It smelled of hearty stew, the local specialty they called honey beer, and cedar, with the slight underpinnings of the fire that roared six feet high in the giant fireplace by the bar. They were homey, comforting scents.
He was grateful, however, that there was not live music this night. Ransom enjoyed the harmonicas and mouth harps that sometimes brought the room to life, but he had too much on his mind to be able to enjoy it.
Roderick sat down at their table with two of the honey beers.
“What is with you tonight? You’re acting like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”
Ransom scratched the back of his neck. “Guilt, I suppose. I know Lucky felt bad about what happened today, and I didn’t do anything to ease her worries.”
“Well, I think you could be forgiven. You have more on your plate than her feelings,” Roderick said. “You’ll feel better after a pint. Or two.”
Ransom wasn’t so sure about that. “Also, I’m waiting for my godmother to smite me.”
“Is that why you keep looking over your shoulder?”
“Yep.” Ransom took a long gulp from his honey beer.
“Worry about that later. Right now, we need to do whatever we can to stop Heart’s Desire from hemorrhaging,” Roderick said. “I know you want to help your godmothers, but you can’t pour from an empty well, and I mean that literally.”
“Do you have any ideas?”
“I have you booked on a flight back to Ecuador the day after the rehearsal dinner. You’ll be addressing Parliament and the Minister of the Interior to plead your case. You need to call a meeting with the board.”
Ransom took another swig and set down his glass. “This is the most ridiculous situation. This is my company. What do I have to do to fire the board? Because fuck ’em.”
Roderick’s eyes widened. “That’s one way to go about it. I’ll check our charter paperwork. You’re talking about taking a company private? You want to do a hostile takeover of your own company?”
“I want to do whatever I have to do to keep other people’s opinions out of my life. I didn’t want to take Heart’s Desire public to begin with, but everything said it was the best long-term strategy.”
Roderick nodded. “At the time, it was. You weren’t a billionaire when you made that choice. To start with, you need to start buying back shares. The board can remove you as CEO, as it stands, but they can’t interfere with your ownership.”
“I never liked that option, either.”
“Now you can do something about it. Have you thought about a public statement? Making a change like this is going to have all the regulatory bodies up your ass and to the left.”
“Well, as you said, I’m hemorrhaging money. It’s my money to hemorrhage. I’m going to continue to pay my employees until we find and build a new plant and are able to seed new farms. The board and other investors will try to stop me.”
Roderick pulled out his tablet and after a few swipes and nods of his head he said, “Are you absolutely sure this is what you want to do?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, we need to get the shareholder stakeholders down to under three hundred. I’ve e-mailed our portfolio manager and instructed him to buy all that he can.”
Roderick studied him hard, and Ransom could tell his friend had something else on his mind.
“Whatever it is, say it. You’ve got something you’re holding back.”
Roderick pushed a hand through his hair. “I don’t know, man. This is either exactly the right time, or I’m the biggest dick on two feet.”
Ransom suddenly knew what Roderick was going to ask him. He wanted to buy the shares, too. He wanted to be a partner in Heart’s Desire.
It was something Ransom had promised him long ago when they were working with grow lights in Roderick’s garage. He’d sworn that one day, he’d make Roderick his partner. The only reason they hadn’t started as partners in Heart’s Desire was because of the godmothers. He’d worried about keeping their secrets and now, there was no more reason for that. Roderick had proved himself over and over through the years.
“I think it’s exactly the right time,” Ransom replied.
“You don’t know what I’m going to say.”
“Unless I’m mistaken, you’re asking to buy shares, too.”
Roderick nodded slowly. “I’ve proved my loyalty. You’ll obviously be the majority partner, but I’ve poured my life into Heart’s Desire. I’m willing to do what it takes to save her, and it’ll free up more of your capital to buy out the board.”
He’d proved himself yet again by asking Ransom’s permission to buy the stock. He didn’t need it. Roderick was as ruthless as they came; that’s what had initially drawn Ransom to him. His acumen and his ruthlessness were wielded like a surgeon’s tools.
“Yes, of course. I can’t promise either one of us will have more than a pot to piss in and a window to throw it out of when this is over, but yes. And I’m sorry it took so long. It shouldn’t have.”
“I can only assume it was because of the godmothers. You were worried about keeping their secret.”
He nodded. “I talked to them about it not too long ago. I knew it was past time. They said it would work itself out. I suppose it did.”
Roderick laughed. “To anyone else in these circumstances, I’d say here’s to going to down with the ship.” He lifted his beer. “But this is us. Here’s to mutiny and taking our ship back and sailing that bitch to a beautiful sea!”
“I can definitely drink to that!” Ransom lifted his beer and clinked their glasses together before guzzling what was left.
A curvy woman with a ridiculous mass of blond hair hanging down her back made her way over to their table carrying a tray with freshly baked brown bread, golden butter, and two bowls of the hearty stew. As well as full, frothy mugs of the honey beer.
“Hey, fellas.” She set the tray down on their table. “I come bearing gifts on the house for the groom. Where’s your pretty bride tonight? We’d love to see her.”
Her name tag read “Goldi.”
Could it be? “Girls’ night with the maid of honor, I think. We’ve had kind of a tough day.”
Goldi nodded. “I heard. I’m sorry. Normies can be awful. It’s why a lot of us weren’t sure about this scheme, but we figured we had to try something.”
“So how are you? It’s been a long time since softball.”
She flashed him a big smile. “I was wondering if you remembered.”
“Who could forget the little girl who had to try out all the bases before she decided she did actually like home base best?”
She blushed. “How embarrassing.”
“Nothing wrong with knowing your own mind,” Roderick said.
“Oh, let me introduce you. This is the best man. Roderick.”
“Pleased to have you here.” A bell clanged from somewhere in the back of the pub. “That’s my cue. The bears are back from the mines. I better fetch their stew. Tell Lucky to come see me, okay?”
Goldi didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, she turned on her heel and snatched up the tray to carry it to the back.
“This place keeps surprising me. Next thing you know, you’re going to tell me those guys at that table are the seven dwarves. Do they look short to you?” Roderick squinted as he looked at them.
Almost as if they knew they were being discussed, all conversation died and they turned to look, in unison, at Roderick and Ransom.
Ransom raised his beer. “Cheers, friends!”
All of them got up from their chairs and when they stood, Ransom realized they were rather short, but they were stocky and looked like small walls of pure muscle. They each grabbed their beers and made their way over to Ransom’s table, where they surrounded Ransom and Roderick and sat down.
“Me lads,” the one who seemed to be the leader said. He had long dark hair and a matching beard that had been ornately braided and glittered with gold dust. “Ye enjoy’n yer food?”
>
“Thanks, yes. It’s the best beer I’ve ever had,” Ransom said. “We’ve had a hard couple of days and this is just the stuff.”
“Me brothers ’n’ me heard about yer problem.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “By the way, me name’s Doppelbock. This be Wizen, Stout, Lager, Pilsner, and Porter. The little one there be Shandy.” He pointed at them all in turn.
The little one he referred to was the biggest of the bunch, with a shock of fire-engine-red hair and rubies in his braided beard. Shandy grinned widely and hooked his thumbs through the straps of his coveralls.
“Anyway, we appreciate what yer doin’ to help Ever After. If we can help with yer problem, ye be lettin’ us know, eh?”
He wasn’t sure exactly what they could do to help in this particular situation, but the fact that they offered meant something. The whole town was behind him. “We will.”
Doppelbock patted the table with the flat of his hand three times and winked at them before leading his brothers off.
“Did you notice they were all named after beers?” Roderick asked.
“I did. You know what else I noticed?”
“I’m afraid you’re going to tell me.”
“I can’t bail on this wedding. Whatever it takes, I have to find a way to save this town and save my business.”
Roderick sighed. “I figured that’s what you were going to say.”
“It’s the right thing to do.”
“Honestly, I thought they were coming over to end my life,” Roderick said.
“Yeah, me too.”
Suddenly, the one called Stout was standing in front of their table with another loaf of the warm, fresh bread. He was wearing more jewelry than the others with tiny silver hoops lining the shell of his pointy ears and a hoop through his nose.
“By the way, we ain’t short. Yer just bloody giants.” He put the bread down gruffly.
Roderick, instead of being his usual smart-ass self, said, “My apologies, friend. You’ve been good to us. I’m new to Ever After and the people who live here. I fully believe you can whoop me whatever size you are.”
Stout eyed them both for a long moment before bursting out a deep, riotous belly laugh that seemed to echo up all the way from his toes. “Aye, lad. And I can do it with me wee hand tied behind me back.” He patted the table with his palm the same way Doppelbock had. “Yer all right, ye ken?” Stout walked away still laughing.
“I really need to get in the gym,” Roderick said.
Ransom cackled. “So you know, I’m going to trot this little gem of a tale out every chance I get until we die.”
“You didn’t do anything, either.”
“Your mouth wrote the check. It’s not my ass that has to cash it.” Ransom couldn’t stop laughing.
“Some best friend you are.” Roderick took a bite of the bread and stopped midchew. “This is delicious. It’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted.”
Ransom took a bite and he was wowed by the texture, the delicate flavor, the way the bread seemed to almost melt on his tongue. It was the best thing he’d ever tasted.
Besides Lucky.
“Oh no,” Roderick said. “Don’t start that.”
“Start what?” He met his friend’s gaze.
“You know what. You’re mooning over Lucky.” Roderick pinched his fingers across the bridge of his nose. “Consider all of the insane things that happened over the last few days, like what just happened now. We met real, living fairy tales. If that can be real, why can’t you accept that maybe whatever Lucky has going on is bad for you?”
“How could any of the things that have happened have been her fault? She hasn’t done anything.”
“Maybe she doesn’t have to, you know? You saw her hug Melvin James. You saw her kiss him on the cheek. She admitted to doing the same thing to this Nancy Slade, who I also kind of think had it coming, but that’s neither here nor there. You saw the fallout. Why are you the only one who is immune?”
“I’m not. The godmothers are, and before you say it’s because they’re fairies, I’ll tell you that Gwen and the kids are, too. How do you explain that?”
“I can’t explain it. All I can do is look at the results of what her presence has done to your life.” Roderick held up his hands. “No, wait. I’m not disparaging Lucky. At least, I’m not trying to. I can see that she loves you and supports you. The way she handled that crowd, the way she defended you, she’s fierce and she’s strong. She’s beautiful.”
“This isn’t talking me out of my feelings for her, if that’s what you’re trying to do. Those are all stellar qualities.”
“Exactly. I admire her. I know she wants the best for you. Which is why it kills me to say that I think you’re going to have to choose between the business and Lucky.”
“If I love her, that’s an easy choice then, isn’t it?”
“Is it? Because it’s not just you. If her luck, or unluck, or whatever you guys are calling it, is causing all of these problems, how long do you think your money will last? How many natural disasters will it take to wipe you out? Quite a few, but it seems like her gift is the one that keeps on giving.” He held up his hand again. “Nope, still not done. I know you don’t actually care about the money for yourself. I bet in your mind, you can see yourself setting up house in one of those cute, little, mushroom-capped cottages and maybe helping Gwen in Grammy’s Goodies by designing new magic chocolate or whatever the fuck, and it’s not a bad daydream. You could have it.”
For a moment, Ransom let himself consider it. If it meant being with Lucky, he would take it in a second. In fact, he could go back to the castle right now and tell Lucky he was sorry for being an ass, sorry for being a coward, and beg not only her forgiveness, but paint that exact picture for her that Roderick had drawn in his imagination.
A little bit of Ever After, Happily Ever After.
Why not?
“I can see the hope in your eyes, Ransom. I want you to have every happiness, but I also don’t want you to forget who you are.”
“Is this where you go into the Lion King soliloquy? If it is, I’m going to need another beer.”
Roderick narrowed his eyes at him. “No, this is where I remind you that it’s not just you. It’s not just me, either. It’s all the people you employ from your distribution centers, to the farms, to the processing plants, to the staff. They have families, and hopes and dreams. They need the insurance that employment with you provides. They need the other benefits that will educate their children. If you want to trade Heart’s Desire for this heart’s desire, you can do it. I will support you one hundred percent, but you need to do it now. You need to do it before you lose everything and they do, too.”
He thought about his conversation with Lucky the other night. When he’d asked her when was the last time she’d done something simply because she was passionate about it, because he couldn’t remember the last time he had.
This was what he was passionate about.
There had to be a way to do both. Ransom refused to accept that it was either Heart’s Desire or Lucky.
“You have to choose, Ransom. You can have your heart’s desire, you just have to decide what that is.”
He was reminded again about what the godmothers said. He simply had to love Lucky for herself, with no hope of any kind of cure, or change. Just herself.
“What would you do?” Ransom asked him.
“Me? I know you won’t do what I would do.”
“Tell me.”
“I know how much you love these people, and this place. I know you feel the weight of their hope on your back like a ton of bricks. I’m sorry for reminding you of that other weight you carry, too. But I wouldn’t be your best friend if I didn’t help you stay true not just to who you are, but to the man I know you want to be.”
“And?” Ransom prompted.
“And if I were you, I’d step back from Lucky. At least for a while. I’d cancel this wedding to appease the investors and board until I
could buy them out and crush them like mosquitoes. To help the town, I’d ask my partner, who luckily in this case is me, to go through the sham wedding with someone in town. The papers would pick it up in a second that this new couple fell in love with all the wedding planning. There would be no back scandal to dig into, nothing to upset profit margins, except send the ones here in Ever After soaring through the roof, and then after I was in a secure place, then I’d decide what I really wanted. Then I’d make it happen. Everyone wins.”
The idea of all of that was anathema. It made him physically ill to think about it. He’d promised Lucky a lot of things.
Things she knew, in the end, he wouldn’t be able to give her. She’d told him herself not to make promises he couldn’t keep.
He didn’t want to be in his own skin at the moment. Seeing himself now from her perspective, he wondered why she’d loved him. The fact that he even considered putting his business or anyone else before her . . . damn it, but it was more complicated than that.
The crux of all this was that she knew it.
Ransom was self-aware enough to know that deep down, he didn’t think he deserved Lucky, and maybe that was why he wasn’t immune to her ill-luck.
He didn’t deserve to be.
Chapter 18
Lucky didn’t think she could go through with the rehearsal brunch.
How could she stand with him at an altar practicing to pledge herself to him when she knew he couldn’t even stand to be in the same room with her?
She hadn’t seen him since Grammy’s. He hadn’t come back to the room.
Lucky knew he had things on his mind and now wasn’t the time to make it about her.
Except some sick part of her wanted to make him say it. Wanted to hear him speak the words that he didn’t want to go to Monaco with her anymore.
A bird landed on the open window and began to sing.
She rolled over and pulled the blanket up over her head.
The bird was joined by family and friends, who raised their beautiful song of morning’s glory to fill the room.
“Shut up,” she grumbled. “I’m wallowing. Go away.”
The birds kept singing and someone or something tugged on her blanket.
A Hilarious and Charming Feel-Good Read Page 17