rescue loan a few years back. The guy brews some great beer, and I didn’t want to see him go under. But good beer isn’t enough to be a success.”
“Do you lend money often?”
“When I feel it’s right. I wouldn’t be in business today without the help I got when I started.”
“That’s pretty cool of you, actually.”
“Don’t let word get out. I like it better being viewed as the tough guy in town.”
“So you have a full second life as a business investor.”
“It wasn’t in the plan, but accidentally, yeah.”
“So why not at least tell the people at Depot what you’re up to? It could save you a lot of grief.”
“The more success I’ve had… at least, success from a Keene’s Harbor viewpoint… the tougher it’s become to have any privacy. And you have to remember that I’m the guy they’ve had stories about since I was eight years old and painted a bunch of the town dogs bright orange at the start of hunting season.”
She laughed. “Makes sense to me.”
“It did to me, too. Especially since I’d lost a family pet to hunters a year earlier. But a legend was born, and it’s only gotten wo [nly did to rse. I guess on one level, it’s cool that everyone cares enough to watch me. But on another, it’s tough to be under that level of scrutiny, even if it comes with a whole lot of love.”
KATE HAD last been to Traverse City when she was sixteen. Back then, it had been a quaint place of cherry festivals in the summer and hot cider in the winter. Now, as she looked up Front Street, she saw it had become the home of bistros, film festivals, and Pan-Asian food. The city had grown up while she did, and apparently with fewer glitches than she’d experienced.
Matt pulled around a corner and then into a city parking lot behind a three-story redbrick building. Kate grabbed her bag and tried to find a graceful way to exit his ginormous, but apparently noncompensating, truck.
“I’m going to leave you with Ginger, my office manager, while I finish up business with Chet,” he said as they headed toward the building.
“You have an office manager? How many people work for you up here?”
“Just Ginger, and I let her choose her title. So long as people do their work, I’m happy to call them Galactic Emperor or Most Royal of Personages or whatever they want.”
Matt led her up to the building’s metal security door and opened it. “I’m leasing the space from the yoga studio below. It’s cheap rent, since it doesn’t put out a fancy public face, but I don’t need one of those.”
They reached the third floor and Matt opened the door to a suite marked only with its number and ushered her in. Behind a desk in the moderately sized reception area sat a movie star-looking, twenty-something redhead. She wore a red wrap dress with a plunging neckline, red lipstick that matched the dress, and just the right amount of mascara to show off thick black eyelashes over her green eyes.
“Kate, this is Ginger Monroe,” Matt said. “And Ginger, this is Kate Appleton.”
Ginger gave Kate a blatantly inquisitive look. “Hi.”
Kate returned the greeting, but tried to keep her curiosity under control.
“Is Chet here?” Matt asked Ginger.
“I sent him into your office. You might want to consider a bulletproof vest before you go in.”
“That bad?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Matt shot a dubious look at the closed door. “Then he knows why he’s here. I’ll be out in a couple of minutes.” He paused. “Or maybe even sooner.”
Kate settled into a guest chair and Ginger pulled open a desk drawer and brought out a semi-full bag of salt- and-vinegar potato chips. “Want some? They’ve got a good bite.”
“I love them, too, but I’m all about coffee at this hour,” Kate said.
Ginger nodded. “Okay.” Without pausing a beat, she added, “So, are you Matt’s new girlfriend?”
“No, I just started working for him last week.”
Kate suddenly realized how much longer it felt, and not in a bad way. No, this was more a
“Interesting,” Ginger said.
The conversation was starting to feel a little interesting to Kate, too. “So, Ginger, have you two ever dated?”
Ginger raised her eyebrows. “No! My dad would kill him. Dad was Matt’s high school football coach down in Keene’s Harbor. Matt was a big star, but that was ages ago. I was just a kid. And then Dad changed jobs and we moved up here.”
“Matt was a football star? Figures.”
Ginger grinned. “Doesn’t it? He was hot stuff. I guess he had a full ride to Michigan State, but then messed up his knee during baseball season his senior year of high school. He lost the scholarship and ended up working around town before he took off for a couple of years. Everything turned out fine, though.”
Just then the younger woman’s eyes widened, giving Kate an instant of forewarning before Matt’s office door slammed into the wall, and a short, heavy man whose skin color had risen to a shiny puce marched out of the office.
The purple man was sputtering so much he could barely choke out his words. “You’ll pay, Culhane,” he said.
Matt followed him out and remained admirably impassive. Kate wanted to learn how to do that, though she suspected she lacked the talent.
“I agree this is tough, Chet, but you know I’ve been more than fair,” Matt said.
The older man’s breathing was ragged, and he opened and closed his hands into fists. “Another six months wouldn’t have killed you. Instead, you’re killing me.”
“You have four weeks before I’ll be filing anything. Just work on those other possibilities, okay?”
Chet told Matt in graphic detail what
DOING THE right thing and doing the easy thing didn’t seem to be lining up too well for Matt these days.
“I would have given Chet more time if I could have,” he said to Kate, who sat next to him in the truck as they headed to his next appointment. “But I need to think about my cash reserves and my business. The slow season is coming on. It’s going to hurt to take any more financial hits. I hate to be a sur [e tcash reservivalist, but it’s better it’s Chet’s business than mine, especially when he’s been in default for over a year.”
“There’s nothing else you could have done,” she said.
“But there is. I should have pulled the plug on his financing last year. I built up expectations that I’d just keep letting this slide.” He shook his head. “Big mistake.”
Kate eyes narrowed. “Does that mean you’re thinking of pulling the plug on our deal? You gave me until Thanksgiving to come up with the money, and if you try to back out, I’ll make Chet look like Gandhi.”
Matt laughed. “You caught him at an off moment. He’s not usually so purple.”
“Good news there, or he’ll be among the spirits pretty soon. One little vein in the brain goes
Matt knew the feeling, even if he hadn’t yet achieved Chet’s color of purple. All the same, bringing a measure of calm and sanity into his life was now part of his game plan.
“True,” Matt said. “And the good news is that no one is purple at our next stop, though Travis is pretty tatted up.”
“And tatted Travis is…”
“The owner of Horned Owl Brewing and my newest project. Great concepts, but bad business decisions. Bart is spending today and tomorrow with him to go over his beer recipes and maybe tweak ’em where they need tweaking. Nothing too big.”
He wasn’t about to clue her into the other activity about to take place at Horned Owl. One that had occurred to
