Russ said, “I don’t know what going on between you and Scott, and I don’t care. I am not happy about any of this, I believe you are capable of turning your brewery around. I really do want to help you.”
I said, “thanks Russ, I appreciate that, but how the hell am I going to come up this money in thirty days.”
Russ smiled, “well, like I said, I want to help you, and I think I can.”
I asked, “how?”
He said, “about two years ago, Georgia National Bank opened a new branch here in Waynesboro. Bob Collins was hired as the president of Georgia National, he had my job here before he left. He has been trying to get me to come to work for him for the last six months. After my meeting with my boss this morning, I called him to confirm that the offer was still on the table. It was and this will be my last day here, starting Monday, I will be working for Georgia National.”
I said, “ok, so, you want me to move my business to your new bank?”
He nodded, “yes, I was so pissed this morning when I was told to drop you, I called Bob and told him everything. Scott Patefield is either loved or hated by everyone in this town, let’s just say that Bob doesn’t love Scott. I have already called a few of my better customers and filled them in as well, I didn’t tell them about you, but I did mention Scott, they will be leaving this bank next week as well. Bob said he will do whatever he can to take over loans.”
I asked, “so I close my accounts here and Georgia National will loan me the money to pay this bank back?”
Russ nodded, “yes, but don’t do anything just yet. Give me a few days to get settled in at my new bank and get all the paperwork ready before you close any accounts.”
I asked, “don’t you have to give two weeks’ notice?”
He chuckled, “that’s not how things work in the banking business. As soon as I tell my boss that I am quitting, I will be escorted to my office to get any personal belongings and then I will be escorted from the building. I have already scanned all of your information onto a flash drive, which is the exact reason we aren’t allowed to work two weeks. They don’t want us to poach customers.”
I asked, “so is this really ethical?”
He laughed, “it’s just as ethical as my boss allowing Scott Patefield to dictate the customers we keep.”
I said, “so you are willing to quit here, just to help me?”
Russ smiled, “not just you, I don’t think a bank should allow one man to dictate who we can do business with. I really liked your grandpa, and I like your beer. You have a good plan to get things back on track, so I believe in you. That plus the fact that I really don’t like Scott Patefield, all played a part in my decision.”
I shook his hand, “thanks Russ, please call me as soon as you are ready for me, and I’ll move my accounts.”
I went back to the brewery relieved that we could carry on with our plans. I filled Eli and Hal in on the morning’s events.
Hal said, “we should have known that weasel would try to pull a stunt like this.”
Eli added, “yeah, thank God Russ is on our side.”
We all went back to work, and I called Jeff Thomas to tell him that we would be changing banks, and he expressed the same sentiments that Hal and Eli had.
We got home after work to another great meal prepared by Dylan, Joey joined us again. I didn’t tell Dylan about the stunt that his dad had pulled, and I still hadn’t told him about the letters that I had found. I knew I should tell him about them, but I needed to wait until the right time.
As we ate, I could see that Dylan seemed a little nervous. I asked, “so besides cooking this fabulous meal, what did you do today?”
Dylan looked around the table at each of us and said, “well, I cleaned up a little bit after you guys all left for work. Then I went to get the ingredients for dinner… Then I stopped by Geno’s”
Geno’s was the only real restaurant in Waynesboro. Oh, there were several fast-food places, a couple of cafes and of course most of the bars served your typical bar food. Geno’s was what most considered the fanciest place in town. While it might not be considered fancy in a big city, it was a nice place, and they served very good food.
I said, “oh yeah, why did you stop by there?”
He swallowed hard and said, “I heard Geno fired his cook, so I thought I would apply.”
I smiled, “and how did it go?”
He grinned, “I start tomorrow.”
Eli and Joey both congratulated Dylan as I sat there and saw the look of pride on his face.
He suddenly looked nervous again as he looked at me, he asked, “is it ok that I took the job?”
I furrowed my brow, “of course it is, I am so proud of you. I think this is the first time you have made a decision for yourself and are doing something that you want to do.”
He smiled, “yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Eli said, “wait a minute, does this mean you aren’t going be cooking dinner for us every night?”
Dylan said, “I’m sorry, I guess I can make something up before I go to work…”
I shook my head, “no, we will be fine. Eli, you survived before, I’m sure you’ll muddle through again.”
Eli shrugged, “I guess you’re right, we are happy for you Dylan.”
Joey said, “and we can always come eat your food at the restaurant.”
Dylan smiled again, “thanks you guys, I appreciate it. Oh, I almost forgot, Geno wants to start carrying your beer.”
I asked, “he isn’t already?”
Joey said, “no, every time I tried to get him to take a case, he always said he had all the beer he needed.”
I asked, “so what made him change his mind?”
Dylan said, “Geno told me that over the last few weeks, he had people starting to ask if he served Malloy Beer.”
Eli beamed, “see, marketing works.”
I nodded, “I guess so. Joey, make sure you get Geno whatever he wants.”
Joey smiled, “you got it, boss.”
We helped Dylan clean up and after a couple of beers, we all headed to bed.
Dylan made us all breakfast again the next morning, and we all left for work. He had a couple of hours before he had to be at the restaurant.
Russ Swanson called me, he was settled in at his new bank, so I went down to open our new account and sign all the paperwork for our loans. He introduced me to Bob Collins.
Bob said, “it’s nice to finally meet you Caleb, I always liked doing business with your grandpa.”
I said, “thank you, I appreciate you helping me out like this.”
He said, “it’s my pleasure, I am very impressed with your plan. Not to mention, it gives me a chance to stick it to my old boss, the way he always cowers to Scott Patefield makes me sick.”
As I was signing everything, Russ pointed out that he had increased my line of credit, based on my new projections. They cut me a certified check and I went to my old bank to pay off the notes I had there and to close my account.
When I told the teller what I wanted, she said, “wow, you’re the fifth business this week to close their account.”
The bank president heard her and came out of his office, he said, “just complete the transaction without any further commentary.”
After we completed our business, I grinned as I turned to leave, I said, “I hope your buddy Scott is worth it.”
He just glared at me as he went back to his office, pulling the door shut behind him.
Over the next week, all of the extra ingredients that we needed for our new beers arrived and we started to batch them. This should give us just enough time to get them bottled for BoroFest. The new labels also arrived, so everything was going just as planned. I was still waiting for Patefields’ next move to sabotage us, or for our line to suffer a major breakdown. I just knew something bad was going to happen. It turned out that something good happening was that bad thing.
I was going over our production numbers, the filler was running like the day it was new. Brad, Jim and Hal had it humming like a song. I then went over our inventory on hand, we were well behind our goal. We have calculated our target inventory so that we can start to fill our new products for the festival and still meet our existing sales. We didn’t seem to be getting any closer, and we only had three to four weeks before we needed to change over to our summer ale.
A quick review of our sales showed me that the problem wasn’t in our production, it was our sales. I guess too many sales are a good problem to have, but I was suddenly worried about having enough beer to sell at BoroFest. It turned out Joey and Eli were doing a good job, and the extra cases of beer they were selling kept our inventory from growing. I certainly didn’t want to stop them from adding customers, but I also didn’t want to fall short at the festival.
I talked to Hal, Brad and Jim. They assured me that we were getting all we could from our filler. I asked them to go over our second line to see if they could get it operational again.
I said, “first, see if it is possible, then how much it will cost and give me your best guess on how long it would take.”
Hal nodded, “we’ll see what we can do.”
The next morning, Brad and Jim were waiting for me as I pulled into the parking lot.
Brad nudged Jim, “go ahead, tell him.”
I said, “tell me what.”
Jim said, “well, I called my old boss at the Coke plant in Atlanta last night. He was telling me that they just replaced one of their filling machines with a new, faster one.”
I nodded, “ok, it’s nice that they have the money to do that, but we…”
Jim interrupted, “no, I know we can’t get a new filler, but they are trying to get rid of their old machine.”
I sighed, “well, I’m sure we can’t afford the used machine either.”
Brad said, “you might be surprised.”
Jim said, “yeah, they have been trying to sell it for a month now, the only offers they have gotten are from a couple of scrap dealers. One offered $700 and the other offered $800.”
I chuckled, “so the filler is only worth scrap iron prices?”
Jim shook his head, “no, it was running before they replaced it. See, Coke shut 3 of these small fillers down in 3 of their plants. They all filled glass bottles, the new filler they put in will fill enough to replace all 3 of the old machines. They are going to produce all the glass bottles in Atlanta, they increased production of their plastic bottles in the other 2 plants.”
I asked, “so can we fill beer bottles with this machine?"
Brad said, “that’s the best part, it’s the exact same machine we already have, it’s just a little newer. There are only about three companies that make filling machines. These machines can fill anything from cooking oil, vinegar, to soda and beer. We will have to adjust the infeed rails and filler heights to match our bottles.”
I asked, “so we could pull out our non-functioning filler and put this one in its place and we would have two running lines?”
Brad nodded, “yep.”
Hal joined us as we were talking, Brad and Jim quickly updated him on our conversation.
Hal agreed that the filler would work for us.
I asked, “so how much do want for the machine?”
Jim grinned, “my old boss said if we offered them $1000, they would probably accept it, as long as we came to pick it up.”
I asked Jim, “are you sure the machine is in running order?”
He nodded, “I replaced all the filler heads the week before I moved here, it was running like a champ a month ago.”
I asked Hal, “what do you think?”
He said, “all new filler heads would run us at least 5 grand if we bought them for our old machine, the entire machine is well worth $1000, even if it was only good for parts.”
We made a quick phone call to Jim’s old boss and a half hour later, I bought the filler.”
I said, “now we just have to get our new piece of equipment trucked here.”
Brad said, “I got that covered too. My brother-in-law works for Hanish Trucking, he said he could haul it for us.”
I asked, “how much will that cost us?”
He said, "his boss lets his drivers use the trucks on the weekends, all they have to do is pay for any fuel they use.”
Jim said, “Brad and I can go with him this Saturday, pick up the machine and start installing it on Monday.”
By Friday, the old equipment had been moved out of the way and by Saturday afternoon we had our new filler in place. It would take another 2 to 3 weeks to get it operational, just in time for when our first batch of summer ale would be ready to be bottled.
Dylan had started working at Geno’s so Sunday was going to be his first day off. He loved his job, and Geno was receptive to allowing him to try some of his recipes. Eli and Joey had of course helped us unload the new equipment so by the time Dylan got home on Saturday night, we were all beat and headed to bed early. Joey spent the night as he had been with more frequency. We all slept in on Sunday morning.
I woke with Dylan’s head on my chest and my arms wrapped around him. I carefully wiggled out from under him and went to the bathroom. When I returned, he had taken my pillow and was snuggled against it. I smiled, he looked so peaceful laying there, I just couldn’t wake him. I went out to the kitchen to start the coffee. I also decided to start breakfast, I was hungry for pancakes. Just as I was mixing the batter and the coffee finished, Eli walked into the kitchen yawning.
He said, “good morning, giving Dylan the morning off?”
I chuckled, “yeah, I thought he might be getting tired of cooking for all of us. Besides, he looked so cute lying there hugging my pillow.”
Eli smiled, “yeah, Joey looked sexy laying my bed too. Of course, the fact that I hogged the covers, and his bare ass was in full view didn’t hurt how sexy he looked.”
I laughed, “so, have you guys talked about moving in together?”
He looked at me, “um, no. Do you want me to move out?”
I said, “oh no, that’s not what I meant at all. You know you are welcome to stay here. Shit, we’ve lived together for so long, I’m not sure I would know how to act without you.”
Eli looked a bit relieved, “so, are you saying you would be ok with Joey moving in here?”
I nodded, “sure, you were ok with Dylan moving in.”
He said, “yeah, but this is actually your house, besides, he needed to get away from his dad’s control.”
I said, “yes, this is my house, but you know I would never kick you out.”
Eli smiled, “thanks, I’ll talk to Joey and see what he wants to do. I think he might be glad to get out of that trailer.”
Dylan walked into the kitchen rubbing his eyes, he said, “why didn’t you wake me so I could make breakfast?”
I gave him a kiss, “you were tired, and you don’t have to do all the cooking around here.”
He smiled, “thanks, but I don’t mind.”
Joey joined us and said, “something smells good.”
Eli kissed him and said, "yep, Caleb is making us pancakes.”
Everyone pitched in as we scrambled some eggs and fried some sausages to add to our pancakes. We all cleaned up after we ate and sat at the table for another cup of coffee.
Dylan asked, “so what’s on everyone’s agenda today?”
I said, “we all had a busy week, and it’s supposed to be in the eighties today. I think a lazy day around the pool is in order.”
Joey grinned, “that sounds like a hell of an idea y’all.”
No one disagreed so we finished our coffee out on the patio, then all changed into our swimming trunks. We returned to the pool, and we were soon splashing each other and trying to dunk everyone under the water. This evolved into a game of chicken, Dylan on my shoulders and Eli on Joey’s. After Eli knocked Dylan into the water, I gave Joey a shove, sending Eli into pool. Joey grabbed Dylan and said, “get on Dylan, let’s show these city boys how to play chicken.
Eli responded, “you’re on redneck.” As he climbed on my shoulders. We were basically even after a few rounds and paused to catch our breath.
Eli swam to Joey and said, “well redneck, I think you have met your match.”
Joey pushed him underwater as he said, “we’ll see about that.”
I put my arm around Dylan as we watched them wrestle around. Dylan turned to me with a big smile and said, “thank you for everything you have done for me these past few weeks.”
I gave him a kiss, “you’re welcome.”
We continued to kiss as we worked our way to the shallow end of the pool. I felt my cock begin to swell, Dylan’s was doing the same. We reached into each other’s trunks, and we started to stroke each other. I pushed Dylan’s trunks down as I went down to taste his love stick. He moaned and put his hands on my head as I bobbed up and down, savoring his juices. I felt Dylan’s nuts tighten as he pulled me up for another kiss. He quickly yanked my trunks down and soon had my cock buried in his mouth. I saw his trunks floating across the pool, then noticed Eli and Joey had joined us near the steps. Eli was sucking Joey as Joey held Eli’s head with his own head tipped back. Dylan released my cock and turned me around, spread my cheeks so he could tongue my hole. I bent forward leaning on the side of the pool, giving him all the access he wanted. Dylan stood up behind me and kissed my neck as he rubbed his swollen manhood up and down my crack. I spread my ass cheeks and guided his missile home. I pushed back to meet his thrust and got lost in the moment, I hadn’t noticed that Eli and Joey had moved beside us. I was shaken back to reality when I felt lips on my cock. I looked down to see Joey sucking me balls deep. Dylan gasped as I turned to see that Eli was now behind Dylan with is tongue buried in Dylan’s ass. It seemed to egg Dylan on, and I swear I felt his cock swell even more inside me. I have to admit, Joey did know his way around a cock, so I was extra aroused as well.
Dylan whispered in my ear, “this is so hot, can I let Eli fuck me?”
I turned my head to give him a kiss, “you can do whatever you want.”
Before the words left my mouth, Eli was standing behind Dylan with his cock pointed at its target. Dylan paused his thrusts just long enough for Eli to push in, he resumed fucking me and he and Eli were soon in sync. Joey let my cock fall from his mouth and stood to give me a kiss. Not only was he a talented cock sucker, but he was also pretty good at kissing. He grinned at me and said, “I think I want a little ass too.” He moved behind Eli and was soon part of our train. After a few minutes of ecstasy, my cock felt a little left out. I pulled away from Dylan and gave him another kiss, then moved in behind Joey. I got a taste of the ass that I had admired so much on the day they caught us skinny dipping. I smiled as I pushed my pole into his hole, it felt as good as it tasted. Our moans and groans were coming in perfect harmony, I’m sure if anyone that was outside the fence walking by, would know what we were doing, but we didn’t care.
Joey said, “can I get a little of that rich boy ass now?” Dylan smiled and nodded, “oh yeah.” We changed positions, Joey was now fucking Dylan, Eli was fucking Joey, and I was fucking Eli. It had been a while, I had forgotten how good Eli’s ass felt. We were soon back in rhythm.
A few minutes later, Dylan surprised us all when he panted, “I want some of the city boy ass now.”
Eli grinned as we broke apart and he leaned forward in front of Dylan and spread his cheeks.
Joey smirked at me and said, “I guess that means I get some boss ass then.”
I was too turned on to argue, so I stood next to Eli and let Joey go to work. Before long the heavy breathing indicated that we were all getting close. I panted, “let’s finish this out of the pool.” We moved to the patio, Dylan and Joey each found a lounge chair and lay on their backs with their legs in the air. Eli mounted Joey and I climbed on top of Dylan. We all started kissing while we fucked. Minutes later we were all spilling our seed, in or on our partners. We all sat back to catch our breath.
Eli said, “wow, that was fun, unexpected, but fun.”
I chuckled, “yeah, but we might not want to talk about this at work on Monday.”
We decided a quick shower was in order, Eli and Joey went to their room, Dylan and I went to ours.
As we were showering, I asked Dylan, “are you ok?”
He smiled, “yeah, I’m good, that was fun. I have to admit, I was a little nervous at first. But to be honest, ever since that day I saw Eli and Joey skinny dipping, I was hoping something like this would happen.”
I chuckled, “yeah, I know what you mean, I kind of thought the same thing.”
He said, “but you and Eli have been together before, right?”
I nodded, “yes, we have, and just like today, it is always just sex.”
Dylan asked, “what do mean?”
I said, “when it’s just you and me, it means something to me, it’s a lot more than sex. What we did today was just having a good time.”
He nodded, “I know, I feel the same way.”
We pulled on some shorts and a t-shirt, and all went back to the patio to have a beer and were soon relaxing and enjoying the rest of the day.
Dylan was really starting to come out of shell, he said, “I have to tell you guys, that city boy ass is really hot.”
Joey laughed, “yeah it is, but your rich boy ass is nothing to sneeze at.”
Eli said, “I’ll second that, redneck.”
I shook my head and chuckled, “I need another beer, anyone else want one?”
They all nodded, so I went back inside to get us all another beer. As I was going back outside, I heard a knock at the door. I was a bit surprised when I opened the door to see Scott Patefield standing on the other side.
He said, “where is my son?”
To be Continued…
