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I inhale the fresh mountain air. This is it. This is the kind of peace and quiet and nature that people will want to be a part of. I’m sure of it.

I take a seat and get lost in the view while Henry goes inside. He comes out with a pitcher of lemonade and a pack of chocolate chip cookies.

“Martha doesn’t do much baking these days,” he says, as if to apologize, “so we’ll have to eat the store-bought stuff.”

“It’s better than what my old man would have offered,” I say, wanting to brush it off.

But Henry scowls at me. “That’s not true. I know you boys have the right to be mad at him. But your old man was a good neighbor. When I came over, he’d give his last beer if that’s all he had.”

“It was all he had because he drank the rest of the pack before noon.”

I don’t want to disrespect Henry, but I don’t need to hear fantasies about my father because people don’t like speaking ill of the dead. The truth was bad enough.

Henry grunts in disagreement but lets it go. “What you got there?”

He pours two glasses of lemonade and grabs the folder.

“It’s everything I presented to the city council to get approval for the bar renovation. Most of it, like the architectural projects, is going to be useless here and needs to be completely redone. But I thought you could get a feel for the amount of space we need and give me an estimate of how much you think it’d cost.”

“A very loose estimate,” Henry says as he flips through the pages. “It looks like your architect was trying to make the most of a small space. You’ll be able to expend out here, and it’ll probably cost the same.”

“Before we go any further, I have to ask you. You’ll be our closest neighbor. What do you think about having a brewery so close to your house?”

“Don’t put it too close to my property line, and I’ll have no problems with it. I didn’t get into construction with a fear of change and progress. I want this town to succeed and that requires some new ideas every once in a while.”

“Good,” I say. “I wouldn’t do it otherwise.”

“This here is your budget?”

I nod.

“You’ll still have to put up the bar as collateral for the loan. The bank won’t give you anything for this piece of land.”

Good point. I hadn’t thought about that. It means I really can’t do this without my brothers’ approval.

“But I think with this capital you could do something even better here. Starting from scratch. Did you ever think about maybe putting some bedrooms on the top floor?”

“To live in?”

Henry rolls his eyes at me over the rim of his glasses. “To rent. You should talk to Ethan about it. These small towns are getting very popular with tourists who want to embrace the outdoors and don’t want to be in a traditional hotel.”

“Why Ethan?”

“He owns the tourist agency.”

My belly comes alive.

“Right. Yeah, I guess he should know.”

I’ll go see Amelia. Maybe I’ll stop by her office. Or somehow wriggle my way into a dinner invitation tonight. She’s got Chase with her this week. I picture myself having dinner with the two of them before settling down on the couch to watch something together. Amelia would curl up into my side while Chase and I would share sarcastic remarks about whatever show we’re watching.

“You like the idea?” Henry asks.

“Huh?”

“You’re smiling.”

Right.