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She blinks for several slow beats. “We need wine. Yours will come with a straw.”
“Two straws,” I say, following her inside. Intravenous might be better. I’m not sure how I got here. I barely remember driving.
The second I sit on Larkin’s couch, my eyes burn with tears.
She returns and puts a glass of wine in my hands. It doesn’t have a straw, but the glass is nearly overflowing. “Don’t skimp on details,” she says. “I need to know how long I have to torture Cal before I kill him.”
The thought of someone hurting Cal has my eyes spilling over. “This is so messed up,” I whisper to my glass.Thank you, wine, for not scheming behind my back.I take a grateful sip, blinking to clear my vision. “Apparently Cal thought he’d swoop in like some knight in shining armor and save me from myself. He assumed I hated the bar and felt stuck there out of duty. Which,fine—a lot of days were a slog and I did feel stuck, and I probably harped on the negative too much around him.” Stupid Callahan, being so damn easy to confide in. “But what kind of person plots to have his best friendevicted?”
Larkin scowls. “An evil one. He’s probably plotting to hack into satellites next, black out the world.”
“Or rig the stock market since he seems to have piles of cash he’s using to buy our freaking building.”
She taps her nails on her glass. “On a level from Captain Hook to Ursula, his type of evil hovers around Gaston.”
“Gaston acted out of jealousy.” Bringing a mob to kill the beast to get to his beloved Belle.
“And Callahan acts out of fear,” Larkin says. “Volatile emotions cause irrational behavior.”
They sure cause a landslide of damage. I cradle the wineglass and draw my knees up tight. “I’m not sure I can accept him buying a building for me. It’s way too much, but I hate the idea of giving up on our business plan.”
“Actually…” Larkin leans toward me. “We don’t have to give up on our business plan, and we don’t have to rely on Cal.”
I squint at her. “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t want to say anything before I spoke with my brother, Julian, but after Francisca dropped that bomb on us, I thought of the same solution as Cal.”
“Julian wants to buy the building?”
“He lives in New York, does consulting work I don’t fully understand for a crap ton of money. He’s talked to me about investing in real estate in the past, and Windfall land value is getting hotter. So, I spoke with him about our issue. He seems really keen to buy the Barrel.”
Her news gives me mental whiplash. One second, I’m down on my luck. Next, I have two people willing to invest in my future. “Would you feel good about him being our landlord?”
“No issues there. Julian and I have always gotten along. And, personally, I’d feel way better about him acquiring the building as an investment, rather than Cal doing it as an emotional reaction.”
A huge weight lifts off my shoulders. “I completely agree and would have to thank Julian profusely. Hopefully Francisca is okay with the change.”
Larkin nods, looking equally as relieved as I feel, but her expression sobers. “With that covered, let’s circle back to Cal and how you’re feeling about him.”
Too many emotions fight for dominance, making me dizzy. “Do we have to?”
“Unfortunately, yes. As pissed as I am at him for his asinine scheming, you werehappywith him, Jo. Like, fall-on-your-face in love.”
Accurate and as painful as you’d imagine.I take another large sip of wine. “How do I trust him after this? He didn’t just overstep. I feel violated and duped.”
“If needed, I can help you hide his body.”
I manage a laugh. Larkin continually passes the friend test with flying colors, but hurting Cal would hurt me. “How can I love someone so much and be so angry with him at the same time?”
She tucks her legs under her and swirls her glass. “Bowers have a special life-ruining gene. Clearly inherited from their father.”
“Larkin.”
“I know,” she says, before I jump to Jake’s defense. “Jake is a good guy,” she adds, mimicking my usual rebuttal, but she makes it sound likeJake is a worthless piece of shit. “Assuming Callahan truly wanted what’s best for you and wasn’t interfering to satisfy some weird hero complex this time, can you forgive him? Trust him moving forward?”
Isn’t that the question of this awful night?
I roll the wordNoon my tongue. Taste it and wait for my reaction.
