I grabbed my phone.
“No way she knows,” Neo said.
I agreed, but was about to find out for sure.
Jerry’s building permit is for a fucking brewery.
“What the hell is he thinking?” Neo asked, as pissed as I was.
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”
“Be right back,” I said, calling Rae. When she answered more quickly than I expected, I told her to hold on until I was outside.
“Sorry. I’m at KC’s with Neo.”
“I’m the one who’s sorry.” I leaned back against the wall, Rae’s voice the balm I needed right now. “I talked to my dad on the way here, and he told me—”
“Wait. You knew?”
“I just found out today.”
“And you didn’t call me immediately?”
“I wanted to see if I could talk Jerry out of it first,” she said, her voice more strained than it was when she answered. “I texted him and was waiting to hear back.”
He was building a fucking brewery, of all things, right on the edge of Grado’s property. This was my one thing. My one fucking thing.
“Fuck,” I said, thinking of what this would do to us. To Grado Brewing Company.
“Marco, I had no idea before today.”
“When you found out, you should’ve told me.” I knew I was being harsh, but I couldn’t help it. Finding out like that, from Owen. It was the one thing, the only thing, I had. One fucking win to my name.
“I didn’t tell you because I was trying tofixit.”
Now she was pissed. “You really think Jerry is going to listen?”
Of course he wasn’t. The guy was a complete dickhead.
“I guess not,” she said. “Why would he listen to me? What the hell do I know, right?”
“Rachel, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“No? What did you mean, exactly?”
Shit. I was screwing this all up. Big surprise. “Rae—”
“You know what? I have to go. Alanna is waiting for me.”
“Rae, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Uh huh. Go enjoy yourself in KC’s. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
I couldn’t ignore that tone. “What are you implying?”
“Nothing. I have to go.”
“Fine,” I said, too proud to keep begging her to listen. “Tell Alanna I said hello.”