Chapter Twelve
Dalton
I knew shit had hit the fan. Eric seldom cursed, being brought up by a Southern mom and the most nonconfrontational man I know. She nixed that in the bud when he was six.
Eric stood up and went to the far side of the table to get as far away from me as possible and paced. “Why the hell didn’t you tell us? You’ve been here for days, and my dead father has to tell me something you should have had the balls to tell us from the beginning. As soon as you arrived.”
Taylor was as pale as she could get. I didn’t like that at all. I walk toward her, but she held her hand up and shook her head.
“Is that why didn't you tell me this? Because you own it now and can do what you want with our legacy? Throw it in my face? Why did you not bother to tell me when we have spent all this time together that you own half of my livelihood and inheritance? Are you that pissed off at me?”
I hadn’t backed down from a fight in years, and I was damned if it was going to happen today. I stood up, facing Eric. “Where do you think I have been for the last nine years? I spent two in prison making up for the dumb ass mistakes I made as a kid. Once I got out, I’ve been building businesses and running them. I don’t cut them up into little pieces. I make them grow and thrive. The only reason I can see that Pops did this was because there were problems that he wanted both of us to work out together. But I guess you didn’t hear that part.”
Kris held the wooden box close to her chest. I knew she would read everything because that was how she was, but if she was my only ally, I’d take it. Maybe my meanderings would mean something.
“I wanted to tell you everything that was going on. Pops didn’t want me to. When we last talked, it was months before he had gotten ill. He didn’t want you to know he had been struggling. I haven’t been here in nine years, and I wanted you to be as successful as I am.”
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “Once I opened my eyes to what my old town could offer, I could see the development, skyscrapers, buildings, new clubs. With all of those, you bring in new people, not only potential for great things but potential for people who want to hurt you. That person is not me, Eric. But we need to find who is doing this. We’ve all worked hard to get here.”
Eric took a few steps forward, getting in my face. “No. I worked hard here. You scampered off to Los Angeles. From what Pops said, you were still an asshole there, ending up in prison. In prison? What the hell? You went from being a decent guy to a freaking felon. No, what I have here I worked for. My father gave it to you. Gave you everything you needed to be a hero, a rock star, to build an empire. Meanwhile, I get the scraps of the family pub!”
What he said hurt. Really hurt. Pops loved his son. I was more of a mentee.
Henry tried to break in. “Gentlemen, it’s not a bad thing to have a partnership, especially while the business is having a rough spot.”
Eric wouldn’t hear it. He just took a step back and shook his head.
I turned to Taylor, so she could hear me, but tears flowed down her cheeks as she looked between us. I was sure she felt like I’d betrayed her as well. But I wasn’t betraying them, I was merely trying to help Pops, but he got sick and died before I could do anything.
“I didn't know what it all meant it, and I’m not hiding anything, Eric.”
Eric lifted his hands up and took a step back. “Dalton, I have nothing else to say to you.” He walked out and slammed the door.
I crossed over to Taylor. “You heard your father. He wants us to work together to get the bar back on its feet.”
She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “I can’t do this right now.” She shook her head and followed Eric out the door.
I was left with Kris holding a box of letters and Henry shaking his head.
He looked at me with regret in his eyes. “I told Pops to come clean with the kids, but you know how he was. He wanted to do things his way. He probably felt by keeping everything quiet, he was protecting them. Now you have the unfortunate task of having to work with them, and they don’t want you here.”
He clasped me on the shoulder and walked out the door. He stopped and turned back. “It probably wasn’t going to happen any other way. At least it is out in the open with family and now the healing can start. New beginnings can happen.”
Henry and Betty, who had been quietly listening in her chair, walked quietly out the door. I had forgotten she was there.
I sighed and looked at Kris. “I know that what you have are the thoughts and dreams of what Pops and I talked about over the last nine years. I would still get a letter every week, and I’d cherish those insights he had and send replies back to him. I gave Betty all the letters he had sent to me, so that Eric and Taylor could read his thoughts and have that as well.
“I know you don’t like me all that much because I hurt Taylor and Eric in the past. But those were things that happened so long ago. I was young and naïve and needed a good ass kicking. I got it. I came back here so I could help and then leave. But I don’t feel I can unless I have done something to find out what is happening and why the bar is in jeopardy of closing down when Pops did everything right.”
She nodded.
“I think if you read those, it will give you the best insight on how things happened with Pops and me and how he came to help me. He talks lot about Eric. Maybe if I can’t talk some sense into Taylor or Eric, then maybe someone who has been here the whole time might be able to. I wasn’t handed my life on a silver platter. I worked hard to get where I am. If I can’t help people who mean something to me, the only family I have, what good is everything I have?”
Kris looked down at the little box. A minute passed. She looked up at me with those dark eyes, and I felt fear for the first time in a long time. She didn’t smile at me or give me any hint about what she was thinking. She held the box a little tighter.
“My concern will always be Eric and Taylor. What happened all those years ago destroyed them. Taylor left for college soon afterward but came home every weekend to help at the bar and to be there for Eric. They let you back in, and they find that not only has Pops been helping you all along, but you own part of what they worked so hard for.”
“I just gave Pops money to help him. I didn’t know he was going to make me part owner until Henry called me right before I came here.”
Kris shook her head at me and stepped forward. “Be quiet for one second, Dalton.”
I shut up.
“I will read these.” She shook the box and paper whispered inside of it. “However, you have been respectful, mostly, of Taylor. And I know there is something between the two of you. It started in the kitchen all that time ago on her eighteenth birthday. With Eric, you have all that testosterone between you, but one of you will need to give to get things back. If things are going all sideways, I plan on finding out why. But you work on putting my friend back on an even keel, and I’ll help you. Because if I think for one moment that all this… shit… is what made Pops sick, whoever is doing it is going to have to deal with me.”
With that, she spun on heel, grabbed her helmet, put her headphones on, and left.
I didn't get to where I was at by getting kicked in the teeth and going down. I was also pissed. Not at Taylor or Eric, by any means. From what I could see from the paperwork at the bar, someone was messing with the books, payments, taxes, and it wasn’t just someone being nasty. Egging a house is nasty. Tearing down a business that a family has worked hard on and grown from a little cozy to an outstanding pub was just plain evil. I needed to get to the office and see what I could do about what was going on.
Henry came back in. “Oh, I didn’t know you were still here.” He took the disc out of the TV and gave it to me. “For safe keeping. I have a copy, however.”
“Henry, do you know anything? Any rumors, anything below the surface that we aren’t seeing about why someone would want to sabotage Pops’ place?”
He shook his head. “I told Pops the same thing. Everything was paid off and fine until a couple of years ago.”
“Thanks, Henry.”
We shook hands, and I walked out to my newly rented car. No reason to use the limo, and it really cramped my style. I looked down at the Viper. Costly for a few but it would get me around in style and quickly.
I saw Kris finish strapping down the little wooden box to the rack on the back of the bike. I started the car up just to hear it roar and took off on a tour of Asheville. I needed to clear my head. Everything that had happened at the lawyer’s had my mind running wild, and I needed to rein it in before I saw Eric. Or Taylor, for that matter. She could raise my temperature in a good way with just a smile. I prayed she’d forgive me.
As I drove around until it got dark, I took another look at all the great shops, buildings, and restoration that was being done in the town I loved and grew up in. It was great for business, and of course, the whole Asheville weird was not the same as Austin weird, but it gave a nice unique personality to the city. After about an hour of driving in circles, I felt my mind had straightened out, and I found myself back at The Boar and Brew. I parked in the back and saw the bikes and Taylor’s pickup.
As I walked in through the back door, the first person I saw was Peggy, with her cigar, by the back door.
“Boyo, he is in a bad mood. I can only guess about what happened at the lawyer’s. Lots of glassware was swept off the floor in the back. I take it he knows now about the bar.”
I nodded. “You knew, Peggy?”
“Pops didn’t keep much from me. But it wasn’t for me to say. Now Eric knows. He needs to put on his big girl panties and work with you as a partner and a friend. It’s always the boy’s damn pride that gets in the way. I’d hoped he would have outgrew that.”
“He was going to find out sooner or later. I just wish Pops had told him. It just makes it seem like I was being deceptive and doing something behind his back instead of just waiting so Pops could explain it in his way.”
Peggy gave me her grandma hug. “You came back to make things right. To watch after them. That's what you told me, and I told Pops. It gave him some peace. Now you need to go and make that happen. Be the man I know you are.”
I nodded gently.
“And maybe you can knock some sense into his stubborn pig head,” she said with a nod toward the office.
I gave her a hug back and walked into the bar to see all the staff giving me the evil eye. Apparently, they liked me being part owner as much as I did.
I shored up my spine and walked down the hall to his office. I knocked on the door.
“Eric.”
No answer.
“Eric!”
I opened the door.
He swiveled in his seat behind the desk. Still pissed, if the crease between his brow told me anything. “I don’t even want to look at you right now. I most definitely don’t want to talk. I thought I knew everything about this bar. From the woodwork to the cellar to the odd noises it makes. For weeks, I looked over all the books, his paperwork, and not once, not once, did I find anything saying that you were now a partner in our family business. Nothing. I also didn’t find the issues with the billing or anything. Now, you stroll into town and in a couple of hours, find the issues. That just seems real convenient.”
I leaned against the door. “I’m only a partial owner. Pops made me owner right before he died. I didn’t plan on coming back here. I didn’t even know he was ill. I have a life of my own. All I want to do is to make sure I can keep whatever is going on at bay, fix the issues, and go back to my life. That’s all I want to do.”
What I was going to do about Taylor and how I felt about her was best shelved for the day. Just one fire at a time to put out.
Eric slammed his hand on the desk. “All I want is for you to get out of here right now. Go back to your life. Nothing would make me happier. But guess what? You’re a damn partner now. Our partner. Taylor and me. So, you better have just as much stake in the bar as we do. But today… today’s not the day I want to talk with you. I need to think.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “Just go, please.”
I took a step toward him.
He shook his head. “Go, damn it!” he yelled, pointing to the door.
I knew when to leave someone to their own thoughts. I went through the bar and all the staring faces. It was the lull time before it began hopping tonight. Friday night, all the college kids come out.
I walked out to the back door, not running into Taylor, Kris, or Peggy. Maybe that was a good thing. Could anything go right for me here? Luck just wasn’t with me.
Taylor’s pickup was here but I hadn’t seen her in the bar, and she hadn’t come out when I was talking to Eric. Or he was yelling at me, I should say.
I just wanted to find Taylor and hold her, and I had no idea where she was. To feel her with me and to know she was okay. I wanted to lose myself in her scent, that musky vanilla that drove me nuts, and take away all her pain.
I strode over to my Viper and leaned back against it while I decided what I was going to do. In the back of my mind, I heard a faint clicking sound. It seemed to get closer and then it stopped behind me.
A throat cleared.
I turned and found Courtney a few feet away from me, standing in those higher-than-hell stiletto heels and wearing what should be lingerie, but I guessed it was the latest clubwear. She gave me her come-hither smile and sashayed over to me.
“I heard you and the Prices are not speaking right now. A lot of drama in that family. Seems to all be around you.”
As she said this, she walked her fingers up my arm. She never really had appeal to me, except for that one fateful night, and today was no different. I glanced around and tried to move by her to get in the car. She blocked me in by placing her hip up against me.
I glanced around. “Where’s your husband?”
She shrugged. “You mean George? I’m sure he’s off doing something important. Usually involves his family money. And, of course, all that tweeting. Must be tiring for him. He does his thing; I do mine. It makes a nice arrangement.” She started stroking my arms. “Feels like you work out quite a bit. You sure have… grown… haven’t you?”
Courtney leaned into me, grinding her bony hips against me. I’m sure she was trying to be sultry, but she held no candle to Taylor. Having Taylor back in my life had changed my very idea of what I wanted from a woman.
Not any woman. Her. Taylor. She loomed large in my thoughts, and I knew if I wanted her, I would have to go all in. All or nothing. A dangerous play but what I felt with her buried any fling I’d had in the past. Courtney was nothing nine years ago, and she sure as hell was nothing now.
“Baby, come on now. You had me once. We could keep the home fires going and with you here in town, we could start something again. George won’t mind. He has his own playthings. Let’s just pick up where we left off.”
As I went to tell Courtney to hit the highway, she leaned in and pulled me down to her, thrusting her tongue in my mouth and kissing me with everything she had. I pushed her away but not before I heard a gasp.
“Dalton.”
I turned toward the door to see Taylor, horror in her eyes, as she ran back inside.
I looked down at Courtney. “Courtney, there wasn’t anything to start with and there’s nothing about you that would make me ever look at you twice. And as for picking up where we left off, it will never happen.”
With that, I firmly pushed her away from me and ran into the bar to find Taylor.