Adam rolled up his sleeves, having draped his suit jacket over the back of the chair. “That’s some consolation.”
“Right,” Bran said. “Act like you care. The worse Club Tahoe looks, the better it is for Blue Casino.”
“Hey, jackass,” Adam said, “I own part of Club Tahoe. I have every reason to care about its profitability.”
Hunt held up his hand. “Everyone, just simmer down. Bran, you fucked up, but we’ll fix it. We always do.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bran said. “I’m not the fuck-up in this family.”
Hunt leaned forward, eyes hard. “Did I suggest you were? I know you all think I’m the loose cannon, but none of you are angels.”
No one responded to Hunt’s comment. Probably because it was true.
Hunt was the brother who got into the most trouble. But Hunt was also the brother who’d come up with the children’s program, which was currently saving their asses and bringing in new clientele. So, yeah, they’d been hard on him. It didn’t help that when Hunt wasn’t working, he was up to his old games with women. He was an easy target.
“Sorry,” Bran said. “I’m upset with myself, not you. I’ve taken liberties lately, and it’s coming back to bite me.”
“Liberties?” Emily looked to Levi.
Levi shook his head, confusion in his eyes.
“In my personal life,” Bran said. “I haven’t made the club my first priority.”
“Bran,” Wes said, “none of us do. You’re allowed to have a personal life. In fact,”—he looked around, meeting the eyes of their brothers—“we’re all happy you finally have one. Ireland’s a great girl.”
“Ireland?” Emily said. “The programmer?” She looked to Levi. “Why don’t you keep me informed of this stuff?”
“I didn’t know.” Levi glared at the rest of them. “Stop getting me in trouble.”
“Not our fault if you don’t pay attention to Bran’s love life,” Wes said.
Adam sipped his martini. “Hayden hooked them up. My wife knows what she’s about.”
Hayden might have helped free up Ireland’s schedule to consult for Club Tahoe, but the booze cruise set things off. The consulting work simply stirred the flames.
That was all it had taken—proximity. Once Ireland was close, Bran had a hard time letting her go. But now he’d fucked everything up.
“Yeah, well,” Bran said, “now I have to tell her that her program just cost us ten grand and our resort’s reputation.”
Adam winced. “Are you aiming for the doghouse? If not, I suggest a different tactic.”
Bran glared. “What choice do I have? It’s either that, or we pay Tech Banquet God knows how much to rewrite the program again.”
“Ireland is sharp,” Adam said. “I’m not sure what’s going on with the software, but she’ll fix it. She’s killing it at Blue. My bosses kiss the ground she walks on.”
Bran pulled the bill of his ball cap down. He didn’t know what to think. All he knew was that Ireland had rewritten the program, and now Club Tahoe was worse off than before.
Chapter 28
Bran’s brothers ambled out of the lounge an hour later, but Bran stayed behind. He needed to call Ireland. He’d put it off all day. At first, because he’d had a crisis to deal with. Later, because he’d not wanted to bring up the software issues with her. He’d fucked up last night. And now he had to tell her the program she’d written was a wreck? No sane man wanted to be put in that position, and Bran was nothing if not practical.
“Hey,” he said when she answered.
“Hi.” She sounded down. What he had to say wasn’t going to make her any happier.
“Your day go okay?” he asked.
“It was all right. How about yours?”
