Chapter 9 #2
“But I meant what I said to Otis,” I say, taken aback. “Everyone’s going to get paid. I can’t let you work for free. I can’t.”
“We’ll be getting something out of it too.” Dottie pats my hand from across the table. “Of course we will. What fun and excitement we’ll have, watching you young people save the brewery! We can start whenever you’d like us to. The tea shop is fully staffed, and we’re all officially retired.”
“Dottie,” I say, tears in my eyes. “I don’t want to let you down. I’d feel terrible if you put all that work in and nothing comes of it.”
“The only way you’ll disappoint me, my dear, is by not accepting our help.”
“I can’t just leave this open-ended. We’d need to set an end date. New Year’s.”
“The end of March,” Dottie counters. “You should have plenty of time to get established by then, and my newest grandbaby is due in April.”
Sophie smiles at me and lifts her cup of tea in salute. “You’ll be accepting help from all of us, by the way. I’m going to help you redecorate.”
“Nora wants to help too,” Hannah gushes.
“Nora, who?” I ask, even though I only know of one Nora. But surely she can’t be talking about Jonah’s Nora.
After Sophie found out Jonah was cheating on her with me, Hannah, and Nora, pretending he was exclusive with each of us, she sent out a bunch of texts.
Hannah and I met up with her that very morning.
Nora…didn’t. She ignored Sophie’s messages, but after Dottie had a heart-to-heart conversation with her, she helped us get back at Jonah.
The four of us tricked him into attending a concert where Sophie, Hannah, and I told everyone exactly what he’d done to us.
He was publicly humiliated, booed, and he lost his job distributing to breweries.
Now, he works for his father, and according to Travis, he’s gotten twitchy and started chain-smoking.
Maybe I should feel guilty about that, but I don’t.
“The Nora,” Hannah confirms. “I can’t believe I forgot to tell you last night, but she was at the party at Big Catch. She’s Mrs. Applebaum’s daughter. Boom. Can you believe it?”
“Mrs. Applebaum? As in the woman you set up with Eugene?” I marvel. “Nora’s really her daughter?”
“Aren’t the workings of the universe fascinating?” Dottie asks. “I knew Nora would reconnect with you girls at some point, but I didn’t know how.”
Hannah lifts a finger. “All the credit goes to Eugene. If he hadn’t been so surprisingly interesting, I wouldn’t have been able to set him up with anyone.”
I smile at Hannah. She’d never admit it, but she sees the best in everyone—the seed of possibility nestled inside each person’s soul.
“Anyway,” Hannah says. “Nora said she wants to help you get the business going. I’ll text you her number later.”
“She’s a dear girl,” Dottie interjects. “She’s had some poor luck in love, but haven’t we all?”
“Maybe she should join Tinder,” I mutter.
“You think she would?” Hannah asks excitedly. “If we looked at Otis’s profile from her account, he probably wouldn’t think anything of it.”
“So your plan is to hang out with her for the first time and immediately back her into signing up for Tinder so we can spy on Sophie’s cousin?”
Sophie smiles at me over the rim of her teacup. “Nora might as well figure out what we’re like now.”
Warmth fills me, and I’m hit with the realization that while I’d thought I needed Jonah to help me with Silver Star, I was dead wrong. These are the people I need—the other women he betrayed.
And Liam, a little voice whispers in my mind.
“I had another idea,” Hannah says. “Sophie and I were thinking we could get the guys’ band to play at the brewery sometime after you reopen.
Eugene’s son is auditioning for them tomorrow afternoon, and obviously that’s going to go great, so soon they’ll have a bassist again.
They already have an agent waiting for them to get their act together.
Maybe the new-and-improved Garbage Fire’s first show can be at Silver Star.
People will definitely show up for that. ”
“What about doing it on New Year’s?” I ask, then tell them about my crazy plan for the party.
Hannah grins like the Cheshire cat. “Hell yeah. I’m glad I got Liam to take the job. He must be beside himself. This is exactly the sort of shit he lives for.”
“But I’d need him to work that night,” I say. “He wouldn’t be able to play with the band.”
I start playing with a lock of my hair, nervous energy zipping through me. Because it just dawned on me that my whole plan centers around Liam. Is it a mistake to let my plan hinge on one person?
But his beer is good. It’s great. And he seems so unshakable. Like a mighty oak.
“You don’t need to worry about Liam,” Hannah says with a shrug. “He already admitted that he was only filling in with Garbage Fire to help out. Honestly, he did it because he wanted to get the goods on Travis. He thinks he’s so smart, but I have eyes in the back of my head.”
“The third eye is on the front of the head, actually,” Dottie says. “But an eye in the back of the head would be quite convenient.”
Behind her, a big guy emerges from the bathroom, shaking his head. Otis follows him out with a splotchy wet spot over the crotch of his pants. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong, man,” he calls out. “It’s just water.”
The big guy picks up his pace, rushing away, and Otis makes his way back to the table and plops into his chair with a sigh. “I was trying to use the hand dryer. That’s what it’s there for, right? Drying things.”
“But it looked like you were humping it?” Hannah guesses.
“Well…yeah,” he admits. “I guess I kind of was, but only to get closer to the heat source. Jesus, I need a drink.”
He lifts his glass, peering sadly at the quarter of an inch of beer in it before shrugging and downing it. “What did I miss?”
“We had a super-long discussion of your sex life,” Hannah jokes, earning the playful shove he gives her.
“Actually,” she amends, “we were mostly talking about staffing at the brewery.” Glancing back at me, she says, “You’ll probably need more servers and stockroom workers, but my brother can rope in a couple of people from his gym to do any heavy lifting.
” She grins at Otis. “And maybe Otis can use his amazing Tinder skills to recruit employees, since he’s obviously super talented at convincing unsuspecting women to invite him home. ”
“Hey.” He snaps his fingers to point at her. “That idea’s not half bad.”
Tears fill my eyes. “I love you guys,” I say. “I…I can’t tell you how much this means to me. How much all of you mean to me. Last night, it felt like the world was ending, and right now…it feels like I’m on the cusp of something wonderful.”
“You are, my dear,” Dottie tells me, capturing my hand in a warm clasp. “You are. And it will be remarkable. Now, let’s go help Liam make the champagne of beer.”