Taken by Storm

“Gus.” A corner of Cam’s mouth twitched.

“It’s why men make poor decisions with the wrong women.” Gus took the mallet from him. “Or they let the right one get away ’cause they’ve got no finesse and scare her off.” He expertly pounded in the final staples and tossed the mallet onto the table. “Or they go begging to some Sassenach for ‘expansion’ money so he can share in the profit after we’ve spent years establishing ourselves, doing all the hard work, developing and testing recipes and pouring free beer down the gullets of the public so they’ll get a taste for it.”

Cam clapped. “Very dramatic.”

“But true.”

“Agreed. But now that they’ve got a taste for our beer, we’ve got to supply it to them. Here’s the thing. The Beer Barn in Wimberly is getting rid of their tanks. They’re outsourcing the house brew.”

Gus gasped. “That’s sacrilege!”

“That’s opportunity. For us.” He gestured for Gus to hand him a foam cooler. “I want to buy the tanks and then lease the space so I can leave them there for now. We brew more of our two bestsellers there or we brew one of ours and make a pitch to brew the Beer Barn’s house label in the other.”

“Och, laddie, yer a crafty one.” Gus waggled his finger, then turned shrewd. “Who’s our competition?”

“It doesn’t matter if we slip in with a cash offer.”

“Ah.” Gus gave him a long look. “But we don’t have the cash.”

Cam shook his head. “Not yet. But if my meeting in Seattle goes the way I hope it does, I’ll have the money.”

Gus shrugged. “Bringing in an outsider will have to come to a vote, and the lads won’t agree.”

He meant Cam’s two brothers and assorted cousins for whom the brewery was more a source of fun and free beer than a business. “Then the ‘lads’ can take over. Because I’m tired of going without. I’m tired of being poor. I’m tired of never having a day off. I’m tired of living paycheck to paycheck.”

Once Cam got started, the words just rolled out, louder and louder. “I’m tired of driving an old car. I’m tired of paying credit-card interest. And I am bloody well tired of not having a girlfriend!” His voice echoed in the cavernous space.

Gus didn’t even blink. “Fair enough.” He opened the door to the visitor fridge and stared inside. “You never said who your investor was.”

“A guy I know from school.” The crate squeaked as Cam forced it into a cooler. “A computer geek who sold an app to Apple or Google or some big company.” Cam taped the lid on to make sure it stayed put. “He thinks owning part of a brewery will make him seem hip.”

Not that Cam intended to sell any part of MacNeil’s. He was hoping to sell naming rights for a custom-brewed beer, but if his trip made the family nervous, so much the better.

Cam set the cooler into the shipping container for the plane and added more padding. It might be overkill, but he didn’t want to chance the bottles breaking or freezing.

Gus was still staring into the fridge. “I suppose I could live with an outside investor.” He shut the fridge door without taking a beer. That meant he was still thinking. The thing about Gus was that he wasn’t stupid, although he encouraged people to believe so. But he was less smart after a few beers.

“As long as you aren’t asking us to get into bed with one of those infernal Campbells.”

Gus needed more beer.

Cam bent down to grab a double handful of the packing shavings.

“What’s this investor’s name?” Gus asked.

Oh, here we go. “Richard.” Cam straightened. “Hey, as long as you’re standing there, would you slap a label on the box?”

Gus took his time peeling the backing off the label. “Would ye be referrin’ to the aptly named Dick Campbell?”

“He prefers Richard.”

“I’ll bet he does.”

“Campbell is a common last name.”

“Common, yes.”

“Gus! Don’t go there. Clan rivalries are fun at the Highland Games, but nobody takes it seriously.”

“I take it seriously.” He did.

“Then be serious in Scotland.” Cam held his gaze. “This is Texas. The brewery’s at stake. Are you really going to fight me on this because of some quarrel our ancestors had with the Campbells hundreds of years ago?”

“If I don’t fight with you now, you’ll be fighting with him later.” Gus slapped the label on the box. “No Campbell is going to write you a check and just stand back and let you do whatever you want with his money.”

“Richard has his own business to run, and he’s in Seattle. He’s not going to bother us.” As Cam added samples of yeast and hops to the shipping container, he was aware of Gus’s stare. “Look.” He turned to his cousin. “We’ll invite him down and let him help us brew a batch of beer. Then we’ll send him a few cases and he can give it to all of his friends. Trust me—this is only about Richard wanting to be cool.”

“Trust me,” Gus warned. “It’s about a hell of a lot more than wanting to be cool.”

Cam finished taping up the shipping box and Gus reached around him to flip off the light. “Hey, what are you doing?”

“Going home. Aren’t you?”

“I wish.” Cam had another few hours of work ahead of him. “I’ve still got to check in with the volunteers for tomorrow’s tour and start setting up.”

“No, you don’t.” Gus flipped off the rest of the lights. “You’re just making extra work for yourself. They know they’re supposed to be here to set up.”

Cam turned the lights back on. “Some forget.”

Gus waved away his words. “So what if they do? Plenty of people will be around to pitch in if you need extra help. Relaaax, laddie boy. It’ll all work out.”

Relax. It’ll all work out was Gus’s standard response to Cam’s concerns about the brewery. “I’ll relax next week when you’re the one making it all work out.”

“You do that,” Gus said. “And find a woman while you’re at it.”

2

AS SOON AS Zoey got home, she flipped on The Weather Channel and started packing. Central Texas generally had mild winters, but she was flying first to Virginia, then renting a car to drive to her sister’s kennel, then flying to Seattle and renting another car to drive to Merriweather Kennels. Apparently dog breeders favored rural locations.

She caught the tail end of the report: “...stalled over the Rockies. This area of high pressure is feeding all that moist Gulf air, and when it eventually moves along this line, the Midwest will be in for heavy snow, probably within the next couple of days...”

Snow. Zoey did not do snow. She didn’t see snow all that often and had driven in it only twice.

While she waited for Kate and Ryan to call with her itinerary, Zoey transferred samples of Skin Garden creams into airline-approved containers. Flying all over the country was a great opportunity to test which formulas best combated dry airplane air. She even added extras to make a nice gift bag for Alexandra’s owner. Word of mouth had to start someplace.

Near midnight, her sister called. “Hey, Zoey, sorry about the slop in the flight schedules, but not all the commuter planes have pressurized, temperature-controlled cargo holds. And the layover must be long enough to let Casper potty when you change planes in Chicago.”

Chicago. Chicago was in the Midwest. “Hey—have you been watching the weather? There’s a big storm—”