‘At the farm.’ I took the binder from him.‘I’ll convert one of the outhouses into a studio apartment.Then we can convert the other two into Airbnbs or even small offices for start-ups.People will come from all over for the hotel and restaurant in the main farmhouse.Looking at the architectural plans, you can see the plan for adding an orangery for the restaurant to double our covers.Then we add on extras, like weddings and wine tasting.Corporate parties.Stuff for kids in the holidays.’
‘No,’ Liam said, closing the binder with a snap.
‘Liam,’ I laughed humourlessly.‘Come on.’
‘This is more than a second site.This is a huge project.A massive risk.I expect you’re thinking HBC will help with the renovations.Even though Dad is only working three days a week?Jack is run off his feet as it is.’
When Liam left the family business, he enlisted Jack, Liam’s right-hand man, to run it with Dad, who was pushing 70 now.Dad’s body was beginning to show the wear and tear of years on the job, though he stubbornly refused to slow down.
‘Well, obviously, we’d pay them.’
‘Ren.’ Liam rubbed his face.‘Kat and I are getting married next year.She just opened her shop.Abi is starting her GCSEs.Dad has recovered from that knee op, but I’m battling with him to keep to three days a week.It’s too much.’
I felt a stab of pain when Liam summarised his life like that – a life marked by love, chaos, and milestones.I’d never cared much for domesticity but a new, strange pressure was creeping in as I faced turning 30.I kept laughing off questions about my love life or whether I’d settle down, but when I got home, I couldn’t deny the gnawing emptiness in my chest.No business ventures or flights to exotic locations could keep it away.I’d tried both.And my reputation as the flighty, fun, irresponsible brother of Liam Hunter was chafing like too-tight clothes.
The farm was a way to prove that I was different.
I’d changed.
Or even better, I wasn’t the loser they thought I was, to begin with.
‘I can do it,’ I said, snatching the binder from Liam’s desk.‘We can recruit someone to replace me here.I can train them, make sure they aren’t shit.’
‘We’ll spread ourselves too thin.’ Liam returned to his laptop.
This was it.I’d taken my shot and missed.Frustration twisted in my chest and this felt strangely like déjà vu.Memories from two years ago lingered in my consciousness.The day I’d fought with Liam about Lily’s and sought refuge in Lydia’s small bedroom.Now Liam and I had opened Lily’s, but I still hadn’t made up for the shitty mistake I’d made when I left Lydia in her bed, and left a cowardly note on her pink bedsheets as she slept.
God, she’d looked so perfect.
‘I’ve got a decent application from a guy called Theo for the kitchen,’ Liam said, his attention already back to the matter in hand.
‘You won’t eventhinkabout it.’
Liam glanced back to me and softened.Like he pitied me.Like he knew exactly what memory I was thinking of.Like he knew how much this hurt.
‘Look.This proposal is brilliant, Ren.It’s thorough and I can see what you’re trying to make happen.’ His tone didn’t bring any sense of relief.‘So bring me back another site.Something simple, more practical.Then we can talk.’
I sat there for a moment, letting the words sink in.
We were supposed to be partners.Fifty-fifty on profits, risks, losses.Liam had been clear about that when he called me in the airport in Mexico City, not knowing I was already heading back home anyway, saying he was finally ready to set up Lily’s.He said he couldn’t do it without me.
And, besides that, we were brothers.Before anything else.
But after I had spent months pouring everything into this proposal, here he was, speaking to me like an intern.Like this was his company.Like I worked for him.
I stood and headed for the door.
‘Ren,’ he called after me.
Hope flared, soothing the sting of rejection.He was pulling my leg, taking the piss.He was going to saygotcha!He believed in me and the vision I’d outlined.
‘Don’t speak to Kat about this without telling me first, okay?’
Hope deflated, my eyes burned.
I left the restaurant, threw the binder in the bin outside Lily’s, and walked home to my empty, soulless flat.
Chapter Three
