“ — Shove those things so far up your butt that you’ll — “
Another head pops into my doorway. I stop short.
“Everything okay?” Kevin asks, looking half-puzzled and half-frightened.
I swallow hard. I smile. I compose myself.
“Everything’s fine!” I say.Chapter NineEliThe three of us all look down at the tiny glasses in front of us, concentrating for a moment. There are fifteen in total, five in front of each, and I’m not sure any of us was listening too well.
“Run through that one more time?” Silas says, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
Standing across the table Daniel exhales, his hands on his hips in his classic slightly-annoyed-but-trying-to-look-perfectly-calm pose.
“It’s in the same order as any tasting menu,” he says, like that makes it obvious. “From left to right, you start with the Chardonnay, then you move to the —”
“Do you have anything we can write with?” asks Levi.
“It’s not that hard,” Daniel says.
“Chardonnay’s the bubbly wine you drink at celebrations, right?” Levi asks.
Silas, Levi’s best friend, is trying not to laugh. Daniel rolls his eyes, but he ducks into a back room and comes back with a few stubby pencils and some scrap paper. We each take one.
It’s Saturday night, and we’re at Loveless Brewing, standing around a high table off to the side of the main room because Daniel asked us last-minute if we could come sample some beers he’s been working on.
The real reason, of course, is that Rusty’s at her first-ever sleepover tonight and Daniel needs something to distract him.
“Okay, in order, from left to right,” Daniel starts again, slowly this time. “Chardonnay. Pinot Grigio. Merlot. Oak. Bourbon. Eli, you’re not gonna write this down?”
“I know how tasting menus go,” I say.
“How do you spell oak, again?” Silas asks.
Now Levi’s the one trying not to laugh.
“Never mind, figured it out,” Silas says, flashing Daniel a shit-eating grin.
“Let me know if you’d ever actually like to sample the beer,” Daniel says, forced calm radiating from every pore on his body. “Maybe sooner or later we can actually get around to —”
“Dan, she’s fine,” I finally interject. “Right now they’re probably eating ice cream, jumping on a couch and watching Frozen.”
“I’m not worried,” he protests, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Is that why you’re being an uptight prick about an informal beer tasting?” I ask, leaning both my elbows on the bar.
Daniel sighs. He shoves one hand through his floppy light-brown hair.
“Okay, I’m sorry,” he says. “I just thought that tonight would be a good time to get some opinions on this project.”
“Any time you want us to come drink your fancy beer for free, just let us know,” Silas says. “I’m happy to be a guinea pig.”
“Thank you for your service,” Daniel says dryly.
I hold up the first glass, the dark liquid inside it glowing faintly red in the light. It’s a stout beer that’s been aged for a couple of months in Chardonnay barrels, part of a new experiment that Daniel’s trying at the brewery.
“Here’s to Rusty’s first sleepover,” I say.
Everyone holds up their own tiny tasting glass. We clink them together. We each take careful, thoughtful sips.
I hold the beer in my mouth for a moment, thinking, before I swallow it.
“Not that one,” I tell Daniel.
“No,” agrees Silas. “That one’s weird.”
“I like it,” Levi says, contemplatively taking another sip. “It’s unexpected.”
“The fruity, sharp overtones from the chardonnay barrel clash with the roasted baseline of the stout, and instead of each enhancing the other, they just get in each other’s way,” I tell him. “The two flavors don’t really pair well.”
I take another sip, though. It’s free beer.
“Yeah, it’s weird,” Silas says. “What Eli said.”
“I think it’s a good weird,” Levi says.
“You can’t listen to him, though,” Silas tells Daniel as he drains the tiny sample-size glass. “He likes orange-vanilla Coke, too.”
“It’s refreshing,” Levi protests.
“It tastes like a melted popsicle that someone found beneath a Slurpee machine,” I say.
“And why do you know what that tastes like?” Daniel asks.
“It’s an educated guess,” I say.
“How educated?” Levi asks.
I drain my own beer glass and ignore him, but I’m glad I came tonight and not just for the free beer.
I’d forgotten how much I missed my brothers by being away. Sure, I’d visited while I was gone, and we kept up well enough, but it wasn’t the same. A phone call has nothing on Sunday dinner, or drinking lemonade on the back porch, or just shooting the shit while you’re ignoring the nightly news on television.
When I got back, I slotted right back into their lives like I’d never been gone.
“Okay, next up is the Pinot Grigio,” Daniel says, cutting off Levi and keeping us on track.
“Which one is that?” Levi asks.
Daniel just points and sighs.* * *When we’re done tasting, Daniel rewards each of us with a free beer that’s not experimental and we stay at the table while Daniel keeps an eye on things.