“Not far off, there, I imagine.”
“Anyway, I was telling your sister Jen here about this wonderful trip I’m taking next week.”
“Oh?”
Their aunt was a travel writer and had spent almost her entire adult life in transit. She had a couple of small apartments around the world—including one about an hour away in Boulder—but she never stayed in one place very long. She’d never married, never had kids, and had been something like a happy ghost passing through their entire lives. She came for most major holidays and had stayed now and again in Colorado for a little longer, but generally the family saw her only on her way from place to place.
“Yes. I’m leaving on Monday and heading to Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts for four weeks—a week in each state and then some extra time in Boston at the end.”
Erin and Jen shared a quick glance. Charlie was in Boston by now.
“Not the usual exotic locale,” Erin said. Their aunt spent most of her time in Asia and Europe.
Eddie laughed. “No—not exotic at all. In fact, quite ordinary. But I’m very excited about it. Did you know I’ve never actually been to any of those states? This will be a first for me. Sunny beaches and beautiful, ancient cities lose their glamour after a while. I asked my editor if I could do something in the US for once, and this is what we settled on. Doesn’t it sound great?”
Erin laughed. “If you say so. I would never tire of sunny beaches, but that’s just me.”
Eddie raised her eyebrows. “You’d be surprised how quickly beaches start to blur together. Anyway, I wanted to see if you could spare Jen for a little while. I want her to come with me on the trip.”
Erin was surprised. While her aunt had taken them both on trips in the past, most of those had been when they were teenagers or young adults. It had been over a decade since either of them had done a solo trip with Eddie. They had, over the years, occasionally met somewhere, usually domestic, and a few years ago, just after their mother’s funeral, they’d all gone to Dublin together, where her father had some cousins.
“I don’t know,” Erin said, glancing at Jen. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
Eddie waved her hand dismissively. “I can’t think of anything better than a trip to get her mind off things. Nothing like travel to lighten a loss, that’s what I always say.”
“Yeah, but Boston?” Erin continued to look at Jen.
Jen sighed. “I know what you’re thinking, Erin, but you don’t have to worry. Boston is a big city, and I can’t imagine that Charlie and I would ever run into each other there. It’s just a coincidence.”
“Maybe a happy one, depending on how you look at it,” Eddie said. “You could, after all, arrange to meet up with him.”
Jen shook her head. “No, Eddie, that’s the last thing I want to do. But I would like to go with you. I could use a change of scenery.” She turned to Erin. “So can I? Do you think you could handle it at the brewery without me for a while?”
“Of course!” Erin tried to sound enthusiastic. The truth was, Erin was a little useless at some of the day-to-day business affairs at the brewery and had no idea how she would do without her sister to help her for the holiday season. On the other hand, this might be exactly what Jen needed to break out of her funk—even Erin could see that. And if it could help her, Jen was going.
Eddie clapped her hands with joy and gave Erin a long hug. “Oh, goody. I’m so glad you agreed. Jen was telling me how busy you’ve been lately, but you can handle things on your own for a while. You have a good head on your shoulders.”
“When will you be back?”
“By Christmas, at the latest,” Eddie said. “It works out perfectly, in fact, since I was planning to come back then anyway. We should be here on the twenty-first or second.”
Erin’s stomach dropped a little with dismay. Even beyond the difficulty this would put her in at work, it was a very long time to go without Jen. More than sisters, they were also best friends, and Erin had only rarely been apart from her that long. She made herself suppress these feelings, however, as for the first time in days, Jen looked excited and happy.
A few minutes later, dinner was ready, so for a while Erin was able to forget that she would be on her own soon. Still, when they drove home a few hours later, Erin couldn’t help feeling a kind of low, lonely dread. Without Jen here and with the alienation between her and Lottie, she would be very much alone these next weeks.
Chapter Ten
Things at the brewery had gone from bad to downright terrible in the last few days. Three weeks ago, just after Jen left with their Aunt Eddie, Erin had actually fooled herself into thinking she could handle her sister’s absence. The first day, she’d managed to pay the bills, order ingredients, and settle a scheduling conflict between two of their servers. Due to the season and other extenuating circumstances, however, things had quickly fallen apart.
First, several staff members came down with the same cold. This happened every year and was especially common in restaurants and breweries, where people worked in close contact. Erin saw it coming from the first sneeze and sent her newest server home almost the moment she recognized that she was actually sick. It was too late. By the next day, three of her servers were home sick, and a few days later, almost all of them were. Again, this would have been inconvenient but fine almost any other time. Technically, Jen, Erin, and the other brewers could cover the tasting room, if necessary, and had done so before. But, as it was the year-end, several accounting tasks needed to be handled, several beers were due to be kegged and bottled, and Erin needed to get her Valentine’s seasonal ale ready for their city’s biggest holiday.
A week before Jen was due home, the brewery was essentially falling apart. Since the Brewing Festival, they’d stayed busy nearly every day. While this was, of course, a good thing, the new business couldn’t have come at a worse time. While most of the staff members were back after their illness, Lydia had caught the cold early and was still “at home” recovering, though Erin suspected she was fine now. Still, Erin was almost at full staff without Lydia, but everyone’s cumulative absences had set back several crucial tasks.
The Valentine’s seasonal was brewing and would be ready at the end of January as scheduled, but this evening they’d run out of kegs for three of their most popular beers. New batches were ready to be kegged and bottled, but those were all-day tasks. Unless Erin stayed up all night and made the other brewers and one of the general staffers or servers stay up most of it too, the tasting room would be short several beers tomorrow, as well. Most of the regulars knew the situation and had been extremely forgiving today when their favorite beer wasn’t available. Still, they had new customers every day, especially since their festival win, and the people who had never been in or didn’t come in often weren’t so tolerant. Being low or out of stock was the best way to lose customers—new or old—in any business, so getting all their lines on by tomorrow was Erin’s number-one priority.
It was just after closing, and everyone at the brewery was worn and tired. Erin hadn’t slept more than a few hours a night since Jen left, and while she’d managed to avoid the cold everyone else got, she was starting to feel run-down. Generally, she had a bit of downtime most days, when she could sit with the other brewers and plan ahead and joke a little. Instead, they’d all been forced to work nonstop since Thanksgiving. The usual brewery cheer, which persisted even at their busiest most of the time, had dried up weeks ago. People were short with each other and unhappy. Erin was terrified that people would start walking out. While the counter staff was putting on a good face for the public, even their usual bouncy happiness had seemed strained for a while now.
The business had one good aspect, at least, and that was to keep her mind occupied. At first, after Charlie and Darcy left, she had been so wrapped up in helping Jen get through her initial devastation, she’d been able to suppress most of her own feelings about Darcy deserting her. After Jen left with Eddie, however, it
wasn’t so easy. She didn’t know why she was so upset. After all—she and Darcy barely knew each other. They’d slept together and little else. Erin kept telling herself that she was being ridiculous. They hadn’t been dating, after all, and Darcy didn’t owe her a thing. But despite telling herself this over and over, she couldn’t help but dwell on her, and not having anyone to share any of this with wasn’t helping. Still, while she was at work, she could forget about this pain for hours at a time, so, despite feeling like her business was imploding around her, she was relieved to have so much extra work.
Soaking wet from the cleaning hoses and her own sweat, Erin paused for a moment, leaning heavily on her broom. The floors in the brewery in front and behind the counter were sticky and gross by the end of every day and had to be hosed down and mopped every night. They used big push brooms to get the excess water off the floor in order for it to dry by morning, and everyone was at this last sweeping stage. Erin was trying to figure out a way to ask four of her staff members to stay overnight and help her keg and bottle, but she’d been putting it off all day. She could tell everyone, like her, simply wanted to go home.
Two servers—Jonathan and Emily—were just around the corner from her, and she’d been listening to their banter for a while. Judging from their conversation, they’d likely forgotten she was here, but, as she hadn’t really heard anything seditious or important, she hadn’t announced herself again. Her broom would be visible to anyone in their position, so they clearly didn’t care if someone overheard them. They were starting to perk up now that their shift was almost over, but Erin could hear the fatigue in their voices.
“Thank God it’s almost payday,” Jonathan said.
“No shit,” Emily responded. “My landlord’s been up my ass all week.”
“I still haven’t gone Christmas shopping.”
Emily laughed. “Really? You’re one of those guys?”
He laughed. “No. I just haven’t had the time. Been stuck in this place every day. Can’t wait until Jen comes back.”
Erin was smiling throughout this conversation, and then she had a terrible, horrible thought. For a moment, her heart seemed to seize. She dropped her broom to the floor with a loud crack, and a moment later she was dashing, at full speed, toward the office. She ran across the clean floor she’d just mopped, passing several startled coworkers.
Her worst fears were realized when she saw the red leather envelope sitting on the desk under a pile of paperwork. She’d meant to take it to the bank a week ago, but it had slipped her mind then and every day since. Aside from being long overdue, which would create an utterly massive headache of paperwork later on, the money should have been deposited long before now, specifically for payroll.
Erin’s legs liquefied with terror, and she had to lean against the edge of the doorway for support. Her ears started ringing, and she barely made it to the little desk chair before she collapsed. Since it was the end of the month, and since Christmas and New Years were looming, a lot of the bills she would normally pay at the end of the month had come due early. Moreover, yesterday she’d made several purchases to get them ready for January. Usually, if something like this happened, she could have simply transferred money from one account to the other, but she knew their accounts would be short for payroll. With everyone working extra hours, a lot of people had overtime coming to them, which meant that payroll was huge this month. The checks would be issued or deposited at midnight tonight—two hours from now—from an account with very little money in it.
One of her assistant brewers, Javier, poked his head into the office. “Hey, Boss! Do you want me and Craig to stay late and keg tonight? Emily was just saying that three lines are out in the tasting room.” He became quiet, seeming to see something in her face. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”
Erin was still rattled and unable to answer. She spun the desk chair toward him and swallowed a couple of times, her words dead in her mouth.
“I screwed up big-time, Javi,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Javi seemed to sense that she wanted to talk to him privately, but as the office didn’t have a door, he simply walked over to her and crouched down.
“What’s up?”
Erin quickly explained the problem, and she watched his face fall as she spoke.
“Shit,” he said.
“Shit is right.”
“What are you going to do? Isn’t there anything?”
Erin started to shake her head and then stopped. Actually, she could try one thing, right now, and her spirit rose with hope.
“I need to make some phone calls,” she told him.
Javi got to his feet. “Okay, Erin. I’ll get some of the others to stay back and help me with the kegging and bottling. Don’t worry about that end, at least. Let me know if I can do anything.”
She squeezed his hand, too emotional to respond. She’d just told the man that he might not get paid a few days before Christmas, yet he was willing to cover her ass and help her out.
Seeming to understand her wordless thanks, Javi left the room, and soon she could hear several complaining voices out in the brewery after he’d told them what he needed. It would take at least five people to keg and bottle without her. She shook her head to dismiss the situation and turned to the computer and phone. Their current complaints were a problem for another day. If she didn’t take care of the payroll problem right now, she might not have any staff members to appease. She’d be lucky if, in addition to losing her staff, they didn’t sue the hell out of her.
She took a deep breath and picked up the phone. It was ten thirty, a little late for a phone call, but she couldn’t avoid it.
Her father answered on the first ring. “Hello?”
“Hey, Dad. I have a big problem over here at the brewery, and I need a miracle.” She explained the problem and then stopped, holding her breath to wait for his rebuke.
Instead, her father chuckled. “I’m sorry to laugh, Erin, but that’s not a problem at all. I’ve done it myself so many times, I wouldn’t even begin to try to count.”
Immediately, Erin relaxed. She’d made the right call.
“You just need to get the money in before midnight, right?”
“Yes, Dad, but how can I do that when the banks are closed?”
“If you have the money in a personal account, you can transfer it over right now. It takes some paperwork to clear it up later when you pay yourself back, but you can do it temporarily.”
Erin laughed. “I don’t have that kind of money, Dad.”
“Okay, I didn’t think so, but I didn’t want to presume. You can go to an ATM right now and deposit it yourself. It takes a while, but you just might be able to do it before midnight.”
Erin had to think for a minute. Everything related to the business was done electronically now. In fact, generally the payroll was moved over electronically from the regular funds. She’d intended to use several checks she’d been paid by local restaurants and the register cash for payroll only because this month’s register receipts had been so large. People apparently liked to stop by for a beer between holiday shopping trips. However, they’d never used the ATM debit card for the payroll account. She wasn’t even sure where it was. But she did have a copy of the card for the general account, which meant that if she got the money deposited, she could transfer it over. She checked the clock and her heart sank. She had just over an hour to do all of that.
“Is there another option?” she asked.
He was quiet for a moment, and then he cleared his throat. “Well, I could lend you the money, temporarily. That creates even more of a headache to do it legally, but it can be done. I’m sure Jen will know how to clear it up when she comes home.”
Erin flushed with pleasure. A month ago, if she’d asked for a loan even half the size of what she needed right now, he would have lectured her for hours and then likely only done it for Jen’s sake. Things had decidedly changed since th
eir conversation on Thanksgiving.
“Thanks, Dad, I really appreciate it. I’m going to try to do the ATM thing, I guess. It doesn’t make sense to create more work for ourselves. If I leave now, I should be able to get the money in on time.”
“Okay, honey, you do that. And let me know what happens tomorrow. I still want to talk to you about your business soon, but I’ll let you go now.” He paused. “Before you hang up, do me a favor, would you? I know Loveland’s not a big city, but plenty of bad guys are out there, anyway. Take someone with you. For me, if not for yourself. I don’t like thinking of you out there with all that cash all alone.”
“I’ll do that, Dad. Bye.”
She grabbed the envelope, double-checked that she had the ATM card for the general account, and then went into the brewery proper. Javier and four other staff members were already wrapped up in the kegging process, and it would clearly take all of them to get the work done. Everyone was holding hose lines or other equipment, and not one of them could be spared. Erin was tempted to simply go to the bank on her own, but she suddenly remembered one person she could call this late at night. She pulled out her cell phone, hesitated, and then called Lottie.
“Hello? What’s up, Erin? Why are you calling so late?”
“Lottie, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know who else to call. Do you think you could meet me over at Chase Bank? On Seventh? I have a crap ton of money to deposit, and I don’t want to be there by myself. I know it’s a lot to ask, but could you?”
Lottie was quiet for a long time. Finally, Erin heard her sigh. “Sure, Erin. I’ll meet you there in five.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Lottie. Thank you.”
Erin told Javier she’d be back in half an hour to help, and he gave her a quick nod. She went to the alley door, where she kept her bike, and wheeled it into the alley. She crammed the leather envelope into her little fanny pack, strapped on her helmet, and turned on her headlamp. A moment later she was pedaling as fast as she could through the back alleys of downtown Loveland.
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