Page 88 of More Than My Hometown

I continue to laugh, loving this way too much. If there’s one thing in life that’s gotten under his skin, it’s Presley Callahan.

“What am I missing?” Gus asks, clearly becoming impatient. “And why do I have to unhire someone that we may or may not have actually hired?”

“She’s the one who displaced Jace.”

“What do you mean displaced him?”

“Ohhh…” Milo comments, everything suddenly clicking. His smirk grows even bigger and I can tell he’s about half a heartbeat away from joining my laughter.

“Ohh, what?” Gus looks between us, his grumpiness becoming more and more solidified on his face. “Someone please fill me in.”

“Do you really not remember?” Milo quips.

The bar door opens again, Hux sliding in.

“Hey, is the keg for tomorrow all set…” He stops, halfway to the back room, taking the scene in. “What’s going on? What did I miss?”

“Apparently Bronwyn just hired Presley Callahan,” I call out.

Hux stares back blankly for a moment, then his face lights up, the light bulb over his head coming to life. “Well, no shit…that chick from high school?”

“Yup!”

“Oh, that’s… This is gonna be good.”

“Seriously, fuck all of you!” Jace exclaims. “Gus, please.”

Throwing up his hands in surrender, Gus turn to face Jace. “Maybe once someone explains who the hell we are talking about!”

“Otis Callahan's daughter,” Milo answers, knowing that the fastest way to get Gus there is to connect her to Hayes’s compliance officer.

“They moved here when we were in high school, the summer before Jace’s senior year. She’s the one who made it so he wasn’t valedictorian,” I continue. “And then continued to beat him at everything after that.”

“The reason he was no longer the golden child in town.” Hux laughs.

“Ohhhh…” Gus mouths, understanding dawning on him.

We’re all so close now that it’s sometimes hard to remember that the number of years between us mattered a lot more when we were younger. There’s just under a year separating Jace and me, with a little over two between him and Hux. The three of us were all in school together, while Gus and Milo were all but out of college at that point. Actually, by Jace’s senior year, they were both out of college. Hickory Hills is a small town, with a strong rumor mill, but two twenty-something dudes were not paying attention to their younger siblings’ high school woes.

Unless that woe is what gets you knocked off the top spot of the honor roll.

“You can't hire her,” Jace insists again.

“I can do whatever I want,” Gus claps back.

“No.”

Gus raises an eyebrow, the bull clearly poked. Nice job, Jace.

“Yes. More importantly, this is Bronwyn's choice. If this Presley is who she wants, then I trust that she’s the best fit for the position and I’m not going to stand in her way.”

“Are you⁠—”

“C’mon.” Hux slaps Jace’s chest with the back of his hand. “Come help me with this keg. Put your anger to good use.”

Jace follows, still muttering about how he’s going to talk sense into Bronwyn, because this just can’t happen. We wait until they’re gone, the swinging door to the back room as shut as it can be, before Gus turns back to me.

“You need to talk to Maisey; you know that, right?”

I heave out a sigh, my mind clicking back to the heaviness weighing on me. Jace’s tantrum was a nice distraction, but it doesn’t change anything. In fact, it only proves to me that I know what I need to do. Because where Maisey is concerned, there’s only one thing that matters.

I made the mistake once. I won’t make it again.

I will need to talk to her. It’s just not the conversation that Gus thinks we need to have.

“When can you have the paperwork drawn up?” I ask.

“Ewan,” Milo chides in the same tone he usually reserves for Gus. It’s his warning tone, but I’m not going to heed it. I know what I’m doing.

“Can you have them ready by Munch?”

“You need to talk to Maisey,” Gus repeats. “Take it from the guy who tried to make a decision about his professional future without talking to the woman he loves. Talk to Maisey.”

I shake my head. “Gus, draw up the paperwork. I need to make sure everything is in place so that no matter what she decides, she can make her dream come true. And there’s only one way to do that.”