Feisty Red (Three Chicks Brewery #2) - Stacey Kennedy Page 0,1
days, she had paint somewhere on her body. She was the creative brains of Three Chicks Brewery, the company she and her two sisters had built from the ground up after Pops, their grandfather, passed away and left them the Colonial house, along with the barn that now housed the brewery. Even Penelope had a stake in the company now, handling the beer tours that came through. Which allowed Maisie’s position to become a part-time job as she was planning on opening an art studio in town. “What do you have for me?” Clara asked for clarification.
Maisie raised her arm, revealing a shot glass. “Necessary fuel for today.”
Only Maisie would think it appropriate to down what looked like whiskey at a quarter to eight in the morning. Clara envied Maisie’s life, full of passion with her new fiancé, Hayes, and how every one of her dreams had come true. Maisie deserved that, but Clara didn’t have the luxury of chasing her happily ever after. She had Mason. And while the day ahead felt unbearable, this was the day they’d been waiting for since they opened the brewery.
After hard months of grueling work, beer tours, and brewery awards, they finally got a shot at a distributor. With the distributor’s help, they could put their top beer, Foxy Diva, into every bar and restaurant in North America. Reminded of all the responsibilities weighing heavily on her, Clara figured a little help to ease her nerves wouldn’t hurt. She took the shot glass and downed the whiskey, shutting her eyes as the warmth of the liquid burned down her throat.
“It’s understandable if you’re feeling out of sorts right now.”
Clara handed Maisie the empty shot glass. “I’m not feeling out of sorts. I know exactly what I’m doing.” Maybe if she said that a hundred more times, she’d believe it too.
Obviously not believing her sister, Maisie gave a little shrug. “Okay, then, what’s the plan besides looking about ready to crawl out of your skin?”
Clara rolled her eyes. “I’m fine, Maisie. The plan is simple: impress the distributor.” Only problem? The distributor was Sullivan’s uncle, Ronnie. Clara hadn’t known Sullivan was coming back to town. And she’d nearly had the wind knocked out of her when she arrived for a meeting with Ronnie and saw Sullivan sitting at the table too.
“Yes, of course, we’re going to impress the hell out of Ronnie,” Maisie said, quirking up her lips. “But let’s not forget you’re also going to see the man you thought you’d marry and who cruelly left you behind and broke your heart.”
Clara gave the empty shot glass another look. Maybe she needed more than one to get through today. “What are you getting at, Maisie? Do you want me to cry or something?”
Maisie scanned Clara’s face a little too closely. “No, I don’t want you to cry. But I think you need to talk about this. Mason’s birth father is back in town. And you have hardly said anything about it. What’s the plan? Hiding Mason away until Sullivan leaves town again?”
Sounded good to Clara. Her stomach nearly heaved her breakfast out onto the old wooden porch. It all seemed like a bad dream she had to wake up from. When Sullivan left River Rock to play Major League Baseball, she never expected to see him again. Ever. “There is no plan,” she finally admitted. “I only know that, right now, Mason not being here is safer for him. I can’t take a wrong step here. I need to see where Sullivan is at emotionally before I even think about telling him about Mason.” She’d tried once to tell Sullivan about Mason when she first found out she was pregnant. He didn’t answer the phone. An unknown woman did, with the sound of a laughing Sullivan in the background. Clara never called back, and he never returned her call.
That was nearly seven years ago.
Maisie’s look turned measured. Her voice softened. “One day, Mason is going to want to know who his father is. What are you going to say?”
“I’ve always been honest with Mason, and I will always be honest with him. When he asks for the truth, I’ll tell him. But for as long as I can, I will protect him. He needs stability and love, not chaos and heartbreak.” And that’s all Sullivan knew how to do. She understood, to an extent. He had his own dark past. His own pain. But considering the only reason Sullivan was back in town