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Over the last year, she’s seemed to have cleaned up her act, but once trust is broken, there’s no going back. The cracks will always be there. No matter how much I thought loved her.
Not to mention, she’s been on damage control at work ever since. No one wants to be her partner because they heard what happened from the guy I caught her blowing in the rescue truck. He was proud of himself and bragged to anyone that would listen. He’s since got hired at another department across the state, but Renee is still with Hibiscus County and has had a hard time getting partners. She mostly ends up with the new trainees because they don’t know her history.
“I’ve been great. I started volunteering at the animal shelter last week. It’s such a joy to help them.”
Pepper never liked Renee, and the feeling was mutual, so I don’t understand why she is telling me this now. “Why? I thought you didn’t care for animals. Something about dog tongues touching you and their butts."
Renee laughs and I remember loving to make her laugh, but now it just grates on my nerves. “I’m working my way to the dog section. Right now, I’m helping with the cats and kittens. They’re so soft and cuddly.” She squishes up her face.
That makes more sense. “Glad to hear it. The shelter can always use the help. I’m sure they’re thankful for you volunteering.” I grab a beer from the tap. “I’ve got to go in the back. Enjoy the music. Next one is on me.” I nod to Stephanie at the other end of the bar, and she grabs Renee another gin and tonic.
“Awe. That’s so sweet of you, Hudy. Thank you.”
“Yep.” I go into the back of the bar to the management area and find my partners, Kane, Jax, Declan, and Reid waiting for me in the conference room. “Sorry. Got sideswiped by Renee.”
“Yeah. I saw her come in and start asking for you.” Declan says.
“Great. So, what’s the meeting about?” I ask as I grab a seat in one of the conference chairs.
When we set out to create Hooplas, we all vowed to take this investment seriously and set ourselves up so that we don’t have a loan with any bank and that we do things right. Including having regular meetings to discuss the bar, hiring an accounting firm to handle the books, and keeping the bar a clean and friendly place to come. Even kids can be here until ten, then the bar becomes an ‘adults only’ place.
Reid, our resident doctor, and all-around nerd, stands up. “I thought it was a good time to just come together and review our first quarter and see what we need to change, fix, or continue doing. Also, I got the financials from the accountant today and thought we would go over them.”
“Okay, Doc. You’ve got the floor.” Kane sweeps his hands around to ‘give the floor’ to Reid and we all laugh.
“Do the financials first. I want to buy a boat.” Jax says.
“What do you want a boat for? That’s just a money pit.” Declan rags his partner. They’re both in the police force and work together.
“I want a boat because we live in Florida. There are beaches, the ocean, and lakes everywhere. Why don’t you want a boat?”
Declan laughs, “Because my partner is dumb enough to buy one. I’ll just borrow his.”
“No, you won’t!” Jax flips him off.
“Okay, well, there will be no boat buying yet. But we did surprisingly good for the first quarter. Better than expected. I think the community really likes Hooplas, and we just need to stay the course.” Reid pulls out the files from the accountant and puts them on the table.
“Great, but what about extra stuff?” Kane asks the group.
“Like what?” Reid sits back down and I’m glad. With him standing at the head of the conference table, it felt more like he was teaching a class than having a business meeting.
“Well, Independence Day is only two and a half weeks away. Are we doing anything for it? Should we?”
We all look at each other and the ideas start flying around the table, but we finally settle on a picnic and fireworks out in the parking lot. Then ideas started popping up for other holidays.
“Maybe we need to hire a marketing firm to help us with all this stuff. Or even an Event Planner.” I suggest it because I don’t have the first clue how to plan any of this stuff and I don’t think my partners do either.
“That’s actually not a bad plan. Can we afford it?” Kane asks Reid.
“I don’t think we can afford not to. I’ll get some quotes from some firms for marketing and once we have some plans, we can look into the event planner idea.” Declan volunteers.
“Great. Can we adjourn now? I need another beer and I want a burger.” I ask the room and stand up.
“Meeting adjourned.” Reid says and collects the paperwork from the conference table.
On my way to place my order for my burger, Renee stops me again. “Hey Hudy. Come over here. I got you a burger.”
Internally, I sigh. “Thanks Renee. You didn’t have to do that.” I sit in the booth across from her. Crap. She got the burger just how I like it. Lot of jalapenos and onion rings. Now I have to eat it. Plus, it smells good. I’m freaking starving. Digging that trench sucked the life out of me today with the heat.
