Page 4 of Where Sea Meets Sky

Brady nodded. “He’s narrowed it down to just a few bar food basics, but it’s still not turning as much of a profit as he wanted. I think he never should have bothered with putting out food at all.”

“You never said that when Dad was drawing up the business plans,” Seth said, his tone lightly accusing.

“Yeah, well, I know better than to try to stand in Dad’s way once he’s got an idea,” Brady scoffed. “The man is like a bulldozer.”

“Hey, speaking of food,” Seth said, changing the subject cheerfully, “have you had lunch, squirt?”

“Nope, not yet.” Ryan’s stomach growled loudly in the next moment, and his brothers laughed.

“Hey, Pete!” Seth yelled to the chef, who must have been somewhere behind the bar, within earshot. “Ryan just got home! Make him a blue cheese bacon burger, on the house.”

“You got it!” Pete called from the kitchen.

“Blue cheese bacon burger, huh?” Ryan asked, sitting down next to his brothers at the table they’d been arguing at. “That’s new on the menu.”

“Well,” Seth said, frowning a little, “we’ve had to up the caliber of our menu. Dad wants to make sure we offer some things that can tempt customers away from The Lighthouse Grill. They’re doing such great business, and Dad’s convinced that it’s hurting our numbers somehow.”

Ryan shook his head. He didn’t understand the way his father always seemed to be trying to compete with The Lighthouse Grill. It was a great restaurant and had been around town for decades. He remembered eating there as a kid and having the most amazing waffle fries in the world—at least, that’s what he’d thought when he was ten years old.

“They’ve always done well,” Ryan pointed out. “Besides, wasn’t it Dad’s plan to start serving food here as a kind of competition with The Lighthouse Grill?” Ryan wasn’t involved in any of the brewery’s business deals, but he heard about things. He’d heard about a lot of things that he didn’t like. “Our breweryis the one that stoked the flames of rivalry. It’s not like The Lighthouse Grill is some new threat to Dad or something.”

Dad was trying to be a threat to them,he thought with an internal sigh.

“Hey, who’s side are you on?” Seth asked, frowning. “We want the brewery to be the most popular place in town. It should be. Right now, it isn’t.”

Ryan lifted his hands in surrender. “I’m not picking sides, just making an observation.”

“Not a very loyal observation,” Brady said, but his tone was teasing.

At that moment, their father walked into the bar area. Judd was wearing an expensive gray suit, and his graying hair was slicked back neatly.

“Ryan!” he exclaimed and shook his son’s hand warmly. “Welcome back home. How was Colorado?”

“Good.” Ryan smiled. “This new building we’re putting up out there is really something to see.”

“Excellent.” Judd sat down at the table in the last empty chair and set down a stack of files. “Okay, Seth and Brady, we need to brainstorm ways to get these numbers up.”

Ryan swallowed a sigh. He always hoped that his father might take some interest in the work he was doing and ask him questions about it. Judd was encouraging but disinterested in Ryan’s work. The only thing that seemed to capture his attention was business schemes.

“I think we should add more food items to the bar menu,” Seth said, and Brady shot him a skeptical look.

“More food means more money spent purchasing supplies,” Judd said.

“Well, then, how about different toppings for burgers?” Seth suggested. “I had one in the city once with peanut butter on it. It was really good.”

“Don’t you have to have a special license to serve peanut butter?” Brady asked doubtfully.

“No, idiot.” Seth rolled his eyes.

“It’s a major allergen!” Brady protested. “Would we get sued if someone had an allergy attack?”

“No one with a peanut allergy is going to order a peanut butter burger!”

Seth and Brady’s voices were raised in disagreement again, and Judd continued to flip through his papers as if he wasn’t even hearing them.

Ryan listened without commenting. There were too many strong opinions at that table, he thought. The constant debating reminded him of why he never wanted to join the family business.

Pete, the chef, came out from behind the bar with Ryan’s burger and handed him the plate. “I actually tried for you,” he joked.

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