Page 3 of When the Walls Come Down
Don’t get me wrong. He was a businessman through and through. Bay Brewing was one company, but he and Blake, my baby—well, not so baby anymore—sister, also had a growing empire of restaurants around the country. Regardless of how shrewd in business he’d become, he still typically wore a smirk that was capable of telling men to shove it up their asses, all the while making them think it was their idea.
I wasn’t falling for it.
“Then what the hell do you call it?”
“Shane, we hired you to help us out. Build our team. You’re good at what you do, but let’s not fuck around.” He took a deep breath, and I could feel the no-bullshit part of his explanation coming. “Frankly, you needed to get back on your fucking feet. When Blake and I opened the first Two Ships restaurant, you’d barely moved out of your parents’ basement again after your divorce. You were doing fly-by-night graphic work from the couch in your underwear. Moving from Seattle to San Francisco was about handing you your fucking balls back.”
I couldn’t argue any of that, but that still didn’t change the fact that he was giving me the boot. “So, now what?” I pinched the bridge of my nose, the tension already mounting.
“Use the motherfuckers, Shane. I know damn well how much we’ve paid you. You should have plenty to start your own business. Do what you did for Bay for other corporations. Fuck, move back to Washington if you want. Move anywhere. Do anything, but the last Goddamned thing you’re going to do is hide away and stall again—not here.”
He walked around his desk, pulled two beers from the mini fridge in his wet bar, and passed me one. “Blake loves you, and you’re a brother to me now too. Wake, Maddox, and Roe all love having their uncle around, but, man—life is passing you by. Travel. Do something wild. Get laid.”
What was he talking about?
I got laid.
Plenty.
Sometimes.
There was that one chick. Um. What was her name?
It slowly came back to me. Oh my God. I hadn’t been with a woman since the first Bay Brewing Christmas party I attended. Jesus.
Casey wasn’t wrong. The bastard.
I chugged half the lager in the bottle.
I had plenty of money to invest in a company of my own, but where would that leave them? I hadn’t put all this time and energy into their sites and entire marketing department just to hand it over or let it go to shit. Certainly not for a vacation and a piece of ass.
“And what happens here? I can’t just leave the team high and dry. I won’t do that to them.”
“One step ahead of you, big guy.” He took a drink and then propped the bottle, which had the new logo and design I’d just revamped, on his knee. “When I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago, I met with a promising replacement. We haven’t simply given away your position yet, per se, but if they get here next week and they’re a good fit, we’ll make the transition to smoothly move forward then.”
My foot bounced as my mind raced. There were so many new projects coming down the line. So many new platforms where we were just getting the market share and advertising foothold we’d been striving for and rightly deserved.
Now this.
I couldn’t see how ripping the carpet out from under me would be good for anyone.
With a playful, brotherly swift kick to the shin, Casey said, “You’re so much like your damn sister. Trust me, Blake will move Hell and Earth to avoid change too. For fuck’s sake, I knew she was pregnant with Roe not long after we had Maddox—before she’d let herself accept it because everything was about to change yet again. And sure, it was sudden,” he contended, sounding confident. It was clear his mind was already made up. “But just like I told her then, I’m telling you now. You can stew and worry and doubt yourself all you want, but you’re only wasting time. The sooner you get past the dread of the what-ifs, the more you’ll look forward to them. Good things are going to happen more than bad ones are. So shut the fuck up. Get on board. This is happening whether you like it or not. You’ve got about a month to figure it out.”
It was no secret the Warrens—myself included—hated change, so I was learning nothing new here. It was just a pain having it pointed out. Still, I couldn’t avoid the chance to give him some shit right back. “Yeah, yeah. I bet it’s the same way you felt when she made an appointment for your vasectomy. I’m sure you were all about change being great then too.”
He flipped me off for the cheap shot and shifted in his chair, as if the memory were painful.
