I sighed and exhaled heavily. It was too much—losing the wedding, Alec losing Brandy, us losing our business. I felt the weight of it all on my shoulders, and it was dragging me down.
“Where are you?”
“At The Meetup. Having one too many drinks this early in the morning with my favorite bartender.”
I gathered all my strength and pushed that sadness away. Then, I glanced behind me to make sure the road was clear and began to pull out. “Don’t move. I’m coming there. Right now.”
I hung up the phone and drove to the bar as fast as I safely could in the snow.
When I entered, I spotted Serena by the bar. Justin was already serving shots. He peered behind me, his eyes wide and hopeful, as though Lyria would show up at any second, but after a beat, his focus was back on the drinks he had been making.
I sat on the barstool next to my sister, and she lifted her glass.
“Justin, one of these for my sister.”
“What are we drinking?” I asked.
“It’s margarita time.” She giggled.
Seeing her flushed cheeks and the glazed-over look in her eyes was also a new thing. Serena never really drank to get tipsy and not so early in the afternoon.
Justin cast me a look and slid my drink my way.
Automatically, my arms encased my sister, bringing her in. “Are you okay?”
She extracted herself from my hold, lifted her glass, and tipped the drink back. “More than okay. I’m allowed this moment, aren’t I? Before I have to break the news to the fam.”
Justin rubbed at his brow while one palm lay heavy on the bar. “If Nana gets here, you’re going to get a verbal beating, and I might too. I’m not about that life. That’s your last one, Serena.”
She pushed out her lip in an unusual Serena pout. “I used to like you.”
“Before or after Lyria dumped me?” The sadness in his eyes made my heart ache.
Her eyes narrowed on him. “Before you took away my drinking privileges. Lyria has nothing to do with this.”
He shook his head, taking the empty glasses on the counter and heading to the back.
I leveled her with a stare. “It’s not like they don’t know that the agency is struggling.”
She exhaled deeply. “Knowing the agency is struggling and finding out that we are selling the company are two different things, Syd.” After she dropped her head against the bar counter, I barely heard the next words that escaped her lips. “I feel like such a failure.”
I bit my lip, and all my emotions from earlier bubbled to the surface. In my mind, I saw that little carrot again, the one Austin had offered, enticed me with, along with his crappy little strings.
It wouldn’t be so bad, right? Helping him out. I could do that. Not the end of the world to save my sister and our family business. Small potatoes in comparison.
I groaned internally. Maybe he was wrong to have attached the strings, but what he had offered was very generous, and I would be a fool to turn him down. Now that the fuming fog was clearing, I could see it.
“How much was Barry’s Subs bringing in?” I asked.
She shook her head, eyes closed, unwilling to answer.
I took a fortifying breath. “Say we replaced Barry’s with a bigger company.”
Austin had mentioned that the venture he was embarking on with Logan Tyler was a multimillion-dollar company. Barry’s was most definitely smaller than that in revenue size.
She lifted her head, our eyes meeting, and in that moment, she reminded me of our mother—her dark brown hair with a tint of red, the hazel in her eyes, her high cheekbones. “What? Do you have that kind of deal in your back pocket?”
I smiled, clenching my jaw so hard that it hurt. I could do this. For my family, I could do anything.