The door swung open, and I was alone in the bar. Will had wandered back at some point, but he’d disappeared into the back. And now that it was just me, I finally had time to think about Charlie’s text.
I swiped up on my home screen and clicked through to messages. I tapped a quick, “They know,” to Jonah just before the kitchen doors swung open again, and Will and Charlie both walked onto the floor.
One glance over my shoulder told me Charlie had already spilled the beans. What a jerk.
My fury with Charlie was overshadowed by the real fear from the look on both of their faces. They were pissed. Actually pissed.
But why? I wasn’t seventeen anymore. I was twenty-seven with an adult life that included bills, a budget, and taxes. And that meant I could date anyone I wanted.
If you paid taxes, you should have total freedom to date anyone.
Well, okay, there were some criminal exceptions. But consenting adults should be left alone. By family, friends, and otherwise.
But most especially by family. Besides all that, Jonah had made it more than clear several times how much he loved me and wanted a future with me.But what to tell Will and Charlie...You would think because they loved me, and they loved Jonah as a brother, they would just shut up and be happy for us. But if the murderous vibe they were putting out was anything to go by, it wasn’t going to be that simple.
“Eliza,” Will growled as he approached the table. “Do you have something you want to share?”
Play it cool, Eliza. “Yeah,” I said in a huff. “There was only one serious candidate in that whole batch. And Case isn’t even sure he can work with her. Can you believe that? One out of ten!”
“We’re not talking about the kitchen position,” Charlie snarled. “We want to know how long this has been going on.”
“How long what has been going on?”
Charlie raised his eyebrows in like a really snotty way. “Do you want me to pull up the video?” He made a big show of reaching for his back pocket. “Because I will. We can all watch it together. As a family.”
Now I was pissed. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
Ada walked in the front door. She used to come early for her shifts and help out around the rest of the bar, but now she showed up exactly on time for the bar to open. And it was all Charlie’s fault. Why weren’t we talking about that? That drama actually affected the day-to-day business.
But oh, no, we were just shoving all Charlie’s problems under the rug as per usual.
“Then what the fuck, Eliza? Jonah? What is wrong with you?” It was Will’s turn. And I was fine with all the hard questions until they started treating me like I had some kind of personal flaw. Then we needed to brawl.
“What is wrong with Jonah?” I held Will’s glare with one of my own. “He’s your best friend.”
“And he’s a great best friend,” Will roared. “But he’ll be a terrible boyfriend. And then what? What happens when you two break up? What am I supposed to do with that, Eliza? When this ends badly, how am I supposed to juggle my sister and business partner hating my best friend and crucial distributor?”
“That’s the thing, Eliza, you’re not thinking about the bar. This is incredibly selfish,” Charlie added. “When you guys break up—”
I cut Charlie off with a hiss of fury. He was lucky it wasn’t with my hands around his throat. “I’m sorry,you’recallingmeselfish?” His mouth opened and closed a few times. Not because he felt any remorse but because he was absolutely outraged that I had the audacity to imply he was more selfish than I was. I could already tell this fight was going to end bloody. Nobody was getting out of this unscathed.
“What’s going on?” Ada asked like she was approaching wild animals fighting to the death in the wild.
Will threw a hand out, addressing her. “Oh, nothing much. Just Eliza and Jonah are fucking.”
Ada squealed and clapped—not a usual reaction from her. But the only reaction I appreciated today. “Are you serious! Eliza, are you serious? Oh, my God, fucking finally!”
My brothers swiveled their heads toward her in unison, doing their best to turn her to dust by their withering glares.
“In what universe is this okay?” Will boomed at her.
She was completely undaunted by his sass. “In every universe, William. You realize they’ve been in love with each other for literally ever. Why would you try to stop this?” Her head swiveled back and forth between Will and Charlie. “Why do either of you think you have the right to say who Eliza dates?”
Her questions caught them off guard, and they didn’t immediately know how to respond. I took the opportunity to jump in with my point of view. “Listen, not that you guys get to have a say in anything that goes on in my life unless it’s directly tied to the bar, but you’re looking at this Jonah thing like it’s a fling. And, okay, I can’t fully speak for him, but we...” I wanted to tell them that we loved each other. That we had loved each other for a lot longer than the start of our relationship. But the words got lodged in my throat and stayed there.
Would Jonah want me to share this with my brothers? We hadn’t agreed to keep our relationship a secret. We just were. And we’d never had a conversation about when we were going to tell anyone. We’d just been... enjoying what we’d started.
Or at least I was.
