Down on Me (Man of the Month 1)

"Same company that owns Bodacious," Tyree said, stating a truth that Reece already knew. "Figure they're trying to lock up the block."

Brent met his eyes. "Over my dead body."

"A little extreme, but I agree with the sentiment."

"Why a buyer?" Reece asked. "Why not look for a partner? Someone with the cash to pay off the loan and take some of the burden off you. In return, they get a piece of the business."

Tyree cocked his head, then shook it slowly. "I don't know about that."

"Are you telling me you'd rather go under than bring in someone else?"

"No." He stroked his chin. "It's not an entirely crazy idea. But I wouldn't be interested in a financial partner only. Someone who was just throwing money at me hoping for a payday, then showing up disappointed if they don't make a profit in the first two weeks."

"That's not what I'm saying," Reece assured him, ignoring the way Brent was looking at him, his brow furrowed.

"If I'm in with someone, I'm in," Tyree continued. "And they need to be, too. Someone working behind the bar, in the trenches. Not on some damn pedestal looking down and counting his coins. And I sure as hell don't know where to find someone like that."

"I do," Reece said. "You're looking at him." Both men stared at him, and Reece held his breath, waiting for Tyree to shoot him down.

He didn't. Instead, all he said was, "Now why the hell would you want to go and do that for?"

Reece looked across the table at a man who was part friend, part boss, but definitely part of his extended family. "Do you honestly have to ask that? Don't you think I know you'd do the same for me? For him?" he added, nodding toward Brent.

"Reece, you can't--"

"There are a lot of things I've loved and lost," Reece interrupted, his voice firm. "Uncle Vincent. My mother. Both my stepmothers." Jenna, he thought, though he hadn't lost her. How could he when he'd never had her? And never would.

He pushed the thought away and met Tyree's eyes. "I don't want to add The Fix to that list. I want to do this," he added. "That place is my goddamn second home, and I am not going to watch it fail. We're getting it back in the black, and if kick-starting that plan means I toss in some cash, then that's just the way it's going to be. So don't you dare disrespect me and dismiss it out of hand."

"No," Tyree said. "I wouldn't. But I'm paying you way too much if you have that kind of money sitting around just waiting--"

He cut himself off, his head tilting in thought. And Reece knew that Tyree had figured out just where Reece would get that much cash.

"Oh, fuck no. Reece, your house? You've been saving your whole adult life to build that house. I can't ask you to do that."

"You're not asking. I'm telling. And it's not a house. It's only the dream of a house." A dream he'd had for years, ever since he managed to score a piece of lakefront property in a foreclosure sale when he was a sophomore in college. Even before that, he'd wanted to build his own home. Then once he had the land, he'd started saving in earnest, and collecting notes and sketches of just how he wanted the place to turn out.

"Sometimes it's harder to lose a dream than reality," Tyree said.

"You got that right," Brent said, with a bitter twist of his lips, and Reece would have bet the entire sum in question that Brent was thinking about Olivia, Faith's very out-of-the-picture mother.

"Brent," he began, but Brent held up a hand.

"I'm in, too," Brent said.

"You don't have to do that," Reece said.

"Oh, but I think I do." He shot a thin smile toward Tyree. "I know how much our boy here's got saved for that house, and it's not enough. Close, but not enough. Fifty-fifty," he said, then held out his hand for Reece to shake.

He didn't. Not yet. "Where are you getting the money?"

"Don't ask questions if you don't want to hear the answer."

"Dammit, Brent, you've got a little girl to look out for. You can't--"

"Can't what? Can't risk it? I don't think it's too much of a risk. Or was that impassioned speech you just made bullshit?"

"You're an asshole," Reece said, but he took Brent's still outstretched hand. "But then again, you always have been."