Chapter 25 #2
“I just wondered if it might be an added draw, to bring people in, especially in the off-season. Since the other spa was shut down last year, there’s been nothing to take its place.
I asked around town, and people said the place was almost always busy, even in the off-season.
It was taken down by bad management, not a lack of interest.”
“Wouldn’t it compete with Chloe’s salon?” Kevin asked.
“My idea includes hiring Chloe as the manager.”
“Very interesting.” Kevin looked at Finn with those all-seeing shrink eyes, as he and Riley called them. Those eyes that had made it impossible for them to get anything past Kevin as kids. He always seemed to know what they were up to before they did.
Big Mac sat back and appeared to give the idea some thought. “I’m not sure it would be a good fit at the Wayfarer, which is more of a day-trip sort of crowd, coming for the beach and the bar.”
Finn’s heart sank. He’d so hoped Big Mac would jump on the idea.
“But it might be perfect at the hotel,” Big Mac said.
“Auntie Linda and I have been talking about ways to ramp up the off-season business there, and we’ve got buildings on the property that could be converted.
We could market it for women looking for a mid-winter getaway with their friends, complete with breakfast and spa packages. ”
“That’d be awesome,” Frank said.
Finn couldn’t agree more.
“Let me run it past the boss,” Big Mac said, “and see what she thinks, but I really love your initiative, Finny. You’re thinking outside the box, and I like that.”
“I think he’s actually looking for a way to help out Chloe more than anything,” Kevin said. “Am I wrong about that?”
Finn shook his head. “You’re not wrong.”
“She’s a great lady,” Frank said.
“Yes, she is.” Truer words had never been spoken, Finn thought. “She could really use something like this that would give her a safety net she doesn’t have now.”
“I thought her business did really well,” Big Mac said. “After all, she’s the only hair game in town.”
“She does well.” Finn didn’t want to say too much.
She’d told him about the RA in confidence, and he wouldn’t betray her, not even with three of the men he trusted most. It wasn’t his story to tell.
“But being the owner of a small business can be tough, as you know.” This he directed at Big Mac, who’d made something from nothing, first at the marina, then at the hotel and now at the Wayfarer.
“That’s a fact,” Big Mac said, nodding.
As they ate lunch, they talked more about what it would take to turn one of the buildings at the hotel into a spa.
“We could fold it into the reno we’re doing of the hotel over the winter,” Big Mac said. “I think Lin will love the idea.”
“That’s great,” Finn said, impressed by the way Big Mac got things done. “And you think she’d be in favor of hiring Chloe to run it?”
“That part would be a no-brainer. Linda adores Chloe, gives her full credit for keeping her looking so young. Which means I adore her, too, because my wife is the prettiest girl in town.”
“Now, wait just a minute,” Frank said as Kevin began to register his objection.
Finn cracked up laughing. “Y’all are nuts.”
“What about you?” Big Mac gave him the shrewd look that Finn remembered from childhood. “What’s going on with you and our Chloe?”
“We’ve been hanging out.” Recalling their conversation from the night before, Finn felt despondent.
“Riley said the four of you had a great time last night,” Kevin said.
“We did.” Finn let his knife dangle between his fingers, needing something to focus on besides the grinding fear that had him wondering if they could get past the roadblock they’d encountered last night.
“What’s wrong?” Frank asked. “And don’t say it’s nothing. You’re talking to professional fathers here. We know something when we see it.”
“Things were going pretty well between us. Really well, in fact.”
Kevin leaned on the table. “Until?”
“Until she told me she doesn’t want to get married. Ever.”
“Whoa,” Big Mac said. “Like to anyone?”
“Right.”
“How come?” Frank asked.
“She has her reasons—and they’re good reasons. Things that happened when she was a kid. I’m not opposed to making a life with someone without getting married, but I always thought I’d get married. Someday.”
“That is a tough one.” Kevin scratched at the stubble on his jaw. He seemed to shave a lot less often since he’d been with Chelsea. “I suppose it comes down to what do you want more—her or a future marriage with someone else?”
Leave it to his dad to cut straight to the heart of the matter.
“Since I met her, I seriously can’t imagine ever wanting anyone else ever again.
” Saying the words out loud, knowing they could never be unsaid, would’ve made Finn itchy and nervous a couple of weeks ago.
But everything had changed since he met Chloe, and there was no going back to who he’d been before her.
“This is big news,” Frank said to his brothers. “We were just talking about how there was only one left.”
“Huh?”
“That your brother and cousins have found their true loves. You were the last one left.”
“And we were super bummed that you were leaving,” Big Mac added. “So it’s great that you’re going to stay now.”
“If I can figure things out with her,” Finn said. “I won’t want to be here if that doesn’t work out.”
“Figure it out,” Big Mac said, “or spend the rest of your life wondering what if.”
Frank pointed to Big Mac. “What he said. Regrets are a bitch. None of us want to see you eating your heart out because you let something great slip through your fingers.”
“Don’t let that happen, son,” Kevin said.
“There are concerns,” Finn said haltingly. “Significant concerns.”
“Then come into the office and air them out,” Kevin said. “That’s what I do. I help people figure out their shit.”
And he was, Finn had to acknowledge, extremely good at helping people to figure out their shit. But would Chloe go for that?
There was only one way to find out.
“Thanks, you guys. I appreciate the advice.”
“As Ned would say, that’s one thing we’ve got plenty of,” Big Mac said, cracking up his brothers.
“And we’re not afraid to share it,” Frank said to more laughter.
Thank goodness for that, Finn thought, thankful for their wisdom in a way he never had been before. But then again, he’d never needed the benefit of their combined wisdom as much as he did now.