Love in a Nutshell - Janet Evanovich [39]
Chet told Matt in graphic detail what he could work on, then stormed out.
* * *
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 survivalist, 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 ping, and it’s all over.”
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 him early this morning. Matt wasn’t totally up to speed on it, but he knew that surprise was crucial.…
NINE
Kate felt as though her fillings were going to fall out as Matt’s truck slammed and rattled down a pitted gravel road in the middle of nowhere. “Are you sure this is really the road to the microbrewery?”
“Positive,” Matt said. “It’s also the first of three issues that have been tanking Travis’s business.”
Kate couldn’t wait to see the other two.
“Do you think maybe you should slow down a little?”
“No way. Then we’d feel every rut in the road.”
Being airborne didn’t seem much better, but Kate also knew not to mess with a man on a mission.
“Hang on,” Matt said, skittering around a hairpin turn. “It gets a little rough right here.”
Kate’s gasp was involuntary, and she wasn’t real thrilled about the grin that appeared on Matt’s face in response as she fought the urge to brace her feet against the dashboard. “Very Indiana Jones of you,” she said. “I should have brought my bullwhip.”
Matt’s eyebrows raised a half inch. “Do you have a bullwhip?”
Kate smiled sweetly. Ms. Mysterious.
“Kinky,” Matt said, “but I can deal.”
He swerved around an unusually deep rut, barely missing a tree. They made a hard right turn onto a narrow ribbon of a drive. All that marked it as more than a trail was a huge, sour-faced plastic owl on a post.
“Horned Owl issue number two,” Matt said. “If you’ve got a customer ambitious enough to come back here, get a sign. Don’t scare them off with a weird fake owl.”
Now that they were traveling at normal speed, Kate took a look around. She imagined that the woods were lush and green in the summer. On this crisp autumn day, though, the maples were turning crimson and yellow, with the oaks not far behind. Only the scrubby jack pines still held much green.
“The scenery’s a good prize for making it back this far,” she said. “It’s gorgeous.”
The woods had thinned, and a meadow lay ahead. At the far end sat an unassuming double-wide home. To the right of that by a hundred yards was the most amazing barn Kate had ever seen. It might