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Once we were alone, JT turned to face me. His face was drawn, and his blue eyes burned with some banked emotion, but he didn’t speak. His hesitation was annoying as fuck. He’d done this to himself, so why the hell was he walking on eggshells now?
“I heard what you said,” I admitted, crossing my arms in front of my chest to keep from reaching for him just to feel the solid, reassuring weight of him in my hands. “And you’re right.” He opened his mouth to speak, and I held up a hand to stop him. “So help me, if you say something smug right now, I’m going to punch you in the mouth.”
“Not feeling smug right now, Flynn.” JT’s voice was hoarse.
He ran both hands through his once-perfect hair. I liked it better these days—a little long, messy and real, perfect for grabbing hold of. I hated myself for wanting to reach out and save it from his rough treatment.
He stared at me for a long moment, then shook his head like he was frustrated with himself. “Fuck. This is the most important conversation of my whole life, and I… I don’t even know where to begin.” He huffed out a breath that wasn’t quite a laugh. “God, I’m an idiot.”
“No arguments here.” I propped my hip against the bar, keeping a solid ten feet of distance between us.
He did laugh then, a little, and scrubbed his hands over his face before meeting my eyes again. “Okay, let’s start with this. I’m sorry. But I swear, Flynn—”
“Gonna stop you right there, Frog. An apology doesn’t begin with ‘I’m sorrybut.’”
He nodded. “Okay, yeah. That’s fair. I’m sorry, full stop. I’m sorry that I messed this up. That I couldn’t figure out a way to be completely honest with you. I… I swear, I thought I was doing the right thing. I knew how good the Fortress deal would be for you. I wanted you to have that money, that exposure. You deserve that. Honeybridge Mead deserves that.”
I inclined my head. He was right. We did deserve those things.
“And you said you wanted to keep the manufacturing here,” JT went on. “So I decided I’d get you that, in addition to everything else in the initial contract, and then you’d have the freedom to do things. Hire people, expand, whatever you wanted. I found a property here in town. The Hornrath Chair Company is vacant and—”
“I’m aware,” I interrupted. “First, because I’m not an idiot, and I had my eye on that place already for my own expansion plans.” JT’s face fell. “And second, because town gossip is going crazy about our fight earlier, and Alden’s at the epicenter as usual. According to him, all of Honeybridge now knows you were working with Hayden to acquire the property.” I rolled my eyes. Personally, I thought Alden was upset he hadn’t been here to witness everything firsthand.
JT winced. “Yeah. I’m sorry for that, too. I didn’t want people gossiping about you.Us. I knew you wouldn’t like that.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway. I submitted my idea to Fortress, and they’ve been taking forever to approve it, so I haven’t been able to talk to you about it at all—”
“Why?”
He blinked, like the question confused him. “Well… so you wouldn’t be disappointed if they said no. Obviously. I worried that you might feel—”
“Hurt? As opposed to how I’m feeling now? Smart thinking.”
The pain on JT’s face as my cheap shot landed didn’t make me feel better. In fact, it made me feel worse.
“Did it not occur to you thatIwould say no, JT? Because I am. I don’t want a distribution deal with Fortress.”
He blinked at me some more. “But.” He shook his head. “The manufacturing would stay here.”
“Yes. I hear you. But I don’t care. I don’t want the deal under any circumstances. I didn’t bring up the manufacturing location as a negotiation point. I only mentioned it to show you that you didn’t know shit about my business, and I guess I was right. But you thought you knew better.”
“No, I—”
“I’m fucking tired, JT.” I shifted to lean my weight more fully against the bar. “All my life, I’ve busted my ass for other people, looked out for other people. I started working here to make money and stayed to help my grandfather when he couldn’t do it on his own anymore. I raised my siblings when Huck and Willow fucked off to goddess-only-knew-where so they could live their dreams. I’ve sent Georgia money when her gigs didn’t pan out in LA because she deserved to have her shot. I put Alden through his training courses so he could save his money to open his own business one day. And I’ve kept the staffing here as low as possible so I could afford to pay for PJ’s rent at art school, because I couldn’t stand to let his talent go to waste.”
I could see my words were hurting JT, but I had to get them out anyway. They were drowning me. “This was my turn, Jon.” I spread my arms to encompass my kingdom, such as it was. “Honeybridge Mead. The Tavern. This was supposed to finally bemyfucking turn. Something all for me. I wanted this Ren Faire deal so I could afford to expand my own damned businessmyselfwithout having to give up any part of what’s mine. And last night, I was so excited to tell you about—”
I broke off with a headshake. I didn’t want to tell him about my conversation with Thatcher Pennington anymore. I’d been so flattered and excited that the man hadn’t wanted to acquire my business or any of the distribution rights; he’d been impressed enough with it to invest the money I needed to grow the business myself instead. Now, it was all I could do not to start crying.
“Instead of trusting me, JT, instead of supporting me and believing in my ability to do this without Fortress’s help, you went behind my back and tried to yank my fucking dream right out from under me.”
“No,” he croaked. “Never. I support you, Firecracker. I believe you can do anything. I thought I was helping you.”
“If you thought a big corporation from New York was any part of my dream, you were wrong,” I said coldly. “And you sure as hell didn’t know me at all.”
“Flynn. Firecracker—”
“What was it you said last night about your mom thinking she knew what would make you happy better than you did?”
He shut his mouth with a clack, and his eyes squeezed shut. “Fucking Christ,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I’m such an idiot. It’s the thing with the frogs all over again.” He huffed out a humorless laugh. “Pop was right.”
