Chapter Seven

CHAPTER SEVEN

Colby

"H ey, you." Colby slid into the booth across from Clint at Mama Adaline's. It was their favorite restaurant, one they met up at every once in a while to touch base. The restaurant was the oldest black-owned business in Briar County and somewhat of a staple. Everyone loved it.

"Hey, man. How are you?" Clint asked.

"Can't complain."

"How you boys doing?" Evie asked. She was Mama Adaline's daughter and one of the waitresses at the restaurant. She had short, dark curls, her head nearly buzzed, and always had a smile for everyone.

They chatted with Evie for a moment before ordering sweet tea and their food—Colby getting the fried fish and okra. They didn't even have to look at the menus anymore to know what they wanted.

"How are August and Reese?" Colby asked when they were alone again.

"Good. Reese is happy Scout is here for the summer, and August is losing his mind, hinting to find out if there's something going on with them, but also trying to respect Reese and give him his space."

Colby chuckled.

"It's so different at home since they moved in. I love it. They're the best, but I can't say I ever saw myself being a stepfather figure to a teenage boy. I feel so damn lucky to have them, while at the same time wondering how teenage boys can be so messy." Still, love and pride shined through his words. There was no doubt in Colby's mind how much Clint loved being part of a family with August and Reese.

"I don't envy you the messy-person-living-with-you part. Vince is a dream roommate when it comes to that." He paused, thinking about how that sounded. "Not that I'm comparing my friend renting a room to having a stepson. I know the situation is different. My relationship with Vince isn't as important."

Lines formed around Clint's face when he frowned. "Your relationship with Vince is important. It's clear how much the two of you mean to each other. It's just as valid."

Colby shifted, feeling silly having said anything at all. It was an emotion he'd been experiencing a lot lately, and he couldn't say he was real fond of it. He'd been a bit all over the place lately. "You know what I mean," he said, feeling like he needed to have some kind of response. "We're going out of town soon. Just to Asheville. Vince hadn't hung out there much, so we thought it would be nice to get away."

Luckily, his mom had pushed aside his concerns about his dad and said Colby and Vince deserved the time off. The kids could help with the farm. Things would be busier closer to the wedding, and then afterward with fall and the apples.

As far as changing the subject went, Colby wasn't sure he'd succeeded. He'd maybe just made things more awkward or made Clint more curious.

"He's going to try and hook up with someone," he added.

Jesus. What was wrong with him? He felt like a child, keeping secrets and trying to cover things he had no reason to cover.

Clint snickered. "You gonna be his wingman?"

"Something like that." Colby shrugged. "We're going to do some other things too."

"Well, that sounds fun. You deserve to have a good time, man. I'm glad you have Vince."

Colby's brows drew together. "I don't have Vince." But then, hadn't he said similar things to Vince himself? Why was he being so weird about it when Clint was saying it?

"I feel like I'm messing up here, though I'm not sure why. So I'll just remind you that I'm always here if you want to talk. And if you want me to shut the hell up, I can do that too."

Colby couldn't help smiling. He was being ridiculous. "Ignore me. I've been a bit of a mess lately."

"We all have those times. That's okay."

Evie showed up with their food then, and the subject changed to some of the items Clint was working on in his metal shop and other topics that didn't make Colby act strange.

"Hey, you two. How you doing lately?" Colby looked up to see Mandy Turner. She worked at Do's and Toes across the street. She was a nice woman but a bit of a gossip, constantly trying to find out what was going on in Harmony.

"Not too bad. How are you?" Colby asked.

"Not too bad. Lulu was in the shop the other day. I'm sure you heard she's getting married. When is it going to be your turn, Colby Covington?" She said it playfully, not realizing the question made Colby's gut sink.

"Maybe I'm secretly already married," he tried to joke, but he was annoyed. Why did it constantly come back to that? Why was it anyone's business?

"Damn it. I missed out again. If you're ever looking, I'm just saying I'm available." She winked. Then they called her name that her to-go order was done, and Mandy slipped away. That had been in jest, clearly, but the thing was, Colby knew it also wasn't. That people wondered about him, and that his bachelor ways were the talk of the town. Probably more because he was a Covington than anything else.

"You gonna marry Mandy Turner?" Clint chuckled.

"Hell no, you asshole," he teased back, but still, the exchange had soured his mood.

When they finished eating and he told Clint he needed to head out, he didn't tell his friend he was going home to brew beer with Vince, still wanting to keep this between him and Vince.

The whole drive home he was anxious about it, though. A jitteriness bounced around inside him like a Ping-Pong ball. A good kind of jitteriness. One that hinted at an excitement Colby couldn't figure out why he was nervous to admit to.

"Hey, you." Vince was already out in the detached, large shop when he got home. It had work areas, benches, electricity, and even chairs and a fridge, so it was the perfect place. "I'm just looking at the kit."

"Learning anything?" Colby joined him.

"This has to ferment for like two weeks after we brew. Talk about delayed gratification," Vince joked.

"Have a little patience. It'll be worth it." Well, Colby hoped it would be worth it. "Unless our beer tastes like shit."

Vince nudged him with his arm. "Our beer isn't going to taste like shit."

"How do you know that?"

"Because we're making it, and we're fucking kings."

Vince winked, and Colby felt a strange flutter in his gut. "Good point."

Vince clapped his hands together. "All right, babe. Let's do this."

And that easily, the nerves melted away, and all that was left was pure anticipation.

Colby's smile started and continued to grow. "Let's do this."

They'd gotten a beginner's kit that came with a recipe. Colby knew that if this was something he continued, there would be more steps that included advanced techniques, but this would do them well for now.

They were starting with a hoppy red ale. Colby liked the added citrus taste.

"What do we do first?" Vince asked.

"We need to mix these ingredients in the hop bag."

Vince grabbed the bag and added the black roasted barley malt and other ingredients into it. Then he placed the bag in a five-gallon pot with water, making sure the grain was covered. Colby had a portable camp stove out here for now, but if he kept this up, he'd need something better.

"It says the bag can't sit on the bottom of the pot when we start the heat," Vince told him, and Colby nodded.

"How long do we keep the bag in?"

"Until it reaches 170 degrees."

They followed the directions, bringing it to temp, removing the bag, boiling and adding liquid malt extract.

"It says to stir until dissolved," Vince said, which Colby did, before they added the hops to the bag and put it back in the water. "Now we basically let it boil for forty-five minutes."

"Okay." Colby grinned, though he had no idea why. He went to the fridge and grabbed them each a bottle of beer, and they sat on the couch in his shop.

"What do you think so far?" Vince asked.

"It's fun. I'm enjoying it. I'm anxious to see how it'll taste when the time comes."

"Welp. That's a start." Vince held his bottle out to Colby. "To new beginnings."

The fluttering started in his gut again as he clanked his bottle with Vince's. "To new beginnings."

Brewing beer was a long process that included a whole lot of waiting, but the waiting wasn't something Colby minded. He liked knowing he was waiting for something specific, a process he was involved in, which made it feel like he wasn't waiting at all.

After the first boil they added Amarillo, then waited again, this time for a little over an hour. Some beer would take even longer, but this one was fairly simple.

They sat on the couch again, talking and teasing each other through the second boil and then while the wort cooled in a large bin full of ice.

"I need the fermentation bucket," Colby told Vince, who grabbed it for him, and they transferred the wort to it. They continued the process by using the siphon to remove enough wort to test with the hydrometer, poured it into the cooled wort, and agitated.

Once that was done, they covered the fermenter with the airlocked lid.

"You're going to have to keep the temperature cooler in here."

"It's insulated and has AC, so it should be good." Colby was jittery again as they put the fermenter in a dark place, and then Vince followed him over to the couch.

"Now we just have to wait two weeks," Vince said, making him laugh.

"That was fun."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was pretty cool too. Who would have thought I'd ever brew beer?"

"You and me both." Colby was still smiling. He should probably stop, but he couldn't seem to make himself do it.

"You're happy," Vince said, surprising him.

"I am. Is that weird? It's not like we did anything special tonight."

"I think what we did is pretty damn special."

"It feels like it," Colby admitted. "But then I think it shouldn't feel that way. I don't know why."

"Jesus, babe. You can enjoy what you want, and if something feels big to you, then it is big to you. There are no rules on what is allowed or not with your feelings and what you enjoy. Soak it in. Have fun. Do more of what you like and spend more time finding out what that is. What am I going to do with you?" Vince wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close. Vince's lips pressed to the top of his head, his backward cap brushing against Colby.

It was a friend kind of kiss. Nothing with any heat or want behind it…but Colby found himself wishing Vince would do it again. He had the strangest urge to nuzzle into Vince. He wasn't needy for physical contact or anything. At least not normally, but in this moment, he felt like he was. Like this day had been big and Vince had given it to him. That his friendship this last year had been everything Colby needed but hadn't known it. And when Vince went to pull away, Colby found himself saying, "No…can we just sit here like this for a minute? Nothing…I don't mean anything by it. Shit, what the fuck am I saying?" Colby tried to move away, but Vince's hand clamped down on his shoulder, holding him in place.

"We can sit here like this. There's nothing wrong with two friends showing affection to each other. Society tries to make us feel that way, but I'd argue that it's healthier than not."

Colby let out a relieved breath, nodded, then just let his body weight relax against Vince. He sat like that in his friend's arms while they talked about the beer and wondered how it would taste and the work they needed to do at the farm. Vince's hand moved up and down his biceps, touching, massaging, just reminding Colby he was there.

It felt nice, really fucking nice. The conversation slowed, but neither of them moved, and Colby's last thought before he fell asleep was that they should go into the house, but he didn't say that, and Vince didn't either.