Page 34 of Best Kind of Trouble
I poke an accusatory finger into his chest. “Hannah warned me about your wily ways.”
He shrugs, a smile still playing on his lips. “Probably for the best.”
We’re quiet for a couple of minutes before he says, “You’re being more than generous, you know. Even if my share ends up being ten percent of nothing. I’d rather own ten percent of nothing than spend another year working at Big Catch.”
I squeak out another thank you, feeling self-conscious, and lead him toward the entrance of Silver Star—the door with the glass window I painted a sunburst on—just as Hannah comes bursting from around the opposite corner.
“Thereyou are,” she says.
Liam and I exchange a glance.
“Which one of us are you talking to?” We say it at practically the same time. I’m tempted to laugh, but I feel metaphysically dizzy from everything that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours, not to mention the fact that Hannah’s here at the brewery.
“We’ve been drinking in the bar next door, waiting for you to show up.”
“Is it five already?” I ask, glancing at my fitness watch, which informs me with a frowny face that I’m behind on my fitness goals. I flick it in annoyance.
“Who cares what time it is,” Hannah hisses, glaring at her brother. “You didn’t tell me you were going to taunt Frodo intofiring you. Do you know how hard it is to act sad without any warning?”
“You work for a hobbit?” I ask in confusion.
Liam looks like he’s holding back a laugh.
“It’s not funny,” Hannah says, shoving his arm. “But good thinking, obviously.”
“What are you doing here?” He gives her a pointed look. “You should still be working.”
“I pretended to be emotionally distraught about my pain-in-the-ass brother, and Frodo gave me the rest of the afternoon off,” she says with a lift of her chin. “So what gives? Neither of you were answering your phones.”
“I asked Liam to meet me at the diner to discuss some…” I search for the correct word, my brain blipping—“percentages.”
“She was shit-faced,” Liam says as he leans against the brick wall of the brewery. He looks effortlessly cool.
I frown at him, annoyed without really having any reason to be.
“Still is, a little,” he continues as Hannah pulls me into a sideways hug. “But it’s nothing some coffee and freezing weather won’t eventually cure.”
I’m about to correct him when I start hiccuping, so I settle for saying, “Mildly tipsy. I need some water.”
Liam and Hannah exchange a knowing look, and then Hannah waves to someone behind me.
I turn to see a small knot of people approaching us—sweet Dottie from the tea shop, Sophie, and Sophie’s cousin Otis, who’s wearing a beanie cap shoved so low it almost covers his eyes and carrying a wilted bouquet of flowers.
“What’s this?” I ask, bewildered.
“Your welcoming party, dear,” Dottie says with a smile, engulfing me in a hug that smells like cinnamon. I close my eyes for a second as I burrow into her, soaking in her calming spirit.Hannah would roll her eyes, and Liam would definitely laugh, but Ifeelit. Her energy is just like Great-Aunt Sky’s. Soft and soothing, like warm water lapping at your feet in summer. “I heard the good news, of course. I couldn’t be happier.”
“Good news?” I repeat as I pull back.
“The best,” she insists as she pulls off her knitted cap, revealing freshly dyed lilac hair. Dottie must be in her eighties, but she’s living her best life. She owns a tea shop, lives with the man she refers to as “the second love of my life,” and only works when she feels like it. Most of her time is spent with her family and her even bigger family of friends, including the club of senior citizens she refers to as the Wise Elders Group. It includes both Eugene and Sophie’s great-aunt. “I felt moved to do a tarot reading for you last night, and when I pulled the Ten of Cups card, Iknewyou’d finally be getting your castle.”
“Doesn’t a person need to be present for you to read their tarot?” I ask, my brain sluggish.
“Oh, I don’t let things like that stop me.”
Hannah grins at her, shaking her head. “You let nothing stop you, and that’s why we all love you.”
“Takes one to know one, my dear,” Dottie says with a smile as Sophie swoops in and wraps me into a hug.
