,” I told Jax.
“I finally made the Ramos Gin Fizz right,” Jax said. “It takes so much shaking, and I used to think it was gross to have any cocktail with egg white in it.”
“Egg white, huh?”
Jax nodded. “I was like, bro, it’s egg, why would you want that in a fancy drink? But then I tried one, and it was delicious.”
“Rush makes them particularly well,” I agreed, amused at Jax’s story.
“So I tried making them myself. And boss was always telling me all the little ways it wasn’t right, because you know how he is,” Jax said.
“He’s anal about everything,” I offered.
Jax snorted. “I was just going to say he’s a perfectionist. But yeah. I thought I’d never make him happy. But I finally did. And it was awesome. And he’s been working on that thing for you all day—”
“Hey,” Rush’s voice came from around the corner, and he emerged from the back hallway a moment later. “You weren’t supposed to tell him about that.”
“Shit. Sorry, boss,” Jax said.
“Don’t sweat it,” Rush told him.
“Goddamn, you look even better than usual,” I said, running my hand along his silky-soft black collared shirt as he came over to kiss me.
“We had photos taken for the new Jade Brewery website earlier today,” Rush said. “This is one of my favorite shirts.”
“I’ll try not to rip the buttons when I yank all of your clothes off later tonight, then,” I said. “Sorry, Jax.”
He was still across the bar, focused intently on muddling mint leaves in a glass. “Don’t worry about it. PDA never bothered me. I’ve always thought it was great. Why should I care if other people are making themselves happy around me?”
“I like that attitude,” I told him. “More straight guys need to be like you.”
“Especially when gay guys have PDA,” Jax said. “Like, I want to watch gay guys kiss. To learn about it, you know?” He gave me an awkward laugh and then got back to making his drink.
“Now you have to come with me,” Rush said, “and I’ll show you what Jax was talking about.”
“If this is more chocolate truffles, you’re going to absolutely kill me,” I said. “They were way too good, and I had a sugar crash the size of Mount Everest that day because I couldn’t stop eating them.”
“You’re in luck,” Rush said as he led me over toward the big, shiny fermentation tanks at the side of the brewery. “You won’t have a sugar crash, but you might get a little buzz.”
Near the tanks there was a row of small kegs that the workers sometimes used to sample new blends of beer as they crafted them. Rush grabbed two pint glasses and poured out a beer for each of us from one of the sampler kegs, handing one to me.
“Tell me what you think,” he said.
I took a sip of what was definitely the best beer I’d ever had in my life. My eyes went wide as I took another sip. It was citrusy, somehow, but it didn’t overpower the taste of the beer. There was a light sweetness to it, but nothing crazy. And then there were other flavors I couldn’t quite place.
“What is this?” I said, looking at the fizzy drink. “Other than my new favorite beer.”
“I’ve been calling it the SW Blend,” Rush said, a proud look on his face. “It’s a hazy IPA, but nowhere near as many bitter hops as most of them have. It has Castelo lime peel, mesquite honey, and the smallest bit of green mango in it.”
“Fuck,” I said. “It’s incredible.”
“SW for Shawn Wood of course,” Rush said. “I knew you liked lime and honey, and I wanted to make a blend that would be your perfect drink. I had some of the hops and flavors imported from Europe and Thailand.”
I looked up at him, cocking my head to one side. “New blends of beers always take time to develop. Your dad even used to tell me that. And with the imported stuff… this must have taken weeks and weeks.”
“It has taken a while.”
My heart suddenly felt about two times bigger. “Rush, you’ve been doing this since… since long before we were together, haven’t you?”