“It’s okay. Anything you need to say to me, Lydia can hear.” He gave me a wry smile. “We’ve got no secrets, have we?”
“I guess not after yesterday, but—”
“It’s fine.” Nell brushed off her hands on the sides of her black jeans. “Really.”
I tentatively sat back down. Maybe I’d just excuse myself to go use the bathroom ASAP.
“So?” asked Vaughan. “Shoot.”
“I need you to either lend me fifty-six thousand dollars or buy Pat out for the same amount.”
Eyes wide, he huffed out a breath. “Shit. That all, huh?”
“I’m serious.”
“I get that.”
“Will you do it?” Carefully, she tucked her hair behind her ears. Her hands, however, didn’t stop there, fussing with the front of her white shirt. The woman was nervous. Terribly so. “Please, Vaughan. He wants out and I can’t have him involved anymore. The divorce goes through in a few more days and things are so damn tense I can’t stand it.”
He let his head fall back, staring up at the sky. “Nell…”
“Pat hates me. He’s completely impossible. Refuses to work in the bar anymore.”
“What the hell happened? You two have been tight since you were fourteen. You can’t even get on a little now?”
“You’ve been gone a long time,” she said, face drawn. “He’s changed, especially since we broke up. He and Eric can’t even be in the same room without fighting.”
“Shit.”
Nell wrung her hands. “Pat’s been making all sorts of threats about what he’ll do if we can’t buy his share of the business.”
“Joe can’t buy in?”
Nell shook her head. “He doesn’t have the cash. Eric’s still paying him back for bankrolling his thirty percent when we opened.”
“Christ.” He wiped a hand over his face. “This is why you shouldn’t go into business with friends or family. It just gets fucking complicated.”
“You’re right. I should have trusted total strangers with my life-long dream.”
Vaughan’s shoulders sagged. “Didn’t know things were so bad with you.”
“You were busy, touring and recording. I didn’t want to worry you. I thought I could ride it out.”
“Yeah.” A long-winded sigh. “I’m sorry, Nell. I don’t have the money. I’d do it for you in a heartbeat if I could, but I can’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m tapped out. Things … they weren’t as good as I made them out to be.” Hands on hips, he faced her. “In fact, they’re pretty much fucked. I was hoping you could buy this place off me. I’m sorry.”
Hell, poor Vaughan. If I could have been anywhere else, I’d have been there. Instead, I sat silent and still, hopefully forgotten.
“You want to sell the house? How bad is it?” she asked.
“I’ll figure something out. It’ll be okay.” He licked his lips, studying the ground.
“How bad, Vaughan?”
Slowly, he shut his eyes, letting his head fall back. It took him a long time to answer. “I had to borrow to buy you out of this place.”
Nell’s mouth fell open. “What? You told me you had it!”
“What’d you think I’d say?” Blue eyes snapped open, laser-like in their intensity. “Like you said, it was your dream, opening the bar. Just like it was mine to play music. You backed me however you could. Did you really think I wouldn’t do the same for you?”
Nell covered her face with her hands, swearing softly beneath her breath. This went on for quite some time.
“For a while, it was fine,” Vaughan continued. “We were getting gigs, being paid. Then we had a lean time and I had to take out a mortgage.”
“You mortgaged our childhood home?” Her voice rose to banshee levels. Guess it was true what they said about redheads, at least of the female variety. “Vaughan, how could you!”
“It’s almost paid off. Touring with Stage Dive got most of it sorted, but things hit the wall when the band fell apart.”
His sister just shook her head. “If Mom weren’t dead, she’d kill you.”
“I know.”
“And if Dad weren’t dead … I don’t even know what he would do. But they’d never find your body. Or what was left of it.”
Nothing from Vaughan. His fallen face said it all.