More leafing. “Or … maybe it’s the sensible and informed way to go about something like this? Just sayin’. He’s offering to buy our business. It’s not unreasonable for him to want to find out about its value.”
“Behind our backs? That’s asshole behavior!”
“It’s savvy investor behavior, Luna. I don’t know why you’re getting so worked up about this. It’s what we wanted, remember? We would’ve had to provide all that information to any investor. He’s clearly well-connected, so what? Now we don’t have to go through all the trouble of advertising and vetting people and scrambling around to get the best possible offer. We’ve just had the best damn offer we’re ever likely to get.”
“But why would he offer so much? It doesn’t make any sense for him to do that.” I stare out at the view of the sun on the water and … I don’t want to leave this place. I don’t want to go back to Iowa with its landlocked endlessness. I love the ocean views and the sea salt and the humid warmth. I love this place with everything I have. “I don’t trust that prick as far as I can throw him.”
“Really? I couldn’t tell.” Josie smiles sympathetically. “As he said, he can see the potential in our business. You should be happy, Luna. He’s an experienced businessman who’s willing to sink a ton of money into this place, which is exactly what it needs. What’s the problem?”
“His ego could be assigned its own zip code, that’s the problem. I want to know what he’s up to.”
“Why do you think he’s ‘up to’ anything? Maybe he legitimately thinks this business is worth taking to the next level. We always saw the potential. Maybe he can too.”
I sit down on the couch next to Josie. “He’s obviously a power-hungry control freak.”
She’s smiling again. “He’s also hot as fuck, honey. And ridiculously loaded. I can think of worse business partners. Look at this, I just googled him. He’s some kind of bigshot. He owns entire buildings in Chicago. You have to interview with him to buy into his investment company. He probably takes over businesses every day of the week.”
I glance at Josie’s laptop. There’s a photo of Gage, standing next to a yacht. Looking just as self-important as always. “I’m not interested in being owned. Especially by him.”
“He won’t own you. He’ll own half of the business.”
“More than half. I mean, why is he so insistent on the fifty-one percent?”
“Because it makes business sense, I hate to say it. By the way, did you happen see the way he was looking at you?” She elbows me playfully.
“No.”
“Sweetie,” she says gently, “It was a long time ago now. Water under the bridge at this point. Don’t you think it might be time to move on—”
“Don’t, Josie. Please.”
Thankfully, she refrains from expanding on the deep dark details about my past I really don’t want to talk about right now. She sighs, but backs off. An unspoken understanding passes between us. She knows everything about my backstory. She’s the one who was there for me and who talked me off the ledge when everything fell apart. She knows why I hate people like Gage McCabe. The kind of men who think they own the world and don’t care how much damage they inflict or how much wreckage they leave behind. “Fine,” she says. “But I think you should look at it objectively. He’s offering to help you fix this place up and turn it into everything you always dreamed it could be, before he then disappears back to his penthouse in Chicago. We really couldn’t ask for anything better.”
“As far as I’m concerned he can take his million dollars and stick it.”
“Yes. Right into my bank account.” Josie laughs at her own joke, but her expression softens. “Loon, I won’t sell it to him if you don’t want me to. We’ll just tell him no and we can run the advertisement like we were planning to. Who knows, someone else might offer even more.”
We both know that’s never going to happen.
She exhales a sudden breath and places both her hands on her swollen belly. “Luna. I just felt the babies kick!”
She places my palm on her stomach and I feel it too.
Wow.
The fluttery movement is as life-affirming as anything has ever been. It makes me feel sad and happy and at the same time hopeful. “Oh, Josie,” I whisper.
Of course I know what I’m going to do. I can bitch and moan as much as I want to about my new business partner-to-be. But I’m going to do the right thing by my best friend. We’re going to accept the offer so she can go home to Iowa and never have to worry about money or health insurance or buying enough food and clothes and even college funds for her beautiful children.
“We’re not going to tell him no.”
Josie looks at me hopefully. “We’re not?”
“No. We’re not. We’re going to tell him yes.”
Tears well up in her eyes. “But are you sure? I don’t want to do it unless you’re happy with the arrangement, Loon. And you’re not happy, I can see that.”
“I’m happy that you’re happy. I’ll be fine. I’ll bleed Gage McCabe dry and the bar will be fantastic and the Tucker Brothers Band will play here and we’ll be the most popular place in all of Key West. I can handle him.”
Can I?
I’ll have to handle him. Because it’s my bar and it’s my life. And I definitely don’t want some arrogant bastard trying to run it.
“I wish I didn’t have to leave you,” Josie says.
I think about trying to convince her to stay, again. But I don’t. “You’re going to have a great life with your family and your babies in Iowa. As soon as your plane touches down on that Iowa dirt, you’re going to feel like you’re home.”
“Yeah,” she smiles sort of sadly. “I think maybe you’re right.”
No matter how much I might dislike Gage McCabe and everything he stands for—greed, power, raunchy and meaningless sex—at least I know I’m doing the right thing. At least I’ll know that Josie will be well taken care of.
Josie wipes her eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with me? We could offer the whole thing to Mr. Swish Investor and he could take it off our hands and you could come live with me in Iowa.”
As much as I loathe the idea of being Gage McCabe’s minority-share business partner, I don’t want to give up on my life and my hopes. “I can’t go back to Iowa. I get why you’d want to. It’s where you come from and where you were always going to end up. But not me.”
“I know, Loon. And I know things will work out for you here. It really is a good deal he’s offering. He might not be as bad as you think.”
“Sure. And pigs might fly past our window at sunset.”
She laughs. “What are you going to wear?”
“What do you mean?”
“To the concert tonight.”