Page 104 of Feel It in the Air

27

GUS

Sob Story.

It’s always been my favorite. And at a time like this, I understand why.

“That isn’t the answer, you know,” Milo comments, giving me a wary look.

“Sure it is. Having a beer got me into this mess…” I don’t know quite how to finish that, so I don’t. Because it’s not going to get me out.

But, it’s got a shot at making me feel better. Temporarily.

Pour Decisions is thankfully relatively quiet for a Friday night, giving me that chance to indulge my own self-pity without an audience. Or at least too much of one. Willa and all her friends are down at their usual spot at the far end of the bar. Anton, his best friend, Cary, and Cary’s fiancée, Tizzy, is between me and them. Hux and Dolly are to my right, no doubt waiting for the rest of their group to arrive. But other than them, there’s only two or three other groups settled in the taproom.

I’ll take it.

Taking another long sip, I try to focus on the taste of the beer. Anything to take my mind off this mess. And that’s exactly what this is.

A great big fucking mess.

“Want to talk about it?” Milo asks, leaning against the bar, his arms spread wide, a towel thrown over his shoulder.

“No.” Why the fuck would he think I wanted to talk about this?

Truth be told, I don’t even know which it he means. The fact that my career might be over and that I’ve potentially put a stain on the company our family has spent generations building, or that for the first time in my life I told a woman I love her and it was met with “you’ll have my formal resignation on Monday.”

Both hurt. The second way more than the first. Something that if I’m honest with myself, surprises me more than anything. Six months ago, nothing mattered to me more than Hayes Industries and everything I wanted to accomplish with it. Now, I’m half a step away from not being able to care less.

The only thing I want is to find a way to make it so Margeaux knows that I meant what I said. She is all that matters.

“What do you think of this one?” Dolly asks. “There isn’t much of a porch though.”

“A porch is an easy add, Doll,” Hux mutters.

I laugh to myself, wondering how many times I’ve heard this conversation. A hundred, I’d bet. Hell, at this point, I’d paint ours white and give it to them if it made Hux realize what the rest of us already know. So that come next spring he’s not sitting right where I am now. Heartbroken and alone.

“Explain something to me,” Anton says, spinning on his bar stool to face me.

Not now, Anton…

I lift a single eyebrow at brother number three, already skeptical of whatever he’s going to ask. Hux might be the kid smack-dab in the middle of the seven of us, but Anton is the one with the feral middle-child energy. And he knows how to use it.

“How’d this bitch even know?”

Good fucking question…

I shrug. “No idea. Luck, I think.” I’ve never seen her at a town event before, not that she’s been on my radar, but my current working theory is that she showed up to the Nativity lighting because Percy specifically mentioned seeing everyone there that morning, and she wanted to make sure she was seen to be in his good graces. “But the fact that she snapped a photo of us sneaking behind the church doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for debate.”

“Something still isn’t sitting right about this,” he says.

No shit. Thanks for that, Anton. A whole hell of a lot still isn’t sitting right with this one. Then again, I’m armpit deep in it. Still, the math isn’t mathing here. There’s too much going on, and I can’t figure out how all the pieces fit.

Heartache doesn’t exactly make for a clear head either.

“Not that you asked me,” Hux starts.

“You’re right, I didn’t,” I snark, throwing a look his way.