Page 32 of Summer with the Single Dad

Clint joined him in his office ten minutes later.

“Thanks, Bryce. I appreciate it so much. You’re a life saver. A true life saver.” Bennett ended his call and lifted his brows at Clint. “So?”

“Cam Arendelle was in construction before he moved here and started the distillery. He’s on his way over to assess the damage and give us a quote on what he thinks the restoration would cost. If it’s around the deductible, we’ll just do it ourselves. If it’s far north of the deductible, then we’ll eat Mr. Noodles and hotdogs for a few months so we can afford to fix it. He’s also got some dehumidifiers he’s going to loan us in exchange for a few cases of beer.”

Bennett exhaled. That was the second bit of good news. Good news that he needed.

“You called Bryce? Why?” Clint asked, making a face. Bryce McLoughlin ran another restaurant on the island. Another pub, actually, and he hadn’t been too happy when Bennett and his brothers opened up the brewery and Sound Bites a few years ago. He said the island wasn’t big enough for both places. Meanwhile, there were several other restaurants on the island and they all thrived. Bryce had been wrong, of course, but the brother’s relationship with Bryce remained a bit frosty.

“Because he has an RV on his property. It belongs to his in-laws who store it there until they snowbird down to Arizona for the winter. He called his in-laws and asked if they’d be willing to rent it out to us, which we will rent out to Justine.”

“What’s the catch?” Clint asked blandly.

“No catch.”

“There’s always a catch with Bryce. What’s the catch?” Clint narrowed his gaze at Bennett.

Bennett exhaled. “Fine, he wanted a twenty percent discount on our draft beer that he sells in his pub. I countered at ten. We agreed at fifteen. But only for the duration of the rental. And someone else is in the RV until Friday, so Justine can’t get in there until Saturday.”

Clint’s mouth dropped open. “Fifteen percent? After you just made me increase prices by ten percent. We’re going to lose money.”

“No. Because we already mark things up. We’ll come just above breaking even with him. He doesn’t buy that much from us anyway. Just a lager and an ale on tap. No bottles or cans or any of the small batch specials.”

“And he never fucking will,” Clint grumbled. “If people want my summer blackberry hefeweizen, they can come here!”

“Noted,” Bennett said, trying hard not to roll his eyes. Clint could be so sensitive about his beer sometimes. “But he’s saving our ass.”

“He’s saving your ass. We could easily refund Justine and just deal with the loss of revenue on her rental, then fix the place. Yeah, it’d suck, but—”

“We’ll still turn a profit. I ran the numbers on what we’re renting the RV for and charging her. Even when I offer her a discount for her troubles, we’ll still turn a small profit. A profit we need to fix the cabin.”

Clint growled and aggressively raked his fingers through his dark hair. “We did not fucking need this right now.”

“No. No we didn’t. But it happened, and now we need to deal with it.” Exhaling in exhaustion, defeat, and exasperation, Bennett stepped out from behind his desk. “I’m going to go find Justine and tell her the good news.”

Clint snorted and followed behind him. “Yeah, you think that’s good news?”

Bennett shot his older brother a glare over his shoulder. “It’s all I can offer her.”

“You just want her to stay.”

Stopping in his tracks and pivoting abruptly, Bennett got right up into Clint’s face. “We tried to talk you out of this shit with Brooke and moving her into your house. So don’t lecture me.”

Clint didn’t react. He managed to appear bored, if maybe a little amused. “I’m not lecturing you. But you need to acknowledge your feelings and own up to why you’re fighting so hard to keep her here. It’s not because you’re all about customer service and keeping our five-star rating.”

Bennett held Clint’s gaze—which remained bored—for another couple of heartbeats before he finally pulled away and stalked back to cabin five.

Justine was in the cabin with the front door open. She had her totes and suitcase open and on the living room couch and kitchen table. The plastic totes were on the damp floor as they’d be fine. She offered him a grim smile when he entered.

His heart constricted painfully tight in his chest at the thought of her packing up to leave. She couldn’t go.

“So, I, um … I’ve rented an RV—a nice one—a motorhome, I think. It’s not as spacious as the cabin, but in other ways, it might be better. More modern and I think it has a TV. Only, I can’t get it until Saturday. Friday night, maybe. But the person who I’m renting it off, his sister is staying in it until Friday.”

“Okay …”

“I know this is unconventional, but I would like to offer you my guestroom—”

“It’s more of a study,” Clint interjected.

---