16. Chapter 16
Now that Emma is home, and Wyatt is off shift, it’s time for us to sit down with Mom and Pops to discuss this second mortgage mess. Something I’m not looking forward to.
At least we are meeting at the inn in the dining room, so I get a fresh, hot breakfast while we delve into the new situation I have to find a way to deal with.
I pause at the door, taking a deep breath before going in.
Violet greets me in the kitchen, “Good morning, back for breakfast again?”
I grunt at her in response, and nod.
She frowns, but answers my grunt. “I have pancakes this morning, chocolate chip and banana, with sausage patties and fresh fruit. Sound good?”
“Sure thing.” I silently go over to the large carafe and pour myself a cup of black coffee.
I turn back and she’s standing in the middle of the kitchen with her hands on her hips.
She points her spatula at me, “Listen here big bad wolf. I do not cook for people who can’t function as human beings and be kind to those cooking.”
“Sorry. Bad morning, and a bad meeting coming up. I will take that, please and thank you.” I walk over kissing her forehead.
“Much better. Now go. I’ll deliver it to you.”
“But you’re so much better to look at than Wyatt.” I pout.
She grins at me, “I don’t know about that.”
“Heard that, little Vi.” Wyatt winks at her when he comes in. “What smells so good?”
I glare at him, and grunt out, “Pancakes.”
He pulls Violet into a hug, staring at me the whole time. “Sounds delicious. Can you get me an order.”
“Sure thing, baby.” She kisses his cheek, teasing me.
I growl and go into the office, where there is now a new table instead of a desk per Emma’s demand.
I can hear the two of them laughing in the kitchen when Emma opens the door and comes in.
“What’d I miss?” She points with her thumb to the kitchen behind her.
“Just those two giving me shit,” I roll my eyes .
“That sounds right. Now why am I here? Good news, bad news?”
“Let’s just say I’m letting Pops be the one to share the news.” I answer as Wyatt walks in.
“Yea, Pops is definitely going to be the one to talk.” He takes his seat next to me.
“Oh great. So it’s that kind of meeting.” She plops into her seat across from us.
Violet brings Wyatt and I our pancakes, and she put a chocolate chip heart on top of his, but not mine. I scowl at her but refrain from making a comment, at least in front of these fools.
I text her under the table, like I’m in school again.
Me: You think you’re cute with that stunt?
Violet: Sure do. I’m hilarious.
Me: Yeah, we’ll see if you like your punishment later. I have one in mind.
Violet: In that case, Wyatt might need a muffin. winking emoji
Fuck. This girl. I fidget in my seat, the fact that she wants me to punish her has me getting hard in the office at the worst possible time.
Pops shows up, with Mom in tow. The look on her face tells me that Pops has already told her, and it was probably right before they walked in. She looks as mad at him now as she did the day she found out he let us all steal a beer with him on our eighteenth birthdays. A tradition that was kept secret, and always looked forward to by us. He followed up with the fact that this was the only one we were allowed to have til our twenty-first, as far as he’s concerned we all followed his rule.
Mom and Pops take their seats at each head of the table. Mom is still scowling at him.
“Clearly, I’m out of the loop. So can people start talking?” Emma asks impatiently.
“There’s a second mortgage on the inn. It’s about to be in foreclosure if we don’t come up with six thousand dollars.” He spills out instead of easing into the conversation. “I want Liam to sell. We got a good offer.”
Emma slams her hands on the table, “What? We spent all this time fixing the inn! We finally get the books to turn a profit and here you come, after the fact, with the information that should have been divulged to at least Liam when he took over!”
Her face is bright red. My anger is growing again like hers.
“I know Ems. I’m sorry. I made a mistake.” Pops pleads with Emma for forgiveness. A little different from him with me.
“How much?” she demands.
“Six thousand dollars. In three weeks.” Pops hangs his head.
“I mean total.” She furrows her brows.
“Does it matter? I can’t pay it anymore. We’re going to lose the inn.” Wyatt stares at Pops’ nonchalance, almost stepping in before Emma continues.
“I asked. How. Much.” She grits out her question.
Pops stares at the table, he doesn’t want to answer her.
Mom speaks up, “One hundred thousand total, six thousand in three weeks. Emma is this something we can do? ”
Emma stands so fast, she knocks her chair over. She stalks to the bookshelf where she keeps all our books and pulls out the bank ledger, and she scans it with her eyes, her line of vision tracking all over the page.
“I don’t know. We have four thousand dollars that we could use, hold off on doing the overhaul in the living room for now until we can recoup the costs, but that leaves us two thousand dollars short.” She brings the large book over, pointing to the numbers to show us the expenses. “The Valentine’s Day group will bring in more than usual but it’s not going to help us much. We’ll need to cover the extra costs of food and utilities too.”
Wyatt speaks up finally, “What if we ask the other siblings to chip in? There’s four of us left, and if we can all do five hundred we’ll make it. But will you be able to take over the monthly cost of the remaining balance?”
Emma scowls as she goes over what looks like our monthly operating costs. “Pops, what is the monthly payment?”
“Eight-fifty,” he replies quietly.
Emma sighs deeply, tapping the pencil on the table, “I mean. If we hold off on renovations, turn the heat down and use the fireplaces more when guests aren’t here, and get Violet to do more of these themed breakfasts, I think we’ll be good to make the payment, and still be able to save for our emergency fund and renovations.” She places the pencil on the budget.
“Okay. So we just need to call Cooper, Gunnar and Hunter.” Wyatt says.
Mom let’s out a breath and holds my hand .
“Cooper will be here tomorrow. So he should be at an airport. But I really hate asking you guys to pay for this.” As if anyone would think I’d be okay with it.
“I’ve told you time and time again, you’re not in this alone. We want to help. And five hundred dollars is nothing to save the inn and your dreams.” Wyatt pulls out his phone and starts to call Hunter before he walks out of the room. Emma pulls out her phone and announces that she’ll call Cooper, while Mom does the same to call Gunnar.
“I’m so sorry. I never meant to put the inn in jeopardy. I just needed the money or I was going to lose the inn for other reasons.” He looks me in the eye this time when he speaks. And for some reason, it makes me feel like he’s taking me seriously for the first time.
“If you were honest, and more open to changes we wouldn’t be here.” I take the opportunity to be honest with him.
“I know. I’m sorry for that too. I just didn’t want you to be saddled with what I was. I wanted you to go out in the world and do what you wanted to do. But now I see that the inn is what you’ve wanted all along and I almost ruined your dream.”
“I forgive you, Pops. But from now on, no more secrets. Please. Total honesty. Promise?” He gets up and walks over to me, pulling me in for a hug.
“I just have one more question, how the hell did you keep all of this quiet in town?” I ask, genuinely curious how I didn’t know about the loan when I took over the inn.
“I went to Portland,” he says sheepishly.
Now it all makes sense. The reason that no one else said anything is because no one knows .
“Okay, well I forgive you, Pops. But I have to get to work. Can you please tell Emma to come find me when we have an answer from everyone?”
“Sure, son.” He claps me on the shoulder.
A little while later, my phone vibrates in my pocket, I pull it out to see who is texting.
Emma: Meet in the living room at the inn tonight at 7:00. We’re going to Facetime everyone on Cooper’s layover. Wyatt and Hunt are meeting us here too.
Me: Okay. Thanks Ems. I know I don’t say it a lot, but I really appreciate you and I’m glad you’re here with me.
Emma : love emoji red heart emoji
I check my watch and see that it’s noon. The ball of anxiety in my stomach is churning the pancakes I ate for breakfast. The thought that I might actually lose the inn is terrifying.
I guess it’s partially my fault that Pops didn’t see this was always my dream. I had been so intent on being mad at my brothers for being able to go off and do whatever they wanted while I was stuck with Pops, who was grumpy as hell and making everything hard.
Except it wasn’t my dream happening back then. It was his rule.
My alarm goes off at six-thirty so I can clean up the barn. I’ve been working hard on the table for Violet, and I love how it’s turning out. I’ve got the shelving units built, and all I have left is the table portion, then to add the front and do the carvings. I’m hoping to have it ready by the day of the Valentine’s Day dance.
Once I finish packing up my tools I place the sheet over my project, then a tarp over that, I don’t want to take any chances that someone will see what I’m making before I’m ready to reveal it. Especially, a someone who likes to visit kittens.
I lock up the barn and start my walk to the main inn. I stop dead in my tracks as I approach. Alexander is back, and he’s on the porch talking to someone. He has them on speakerphone so am I really eavesdropping if he’s blatantly sharing the conversation with the world?
“I get it, Larry. I know she needs to trust me for this plan to work.”
“You better get my daughter to fall in love with you quick and in a hurry. She’s due back this weekend for the re-election party. And I want that inn and my daughter back. Do you understand me?”
Larry is the name of Violet’s stepdad. Suddenly realization hits me like a ton of bricks. He’s here to scope out the inn because of the foreclosure. And what the hell is this about Violet? Make her fall in love with him? Fat chance.
I step up on the front porch to let him know I’m here, and I heard it all.
He locks eyes with me as he responds to Larry. I thought he was going to be embarrassed to be caught, but instead, he smirks .
“Don’t worry, I’ll get Violet to do whatever I say. She’s almost eating out of the palm of my hand after our nightly run-ins .”
I don’t wait to see what else they say and I practically run inside to see Violet.
But I can’t find her, I start toward the stairs and start taking them two at a time. I knock on her door with no answer. Damn it.
“Where is the fire?” Emma asks as she passes me on the way downstairs.
I fall in line behind her descending the stairs, “I just really need to talk to Violet.”
“Oh gross, booty calls are not emergencies, Lee.” I scowl at her behind her back.
“I think we should have the meeting in the office.” She turns to look at me, confused by my request.
“Why? What’s wrong with the living room?” I don’t want to tell her before I get the chance to tell Violet.
“I just don’t think it’s good business to say that the inn is in trouble when a guest could come down the stairs or even just open their door and hear everything we’re talking about.”
“That’s a good call. Go tell Wyatt. I just heard his truck pull up.” She walks into the kitchen probably to grab a snack before going into the office.
I grab Wyatt and Hunter, and we all go to meet her, she already has the laptop set up with Gunnar and Cooper on the screen.
“Well this is a clusterfuck.” Gunnar opens with the obvious.
“Yeah this is nuts. I can’t believe Pops would do something like this.” Cooper adds .
“He had his reasons, and we can’t undo it, so let’s just focus on a solution. Emma and I can get four thousand dollars from the funds we have here for renovation, it’s just the remaining two thousand dollars.” I get right down to business.
“Yeah about that, Willow and I want to pay it. All of it. We’ve used the inn countless times without paying for it so it’s really just our payment. Plus we’re not there to help, and our duet went viral so we have the money. Don’t argue with me.”
I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. “We’ll pay you back the six thousand, guys. I don’t expect you to bail us out.”
“No. Not just the six thousand. We already called and paid off the whole mortgage. You can’t argue with me, because it’s done.”
Luckily, Emma has no issues. “You got it big bro. No arguments over here, right Lee?”
“Fucking christ, will you stop calling me Lee?”
She smirks at me, “Yea no complaints. Be prepared for a hug when you get here G. You are coming for the dance right?”
“Yeah! We’ll be there. Rooming with Coop in the big cabin!” Willow comes onto the screen.
“Oh great. This will be the best Valentine’s Day ever. I gotta go guys, boarding is starting I’ll see you all in the morning. Hunter, you still grabbing me from Portland?” Cooper asks.
“Yeah. I’ll be leaving here in a couple hours. See you soon.”
Cooper signs off and Gunnar not too long after.
“That was easier than I thought, and we don’t lose any renovation money!” Emma is more than happy about G’s gift.
“I don’t know. I don’t like that he’s picking up Pop’s mistake. That should come from the inn, at least the majority.” I’m not comfortable with Gunnar paying a one hundred thousand dollar note but I was too stunned to object earlier.
“Listen, we don’t punch horses in the mouth, especially when they give you a gift.” Emma places her hands on her hip.
Wyatt’s deep laugh fills the room. “That is absolutely not the saying, Ems.”
“Whatever. You know what I’m saying.” She yawns dramatically, “Okay, I’m done with you people. I have a bubble bath calling my name.”
We all say our goodbyes and I go collapse onto the couch in the living room to text Violet. I need to tell her about Alexander now.
Me: Hey you back at the inn? I need to talk to you.
Violet: I’m in my room, where are you? I’ll come to you.
I hop up and take the stairs two at a time once more, knocking lightly on her door. She opens up and lets me into the room. I take a seat on the edge of the bed and she follows.
“You’re so tense, what’s wrong?”
“I need to tell you something about Alexander.” I turn to face her.
“Okay? Did he cause damages?”
“No. He didn’t. I mean I wouldn’t put it past him, but that’s not it. I overheard him on the phone tonight. He was talking to your stepdad and told him that he was about to get you to fall in love with him and you would do whatever he says.” I decide to just spill it all out for her. "You need to stay away from him, be careful with him. "
“Are you serious? Why would he say that? And how the hell would he even be on the phone with my stepfather?” She moves backwards, away from me and fuck that hurts.
“I don’t know. But I know that’s who he was talking to. Larry told Alexander that he had to get the inn and his daughter by this weekend.” I try to grab her hands, but she doesn’t let me, she pulls away.
“Why are you doing this Liam? Things were good between us? Why are you trying to ruin things now by demanding I stay away from him?” She stutters out, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
“What? I’m not—It’s true! I heard it. I don’t understand why, but I heard it! You don’t trust me?” I stand up quickly, running my hands through my hair as I pace the small room.
“No! You don’t like Alexander. You didn’t want me around him, and now this is the most outlandish story I’ve ever heard! There’s no way he knows Larry. He told me so himself! It had to have been something else and you’re misunderstanding. He’s going to see his parents this weekend for his Mom’s birthday. But for you to jump to this conclusion is nuts!” She gets off the bed, and walks to the door, opening it, “You need to go.”
I try to hold her in my arms, but she pushes me away. “I’m not wrong, Violet. You’ll see it on your own. Ask him. Look deeper. You’re shocked but I know you believe me deep down.”
“Go.” She points out the door again.
And this time I listen to her. I fucking hate it. It kills me that she doesn’t trust me. Sulking all the way back to my cabin in the cold night air. For once relishing the quiet but long walk.