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I stared at them, waiting for one of them to say more. “That’s it? Just ‘okay’?”
“Dude, what the hell do you want from me? From us?” Hudson retorted. “You ask us our opinions, and we give them—despite the great peril—then you get pissed anyway.”
Great peril?I hadn’t asked them to dive on a land mine. “What the hell are you talking about?”
My siblings exchanged another look. “You’ve been a bit testy lately,” Carmen said.
“Fuck that,” Hudson said. “Ever since the resort got the green light, you bite off the head of anyone who so much as looks at you sideways.”
Yes, the resort proposal had passed. It wasn’t exactly a landslide, but my vote wouldn’t have mattered. The groundbreaking ceremony was scheduled for next week. Every time I drove past the sign announcing the future home of the Markham resort, I should have felt angry or resentful, especially given how hard I’d fought against it. Instead, I felt dead inside. And maybe that had led to me being a little grumpier than usual, but so what? People had bad days, even weeks.
“I’ve had a lot on my mind.”
As we spoke, a stack of documents about my brew being served in the new Markham resort sat on my office. But I didn’t care a whole lot about that—it was an easy business decision, based on the revenue it would bring in. I cared about whose hands had prepared those documents.
Is Claire at work behind the scenes, or has she already started her new job?I had no fucking clue, and it was eating me up inside, not because I didn’t know her employment status but because I didn’t know heranythingstatus.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Carmen asked tentatively.
“No.” The last thing I needed was another Ramsey-Croft woman calling me a dumbass for letting Claire go. My mom had done it preemptively, and if given the chance, I was sure she’d remind me of that—out of motherly love and concern, of course. For that reason, I’d avoided the past few family dinners, letting Grandpa Charlie go instead of us taking turns manning the Brew Co. like we normally did.
Hudson put his hands on his hips and surveyed the room with the scrutinizing gaze of a contractor instead of a guy who spent most evenings hanging out at the bar. Though come to think of it, he hadn’t been doing that as much lately.
Damn it. Have I really been so difficult that he’s steering clear of me? That stung, but I had no one to blame but myself.
“Are you thinking a fresh coat of paint or a true remodel?” he asked.
I blew out a breath, reining in the urge to kick change to the curb. “What do you think?”
“Do you really want to know? Or are you going to bite my head off?”
I gritted my teeth. I’d earned that comment. “I want to know.”
“It wouldn’t take much to do a remodel. New floors, new bar, fresh paint, of course.” He walked over to the section of the dartboard. “This would be a great place for the pool table. We could drop the floor and put in a railing. I’d line it with bar-height tabletops.” He patted the jukebox. “If we say goodbye to this bad boy, we could fit two pool tables.”
“What about a stage?” Carmen interjected. “You could get live bands or even just a solo guitar player and singer.”
I frowned. “That’s getting crazy, don’t you think?” I looked to Hudson for support.
He shrugged. “Not really. If we extend the outdoor seating area, we could put in a firepit for the winter and also have room for corn hole.”
“Damn. Those are some pretty detailed ideas. It almost seems like you’ve thought about this.” I felt like I’d been ambushed, even though I’d come to him.
He tucked his hands into his pockets. “I’ve spent a lot of time in here. It’s an occupational hazard.”
I eyed the space, trying to visualize what my siblings had described. I couldn’t see it. I simply wasn’t a visionary. Perhaps that was why I was stuck in my ways.
“Let me think about it,” I said.
Hudson arched an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
Walking the perimeter of the space, I rubbed my chin and again tried to visualize his plan. I felt like I could see shadows of it. “Yeah. I need to think some more and look at the numbers.”
“The cost won’t be a problem,” Hudson said. “You’d only have to pay for supplies. You, Dad, and I could do the labor ourselves.”
“I wouldn’t want to cut into your business’s bottom line.”
“We’re family,” Hudson said. “We help each other. Carmen feeds me muffins, and I help remodel your place. It all works out.”
