I shot Cos a grateful look. But I was still pissed.
“Not a good idea,” Neo smiled. “Unless you’d like to tell Mom yourself?”
“Also not a good idea?” Dad patted the counter, looking at me. He wanted me to sit down. The guy was a ball-buster and the best father in the world all wrapped in one. “Ignoring the fact that Sunset filed a building permit last week.”
Cos moved from behind the bar to a stool next to me. I sat, still hot, but trying to cool down. Thinking of Rae didn’t help on that front.
“We’re not ignoring it,” Cos said. “Marco and I both checked it out. So far, no details.”
“Did you talk to Rob Smith?”
“I did,” Cos said. “He hasn’t heard a word.”
“Maybe you can have Min ask Rachel Watson.”
How the hell did my dad know about Rae? “Where did you hear about her?”
He gave me a look as if to say, ‘Did you forget where we live?’
“Ok, but how do you know she’s been talking to Min?”
“Your mother,” Dad sipped his coffee. “I think it’s great. Can’t do any worse with her than her father.”
“Yeah,” I said sardonically, “meddling dads can be a real pain in the ass.”
Neo snickered.
“Smart ass sons aren’t any better,” he shot back at me. Despite his words, the tension was gone. Mainly because I could tell he’d moved on, getting ganged up on by the three of us. At least my brothers had my back on this one. I told them when we moved forward, if anyone truly didn’t want to invest in the brewery, then we shouldn’t do it. Last thing I wanted was to hear crap from them if it floundered. I knew I’d be getting enough from good ol’ pops.
“I don’t know which of you is worse,” Neo said of my dad and me. “You’re too much alike.”
“Back to Sunset,” Dad said, “what’s the plan?”
“The plan,” Cos crossed his arms, “is for us to handle it and you to pick up those donuts you promised Mom you’d grab on your way to the airport.”
His guilty look confirmed it.
“You’re going away? Which is why you stopped in, to check on us before you left?” I asked.
“Going where?” Neo asked. “I had no idea you were going on another trip.”
“Mom surprised him last night,” Min said, walking into the room. “For their anniversary. Had his bags packed and ready to go.” She gave our dad a stern look. “And is waiting for you as we speak.”
“When were you going to tell us?” I asked. Fighting with my dad was one thing. Fighting with him when he was about to get on a plane, another matter entirely. No way I’d chance bad blood before he took off. Which, as Min would remind me, made no sense. Something could happen to either one of our parents at any time. According to Min, we should get along every second of the day. Except Dad thought she walked on water, so it was easy for her to say.
“This morning. Came in for that reason. Knew you meet on Mondays, but then we got to looking at the books—”
“Go,” Min pulled our father’s shirt. “Get out of here.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m going,” he said, hugging her. Then Cos, me, and Neo. We were Italian. Came with the territory, though I wasn’t complaining.
“Wait a minute,” Neo stopped him, “you never said where you’re going.”
Dad frowned. Min laughed.
“He doesn’t know,” my sister said. “It’s a surprise.”
All of us got a kick out of that one. Dad hated surprises. “You know, don’t you?” I asked Min.