Chapter 27
WOODVILLE, AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND
MIKE
“Mike, this is a terrible idea.”
“Maybe.”
Tessa glared at me over the coffee machine, where I was making her coffee to match her spirit: dark and bitter.
The roar of the machine was almost loud enough to camouflage the rain, which had been pelting out of the sky for the better half of the week.
“Lyssa got on a plane and flew home to New York. She didn’t say, let’s do long distance or look me up if you’re ever in New York . She”—Tessa stretched over the machine and clapped in my face—“left”—another clap—“ you . Honestly, Mike, it feels like you can’t take a hint.”
I let that roll off, because: “I can’t.”
“You need to accept that she doesn’t want you like you want her. It was a casual thing for her. A holiday fuck.” Tessa snorted at her own joke. “Literally.”
“I disagree.”
I’d been annoyed at Lyssa for acting the way she had on the drive to the airport, but once I cooled off, I understood that she did what she felt like she needed to so she could get on her plane. I didn’t like it, it was hurtful, but no one’s ideas were all winners when they were in distress.
I always took things at face value, reacting first and thinking second. But with Lyssa, it was easier to think things through. Because I liked thinking about her.
And when I did, it became obvious to me that she wasn’t being mean because she hated me or regretted anything. She was just hurt and trying to make that easier to bear. I couldn’t fault her for that.
“You can’t talk me out of it, Tess. I’ve already decided.
I figured out how to renew my passport and everything.
My flight to New York leaves on Sunday. I always try to be a good friend and a good son and a good stranger, Tessa.
I’m here when someone needs me. But this?
I need to do this for me. I’m going to be selfish now.
I want Lyssa, so I’m going to go and get her. It’s as simple as that.”
Tessa rubbed her hand over her eyes. “There’s something very wrong with our gene pool.”
It didn’t matter that Tessa wasn’t on board with my plan or that she threatened to hide my car keys—she couldn’t follow through; she was going back to her apartment in the city tonight.
And I was going to New York. Sure, I would stick out like a sore thumb there, but sticking out didn’t unnerve me the way it used to. It didn’t really matter if I couldn’t charm a smooth path through life, because some things were more important than an easy life.
Like Lyssa.
It would take more than one disapproving cousin, three flights, fourteen thousand kilometers, and two TSA lines to stop me.
Caroline and Chase were back in New York, and when I told my sister my plan, she said she would meet me at LaGuardia. I planned to stay with her for a few days and reach out to Lyssa from there.
Everything was planned.
The rain started on Thursday and kept going for days.
This happened every Autumn in New Zealand.
But that didn’t make it any less of a pain in the hole.
On Saturday, I’d just finished unclogging the drain in the Levitate courtyard which was struggling to cope with so much rain, when Hodges called me.
Reluctantly, I answered.
“Gloating is unprofessional, Brent.”
“Don’t be a smart ass. I’m calling to offer you fifty thousand dollars.”
I had to sit down.
“The Association took another vote?”
Hodges cleared his throat. “Not exactly.”
I waited.
“Mike’s Place is a great idea. Your pitch was good, the numbers track, and I agree that it will be good for Woodville. I’m going to fund you.”
The silence was thick. I blew breath out through loose lips.
“The Shailor-Chapmans were offside,” he continued. “They don’t speak for us, and I’m sorry. Oz is… Oz . We should have been a unanimous yes, and I’m prepared to correct our mistake myself.”
I stared at the jumping second hand on the wall clock as I thought.
I thought about my dad, pouring his heart and soul into this place and making it a Woodville institution.
For about twenty years he’d been the first one in the door and the last one to leave.
He knew every customer, every supplier. This place was his pride and joy, and the reason it was still going so well now, even in these tough times, was because the place had as much heart as my dad did—well, that and an angel investor who appreciated the heart in this place as much as the town did.
I thought of Lyssa, how she seemed to be always on her phone, always messing around or wasting time, but she was actually one of the hardest workers I knew.
Her methods were unconventional, her patterns chaotic, but that girl loved what she did and was bound for success.
I could be like that too.
I’d thought that Lyssa’s sharing so much of her life with strangers meant that she was trying to get their approval, like she was living for their esteem.
But she wasn’t. She did her outfits and her content for her, then invited others to enjoy.
I was the one who had been performing for strangers and letting their opinions dictate my life.
I’d heard myself reduced to a ready cock and swinging fists so many times I’d started to believe it. I thought I needed other people involved in my business to give it legitimacy, because I was weak when it came to women and weaker still when it came to self-control.
But what was the point of being controlled all the time if you didn’t feel?
Lyssa knew that. She’d known it the whole time and had believed in me without hesitation.
I’d put so much stock in the opinions of people I didn’t even hold in high esteem.
Monica? Oz? They were pizzles. It didn’t matter if the whole town thought I was a cheap slut who didn’t have a lick of business sense.
They weren’t the ones I cared about impressing.
My family thought I had what it took to do this, and Dean and Lyssa did too.
So I would. I’d scale back the plans for Mike’s Place a bit, stretch out the timeline. I had enough saved to make a decent start if I started slow and thought things through.
I could do anything I put my fucking mind to.
“Thanks for the offer, Hodges, mate. But you missed your chance to bottle my lightning. Mike’s Place is going to be awesome, and I don’t want to grovel to bigots or dickheads. I’m a good businessman, and I’m responsible and great with kids.”
“ I know that,” Hodges said.
I stayed calm and measured. “Then you shouldn’t have let your friends’ scaremongering tip the vote.
You should have shut it down, just like you should have shut down your wife every time she made me feel like a piece of meat.
I know you think you’re a good guy, Hodges, and you’re all right.
But you could be better. Honestly, mate, you could be better . ”
Hodges was quiet. I started to worry he’d had a stroke or something and was about to call 111 when he spoke.
“I hear you, Mike. I’m, uh—” He wasn’t going to say it. He’d never said it. Old-timers like him never said it.
But then he did.
“I’m sorry. My offer stands—actually, hang on. I’ll keep the investment but drop to 10 percent.”
That was insanely good. I’d have to be out of my mind to turn that down.
Or just a man with new priorities.
“I’ll think about it,” I told him. “I’m going to New York tomorrow. I’m chasing that American girl, because I’m in love with her.”
Hodges inhaled sharply. It was satisfying as fuck.
“Yeah, you heard that right. I’m in love with her.
Tell everyone. When I get back to Woodville, I’ll call if I’m interested in partnering on Mike’s Place with you.
I might not; I might sell everything and move to America.
I don’t know. Either way, I’m going to call the shots on my own business, and it’s going to be a big success.
Let’s chat when I’m back in a few weeks.
In the meantime, see if you and Michael can get the Shailor-Chapmans removed from the Association. I believe in you.”
He huffed. It might have been a laugh. “Thanks. I believe in you too, Mike, mate.”
I didn’t need him to. I had enough people who did.
But it was nice all the same.
* * *
The rain was ceaseless. My wipers whipped over the windshield, barely clearing a path before rain filled it again. It had been dry for so long here, all the water was just sitting on the earth.
The usual route to the airport was closed because of landslides, so I had to take the longer way through a gorge.
I usually avoided this particular road, but there wasn’t another choice today.
My lights were on, my hands at ten and two.
When a red Toyota Hilux overtook me approaching a blind corner, at a speed that was beyond foolish in this downpour, I swore and eased further off the accelerator.
It was hard to see even a few meters ahead, and the road was winding and narrow. Reckless driving made me tense?—
A fearsome bang split the air, followed by screeching. My car rounded the turn, and there wasn’t time to make sense of anything. Red metal spun like a propeller over the road, and there was a blur of white steel embedded in the road safety barrier over the cliffside.
I frantically worked the wheel, trying to stay topside, trying not to hit anything, trying, trying—but my truck slammed into the railing.
Lights out.