Page 17 of The Last Goodbye

He sighed. “Luckily you didn’t hit the ground hard enough to split your cheek open. But you’re going to have a good bruise there.”

“Lucky me.”

He moved across the room and slipped on a tee that was sitting on the chair in the corner. I was suddenly self-conscious that I’d been checking him out, and he probably felt completely violated by me. I glanced down to see a nice layer of sweat on my chest, and I remembered that I’d been outside running and probably smelled vile.

He turned around and opened the refrigerator, and I quickly lifted each arm and sniffed.

Not good. Not good at all.

I attempted to fan my armpits with my hand, until he turned around with two bottles of water and strode toward me.

I straightened, hoping that a quick bustle of air would make me smell less offensive.

He handed me a bottle of water and took a seat in the chair beside me.

“Thank you,” I said. I unscrewed the top and took a sip.

“That restaurant is more than just a business to me, Ms. Sinclair.” He folded his hands together, and his shoulders relaxed, as if he’d made peace with the fact that he was going to have to talk to me about this.

“Can you please just call me Briar. I’m sitting in your kitchen all scraped up and tattered. I think we can lose the formalities.”

He looked unamused as he puffed some air through his nose. “That restaurant is more than just a business to me, Briar.”

Hearing my name in that low, controlled, and unhurried tone did something mildly irritating and entirely unhelpful to my focus.

“And we are not suggesting that you close your restaurant. We are simply asking you to move the location. So, tell me your concerns about relocating. I actually want to know, if you’d just give me a few minutes of your time.” I was more than aware that building a business meant pouring your heart and soul into it, so of course he would have concerns. My job was to make those concerns go away—but he wasn’t even willing to have a discussion about it.

He looked away for a moment and then turned his attention back to me. “I did some digging, and I know that Winchester Investments is a massive real estate investment company out of New York. I know that you buy up small businesses before turning them into something more profitable, cutting out the people who built those businesses in the process.”

“First of all, we don’t buy the business, we buy properties. It’s not cutting out the small business owner, Bass. The owner retains the business, and they can either take the money and run, as many who are considering retirement choose to do, or they have the option to relocate the business and continue for as long as they’d like.” I made a conscious effort to keep my voice neutral and not get defensive, since he was making us out to be monsters. “We offer opportunities to small business owners, ones they may not have without us.”

“Is that how you sleep at night?”

The nerve of this man.

“How I sleep at night?” I took another sip of water before slamming it on the table more forcefully than I meant to. “I sleep very well, thank you very much.”

His lips turned up in the corners. He was enjoying himself. I was feeding right into his hands.

“This restaurant is something I’ve worked my ass off for. It’s supported my family and provided the freedom that I didn’t have growing up. So it’s not some casual opportunity for me, Briar. It’s my fucking livelihood.”

“What is with this hostility?” I shouted, because the man was so infuriating. “I’m offering you the deal of a lifetime. Your lease is over in two years, and then what? We will take ownership of the land and the building at that time. You won’t be compensated for anything, and then you’re just out of business. Have you thought this through at all?”

I’d worked with difficult people many times, and I’d never responded like this. I was shouting and angry, and I hated that he was getting under my skin so much.

For the love of God, pull yourself together.

He tilted his head to the side, making it obvious that he wasn’t interested in hearing what I had to say. “Of course I have. I’ve got two years to figure it out.”

“Well, in two years you will get nothing. Your rights are dictated by the land lease agreement, and you knew that when you purchased the building.”

“I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”

“I just can’t believe that you don’t see the benefit in this deal. Did you even read the terms?”

“Of course I did.”

“I’ll help you find another location. I will do whatever you need to make this happen. Give me a counteroffer, or tell me what the hell you want, and I will figure it out.”