Page 52 of Hammer and Hops

I spent the day chatting, answering questions, pouring beer, making toasts, and having a great time. I was totally in my element in this environment. Eventually, Lukas made his way to the back. “That’s the last tour group. I swear we had almost a hundred people come through here.”

Conroy walked up behind him and clapped his shoulder. “I think I counted more than that.”

“Wow. I’m pretty happy with that.” The area was full for sure, even though a lot of folks had already left.

My parents came over to me. “We’re going to head out. We’re staying at the local Inn. It’s just across the street.” My mom gave me another hug, but this time, I think she was a little tipsy.

“Maybe we could do breakfast tomorrow?” Dad asked.

Before I could answer, Cameron’s mom said, “I say come to our place for breakfast. It’s a little farther away, but I’ll damn sure make it worth it.”

We all agreed to a breakfast plan. I was secretly, or maybe not so secretly, happy they were getting along. Everyone loved Cameron, so that helped. He put his arm around me and squeezed my shoulders. “Thanks again for coming,” he told our folks.

It was still a few more hours before all the guests had left. Conroy had been busy resupplying both beer and snacks all day, and picking up after everyone left, so when he grabbed a broom to clean up, I took it from him. “Go home. We’ll come back and finish this tomorrow afternoon. Good job today.”

“Thanks, Boss. Let me know if you need anything else.”

“Nope. Go home.”

He waved as he headed out. Yep, he was getting a bonus. Lukas pulled me into a huge hug. “You did it.”

“We did it, Lukas.” I hugged him back. He’d become such a fantastic friend—more like a brother—to me. “None of this would have happened without you.”

“Eh…”

We made plans to head to Sacramento in the next few days to oversee the harvest and get the hops shipped up. The Grand Reopening party might have been over, but the brewery still required work, so we headed home, ready to face the next day. For once, I smiled as I thought about it. I had no anxiety about the brewery or any other aspect of my life. And that was all thanks to my gremlin, Cameron.

Thank you for reading Hammer and Hops. I used a lot of other characters, places, and businesses throughout the story. If you’d like to explore more about them all, check out the rest of Foggy Basin.

Season One: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLKWB51K?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tkin

Season Two: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DST7K6BR?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tkin

And don’t forget the current Season Three:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GMGCYRNK?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tkin

And keep reading for a bonus epilog!

Chapter forty-two

Bonus Epilog - Cameron

About a year or so later…

We were moving into a new house together, and even though it hadn’t been a requirement when we were house hunting, we managed to get one closer to the brewery. It made Everett happy, and that made me happy.

Jackie helped me move a lot of my stuff in, but unable to agree on which to keep, we bought new bedroom furniture and sold the other two sets. We used his living room furniture because it was in better shape than mine, and he loved his recliner. It was coming together, and the best part was that since Everett’s menace, Mitchel, sold his brewery, we got a nice payback. It didn’t cover everything, but it helped enough to allow me to do all the renovations before moving in, so it was perfect. Every bit of our house was exactly what we wanted.

“Thanks for helping with this.” I shoved the couch into place.

Jackie wiped his brow. “No problem, dude. Need help with the TV?” It was currently on the floor leaning against the wall, but we were going to hang it over the fireplace.

“That would actually be cool.”

“Get it up there before it gets broken.”

“No lie.” I gave Jackie a fist bump and we got busy. It wasn’t easy, either. We had to hang the mount, then attach the TV, which was probably bigger than we should have gotten, but it fit, and after a little struggle, we got it hooked up without breaking anything.