“No, I—” I swallowed. “We just can’t work on it anymore, okay?”
Cade shook his head. “And you didn’t tell us?”
“What good would it do? No point in all of us upset about it.”
“And Daisy … is Daisy mad at you for quitting?” Cole asked. “This doesn’t make sense. If she knew you had to do it for the business, she wouldn’t fault you.”
The walls closed in, my half-truth sporting too many holes to appease them, nosy bastards. My heart twisted and shook in my chest.
“Why won’t you finish the project, Keaton?” Cole asked darkly.
“Because I can’t.” Three miserable words cracked as I spoke them.
“Why?” he asked again, firmer.
Defeat left me sagging in the chair. “Because if I do, we’ll lose the business.”
Silence.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Carson asked.
I shook my head, shaking water droplets off my lank hair. “We’ve been in trouble for a long time. Since Dad died. I’ve been … I’ve been trying to make ends meet, but the only way I’ve been able to keep us afloat is with Mandy’s trust. I’ve been skimming off it.”
Cole sank into a chair, his eyes sharp. “Mitchell’s trust.”
The weight of my shame dragged my chin to the ground, too much to bear. The admission was too much to make, too much to say after so long. Now that I’d opened that door, the weight had multiplied by exponents. I couldn’t lift my head, couldn’t meet their eyes. All I could do was nod.
“Mitchell made you quit?” Carson’s voice shook with fury.
“And not just the job,” Cade guessed. “He made you quit Daisy too.”
I couldn’t acknowledge the words, just sat there, hating the truth with my entire heart and soul. But they heard my answer in the thick, heavy silence.
“No,” Cole said softly.
I raised my head. “What do you mean, no? I can’t pay for the damages and keep the business open without that money.”
“Then we’ll close it.” The words were quiet. Resolute.
I barked off a string of dissent, arguing fiercely. They just watched me, lips flat.
I met each of their gazes, one by one. “That’s not an option.”
“If we liquidate, we can get out of it with money left over, at least a little,” Cole noted. “You can’t tell me we’re that deep in the hole. Are we?”
“Not, but—”
“Good,” he said. “We all have savings, and we’ll take whatever’s left and figure out what’s next. Start a new company, maybe. Do custom jobs for people. We can make it work. What we can’t do is let Mitchell keep us under his thumb. What we won’t do is give up our integrity to him. And what you absolutely are never going to get away with is not having Daisy. Not over this. Not because of him.”
“But we can’t—”
“It’s our legacy,” Carson said. “We all know it, Keaton. But do you think Dad would have bent to Mitchell? If Dad were here right now, what do you think he’d tell you to do?”
I didn’t answer.
“He’d say, Fuck that sonofabitch and sell the business before letting someone else dictate what we did. He’d tell us that our morals and our commitment to this town were more important than his money.”
“Even if it ruined us?”
“Even if it ruined us,” he echoed. “And especially if he knew you’d found somebody to love after Mandy.”
My throat locked, tight with emotion.
Cole squatted, looking up at me with Mama’s eyes and Dad’s grit and said, “You’re gonna go tell Mitchell he can shove his money up his tight, crusty ass. And then you’re gonna go get your girl.”
“I can’t,” I said miserably.
“You can.” He reached up, cupped my neck, bowed my head to touch his forehead. “We’re gonna figure the rest out. And goddammit, if you ever keep something like this from us again, expect to spend a lot of time in this chair.”
A choked laugh escaped me. I nodded. He squeezed my neck and let me go.
I sniffled to address the burn at the tip of my nose and looked up at them. “Gonna untie me now?”
With horrible looks on their faces, they made for the back door.
“Sure,” Cade said.
“Let us just go get some scissors,” Cole added.
They left me there in the kitchen to think about what had happened and what I was about to do. Relief that they knew the truth swept over me like a tidal wave. I wondered how different things could have been if I’d told them when Dad died and I found out the state of things. I wondered how much easier it would have been not to shoulder it all alone. But I’d held on so stubbornly, they’d had to tie me to a chair to get it out of me.
Thank God for those assholes.
I laughed, the sound tight and painful, choking me before I could get it all out.
But that wasn’t all I’d gain.
Somewhere, Daisy was out in the world loving me, living the pain of thinking we were through. But she could have all of me, if she still wanted it. The future I’d lost when Mandy died had reappeared when Daisy did, like a mirage wavering on the horizon. I’d been afraid all this time that she’d disappear. That what we had wasn’t meant to keep. But I loved her, that I knew for sure. And she loved me, an admittance that had felt like a curse when she’d spoken the words.
That knowledge wiped away any illusions, bringing that transparent hope to full focus, whole and real and just a few steps away.
I just had to find her and tell her.
A noise came from the direction of the stairs, and I remembered my niece.
“Hey, Sophie?”
Thump, thump, thump, she ran down the stairs and hung over the banister. “Yeah?”
“Do me a favor and grab some scissors, would you?”
Smiling, she came down the rest of the way and entered the kitchen.
“You heard all that, didn’t you?”
She nodded, digging around the junk drawers until she found my salvation. “I heard, and I think they’re right. Fuck Mayor Mitchell.”
I gave her a look, but she shrugged, holding the scissors up.
“You gonna tell Daddy I said so?”
“You know I won’t.”
“Promise you won’t hit Daddy too hard?”
“Don’t push it.”
She gave me a look.
I sighed, rolling my eyes. “Fine. I won’t hit him too hard.”
I didn’t promise not to otherwise torture him, but thankfully earned my freedom. I kneeled, scooping her up in a hug and squeezing her tight enough that she grunted in my arms.
“You gonna go find Daisy?”
“Oh, I’m gonna find her. Might even ask her if she wants to be your aunt.”
She snapped away with her face all lit up. “Does that mean I might get cousins?”
“What’d I say about pushing it?” I asked with a wink.
But rather than answer, she flung her arms around my neck, squealing and squeaking and giggling her approval. I held on to her, barely containing my own terrifying joy, hoping Daisy would be the next thing in my arms.