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Sean shrugged.
“This is about Julia, isn’t it?” he asked. “You’re doing this for her?”
“Yes,” I admitted. “I am. But also, aren’t you tired of the Pepper House? All the fussy people and their fussy drinks. Overpriced, under-portioned food that tastes no different than any two-star place clients want to go to?”
“Yes,” Leo said. “God knows I’m tired of the pasta there. It’s like glue. I keep telling them they overcook it, but I can’t order it there or else I might have to throw the damn plate at the chef anymore.”
“Well, I can’t say anything about pasta, but I can tell you that McGrath’s serves a mean burger and fries,” I said. “And if we invest, they can expand their menu. I’m sure they could put on a pasta dish for one of the co-owners.”
“I like the sound of that,” Leo said.
“I own several four-star restaurants,” Sean said. “What’s in this for me?”
“A place to drink that isn’t a hotel?” I said, questioningly. “Honestly, I don’t know. This would be a favor to me.”
“So, why the three of us?” Sean asked. “Why don’t you just do it yourself?”
“Because I don’t want it to be a charity case,” I said. “I want it to be a business proposition. A real one.”
Sean and Leo looked at each other.
Leo shrugged. “So, the plan is what, then?” he asked. “We buy the place, pay off the debts, then wait for the family to pay us back that part and sell them half the place back?”
“Something like that,” I said. “I was thinking more like, we buy it, pay off the debts, then immediately sell it back to them for a dollar. Then we own a minority stake and our only other interaction with the bar is when we come in and drink for free.”
“So, free drinks,” Sean said, laughing to himself. “You want me to spend a hundred grand on a place I can have free drinks whenever I want them?”
“Yes,” I said. “If that’s how you want to see it.”
Sean sighed. “You two are my best friends,” he said. “I would do anything for you two. So, if you want me to make a bad investment on a dumb Southie bar so you can help your girlfriend, well, I’m down.”
“You are?” I asked, the smile stretching wider.
“Yeah,” Sean said. “What the hell. It might be nice to get out of this area to go have a drink once in a while.”
I turned to Leo, who was no longer breathing heavily or staring at the ceiling. Instead, he was simply staring at me.
“And you, Leo?”
“What about me?” he asked.
“Are you in?”
“Kid,” he said, a phrase he used whenever we had been picking on him for being older, “you had me at cheeseburgers. Where do I sign?”
ChapterThirty-One
Julia
The bar was slow this evening, but I figured it would pick up later. There was foot traffic outside, but one of the stores nearby was throwing a party of some type. Loud music could be heard when the door opened, and there was a food truck nearby. The smell of barbacoa was wafting into the bar, making me want to take a break and go down there to see what all the fuss was and stuff my face with delicious food. A woman could only live on mozzarella sticks, cheeseburgers, and fries for so long.
Lena was already there as well, taking a shift for Caroline at the last minute. She was her normal, even-keeled self, though I knew she had a lot on her mind. Mom told her about our conversation before she got there, and Lena had just nodded and gone to work. She didn’t ask questions—not yet, anyway. I figured they would come later. She was always a bit more methodical than I was, preferring to process things before she reacted.
Unlike me, who flew off the handle and quit my most recent job twice.
I sighed.
I missed Hunter. I knew it was stupid, especially the way he treated me at the end, but I missed him. I understood his point of view, not wanting to get involved with anything even remotely connected to mobsters and crime, but the way he jumped at me with it, it just wasn’t the way to approach it. Not with me. I was too hot-headed.
