Everybody laughed, but Jonas laughed the hardest. “I’m talking about beer, gentlemen. And ladies, of course. I love this damn business.”
“Right there with you, Jonas,” Connor said, raising his glass in a sentimental toast.
“It really is the best thing in the world, isn’t it?” Maggie said dreamily. “At the end of the day, when you’ve hosed down the brewing station and steam-cleaned the pipes and you’ve tapped off your latest keg and you’re hot and sweaty and you can finally sit down on the porch and taste the day’s batch while you relax and watch the sun go down? I don’t think there’s a better moment that captures the essence of beer making than that one.”
“Dang, Maggie May.” Jonas grinned and she could see a sparkle in his eyes. He held up his half-empty wineglass for another toast. “That’s pure poetry.”
She laughed at her new nickname and held up her glass to meet his. “Here’s to special moments.”
“I’ll drink to that,” he said jovially, and chugged down what was left of his wine.
* * *
“I was right,” Connor said later that night after they’d made love.
“About what?”
“You turned out to be our secret weapon,” he said, reminding her of his comment earlier that night.
She gave him a puzzled look. She was stretched out on her back, her head propped on a pillow. He lay on his side, facing her, his hand resting on her smooth stomach.
“I don’t know about that,” she said as she absently ran her fingers along his shoulder and down his arm. “But it was fun to hear Jonas talk about my dad.”
“Everyone enjoyed hearing about him,” he said, earning a smile from her. “It was a good evening.”
“Did you get an inkling of Jonas’s decision yet?”
“Jake talked to Paul briefly while we were walking back to the hotel. “He thinks we’ve got a lock on the deal.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“Yeah. I won’t count any chickens yet, but I think there’s a strong possibility that he’ll sell to us. There’s plenty of work to do in the meantime, but it would be a real coup to take over Wellstone.”
“I’ll say.”
It struck Connor that this was an odd sort of “pillow talk” conversation to be having with a woman, but it was one more indication of how comfortable he was around Maggie.
And that wasn’t necessarily a good thing, he thought suddenly, unable to keep his old suspicions from cropping back up. Yes, Maggie had given him a simple explanation for why she’d left him all those years ago. Connor completely believed that she had feared for his safety back then.
But had she truly explained the fact that, before he could even grasp that she was truly gone, he’d received the news that she had married another man? Okay, maybe she was telling the truth when she said she’d been awash in grief and made a really bad decision. But he had to wonder how “in love” with Connor she’d really been to turn around and do something like that.
It didn’t matter. What was he doing, thinking about this stuff when he had a warm, beautiful woman in his bed? He should be celebrating the fact that his plan to get her into bed had succeeded. Now he could relax and enjoy the moment.