by Tracey Lange
Kale nodded but he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. It would bring her into the pub, necessitate them working together. The thought of which caused an involuntary rush. Which, in turn, caused panic.
“Did you tell Viv?” Denny asked.
“Not yet, but I’m looking forward to it.”
“She has nothing to worry about. That was a long time ago.”
Somehow it didn’t seem that simple. Kale already felt like he’d done something wrong. He felt guilty about his reaction to seeing Sunday again, and the fact that he thought about her all night. Not to mention he hadn’t told Vivienne she was back yet because he wanted time first to process it himself.
He took a deep breath and tried not to sound pessimistic when he said, “Tell me where we are with Mamaroneck.”
“Wait here. I got something to show you.” Denny headed back to the office. Maybe a delay tactic. They’d been like brothers for twenty-five years and this subject had the potential to rattle their friendship if they didn’t tread lightly.
The new location had been Denny’s idea. He’d driven that bus from the start and run roughshod over any concerns Kale brought up. Mamaroneck was too expensive and the building needed to be refurbished, but Denny had an answer for everything: This will open up a whole new clientele. The place will be inspected before we sign off—I know a guy. Have I steered us wrong yet?
So they put 20 percent down on the new location—which meant taking out a loan on his and Vivienne’s paid-off house—and obtained a large mortgage for the rest. Then they put the remainder of their cash toward a total renovation. Which was just shy of completion when the city informed them they had a massive leak under the building. Over six months later, the second location still hadn’t opened. The financed project sat on the mortgaged land, collecting dust and bills.
Denny came out of the office and laid a page from a newspaper down on the bar in front of Kale. It was a large ad announcing the grand opening of Brennan’s Mamaroneck location next month, complete with a copy of their menu and the promise of a dozen beers on tap.
Kale looked up at Denny. “Seriously?”
“The city inspector comes in two weeks to confirm the foundation issue is resolved. I hired some staff, gave them their start date.” Denny turned his hands up. “I told you I had it under control.”
Denny had taken out an ad and hired staff, betting on a successful inspection. Which they’d failed twice now. “We don’t know that it will pass inspection,” Kale said. “And even if it does, we still have a lot of prep to do out there.”
“I’m going out this week to walk the site, make sure it’s ready. They’re going to approve.”
As his father used to say about Denny, in a not entirely disapproving tone, “That one could talk you into cutting off your own hand and make you think it was your idea.” This was what Denny did—act now, apologize later. He’d done it when he signed the first offer on the new property even though the price was too high. When he hired Paul without talking to Kale first. Even way back, when he accepted a gun Mickey bought them to keep behind the bar for protection, despite Kale’s protests. Denny was always sure he knew best.
“Look, Kale, I figured you had enough on your plate. I got us into this mess, I’ll get us out.”
While he was in Ireland Kale had decided to stop being the naysayer when it came to the new place. There was no point, they were stuck with it now. He just wanted to problem-solve and avoid further strain on their partnership. He wouldn’t be a business owner and have a job he loved most days if it wasn’t for Denny. Maybe he should be grateful he was shielded from some of the nitty-gritty.
“Okay.” Kale sipped his coffee.
Denny’s eyebrows pulled up. “That’s it?”
“Yep.”
“You’re not gonna say ‘I told you so’ again?”
“Nope.”
“Good. But it comes off you in waves anyway.”
* * *
“Oh,” Vivienne said.
“Yeah, I just found out.”
It was later that night. Luke had gone up to get ready for his bath and they were finishing dinner.
“When did she get back?” Vivienne asked.
“Like a week ago I guess.”
“And she’s staying here?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t get details. Sounds like she came back to help Denny and the family for a while.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Anyway, you’ll see her around so I thought I’d mention it.” He offered an easy-breezy shrug and started taking dishes to the sink.
She was quiet as he loaded the dishwasher. The air in the room seemed to get heavier while he worked.
When he was done he turned to her. “Viv, that was over a long time ago.”
Her smile was weak.
“I should get Luke’s bath going.” He started for the stairs.
“Did you see her?”
“We ran into each other at the pub. Took us both by surprise.”
She sat very still, hands in her lap. “When?”
“Last night. I didn’t mention it because you were about asleep when I got home.”
“Do I have anything to worry about?”
He walked over and took her hand, pulled her up, and put his arms around her waist. “No, you don’t. You’re my wife, and we’re a family.”
Her big blue eyes probed his. “I know. But you were with her a long time.”
“That was five years ago. I have no idea what she’s been doing all this time. For all I know, she’s got a boyfriend.”
She gave him a skeptical look.
“Or a girlfriend.”
“I doubt that.” But she smiled.
“Who knows. It just doesn’t matter.” Although he’d spent the better part of the day wondering about those things.
“Daddy?” Luke appeared on the staircase. He wore no clothes and carried a plastic shark. “Come up. It’s baff time.”
“Bath time,” Vivienne said.
“Coming, naked guy,” Kale said. He turned back to Viv. “Are we good?”
“We’re good.”
He headed up with Luke. It would take a little more of that before she could rest easy, and he would be happy to do it. She didn’t deserve to lose sleep just because Sunday decided to come back. Vivienne was a beautiful wife and a good mother, and he’d made a vow to her.
And she would never hurt him the way Sunday had.
* * *
He managed not to see Sunday again for four days, spending much of that time swatting away memories and rationalizing. Her return was no big deal. He was a husband and father now. He’d built a new life. As long as he maintained some distance, he would be fine.
It was after the lunch rush and before the happy hour throng, when he and Denny usually sat in a corner booth to debrief, plan for dinner, fine-tune their ordering process. Kale dreaded some of the changes that would come with the new pub, including losing this quiet time of the day. More staff and customers would mean more work and problems. Inevitably he and Denny would often end up in separate locations and this daily meeting would go by the wayside. And he wouldn’t always be able to walk to work, which meant he and Vivienne would need to buy a second car. Kale would have been content to stick with one location and the level of income it afforded. But he’d been outvoted by his partner and his wife, both of whom had bigger goals.
Sunday and Mickey came into the pub while they were finishing up. Despite his self-talk about no big deal, his whole body tensed up while they all exchanged hellos. He needed to get past this involuntary reaction to seeing her. In the daylight she looked even more wounded, her skin pale against the dark bruises and black cast.
Mickey went behind the bar to start his shift, whistled while he turned on the TV and searched for an early game.
Sunday pulled a spiral notebook out of the laptop bag she was carrying and flipped it open. “You guys are up to date on the mortgage on the new place, right?”
&nb
sp; “We should be,” Kale said, looking at Denny. He was the one paying the bills the last few months.
Without even glancing up from his paperwork Denny said, “Yeah. Of course.”
“I figured,” Sunday said, biting the tip of a pen. A habit she’d had as long as he’d known her. He used to come across mutilated pens all the time and tease her about it—What did this pen ever do to you? “But a delinquency note popped up on the account,” she said, “and I can’t find the check number. I’ll just call them.”
“You don’t need to,” Denny said. “Ignore the note. The payment was a few days late, but it’s taken care of.”
“Are you sure about that?” Kale asked.
“Yeah. I was busy last week, remember?” Denny tossed his head toward Sunday. “The check’s in the mail.”
“Which is it?” Sunday asked. “‘Taken care of’ or ‘in the mail’?”
“I took care of it by putting a check in the mail.”
“Sounds like some famous Denny last words,” she said.
Kale laughed. “No shit.”
“Oh yeah?” Denny looked back and forth between them. “Just like old times, huh?” His tone was provoking, daring them to fall back into the familiar.
How easily it had happened. Kale had slipped right past his vow to stay aloof and taken his old place at her side. Denny used to complain that he never had a fair chance because it was always two against one.
Sunday cleared her throat. “I just came in to get some stuff from the back so I can work on the ledger at home.” She turned and walked back to the office.
Denny checked his watch. “I gotta go.”
“Hold up.” Kale lowered his voice. “You’re absolutely sure about opening next month?”
“Yeah, man. I told you. Why?”
“Just trying to plan.” If it opened next month, according to their projections they would be caught up and edging toward the black by the end of the year.
“Plan away,” Denny said, heading for the door. “We’re opening next month. Bank on it.”
Maybe it was time to tell Vivienne they could start thinking about a new house. She could probably use a little reassurance right now.
Frankly, so could he.
CHAPTER SIX
Denny
“We’re opening next month. Bank on it.”
It had to open next month. Everything Denny had in the world depended on it.
He hopped in his Jeep and headed south on the Taconic State Parkway to meet Billy Walsh at the new location. Mamaroneck was twenty miles south, located on the Long Island Sound. It had miles of coastline, triple the population, and a younger, more diverse demographic. Denny and Kale had maxed out their growth in West Manor. Mamaroneck was a town with growing industries of its own—health care, manufacturing, tech—that could take them to the next level, a proper restaurant that would support a couple dozen service jobs and up their profit margin substantially. They just had to make it to opening day.
But that meant Billy had to give Denny one more month’s grace. If not, it would require drastic measures. Kale could pull together some money, but that would mean telling him everything. It might also mean the end of their friendship, let alone partnership. Because Kale never would have agreed to a hard money loan secured by using the West Manor property as collateral.
Denny pulled onto Mamaroneck Avenue, which wandered through a thriving medical corridor before heading toward the water. Once he reached the vibrant downtown, he parked in one of the diagonal spaces in front of the new Brennan’s. Just laying eyes on it settled his nerves a bit. Hopefully it would ease any concerns Billy might be having too.
It was almost double the size of their first pub and sat in the middle of a busy thoroughfare lined with upscale restaurants and shops. A couple blocks away Harbor Island Park was surrounded by the waters of the East and West Basins, which were full of boaters in the summer months. The emerald exterior popped against the neighboring businesses, an antiques shop on one side and an old-school creamery on the other. There were striped awnings over the large plate glass windows, and rich wood letters spelled the Gaelic name above the door. No one would have guessed there’d recently been a raging leak underneath that threatened the building.
When he unlocked the front doors and stepped inside, there it all was: polished maple floors, bronze fixtures, leather booths. And smack in the middle, a large square bar and cocktail area. All of it just waiting for paying customers.
He headed back through the brand-new stainless kitchen and down into the basement, where, six months ago, during what was supposed to be a final inspection, the city assessors discovered the water main had been leaking long enough to compromise the foundation.
That’s when he had started to panic. The last two years had been a continuous money suck, starting with the expensive lawyer who kept Jackie out of jail. No one knew about the home equity loan Denny had taken out to pay for her. Not even his father, who still owned the house and thought he was signing insurance paperwork. Why worry everyone; he planned to pay it off within months. But there’d been other expenses that quickly maxed out the line of credit—his share of the second location, Shane’s new hearing aids, the late property tax bills and fines because his father had neglected to pay them for two years. Just to stay afloat Denny had “borrowed” from the business account without Kale’s knowledge. He’d dug a deep financial hole, banking on the grand opening to start replenishing the funds.
He went back upstairs and took a peek out the back door. They’d had to jackhammer a wide swath of asphalt and bulldoze tons of dirt to replace the pipe and shore up the foundation, but now fresh white lines were painted on the smooth parking lot in the rear. Once the sun set a security guard would station himself there for the night. That was costly, and maybe paranoid. But his dad, who’d been in the construction business for forty years, had inspected the damage and firmly believed it was vandalism, maybe caused by competitors or bored kids. Denny wasn’t taking any chances when they were this close. He went back inside to wait for Billy.
With no money to repair the damage, he had put the word out that he was looking for a quick unconventional loan from a source that would keep it quiet. He’d been doubtful when a member of the reno crew had made an offer, questioned how a laborer would have that kind of cash sitting around. But he’d apparently just sold his mother’s house and didn’t know what to do with the money. And it was a bonus that Denny knew the guy. Sort of.
Everyone had called him Belfast Billy when they were kids, a nickname based on his strong Northern Irish accent, the one that made everything sound like a question. Billy and his family had moved to West Manor from Ireland—or more specifically, according to Denny’s mother, “the slums of Belfast”—when they were all in elementary school. Denny and Billy had been on the same soccer team a few times when they were young, and Billy’s dad had worked for Denny’s dad for years. But the two families had traveled in different social circles, particularly since Billy’s dad was a raging alky who eventually drank himself to death.
Billy had been known for poor grades, smart-ass remarks, and frequent absences, but Denny remembered him being fairly wily too, often getting out of trouble with a smile and a slick story. And plenty of girls had been drawn to the aw-shucks bad-boy image and the lyrical lilt to his voice. There’d been talk of an arrest just after graduation, for domestic violence—some drunken fight with a girlfriend—but it might have just been a rumor. At some point Billy had returned to Ireland for a while. He’d only been back in the States a few months when he offered Denny the loan.
He turned at the knock on the door to see Billy standing there and waved him in. He was hard to miss in a crowd. He had Jackie’s lean, muscly build, with thick hair somewhere between ginger and blond that swept across his forehead. And he always wore tight jeans, tighter T-shirts, and biker boots.
They sat at a table and Denny looked across at his … what—silent partner? “How’s it going, Billy?”
“You still living up in Katonah?”
“Yeah. The bloody boonies.” He rolled his eyes. “My aunt needs a bit of help around the place.”
“I get it. Family.”
Billy hunched over the table and looked around the restaurant. “Place is looking good.” He hadn’t seen it furnished and decorated yet. The reno crew had finished at the site weeks ago. He pointed behind the bar. “You’ve any inventory back there yet? I could do with a beer.”
“Sorry. Can’t stock the place till we’re approved.”
He nodded in understanding.
It was a backward arrangement, accepting a loan from a laborer in his employ. But that had also been a little insurance. It would be in Billy’s best interest that the pub get up and running.
Denny set his hands on his thighs. “Seriously, man, I can’t thank you enough for your patience with all this.”
“No worries. Fuck those inspectors.”
“Yeah, maybe I should have listened to my dad, taken them out for beers and slipped them a few dollars.”
Billy grinned and cocked an eyebrow. “Is that how he did it back in the day?”
“So he says. But he likes to tell tales.”
“Don’t all Irish fathers.”
Denny laughed. “So, I just wanted to tell you in person. The inspectors will be signing off in two weeks. We open next month.”
Billy pointed at Denny. “That there is good news.”
Time to test the waters. “I know I missed three payments and you’ve been understanding. You know better than anyone it just took longer than expected to repair the foundation issue.”
“Strange, that. Every time we thought we had the damage fixed, there turned out to be more.” Billy tossed a hand. “Goes to show. You never know with old construction, like.”
Denny lowered his voice even though no one else was there. “You got a look at the damage. Did it seem to you like old pipes really caused all that? My dad thinks someone made it happen.”