Grabbing another pickle, Jake nodded to my open laptop. “Running the numbers?” he asked with a smirk. It was common knowledge that I was the finance guy in this partnership. We were equal partners, sure, but we both had different strengths. From our time in the brewery during my college years, we knew how the overall operations worked and the brewing process. Both of us were more than passable in the kitchen and had a heavy hand in developing our menu. Jake had headed up all the construction as I helped out with whatever he told me to do. He also was far better than me in dealing with our staff, scheduling, and hiring. I was the numbers man. Give me a spreadsheet, and I was at home. I loved watching those numbers for our loans go down, the income go up. It was a beautiful thing.
And yet we were preparing to take out another loan. I should be freaking out, but it was such a great opportunity. There was a Main Street program that our town had used over the years to revitalize the downtown. We’d gotten small loans and applied for grants through them when we were just getting started. Each year they awarded some low-interest loans out to businesses that had completed their business boot camp program. Considering we’d not only gone through the program, but given back by sharing our story to other local businesses and mentoring a few, we’d decided to apply for a larger loan and dive into canning. A month back we’d found out we qualified. All that was left was finalizing our business plan for this arm of the brewery and signing the loan papers when we got back to Highland.
I shook my head at him. “You know I am. Need to keep us solvent. You and your big dreams make that difficult at times.” Jake was clearly the big picture person in our brewery. I kept us grounded.
“Speaking of, did you see that outdoor dining area they have here? We could look into something like that. Maybe the lot next door? Imagine some bands in the summer, would do good business…” Jake trailed off. Clearly his mind was filled with visions of what we could be.
Me, however? His dream inspired dollar signs. How much would that cost? We had an option on the vacant lot, but that was not budgeted right now. I needed to keep our bottom line in the black. Hell, having grown up in a farm family, I knew how quickly your finances could be impacted by unseen forces. For my parents, it had been weather. Mother Nature can be a bitch. Several years of less-than-ideal conditions along with the need to purchase new equipment had almost caused Mom and Dad to lose the farm. I’d promised myself to never feel the pinch like they’d had. It was damn scary to have everything you’d dreamed of and almost lose it all.
“Sullivan, you there?”
I looked up to see Jake watching me with a concerned gaze. “Sorry, man. You started talking, and my vision filled up with bills. Can we maybe tackle one expansion of the business at a time?”
He laughed as the waitress came over to drop off our food. I slid my laptop into the bag before glancing at our order.
Jake nodded at my plate. “I got you the Red Bird, which is some spicy-ass chicken. My burger is known as the Ghost.”
“Ghost pepper?” I asked. Damn, that would be hot. In college we used to try to top each other, eating spicy shit whenever we could. Back then we were always experimenting in the kitchen. Jake’s creation known as the Atomic Burger was fire on a plate. But damn if I was that young anymore. Now I just wanted some good food.
“In the cheese. Your sandwich has some too.”
I glanced at my water to make sure we were topped up. Why did I have a feeling we’d regret this? Picking up the sandwich, I took a bite. Holy hell. Spicy, but awesome. Flavors were pinging all over my mouth. “Shit,” I said, wiping off my mouth on a napkin. “That’s damn good.”
Jake nodded with a mouthful of food and raised up a finger for me to hold on. I took another bite, then tried a fry. Also unreal. We were both picky as hell about fries. Double frying them at our brewery had made the difference between a passable side dish and one that people came to get specifically.
Jake cleared his throat. “One, I win. No way is your chicken spicier than this burger.”
I raised an eyebrow glancing at his burger. Looked like there was a shit ton of peppers there. Shrugging, I replied, “Well, I’d say that you ordered, but also, it’s your colon, man. Not sure if I’d call that one winning anymore.”
“Fucking awesome burger. Still winning.”
The waitress came back to check in, and Jake ordered some cans packed up to go since we weren’t going to drink and hop on our bikes to go home. We’d been out here last night as well, so I didn’t feel like we were missing anything necessarily.
“Two”—Jake called my attention back to him—“you doing okay with this whole loan situation?”
The man knew me, after all. Years of business together had proven my caution time and time again, but that caution had also helped lead to our success. “Thanks for asking, Spencer, but I’m actually doing okay. Well, that is if you don’t try to convince me to add in outdoor seating this year. That’s pushing too far.”
He laughed at my expression. “Not trying to give you a stroke, Sully. I got you, one thing at a time.” He paused, downing some water and wiping his forehead. Not sure if he was trying to exaggerate the heat of the meal or not. Could go either way with him. Looking more serious, he asked, “Does your pops know the impact of lean years of farming on your business sense?”
I shrugged and took another bite and thought about growing up on a farm. Swallowing, I debated how to answer that question. “Maybe? I mean, my parents never sat us down and told us everything was hitting the fan, but I wasn’t stupid. Emma was young, maybe three or four, so I’m not sure if she noticed or if she even remembers. I was six or seven. I couldn’t help but notice that they were stressed. I heard some conversations late at night and put it together. Mom crying one night was the final straw for my dad. I think I was eight then, right before Max moved to Highland. I remember seeing my dad holding my mom, promising her it would be okay. She got up, went to the bathroom.”
I stopped talking, thinking about my dad’s face when my mom had gotten up off their bed and left the room. He’d walked to the windows of the bedroom, looking outside. I could only see him in profile from my spot hiding at the door, but it was enough. His face was ravaged, and before I left, I had watched his shoulders begin to shake as his head dropped, tears coursing down. Looking back to Jake, my voice was lower, and he needed to lean in to hear me. “He was destroyed. It can happen even when you’re doing everything right.”
Jake’s eyes were locked on mine. “Fuck, Sully. That’s heavy. I’m sorry, man. I know I give you shit that you always have this plan, but you know I’m screwing with you, right? Your plan hasn’t steered us wrong yet.”
I threw my napkin on my plate and pushed it away. Damn, sitting on a bike for the next three hours was going to be tough. That was no light meal, which might have been a better choice for the ride home. Realizing Jake was waiting for me, I blew out a breath. “I know you are.”
“Change of topic.” Jake pushed his food back too. The waitress reappeared to place our bill folder on the table along with our cans to go and then took our plates. “How goes your other plan?”
My brows drew together as I considered his comment. “What?”
Jake shook his head at me. “Man, I’ve talked to Max, and I have eyes. One spitfire of a strawberry blonde has been markedly absent from our brewery for over a month. Hell, even Daryl noticed. He bartends every yoga night, you know. He said Emma and Maggie haven’t been coming in on the regular for their yoga-night special for over six weeks. Spill.”
I dropped my head to my hands, considering the table. I hadn’t said anything to Max, other than I didn’t want to talk about it, because I didn’t want to put him in a weird spot with him and Emma finally figuring their shit out. But maybe putting this out there would give me some new perspective. Hell, it couldn’t hurt. I couldn’t get Maggie to talk to me.
Looking back to Jake, I laid it out there. “So, I’ve had a thing for Maggie for a while.”
“No shit.”
