Good Girls Don't (Donovan Brothers Brewery 1)

She nodded frantically. “I know. But let’s wait and see. I’ve got a good feeling.” He shot her a doubtful look. Tessa shifted, her heart pattering with nervousness.

“Well, hopefully he’ll deign to call me before I head to Santa Fe.”

“Oh, is Santa Fe this week?”

“I leave Friday.”

For a moment, she’d hoped Eric would be leaving for the microbrewery festival earlier in the week. That would give her another whole week to make sure everything was perfect. But this was for the best. She needed to get this over with.

“I’m beginning to think we might need to hire a full-time marketing person,” he said.

“Really?”

“The ad agency is great for promotional stuff, but they can’t do the shows personally, and Jamie and I are getting spread thin. I’ve got Santa Fe this weekend, and he’s got Durango in two weeks.”

Tessa felt her fingers curl around the arms of her chair. “I could help.”

“No, we need more than that.”

He wanted to hire another full-time person? Where would they work?

“And if we’re going to start adding new states every year, we’ll probably need a dedicated distribution person. And more bottling space.”

Tessa shook her head, speechless. They didn’t have room for all this. “Eric, those are big plans.”

He waved a distracted hand. “Yeah, I know. I’m just thinking ahead. We’ll work it all out. Thanks for the heads-up on High West.”

“Sure,” she whispered, getting up to move slowly back to her office. She’d known he wanted to expand, but somehow she hadn’t really considered what that might mean. They’d grown a lot in the past few years, but the adjustments had been so gradual that it had felt natural. Normal. But this… She hadn’t thought about this. If they started adding multiple states at the same time… If they started growing exponentially…

She’d been trying to keep things from changing, but what if everything changed? What if she’d helped bring about her own worst fears? She didn’t like change. Not at all. Apparently, even less than Eric did.

Trying to ignore this new fear, Tessa put her head down and made herself see to her normal brewery duties. She paid invoices, issued her own and painstakingly worked her way through yet another change of coverage notice from their insurance company. She found a new review of their amber ale and tweeted a link to it, then updated the website. An email about a delay of a barley shipment probably wouldn’t affect production, but she forwarded it to Eric and Jamie just in case.

Fifty other things managed to fill up most of her day, but it didn’t clear her mind. In the end, she still picked up the phone to call Jamie, trying not to feel guilty for disturbing him on his day off.

“What’s wrong?” he answered, his voice hoarse and sleepy.

“I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?”

“No. What’s going on?”

“Has Eric talked to you about his plans for expanding the business?”

“We’ve discussed it.”

“He wants to hire more people, add more bottling space. Where are we going to get more bottling space? This lot is barely big enough for the parking lot as it is.”

Jamie cleared his throat. “Yeah.”

“We can’t move! This is our brewery. It was Dad’s brewery.”

He stayed silent, but the shushing sound of fabric told her he was getting out of bed.

“I’m sorry. Are you alone? I don’t want to—”

“Look,” he snapped. “I thought you were determined to give Eric everything he wanted. Why are you spooked now?”

“I’m not doing this for Eric! I’m doing it for us. All of us!”