Wes takes your empty glass and fills it from the tap. His attention on the glass as it fills with the brew, he says casually, "So, Kendall. Do you have a boyfriend?"

The question takes you entirely off guard. You look at him in surprise. "No, actually. Not for a while."

He sets the beer on the bar and steps toward you, sliding it along with a gentle nudge from his palm. "Hm. That's surprising."

"Why?" For the moment, you've forgotten the interview.

"I don't know. Pretty girl like you, smart, ambitious. I'd have thought someone would have...taken you off the market by now."

His interest is obvious, and you can't help but be flattered. You reach out for the beer and say, "Well, you know. Work keeps me busy."

"I can understand that."

You take a sip of your second beer and turn your attention back to the interview, although you're feeling warm now, and you can sense his eyes on you. There's a tension in the atmosphere. "Tell me more about what the place was like when your father ran it."

"Not much different at all," he replies. He turns away from you and takes a photo you hadn't yet noticed down off the wall behind the bar. He passes it to you. It's a picture of a man who looks a heck of a lot like Wes does today, with a boy at his side. The two of them are in jeans and plaid shirts, squinting at the camera, and the man has his hand resting on the boy's shoulder.

"That you?" you ask, knowing the answer—it's pretty obvious from the family resemblance.

"You're a sharp one." He shifts his weight, leaning on the bar. "I keep it around just to remember the old man."

"To remember him?"

"Cancer, six years ago." He tips his head toward your drink. "Don't let it get warm, Kendall."

The interview continues, and it seems to be getting easier for you to get information about the bar and Wes's life here in Pepper Hill; as a pleasant warmth floods through you from the beer, he seems to be loosening up, too.

You finish the last of your second beer, and Wes picks up your empty mug. "Still thirsty, Kendall?" he asks. "Or can I interest you in something a little more...satisfying?"

"I think I'll just take you up on another drink, Wes." [[Go to Chapter 43.]]

You return his smile with a smile of your own. Maybe this day hasn't turned out to be so crappy after all. This is probably right up there on the list of things never to do—getting involved with the subject of a story like this—but you think you're going to take him up on his offer of a visit to the back room. [[Go to Chapter 37.]]

You're not really interested in another beer, and you're not ready to make out with this dude, either. [[Go to Chapter 16.]]