“Thanks.”
“I’ve had this before.” Corey lifted her glass. “It’s one of my favorites.”
“You guys want food?” Matt asked. “I’ll bring you menus.”
“I’m starving,” Dylan said. “Need some grindage.” He caught Corey’s questioning look and laughed. “Grindage…food.”
“Ah.” She shook her head, smiling. “Surfers apparently have their own language. So can you actually make money from surfing?”
“Yeah. Of course it depends on the event and how high you place. The big events that make up the World Tour pay about four hundred grand if you win.”
“Four hundred…holy crap!”
He laughed. “Yeah. Needless to say I haven’t won that much yet. I’ve been doing okay, this year’s been my best so far, so I’m making enough to keep me traveling. Not lots left over, but enough. I just signed a big sponsorship deal with Jackson Cole, and I have a few other smaller sponsors. That definitely helps.” He grimaced. “Until this stupid accident.”
“So if you don’t surf, you don’t make money?”
“Exactly.” His gut clenched. “And it impacts whether I qualify for the tour next year. Like I said, I was doing okay for points. So even missing the rest of the Billabong Pro, I could make up for it, but I’m gonna have to surf the hell outta those waves in the next competition.”
She tipped her head to one side and studied him. “You can do it.”
He met her eyes and tipped his head. “How do you know that, babe? You don’t even know me.”
“I just have a feeling.”
He wished he shared her confidence in him. The warmth in her eyes, the sweetness in her smile pulled at him, and he actually shifted closer to her.
Matt slapped down menus on the bar and Dylan started. “Uh…thanks, bro.” He picked one up and perused it. “Burgers,” he said. “One of my favorite things. Oh, this sounds good—guacamole, jalapenos and pepper jack cheese. That’s what I’ll have.”
“I’ll have the California wrap,” Corey said.
Matt flashed a grin. “You got it, candy girl.” He disappeared, and Dylan turned back to Corey, wanting to get back to that eye-lock and the resulting flash of heat. He smiled at her. “Matt says you two are just friends.”
Once again, their eyes met and held, and she nodded slowly. “Yeah. That’s right.”
He watched her cheeks pink up and her eyes sparkle, and he also couldn’t help but notice that her nipples became very visible beneath the thin T-shirt she wore.
Matt returned and leaned against the bar to talk to them.
“This place is awesome, dude,” Dylan said, waving a hand. “You’re doing great.”
“Doing okay.” Matt nodded, and Dylan rolled his eyes. The guy was always like that, too fucking modest.
“It’s not okay. It’s full on derelict. Seriously, man.”
Matt grinned. “Okay. Whatever you just said. Yeah, business is good. Some of my most popular beers are being sold in stores now. I can’t keep up with the demand.”
“You need to expand.”
“Yeah. Just gotta do it right. I don’t want to get myself in financial trouble.”
“I guess.” Dylan was a risk taker. That’s how he earned his living. No fear. He shut out the voice in the back of his head that said, yeah, right, dude . All he’d ever wanted was to be the best, to win it all, and he was damn well going to do it, even with a busted foot. “But you gotta spend money to make money, right?” He held his beer glass with both hands, elbows on the bar.
“I don’t want to risk what I have by trying to do too much, too fast. It would be nice to expand, though. Get my beer out there for more people to enjoy.”
“There ya go.”
“If I want to increase production much more, I can’t do it here,” Matt continued. “I don’t have enough real estate here to expand the brewery. I’d have to move.”
“You could move the brewery and keep the pub here,” Dylan said. “Right?”
“Yeah. I guess I could.” Matt nodded.
Dylan could