Chaser (Dive Bar #3)(35)

Still feeling like the king of the world, I left. It was good to be home.

*

They cornered me the next day, right before my very first shift back. A sure sign of bad things to come. The three of us crowded into the small dingy office in the back, Lydia sitting behind the desk at the computer. Since she handled the bookkeeping, this made sense. Nell carefully lowered herself down into the seat beside me, hands laced over her growing belly.

“What’s going on?” I asked, not the least bit seeming afraid because that wouldn’t be manly. No, fuck that. I was edgy. Edginess was manly. “What do you want to talk to me about?”

“What do you think we want to talk to you about?” asked Nell, a ginger brow elegantly raised.

“I don’t know.”

“How’d things go in California? Fall off the no-sex wagon yet?”

“No, I did not.” I held in the “so there.” Very mature of me, I know.

“Damn, he’s telling the truth,” said Lydia. “I owe Vaughan five bucks.”

Nell sighed. “I owe Pat a lap dance.”

“You’ve all been betting on me?” I spluttered.

At least Lydia had the grace to look ashamed; Nell held her head high. “Yes. But that’s not the reason for this little talk. Been up to anything else lately we should know about, Eric?”

“I don’t know. Jesus.” I inched up in the seat just in case an emergency bolt was required. She couldn’t possibly know about me and Jean. Not that there was a me and Jean. All we’d done was hang out and I’d rocked the baby to sleep. I was innocent. Mostly.

Nell’s gaze narrowed.

“What?” I asked. “What have I done? Just tell me.”

Lydia slumped back into her seat with a sigh. “Nell, stop playing with him. Honestly, you are such a sadist.”

The edge of Nell’s lip curled up. Evil woman.

“Not funny,” I groused.

“An interesting thing happened yesterday,” Lydia said, fiddling with a pen on the desk.

“Nell went down to the crossroads, bargained with the devil, and got her soul back?”

Faster than the speed of light, she punched me in the arm. Bam. The woman might be pregnant, but that didn’t slow her down one iota. I doubt Ali would have braved the ring against the woman.

“Ouch!”

Lydia smacked the palm of her hand against the table. “Enough. We should be able to have business meetings without insults or violence. Please.”

Silence.

“Sorry,” I said eventually. Because someone had to be a grown-up. Sad-ass day when that someone was me.

“Nell?” asked Lydia.

“Oh, all right. I’m sorry.” She exhaled. “Let’s get on with this.”

The look Lydia gave us both spoke strongly of grabbing us by the ears and banging our heads together or something. Hard to blame her. She cleared her throat, setting her shoulders. “The thing is … we got an offer on the Dive Bar.”

“What? Who from?” I asked, startled.

“A well-respected local businessperson,” said Lydia.

“The owners of the resort,” Nell chimed in.

My face tightened, I could feel it. Brows pulling in, forehead stiff. “Huh.”

“It’s a good offer,” said Lydia.

“How good?” I asked. She gave me the figure and I swayed slightly in my chair. “Jesus. That is good.”

Nell scowled. “My bet is they want to be top dog in town. We’ve established a reputable upmarket restaurant and bar so they swan on in and try to take it off our hands.”

“You don’t want to sell, then?” I asked.

“Do you?”

“I don’t know.” I thought of life without the Dive Bar. What a huge change and not necessarily a good one. “I mean, the money would be nice. Guess I could get a job somewhere else.”

“The money would be nice,” agreed Nell glumly. “Pat and I could buy a bigger place. Something with more room for a family, you know?”

“Yeah.” I scratched at my chin. “What about you, Lydia?”

“I’m sure I could find something to do with the cash,” she said. “But do we really want to give up this place?”

For a long moment, we all stared off into space, deep in our thoughts. It was a lot to take in. A lot to consider.

“What would happen to everyone else?” I asked. “Rosie and Boyd and everyone?”

“Apparently, the new owner would assess them for suitability.”

“They’d lose their jobs?” I swore quietly.

“Not necessarily,” said Lydia. “Hopefully, they’d be given interviews for the positions and their prior experience would weigh in. They wouldn’t necessarily be out of work. But ultimately, that would all be up to the new owners. We just don’t know.”

“Pat’s keen on the idea of me maybe taking some time off after the baby’s born. Financially, I’d be able to do that if we sold.” Nell placed her hands over her stomach. “Maybe stay home until our baby was ready for kindergarten. Maybe have another child in the meantime.”

“Is that what you want?” I asked.

“Good question. It would be nice to have a bit less responsibility for a while. Anything would be an improvement over managing this place.” It might have been my imagination, but it felt like Nell’s eyes flickered in my direction.