Tara was in trouble. She was troubled. How could she be working with her older brother in the sacred duty of brewing while unsanitarily daydreaming about naked men? Well, in her defense, it was only one man.

Once the mash was lautering, she and Alex took a lunch break. While they ate their roast beef sandwiches on pretzel rolls—the spicy mustard gave it the perfect amount of zing—Tara fidgeted with her phone, turning on the screen every twenty seconds.

“Now you look all sullen. Brewing day really isn’t as fun as sampling day, is it?” Alex said affectionately.

“It’s not that. I … promised Aubrey that I’d help Seth with building Landon’s restaurant website.” Where the hell did that come from? And why hadn’t she thought of it sooner? It gave her the perfect excuse to spend more time with Seth. “But we’ve been so busy lately, I feel like I’ve been neglecting my duties.”

“I can handle the rest of the brewing if you want to go work on that until the pub opens.”

“Really? That would be so great.” Tara squished two bites’ worth of sandwich into her mouth and washed it down with some root beer. “Thanks, Alex. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“And there she goes like the wind,” he said wryly.

She was full of shit. No one had asked her to help with the website, obviously. It was just an excuse to see Seth sooner than later. She didn’t question why she wanted to see Seth badly enough to fabricate an excuse to do it. Their date had been fun, and she wanted more of it. Girls just wanna have fun and all that. No big deal.

It was just about one o’clock, and she pedaled her bike to Comfort Zone and parked it outside. Why was she so excited? It wasn’t like her excuse allowed her to see Seth immediately. She needed some coffee and sweets to fuel her brain. She had to plan how she could offer Seth her help without seeming like she was desperate to spend more time with him. She walked into the busy bakery and seated herself at the counter. Justine and Lily were both in the back, but the new part-timer recognized her.

“Hi, Tara,” she said brightly. “What can I get for you?”

“Can I just get a cup of Americano for now?” she asked, her thoughts elsewhere.

“Sure thing.”

She took a big breath and pulled her cell out, but after a moment’s hesitation, she put it down on the counter. She couldn’t just text him. He didn’t need to know how much she wanted to see him.

She stared down at her phone for a long while, both excited and uneasy about luring Seth out. There was a desperation there she remembered. The last person she’d felt that way about was her college boyfriend. Even though she’d seen Jason the day before, the hours had seemed to stretch miserably long until she’d gotten to see him again. Her heart had ached just like it did now as she waited for the next time she met Seth.