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“You walked out on me three months before we opened and bought the place across the boardwalk.” Vinny’s voice rose. “And opened the same damn restaurant. How is that not screwing me over?”
Ella couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How did she not know any of this? It all made sense now.
“We didn’t agree on anything. We each had our own vision of what we wanted and neither of us wanted to settle. It would have been a damn disaster if I stuck around. I had a wife and kid to worry about back then so I did what was right for my family.” Emotion crossed Joe’s eyes, his fists tightening at his side.
“By spending your life savings?” Vinny asked.
“You did it. Why couldn’t I?”
“That’s not the point,” Vinny said.
“Then what’s the damn point? I don’t have all day.”
Vinny reached into his pocket and held out what looked like a check.
Ella looked to Lucas as if he could fill her in. He gave her a reassuring smile and nodded back to the old men.
“What the hell is that?” Joe asked.
Vinny rolled his eyes. “What the hell does it look like?”
“I don’t want your damn money.”
“Think of it as money owed,” Vinny said.
“What does that mean?”
“It’s the money you would have made if you would have opened your doors the day you were supposed to forty-five years ago.”
A storm brewed in Joe’s eyes, turning from blue to black. “I knew it! You messed with my permits.”
Vinny shrugged. “You screwed me over so I screwed you over. And now”—Vinny forced the check at Joe—“we’re even.”
“You almost had me go out of business before I even opened.”
“That never would have happened,” Vinny said. “I just paid them to give you a hard time not to shut your doors.”
“You son of a bitch!”
Lucas stepped in between the two men this time and looked at Joe. “Grandpa, this check will save the restaurant. Vinny’s trying to make amends for the past. I think it’s time you two end this.”
Ella had been trying to get their grandfathers to end this war for as long as she could remember. She had no idea the complexity of the situation, yet Lucas was here for a week and somehow managed to bring the two men together to air out their dirty laundry.
“What strings are there?” Joe asked.
“No, strings.” The edge to Vinny’s tone was gone, replaced with nothing but honesty. “Truth is… I’m successful because of you. We’ve created a legacy in this town, and people come from all over to compare our rolls, take pictures outside, holding them up proudly. Vinny’s Lobster Shack wouldn’t be what it is today without Joe’s Lobster House. One can’t exist without the other. So if you don’t take the damn money, I’m going to shove it so far up your—”
“Okay, Grandpa!” Ella said, jumping in this time. “You were doing well.”
“Fine,” Joe said.
“Now you two shake on it,” Lucas insisted.
Both Vinny and Joe looked at each other like the other had an incurable disease that would attack them and kill them on the spot. “Gentleman,” Lucas said. “Seal the deal and end this.”
They stepped toward each other, both refusing to be the first to lift their hand.
“Now,” Lucas said.
