Paradise Hops (19 page)

Finally, Eli emerged, his hair wet and sticking up, his blue eyes steely and fierce. “A leak. A fucking flaw, look for yourself.” He shone a flashlight into the gaping maw of the tank. Garrett looked in, then leaned in further and saw it. A near dime sized hole at one seam. He frowned and cracked his head good and hard on the vessel opening as he exited.

“Shit.” He put a hand to the back of his head.

“Captain obvious.” Eli mumbled, wiping a towel over his wet hair. “What kind of crap equipment is this anyway?”

“There’s nothing crap about what I paid for it. I didn’t buy the ones from China even though they were nearly fifteen hundred dollars cheaper. I got these, the ones you recommended. Thanks.”

“We both did well.” Eli propped his hands alongside the large sink, his eyes dark and brooding. The smell now resembled a fraternity basement—old beer, not beer that had been carefully crafted at an ungodly expense. They both heaved heavy sighs at the same time. Then Eli handed him the hose and they went to work.

Nearly three hours later, they had the concrete clear of stickiness and the inside of the vessel patched. Eli had fired up loud music and put on coffee. Finally, they sat, sipping, both sweat-drenched and even more pissed off. “Calling insurance company first thing.” Garrett mumbled, letting the caffeine bring his exhaustion to heel.

“Good plan.” Eli rolled his head around. “Anything I can do to help with that?”

“Yeah, actually, I need those pictures you snapped when you arrived, of the hole, the patch, and an estimate of the cost of ingredients, man power and even….”

Eli held up a hand. “I can tell you how much it cost in electricity and water.”

Garrett narrowed his eyes at the other man. His brain was buzzing with details. This was one more catastrophe he really did not need, and this guy, his rival in so many ways, suddenly was on his side. “Good. Get it to me by ten a.m. I’m gonna get a shower.” He headed back to the locker room. Since Lori had left, he’d been working longer and longer hours, leaving a change of clean clothing in his own locker and using the showers here.

“No problem, boss.” Eli’s voice had been light, but Garrett turned to look at him. “Thanks, man. You were a huge help.”

Garrett shrugged. He’d avoided friendships most of his life, hiding the facts of his early home life from everyone. However, the man now standing across from him, the one who he knew damn good and well had been the last one to have Lori in his bed before she left looked truly remorseful.

Eli held up a hand. “Don’t get any ideas. I still don’t like you.”

Garrett laughed, and his chest released a small fraction of the tension he’d held the moment he realized that Eli and Lori had been together. He shoved away an onrush of anger, forced himself to recall the conversations they’d been having every night. When he’d told her he understood mistakes and knew how to forgive he meant it. And now, here he was, on the cusp of liking the very man who had the power to take her from him.

In the following weeks,  Garrett made a habit of stopping at the brewery floor at the end of most days, and Eli somehow always had something new and interesting poured for him. His tastes ran to stouts and bigger beers, so a glass of dark, rich brew usually ended their day as they discussed the expansion, the new lagering tanks, the state of the industry — everything, except Lori.

One evening as they laughed over something Garrett couldn’t even remember he’d looked up into Eli’s bright blue eyes. “I do love her.” The words had escaped before he could catch them, call them back. Now that they were out there, he squared his shoulders ready to defend them.

Eli had chuckled and propped his boots on the rough table top. “Yeah, I know you do. She loves you, too. So, all is good.”

Garrett had leaned forward then, suddenly needing something more definite. “I also know how you feel about her so we need to get something straight.”

Eli finished his beer, set it down. He crossed his arms over his chest and kept his gaze trained on the ceiling. “You told me once that we were going to let her choose. I agreed with you then and I still do. But I know what her choice should be, and it isn’t me.” He’d stalked out then, leaving Garrett alone with his thoughts, memories, and a small flame of hope for his eventual future.

Chapter Four

“Buchanan!” Eli frowned and looked up from his logbook. The damn sales staff was firing on all cylinders and beer was flying the fuck out the door. So he had to figure out how to add a third shift of brewing, without adding personnel. His already overworked staff was not happy and neither was he.

“What?” He recognized Hunter’s voice. They’d just had a huge blow up about this very topic. Eli had overspent his budget on equipment and had nothing for new personnel. Hunter would not bend on it, insisting Eli “get creative” with the people he had. Eli was not in the mood for a chat or a beer or anything else with management right now even though he counted Hunter as a friend. They’d started running together a few nights a week and playing pickup basketball on the weekends.

The voice called again, and Eli heard an edge of something in it. Something that worried him. He walked around the long line of giant stainless fermentation vessels and stood, watching the other man stalk past the staff scurrying to get out of his way. “What is it? Old man Brockton?” The patriarch had just had by-pass surgery but seemed to be recovering well enough. “Slow down, you’re gonna slip on the….”

“It’s Lori.” Garrett said, making Eli’s heart thud in his chest. “She fell. She’s in the hospital. I’m…I…fuck.” The guy looked positively wigged out— a look Eli had never seen on his friend’s face and not one he liked. Garrett was a fixer, the calm in the eye of any number of shit storms they’d weathered. This must be bad.

“What d’you mean she fell? Where? How? Who called you?” He pulled out a tall chair and made Garrett take a seat. “Start at the beginning.”

“Her roommate, Alicia, called. Got Mrs. Anderson. She pulled me out of a shareholders meeting.” The words tumbled out as he ran hands through his hair over and over. Eli motioned to one of the brew boys who handed Garrett a glass, but he waved it away. “I have to go. I got a flight over. Ron said he’d be right behind me.” Eli glared at him. “Okay, sorry. She was in the basement of some famous brewery on a class tour. Got separated from the group. Alicia said she’d been sick for a day or two. I knew she’d been having headaches….”

“Yeah and ….” Eli ground his teeth, tried not to throttle faster words from the guy.

“They came around the corner and she was out, hit her head on some kind of storage tank. I don’t know, but she’s in a fucking coma or something. Won’t wake up.”

Garrett stood, took his phone out and stared at it a minute. Eli worked hard to remain calm, not betray his state of mind. “So, you’re going now?”

“Yeah, but I need to tour these guys remember?” He gestured up towards the main building. “Ron took over the meeting but….”

Eli put a hand on his shoulder. “Relax, suit. I got this. I’ll do the tour.”

Garrett stared at him. “You hate that shit. You’ll fuck it up. I mean….”

Eli laughed and sat down before he fell down. “No, I won’t fuck it up man. I’ll be fine. I know how to do the dog and pony show for the money guys, never fear.”

Garrett dropped back onto the chair, his eyes blank. Eli snapped his fingers in front of him. He seemed to rally. “Okay. Fine. Be on your best behavior.” His phone trilled. He answered it, giving short one syllable replies. Then his face drained of all color.

Eli caught the expensive device before it hit the floor and shattered. “Jesus. What? Is she all right?” He kept his voice slow and controlled in spite of his need to run in circles and yelp like a dog.

“No. I mean, yeah, she’s still unconscious. But she never lost oxygen to her brain. She doesn’t need life support or anything.”

“Well, thank God for….“Eli started to turn away.

“She’s pregnant.”

 Eli froze. Visions of her body swarmed through his brain like angry bees. Shit he’d forced away for weeks now overwhelmed him. The feel of her skin, her laugh, her lips, tongue, hands. That amazing velvety glove of a….

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah.” Garrett’s eyes were hard, staring holes into him. “So. I’m going. You’re staying. I’ll let you know what happens once I get there. But I….” he stopped, obviously struggling with what to say next.

Eli stopped him. “Go. We’ll figure out this…other thing later. Make sure she’s okay. She needs you. I got this.” He took a breath, forced the thought of her out of his head, memories of how many times they had sex without protection.

Stop it.

His fragile friendship with the man who really should be Lori’s husband meant something to him, and the guy looked like he was about to hurl all over the brewery floor. Or faint. He pushed Garrett back towards the exit. “Go to her. Call me when you get there.” Garrett nodded letting himself be propelled to the back door.

“Thanks,” he turned at the last minute. Eli nodded. But the guy kept talking “Letting her choose just got more complicated, I guess.” He put a hand over his eyes. “Jesus.”

“C’mon, Hunter. You know her as well as I do. She’ll still do whatever the fuck she wants, but in the meantime, you have a plane to catch.” He shut the door before Garrett could say anything else. Looking back, he truly wished he hadn’t been so flippant. But he had a tour to plan, and hours of worry ahead, waiting to hear how she was, wishing more than ever to hear her voice.

Chapter Five

Lori’s eyes flew open, and her body went into instant flight mode. Taking in the wholly unfamiliar bright white walls, the street noises coming in through the window, and herself, naked, in bed. She clutched the heavy sheet to her body and glanced around. A man lay by her side, back to her, broad shoulders moving evenly in sleep.

She ejected herself from the bed. “Shit!” Jamming her toe on a nearby rocking chair, and nearly going headfirst into the wall, she glared at the strange light fixture near her eyes. Took a sniff and smelled gas. Great. Not only had she been kidnapped, stripped, roofied, whatever, she was going to get blown to pieces by leaky gas service in some dive of a German flop house.

 She tiptoed around the sleeping man and pulled open several doors trying to find the bathroom. Greeted with closets full of men’s dark clothing, boots and shoes she frowned. Finally she found a small room boasting some kind of retro sink with a hand pump and a huge tub with no obvious source of water running to it and no sign of a toilet.

She shut the door, determined not to scream. Stirring noises behind her forced her to turn, keeping the sheet wrapped close. She shifted at the sight of….“Holy shit, Garrett, what are you doing here?” The handsome dark haired man sat on the side of the bed, utterly naked. She tried to keep her eyes on something other than his….
Dear Lord.
Lori gripped the doorknob ready to bolt inside the strange bathroom-like room.

He looked up and smiled at her. She gasped. His deep green eyes lit a fire in her core that simply did not square with the fact she was here, nude, in a room with a man who was supposed to be thousands of miles away. And they seemed to be in some kind of…role-playing reenactment or something in a house without a damn toilet in it. He stood and stretched. She bit her lip and tried like hell not to stare at the giant erection he sported. “Garrett!” She tried her voice again.

“Hmmm….” He ran a hand through his thick hair. It was longer than she remembered. “My love, why are you way over there? My bed is cold without you.” His German had a lilt to it she couldn’t place. But, she answered him back without stopping to translate in her head, surprising herself, or ask since when did Garrett speak German?

“I don’t know why I’m here. I mean, um, yeah.” She slid down to the floor. He was at her side in a flash, tugging her up, wrapping her in a huge hug that took her breath away for more reason than one. He tilted her face up to his, anxiety in his gaze.

“What is it, darling? Are you ill?” He kissed her forehead, ran his hands down her back. Lori found herself relaxing, molding her body against his as if it were natural, normal to do this in a house with no toilet with a man she knew was nowhere near her using a language she knew he didn’t speak.