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YOU'RE STILL THE ONE
Ribbon Ridge #6
Darcy Burke
Releasing on April 5th, 2016.
Avon Impulse
USA Today bestseller Darcy Burke concludes her Archer family saga with a second chance at first love…
Everyone thought college sweethearts
Bex Holmgren and Hayden Archer were headed for the altar… until a tragic
accident sent young Bex running from a future she wasn’t ready to claim. But
when she’s offered her dream job at Archer Brewing, Bex can’t pass up the
chance to reconnect with the big, crazy family that once welcomed her with open
arms—and the one man she’s never stopped loving.
When he returns home after a year in
France, Hayden is less than thrilled to find his ex-girlfriend working for his
family’s company. He’s finally moved on, and being around her rekindles
long-buried feelings he’d rather ignore. But Bex isn’t the same girl he
knew—she’s more mature, more beautiful, more tempting than ever—and he can’t
resist the pull of the intense passion he’s only ever shared with her.
Have five years changed them enough,
or are they doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past? The only thing Bex knows
for sure is that for her, Hayden is still the one.
“So when do we get to taste your
beer?”
She almost wanted to steer the
conversation back to him, but she was the last person to press someone to
reveal emotions. “The first batches should be ready Monday. One’s a loganberry
ale.”
“Sounds great. What’re you calling
it?”
“I asked Evan for suggestions. He
came up with Legolas. Because he’s an archer, and it sounds kind of like
loganberry.”
Hayden laughed. “And it’s from his
favorite book and movie series of all time.”
She grinned. “True, but I still like
it.”
“I like it, too.”
“The other’s an IPA, but it doesn’t
have a name yet.” She’d thought of a few, but nothing had stuck. “I designed it
with hints of pine and spice. We’ll see how it turns out.”
“How about calling it Hot Prick?”
This time her stumble was much
bigger, and he had to reach out and grab her. She laughed hard. “Are you
serious?”
His eyes glinted with mirth. “Hey,
we get away with calling our stout Shaft.”
“True, but Hot Prick is maybe a
little over the top. How about Spice Whirl?”
He laughed. “As in the Spice Girls
movie? That’s lame.”
He was right, but she pretended to
be offended anyway and failed miserably as she laughed with him. “Hey, I loved that movie when it came out.”
“So did my sisters. But I doubt
that’s your audience. I’m still voting for Hot Prick. Or how about
Zestactular?”
She narrowed her eyes, still
laughing. “That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s better than Spice Whirl.”
“I think you’re right. Hot Prick is
better. Why don’t I just go with a dirty theme? Instead of Legolas, I’ll call
that one Twig and Berries.”
It was his turn to burst out
laughing. “Brilliant. You need a honey beer that you can call Sweet Lick.”
She dabbed at her eye as her
laughter continued. “You’re terrible. What about one I can call Goldenrod? It’ll
be a wheat beer.”
He laughed with her, bending at the
waist. “Pink Lips. Something with cherries. Better yet, Pop My Cherry.”
She gulped air. “Hey, when I was in
Eugene I got away with naming one Beaver Beater.”
He stopped, his hand catching hers
so she stopped, too. He laughed harder. “You didn’t. No, of course you did.
Those Duck-loving assholes.”
She loved that he was touching her.
“They especially loved it since I was a Beaver. They thought it was a funny
joke, and that I was just being a good sport. I laughed the entire time.”
“Come on, they got the double
entendre, right?”
“Of course they did, but since it
was a Beaver slam, they didn’t care.”
He took a deep breath as he wiped
his eye, unfortunately letting go of her hand in the process. “This is kind of
turning me on.”
I’m a relatively new beer drinker. I started liking it enough to drink about five years ago, much to the delight of my beer-loving husband. We live in Oregon, which is just about the best place to live if you want easy access to more outstanding restaurants, breweries/brewpubs, and wineries than you could possibly visit. Believe me, I’ve tried! My husband has home brewed beer for years, but when it came to writing about Bex in YOU’RE STILL THE ONE, I needed to bone up on my commercial brewing knowledge! Lucky for me, I live in the right place.
I started my research at Widmer Brewing Company, which made a name for themselves in the nineties with their Hefeweizen, an exceedingly drinkable wheat beer that is made even more drinkable with a slice of lemon. It’s pretty much what everyone drank “back in the day” and when we traveled, my husband was always sad there wasn’t Widmer Hefeweizen. Nowadays, they have a large commercial facility and supply beer to restaurants and stores all over the country. Since Archer Brewing is looking into bottling, I wanted to look into it, too. The folks at Widmer gave me a lovely tour and you can head over to my website for more information and pictures!
Widmer gave me an excellent picture of how a large, commercial operation with bottling works. But Bex is a brewer at a brewpub, so I continued my research at McMenamin’s, a company that owns several brewpubs and other entertainment facilities all over the Northwest. With their multi-purpose venues, painting motifs, and family-started business, you might see a bit of a resemblance to Archer! I visited McMenamin’s Old Church and Pub in Wilsonville and spent some time with the brewer there—Justin Azevedo. Justin was incredibly helpful, taking me through his typical brewing day and answering my fifty million questions. I learned a ton about yeast (so important in brewing!), hops (they stink!), and what IBU means. (International Bitterness Unit—it measures the bitterness of a beer and is on most labels. The higher the IBU, the more bitter the taste. I’ve learned that I prefer my beers in the 35 and lower range.) We also spent some time talking about naming beers, which he gets to do when he crafts something new. I took that idea into one of the scenes in YOU’RE STILL THE ONE, heh. One of the things I love about their operation is their commitment to local products. They even send their organic waste to a sheep farm!
Are you a beer drinker? If so, do you have a favorite? Don’t forget to enter the rafflecopter giveaway along the blog tour as I’m giving away signed copies of Ribbon Ridge books 1-5 plus a pint glass and coaster!
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Darcy Burke is the USA Today bestselling author of hot, action-packed historical and sexy, emotional contemporary romance. Darcy wrote her first book at age 11, a happily-ever-after about a swan addicted to magic and the female swan who loved him, with exceedingly poor illustrations.
A native Oregonian, Darcy lives on the edge of wine country with her guitar-strumming husband, their two hilarious kids-who each seem to have inherited the writing gene in some form-and two Bengal cats. In her "spare" time Darcy is a serial volunteer enrolled in a 12-step program where one learns to say "no," but she keeps having to start over. Her happy places are Disneyland and Labor Day weekend at the Gorge.
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