He snorts and I slap the papers on his coffee table. “How would you like to be the owner of your favorite drinking establishment?”
Chase’s brow raises. “It’s the only drinking establishment and I haven’t been there since…” He trails off and I know exactly what he was going to say. His eyes flick up to the angry pink scar across the right side of my forehead.
“Thanks for that, by the way. You’re a bit of a narc, but I guess it saved my life, so.”
“So I saved the world a bartender.”
“A bar owner, actually, if we can get back to the point. I don’t have time to shoot the shit with you.”
He hums, grabbing the papers and flipping through them. “All this says is that Maddox signed the bar over to you yesterday. Christ almighty, you stop going to the bar for a week and new management moves in. Twice.”
“Funnily enough, I read them before I signed them so I know exactly what it says.” I hadn’t read them at all. “I’ll write a note or record a video or something saying I’m selling it to you, I don’t fucking know. I just need to sell the bar and figured I owed you for the whole…” I wave my hand through the air as though a life-debt is inconsequential.
“Givingme the bar would be paying me back for that. What makes you think I’ve got enough money to buy a bar set aside?”
I roll my eyes at him. Everyone knew the Cartwrights had money. After the Whittakers, they were probably the richest family in this town and Chase was their only kid.
When I don’t humor his banter anymore, he jerks his chin at me. “How much do you want for it?”
I’m honestly a bit surprised he took the bait, so I don’t have a number ready for him. I have no clue what honkytonks in small Montana towns go for, nor how much revenue the bar even brings in. World’s worst bar owner, I am.
“$150,000,” I spit out and he snorts immediately.
“Nope. Sixty.”
“One sixty? Well damn, Cartwright, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
“$60,000. Cash in hand.” He tilts his head like he can see right through me, like he knows how desperate I am to have ‘cash in hand’ and he knows I don’t have time to be picky.
“A hundred grand and you’ve got yourself a deal. Cash.”
“I only have eighty in cash.”
“Then fucking Venmo me the rest,” I tell him through gritted teeth. “Do we have a deal at a hundred grand or what?”
Chase sighs, tossing the papers back on the coffee table.
“What the hell, I was bored today anyway. Sure.”
“Welcome to Broken Spoke Feed, let me know if there’s anything I can help you find!”
Just her voice is making me tear up again. I can’t fucking stand crying and it feels like I’ve done a year’s worth in the past two days alone.
Kenny rounds the corner, coming from the little closet off to the side of the register. Her already-gleeful expression brightens further when she sees me, but it doesn’t take long at all for it to fall.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, quickly setting the rolls of receipt paper she was holding down on the counter and rushing over.She hugs me gingerly, much more so than her brother did last night.
We never hug. We’ve been best friends forever, but hugging is where we draw the line usually. I fall apart against her shoulder, the back of her shirt clenched in my fists. I feel something wrap around the backs of my calves and look down to see Callie’s concerned little face looking up at me as she hugs the two of us.
Despite everything, it makes me laugh. The tiny blonde smiles in return, though it looks pretty unsure, like she can’t figure out why I’m laughing and crying at the same time. Fair as fuck, to be honest, neither can I.
Kenny pulls back and squats down to the little girl’s level, fixing the hem of her dress, which is hitched up on one side. “Callie, can you go find Daddy for me? Let him know I’m gonna take a little break to hang out with my friend?”
The little girl eyes me again and I wipe my face. I can’t imagine how I must look to this kid—crying, laughing, bruised. No wonder she’s concerned about me.
She turns her head to whisper in Kenny’s ear, her tiny hand covering her mouth and her eyes still locked on me. My best friend leans in to her, smiling at her antics, before it turns into a sympathetic frown. She tucks the girl’s hair behind her ear and thumbs her pudgy cheek. “She’s fine, sweetheart, but you’re so sweet for worrying. She’s just having big feelings at the moment, like you do sometimes. Can you go tell Daddy what I said, please?”
Finally, Callie nods, but not before tracing her eyes over me again like I’m going to fall into tears again any second.
