Chapter 8
Morgan
“There you are.” Bailey’s voice comes from the house, where I’ve left the back door open.
Princess, who was snoozing underneath my chair, startles awake and lurches to her feet.
She ping-pongs off three of the four chair legs before she zeroes in on Bailey.
If Princess were a Great Dane, I probably would have ridden her up the stairs of the porch.
Bailey opens the screen door before Princess busts through it and they greet each other with enthusiasm.
It’s chilly today, and Princess and I must have been out here for a few hours, since Bailey said she’d be here at three. We alternated between napping (Princess) and reading (me) and playing fetch or tug-of-war.
True to his word, Uncle Robert didn’t just send me a list of books to read, he sent me the e-books as gifts. He said he got help from one of his daughters to figure out how to do it, and then I had to figure out how to accept the gift and get it open on my phone.
So I’m spending my Friday before work reading a book that claims it’ll teach me how to be rich by some guy that’s got a Netflix show.
I turn the screen off and put the phone in my pocket, following Princess to greet Bailey. “Hey, thanks for coming by.”
“Of course.” Bailey’s bent down, Princess leaning against her legs, nearly knocking her over. She’s wearing her hair up, a full face of makeup, and a crisp button-down shirt.
And beneath that are sweatpants and sneakers.
“You didn’t have to dress up for me,” I tease.
“Ha,” she says. “I had a meeting right before this. On Zoom.”
“Ah,” I say, and lead her inside. Something smells good. “Did you bring food?”
Princess runs headlong into the house, running a circuit around the first floor. You’d think I didn’t just spend all day wearing her out.
“Yeah. Silas made lasagna last night and I haven’t had lunch. I brought enough to share.”
“Have I told you you’re my favorite best friend’s girlfriend ever?”
She rolls her eyes and tells me I’m her favorite bartender, and we tease each other while we heat up lunch.
Bailey was a shy kid, and Hunter was overprotective. She struggled to fit in when we were growing up, mostly on account of some assholes bullying her for her size.
“What’s Silas up to today?” I invited him to come too, but he was busy.
“House showings,” she says as we settle at my little kitchen table. “Is this a Rory weekend?”
“Hell yeah it is.”
“Still don’t know why she comes to town?”
I shake my head. “No clue. It makes me wonder if someday she’ll just never come back. I’ll only have fond memories of her scowl to keep me warm at night.”
Bailey rolls her eyes. “Along with any of the town’s single women.”
“I’ll be too heartbroken,” I tell her, putting a hand over my chest and trying to affect an air of a broken heart.
She squints at me. “Are you trying to swoon? Or is the lasagna getting to you?”
“Shut up. The lasagna’s great.”
“Yeah.” Bailey smiles down at her plate. “He can cook and clean and . . . do other stuff.” She darts a cheeky glance up at me and I laugh.
“He’s the whole package. Good job.”
“Thanks.”
I clear my throat. “So . . . I could use some advice.”
Bailey perks up. “Sure. What’s up?”
“Do you remember how a few years ago your mom gave Hunter your grandmother’s engagement ring?”
Bailey looks at me curiously. “Yes. I’m surprised you remember that.”
It was memorable because Hunter was really pissed at his mom for giving him the ring.
Well, not for giving him the ring so much as saying something about Bailey not ever going to need it.
We get an earful from Hunter about how little their mother thinks of Bailey, even though she’s a gorgeous, voluptuous woman (who I think of like a sister).
Bailey’s mom sucks.
Something in Bailey’s face shifts. “Wait a minute . . . Hunter’s not . . . he’s not giving the ring to Silas, right?” Her voice has taken on a panicked edge.
“No, no, no,” I assure her.
“Oh good,” she says, blowing out a big breath. At my raised eyebrows, she quickly clarifies. “I mean, not good, like, I don’t want to marry Silas. I mean . . . it’s only been two months since I moved here.”
“Right.” I suppress a smile.
“Obviously I want to marry Silas someday.” I laugh, and she puts her face in her hands and takes a deep breath before chuckling at herself.
“Have you seen the ring? Hunter offered it to me, even suggested I make the diamond into a necklace, but to be honest with you it’s kind of hideous.
But anyway, why are you bringing this up? ”
I explain about how my uncle gave me the ring from Grandma. “I know you and Hunter took it to someone in the city, so maybe you’d know of a jeweler to talk to or . . . like . . . I don’t even know what I need to do. Uncle Robert said stuff about an appraisal and insurance.”
“So the rumors are true, huh?”
I cover my face with my hands and groan.
“Ugh, yes.” Since meeting with my uncle I’ve ignored no fewer than twenty text messages asking about me getting engaged.
I’ve also had plenty of people at On the Rocks ask about it, and, inexplicably, two past hookups came out of the woodwork and hit me up for booty calls.
I declined them both.
Obviously the rumors came from the gossipy older ladies. Miss Mullins didn’t even look chagrined when I confronted her about it.
“Can I see the ring?”
“Sure.” I stand and retrieve the stepladder from beside the fridge. Using it, I reach up to the top of the cabinets above my sink and feel around for the box.
Bailey smothers a laugh. “You’re keeping it up there?”
“I’m worried Princess might eat it! She’s too curious about anything that’s nose height or lower.
Remember that time she ate Kit’s sock? Or the Monopoly piece?
Or the key to the bar’s lockbox?” I could go on.
I locate the box and step down from the ladder.
“The last thing I need is to go mining dog shit to find the most valuable thing I own. Or worse: take her to the vet for expensive surgery. Wouldn’t that be ironic. ”
I pop open the box and Bailey gasps.
“Holy fuck. This is gorgeous.”
“I know, right? Gorgeous and only mildly terrifying.”
“Terrifying because . . . ?”
“When I sell it,” I explain, “this will be the most money I’ve ever had in my life. I don’t want to fuck it up.”
Bailey hums in understanding. “Can I try it on?”
“Sure. Just don’t get it stuck.”
She slides the ring up her right ring finger but it’s too big. She slips it on the middle one and it’s perfect.
“I wanted to ask you about that too.”
Bailey is too busy staring at the ring and twisting her hand back and forth. Then she blinks up at me. “Sorry, what?”
I shift uncomfortably in my seat. I’ve never talked to any of my friends about money, and it was always such a sore subject in my house.
“When I sell the ring, that would give me enough money to help buy the lodge. And I know, you and Silas have already said you are in, so you’re not entirely unbiased here.
But you’re also—I think—one of the most financially smart people I know. ”
Bailey puts her hand down. “How do you figure that?”
I tick my fingers off. “Good job in the city plus being able to buy into the lodge. You probably have a 401(k). The rest of us are hot messes.”
She frowns. “You’re not a hot mess. You live in a small town. Things are different here.”
“Exactly my point. So . . . what do you think I should do? Should I buy into the lodge? Or is that a dumb idea?”
Bailey frowns and then pelts me with a ton of questions.
Some of them I have rough answers to—how much I’ve saved up, what the estimated costs are of opening my own bar—and some of them make me feel really dumb—no, I don’t have a retirement account and yes, I do have credit card debt.
I have to pull out my laptop and we hunch over looking at numbers together.
What really gets us is that if I buy my own bar, I’m starting from scratch.
I’d be competing with whoever bought the lodge (if they keep it running) and outside of Herevians, I’d have to build up my new bar’s reputation.
I’d have to get a new liquor permit, too, and a whole slew of other stuff that’s tabled to worry about until I have the money.
Which is now, I guess.
“So.” Bailey finally leans back and crosses her arms. “To be honest, the smart thing would be to invest the money.”
My heart sinks, and Bailey points at me.
“That’s what I really wanted to know. That’s disappointing to you, and that probably tells us more than the numbers do.
” She pivots in her chair, facing me head-on.
“Moving out to Here wasn’t a smart financial decision for me.
I worked really hard over the years to get raises and promotions, to always be at the table, and to take every extra assignment I could.
I know that I’m leaving money behind by living here and working remotely.
When the Zoom meetings end, all the people in the room keep talking and I’m left out of that conversation.
Even more so than I already was as a woman in a man’s field. ”
“Right. Loving Silas wasn’t a head move, it was a heart move.”
“Exactly. So if you’re going to sell the ring instead of keep it, even if it doesn’t make financial sense, you’ll want your own bar. And the lodge might be the best way to do that.” She grins slyly. “As long as you’re willing to have Hunter, me, and Silas as business partners.”
I should focus on the business partners part. But instead my brain snags on the first thing she says. “Keep the ring?”
Bailey slides it off her finger and holds it out to me. “Yeah. It’s beautiful and a family heirloom. Someday when you propose you might wish you’d kept it.”
I pinch the band of the ring between my fingers and stare down at it. I’ve never thought about proposing to anyone before, but it hits me that I have in my hands the possibility of one of the best pranks I’ve ever pulled.
God, Rory’s going to laugh her ass off at me.