Something to Prove (31 page)

“You can’t sell it. It’s mine and you know it.”

“If you’re not going to let me sell, why did you let me do all this work? That’s not
fair. Not even Dad will side with you on this one.” She gripped her purse. With all
of the extra work they’d done, she’d never be able to pay Colin if they didn’t sell.
They hadn’t put a time clause in the contract, but it was understood that they would
sell as soon as they were turning a profit. The way things stood between them now,
she didn’t want to tell him they couldn’t sell.

Keith’s voice brought her back from those thoughts. “I know what I did back then was
reprehensible. If someone ever did that to Mel, I’d kill him and his body would never
be found. I don’t get you.”

“What?”

“You never told Dad what I did.”

“He wouldn’t have believed me.” She crossed her arms. She didn’t like where this conversation
was headed. They didn’t talk about emotions and the past and other useless things.

“But you never came back at me. You just let it slide.”

No, she hadn’t let it slide; she’d been holding a grudge ever since. Obviously, she
wasn’t very good at it if Keith was unaware. “Water under the bridge, right? Life
goes on. What does any of that have to do with selling the bar?”

“I bought it for you. After you let me win, even though I cheated and after everything
I’d done. I wanted you to forgive me. I bought The Irish Pub because it was in Chicago
and it had a bowling alley. Those were things that I knew made you happy. You had
real friends here, and being away from Mom is good for you.”

Her mind was stuck on the fact that he’d bought the bowling alley for her. “Why didn’t
you ever tell me?”

“I was waiting for the right time. It never seemed to come. I didn’t want you to think
it was a consolation prize. Then after you graduated, you threw yourself into work,
and at first I thought you really liked it. Now I know better.” He put his arm around
her shoulder and turned them toward the restaurant. “I was right the first time. You’re
happy here.”

She thought of what made her happy in Chicago. Colin. She didn’t know if she could
run everything without him. She didn’t want to. “What did Colin say when you told
him about Matt?”

“Not much. I thought he was going to hit me, but he didn’t. He asked if I’d initiated
the sabotage and he mentioned selling the bar. I told him it wasn’t for sale.”

Shit. In one conversation, Keith had told Colin more than she’d ever had. “If the
bar is mine, then I can sell it.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Give it a few days. If you still feel that way, go
ahead and sell.”

She didn’t need a few days. The business would go on the market first thing Monday
morning. Colin had a right to go his own way.

CHAPTER 17

D
inner had been mostly painless. They ate at a quiet table with their multiple forks
and linen napkins. She would’ve preferred a good pizza to the fancy fare her father
had chosen. By the time dessert was finished, all she wanted to do was crawl back
into bed.

But she was determined to show her father the business and get it over with. Regardless
of his opinion, she knew she’d done a good job. “Are you ready to look at the bar?”

“Bar?” her mother asked.

Her dad looked almost as confused.

“Didn’t Keith tell you?” She looked at Keith, who shook his head. Damn, she’d been
so sure that Keith had told him everything.

“What are you talking about?” her dad asked.

She let out a breath. “Remember when you asked me to do an audit of your personal
holdings? I found a property that I knew nothing about. One that was losing money.
I came here to check it out. Then I decided to take it on as a project.”

“Without telling me?”

“Yes. I wanted to do it all on my own, from beginning to end.”

“She’s done a great job. Wait until you see it,” Keith chimed in.

“Do we really need to discuss business now?” Mom asked.

Keith jumped in to deal with Mom. “You know, Mom, you’ll probably be bored. Why don’t
you take the car back to your hotel, and Dad and I will take Elizabeth to the business.”

“Sweetie, it’s her birthday. She should be out celebrating, dancing, and drinking.
Not standing around with her brother and father looking at a tavern.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes and tried to remember what her mother had been like before
Dad had become successful. Over the years, the image had become dimmer and dimmer.
She was a woman of means and, to her, that carried with it certain expectations.

“It’s a bar, Mom. Not a tavern. A regular neighborhood bar. A sports bar, in fact.
And it’s attached to a bowling alley. We’re putting in a kitchen so we can sell nachos
and hot wings. Things that don’t require a fork. It’s exactly how I want to spend
my birthday.” The knowledge sank deep into her bones, unsettling every inch of her.
She’d enjoyed almost every minute of being at the bar. Being there on her birthday
made sense. Being with Colin made sense.

Elizabeth stood and tossed her napkin on the table. “Thank you for coming all this
way to have dinner with me on my birthday.” She walked around the table and planted
a kiss on her mother’s cheek. “It means a lot. I do have to get back to work, though,
regardless of whether you join me. I’m closing.”

Keith rose. “I’m coming. Dad, you need to see this.”

“Can’t your father visit in the morning?”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

Keith saved her from having to answer. “It’s a bar, Mom. If he wants to see how it
works, he needs to come at night.”

“Fine. I’ll see you back at the hotel. Don’t forget we have an early flight tomorrow.”

Her mother air kissed the three of them and walked to the front of the restaurant.

“Are you sure I wasn’t adopted?” Elizabeth said the words aloud that she’d often wondered
in her head.

“No such luck, Libby.” Keith’s tone had softened.

He hadn’t called her Libby in years, unless he was trying to tease her and get under
her skin. Something was in the process of shifting between them, but she didn’t know
what or how, much less why.

Keith drove and parked in the lot beside the bowling alley. Elizabeth started walking
toward the bar, wanting to put her best foot forward, but Keith said, “I think we
should see the bowling alley first.”

She shot him a dirty look that he ignored. Well, at least when he saw the bar after
the alley, her dad would be really impressed.

She pushed through the door of the bowling alley, preparing excuses for why it wasn’t
busy. Inside the dark space, she became speechless. Balloons and streamers dangled
everywhere. A sign hanging above the shoe counter read HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIBBY.

Her eyes became misty. Her father hugged her and so did Keith.

“Surprised, huh?”

“Yes.” She pulled away from them and was immediately surrounded by Janie and Lori.

Their yells and hugs were a welcome distraction from the emotional wave she was riding.
Bianca announced her arrival over the loudspeaker, and the few patrons that were there
raised their glasses in a toast.

She looked over the faces with their attention on her and searched for the one face
she wanted to see more than any of them.

Colin’s.

He was behind this. She knew it. She scanned each person through her watery eyes with
no luck. She said hi to Bianca and asked where Colin was.

She shrugged. “I haven’t seen him all day. He called this morning to make sure everything
was on track, but that was it. I thought he would’ve been here a long time ago.” She
put a pair of shoes on the counter. “Hurry up and change. Cosmic bowling starts soon.”

Elizabeth took the shoes. Keith stood behind her.

“He’s not coming.”

She didn’t pretend not to know who he was talking about.

“I told him that I would make sure you knew he didn’t do any sabotage, but he said
he wasn’t coming. That you had other issues.”

Other issues. Like laughing at him for saying he loved her.

Colin not showing up to her birthday party, one that he obviously had a hand in planning,
spoke volumes. He wouldn’t forgive her.

She wanted to cry. But she had a roomful of people counting on her to have a happy
birthday. She blinked and swallowed hard.

Pulling her phone out, she dialed his number, hoping he’d answer. He didn’t, so she
left a message. “Hey, Colin. Thank you so much for the party. It’s really amazing.
Uhh . . . I don’t know what else to say. I wish you were here.”

With shoes in hand, she turned to find a place to sit and change. A blur of orange
flew at her, and she found herself engulfed in Moira’s embrace. Moira had come to
her birthday party, but not Colin.

“Happy birthday! Did you really think we’d let you get away without celebrating? The
O’Learys love a good party. Were you surprised?”

Surprised was an understatement. She forced a smile and slipped off her heels. “I
never would’ve guessed. The Brannigans are not party people.”

“That’s a shame. Come on, let’s bowl.” Moira spun and headed for the nearest lane.

It looked like she’d already befriended Lori and Janie. The three of them stood at
the table typing their names into the scoreboard. Keith and Dad held back, watching
from the sidelines, but they stayed while she bowled.

Bianca piped some dance music through the speakers, and it was loud enough to drown
out most conversation. Too bad she could still hear her own thoughts.

Ten frames of bowling and laughter with friends relaxed her more than a glass of wine.
After the game, she changed back into her shoes, knowing her father wouldn’t stay
much longer and she really needed to show him the bar. As she changed, Moira plopped
down beside her.

“So what’s up with you and my brother?”

Elizabeth swallowed again. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, he’s not here. He’s totally into you, but he’s not at your birthday party
that he planned?”

“We fought. I screwed up, and now he wants to have nothing to do with me.” With her
shoes in place, she added, “And I can’t blame him.”

Moira jumped up and gave her a quick squeeze. “Colin never stays mad for long. Trust
me. I’ve been pissing him off my whole life, and he likes you a whole hell of a lot
more than he likes me.”

“Thanks. Another game after I talk to my dad?”

“You got it. I think some of my other siblings might be stopping by.”

Elizabeth didn’t believe that Colin just needed a cooling-off period. He was plenty
cool. The way he’d looked at her after she’d apologized . . . No, she couldn’t go
there now. She needed to focus on the bar and showing her dad all that she’d accomplished.

She found Keith and her dad talking by the shoe counter. Their heads tilted toward
each other conspiratorially, but Elizabeth did all she could to push that fear down.
The alley was noisy, and they could be discussing anything. By now she should’ve learned
not to jump to conclusions.

She tapped her dad’s shoulder. “Ready to look at the bar?”

He narrowed his eyes, and she knew he was thinking that it was unnecessary, but as
usual, he would indulge her. They made their way around the counter and through the
walkway Colin had put in.

The bar wasn’t much quieter than the alley. The TVs blared with a White Sox game.
She paused, a little impressed with herself for even recognizing that. After pointing
out the improvements that they’d made in the bar, she brought them to her small office
to talk money.

“The bar is turning a profit, Dad. It’s not huge, but given that it’s been neglected
for a decade, this is an amazing difference. We have a steady flow of customers, and
as the summer goes on, we have plans to increase that customer base.” She turned her
computer screen so her father could see the spreadsheet.

“You’ve done a good job here, Elizabeth. I don’t particularly like that you went behind
my back to do this, but I’m impressed.”

Those were the words she’d wanted to hear, but the look in his eyes did not express
what he was saying. His words were the equivalent of a pat on the head. “I went behind
your back because you’ve never given me the same opportunities you’ve given Keith.
So I stole this one. It was supposed to be mine anyway, right? I did more than you
ever thought I was capable of. Why can’t you give me that?”

“What are you talking about? I just acknowledged your hard work on this business.”

She just nodded.

They said their good-byes, and Elizabeth walked them out. In truth, he had acknowledged
her work in the same way he always had. It had just been a long time since she’d paid
attention. The weeks she’d spent here, away from the stuffy Brannigan attitude, had
softened her. She actually expected some praise. When had she ever gotten praise from
her father?

Had she really expected a prize for doing her job? She thought back to her early days
of working with Colin when he’d thought he deserved a thank-you for doing his job,
and she smiled. She had screwed up with him from the very beginning.

Everything was much clearer now. She needed to make some changes in her life. She’d
take what she’d learned here and move on. Her life would get better. It couldn’t get
worse.

Tonight she’d pretend to party. Tomorrow, she’d move on. Without Colin, there was
nothing left to keep her here in Chicago. It was time to get back to the real world,
where silly bowling shoes didn’t fit into her life.

After her plane landed, Elizabeth went home to unpack and figure out what to do with
her future. The more she thought about her meeting with her father, the more she was
convinced that he was ready to hand over control of Brannigan Enterprises to Keith.
She’d have to suck it up and move on.

The problem was that she’d never come up with a contingency plan. Being CEO had been
her one and only goal. Did she want to work for Keith?

Not by a long shot. Not even after they’d moved in a positive direction. They’d had
a lengthy discussion over bowling. She’d been surprised to see how much her brother
liked to talk once he had a few beers in him. He kept apologizing for being a bad
brother. He thought it was his fault that she didn’t have a family. He wanted her
to fall in love and make a new life.

He wanted her to keep the bowling alley.

But she couldn’t. She couldn’t continue to hold on to something that wasn’t meant
to be. Holding on to the alley meant holding on to Colin. That wasn’t fair to either
of them. They’d been clear about that up front. Best-case scenario, they’d have fun
while she was in town, but then they’d be over. Her accusations had ruined an amicable
parting. He’d never called her back after the party.

She could admit she’d taken the coward’s way out. She couldn’t face him again. His
cold indifference tore at her.

After changing into an old T-shirt and a pair of boxers she’d stolen from Colin, she
crawled into bed ready to sleep for a week. Before she even closed her eyes, the tears
started and, for a change, she didn’t try to control them.