‘What’s going on?Why are you so twitchy?’ Liam’s eyes widened.‘Are you moving?Have you been arrested?’
‘No.’ My jaw tightened.‘I haven’t been arrested.’
Irritation – the kind of irritation only a sibling could summon – thrummed in my chest.
‘Not recently,’ Liam muttered.
My jaw was near cracking.At this rate, Liam would be footing the bill for my dental work.
‘Really, Liam?It was one skirmish with the police when I was seventeen.Can you let it go?You’d think I was serving life at Strangeways.’
‘What’s that?’ Liam pointed to the binder.
I took a deep breath.Okay, here we go.
‘It’s a business plan.’
‘For Lily’s?’
‘Yes.Kind of.I know we’ve discussed new sites.Expansion.’
A huge derelict farm on the edge of town.Just what you expected, right, big brother?
Liam nodded and outstretched his hand.‘Let me see.’
‘I’ll talk you through it.’ But Liam took the binder from my hands and opened it.
His eyes, brown eyes we both got from Mum, scanned the page.They widened when he read ‘Everly Heath Farm’ and narrowed.
My hands began to sweat.
‘It’s for the farm.We create a unique destination venue – restaurant, hotel, spa.I’ve included draft architectural plans, broken down into three phases – the main house, which will be the restaurant, then the boutique hotel, and then the outer buildings.An overview of investment and cash flow.I even put together an example of a crowdfunding page.I think locals would invest for perks, like being the first to dine at the restaurant, especially now that we are more established.’ I rushed out, ignoring that we were talking about purchasing a colossal estate.
Liam turned to the last page – the branding and design page that I’d asked Kat, my future sister-in-law, to design.She was a graphic designer until she moved up to Everly Heath to renovate her late father’s house, fell in love with my brother, and decided to pursue her dream of being an interior designer.
‘Did you ask Kat to do this?’ Liam asked, in that scarily calm voice I know he only used when he was furious.
It took me right back to being 19, slipping through the door at 4 o’clock in the morning, still off my face from some rave, and collapsing at the bottom of the stairs – like that was ever going to stop the crash coming.Or 22, when I forgot to order the flowers for Mum’s anniversary, so we had to grab a last-minute bunch from the Co-op, and I said – quite rightly – that it’s not like you can fit that many in the grave vase anyway.Plus, I knew Mum would prefer orange roses, because they were her favourite.And, of course, it reminded me of when I told him Lydia and I weren’t talking any more, and he just looked at me, voice low and quiet and dangerous, and asked,Why?
‘Yes.’
‘Did you discuss this with my fiancée before me?’ Liam was lethally calm.‘Is Kat your business partner?’
‘I – yes.But I know Kat designed the original logo for Lily’s, so I asked if she might mock up one for the farm too.’
‘The farm,’ Liam repeated.‘You’re talking like this is a done deal, Ren.’
I felt like a sprinter in the last few moments of the race, seeing the competitor in the corner of my eye, pistolling forward.
‘Well, I’ve spoken to the owners.’ My voice broke a little.Pathetic. ‘Bert wants to sell quickly and is open to a deal.Mabel died last year and, well, it sounds like he’s accepted he needs to sell.His kids have been trying to get him to sell for years with no hope.’ I rubbed a hand across my face, trying to block out the sadness I saw in Bert’s eyes when I spoke to him about selling.‘We’d need to raise the capital, but I think we could get them down on price.I can sell my flat,’ I offered.
I hated my two-bed flat in Manchester anyway.I’d bought it with money Mum and Dad had put in a trust for us before she died.I’d wanted somewhere cool, completely different from this quaint little town.But now, the drive after a shift was hellish during rush hour, and it was too quiet, too still, when I got home.It reminded me of how alone I was.It reminded me that I last felt joy in my flat withher. The last time I felt anything, really.
Nope.
I’m not going to think about Lydia right now.
‘And where would you live?’
