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“Yes,” I said.
“Well, nothing says Oregon more than a bunch of little old ladies’ knickknacks and old men’s man-cave garage wall hangings.”
“True,” I responded. “Not quite what I had in mind, but we can tinker. We can tinker.” She smiled, and I moved further into the wide space we were going to fill with tables and chairs. Tyler came out from the back and wrapped me in a big bear hug before taking me off to the side to talk.
“So how did things go with Amanda?” he asked. “Did you get in touch with her?”
“I did, but she shut me out,” I said. “I don’t know if things are just different for her now or if she just doesn’t want to deal with it at the moment, but she wouldn’t give me the time of day over it. She practically bought my plane ticket, telling me I needed to come back here, that they have things handled there.”
“Bummer, man,” Tyler said. “Are you okay?”
I was about to respond when Mason came into the room, announcing himself loudly, and wrapping me up in a hug as well.
“How did it go?” he asked. “You profess your undying love for Amanda?” he asked, looking back and forth between me and Tyler. Slowly, his face dropped. “You didn’t?” he asked. I shook my head.
“I didn’t have a chance to,” I said. “She’s in a different place right now, and whatever or wherever that place is, it’s not anywhere near I am. So I just have to deal with it and try to get her to talk to me some other time. But I needed to come take care of this first. How is it going here?”
“It’s going,” Mason said. “Are you sure she won’t talk to you?”
I sighed. “Maybe it was too much for her. Maybe she didn’t like that we crossed that line. Not everything ends up like in movies, Mason.”
Mason nodded, and we went to work on decorating and preparing the building. It would take some time, but our progress was already looking pretty good. I made my way to the kitchen, joining Matt there, to help guide some of the equipment in. I noticed Jordan wasn’t around but didn’t think much of it. He wasn’t going to miss helping out, so wherever he was I was sure he had a reason for it.
I had moved to the bar, beginning to polish it down and start the treatment process when the front door swung open and the handle smeared a bit of the fresh paint Ava had just put on.
“Hey!” she said. “Watch it!”
“Tom,” Jordan said, storming into the room, ignoring Ava. “Where is Tom?”
“I’m right here, Jordan,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“What’s going on?” he asked, seeming indignant. “What is going on?”
“I think we covered that. That was indeed the question,” Matt said.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on. Tom went to Danny’s bar,” Jordan said.
“Oh, alright,” I began, but he cut me off.
“He went to Danny’s bar, not to hit him or to threaten him or anything reasonable. No, he went to Danny’s stupid, hole-in-the-wall dive bar to make him an offer. Didn’t you?”
“Tom?” Mason asked, turning to me. I could tell this wasn’t going to go well. No matter how I explained it, this was going to go poorly for me.
“Look, it’s not like it sounds,” I said, and a groan rose up from each of the brothers.
“Man, how could you?” Mason demanded.
“Hang on, hang on, let him speak,” Tyler said, turning to me and squaring his shoulders. “Come on, Tom. Tell us why you would go down to the bar of the man who most certainly had something to do with our bar burning down, and offer to buy his bar?”
“I thought if I made him an offer, and he said yes, he would leave,” I said. “It might sound stupid, but I just wanted to see if he would get the hell out of town. Maybe take the cash, close down his bar, and go be someone else’s problem for a while.”
“And you thought it would be a good idea to do that without asking any of us?” Tyler asked.
“I didn’t want to rile you guys up. Some of you are particularly riled up already, and I didn’t want to start a rumble,” I said.
“The only person I want to rumble with right now is you, Tom,” Jordan said.
“Enough,” Mason interjected. “Just enough.”
“No one has to worry,” I said, throwing my hands up in the air. “Danny said no. He said no even when I told him that he would never get another chance. That was it, the answer is no, and I am not going back up there ever again.”
“You had better not,” Jordan said. “Because if you do, I am coming with you, and I will not be held responsible for what I do to him or his place.”
