Alex blinked again, but the old man didn’t disappear. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard you got your head turned by a woman on the cruise and you’ve been unbearable ever since.” Pop walked into the office and shut the door behind him. “I’m here to save you from yourself.”
“I don’t need saving.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.” Pop sank into the chair across the desk from him. “I like what you’ve done with the place.”
The change in subject about gave him whiplash. “We get a lot less bar fights now.”
“Suppose it was time for a change.” Pop gave a rough smile. “Nostalgia only takes a person so far.”
“Yeah, though I made sure to create a place for the regulars.” He shifted, not totally comfortable with the close way Pop watched him. Historically, every time the old man did that, Alex ended up confessing whatever the fuck he’d been up to lately, despite his best efforts to keep silent. Even as he told himself to shut the hell up, he found himself speaking. “Just because I met a woman doesn’t mean I need an intervention.”
“Tell me about her.”
It hurt to do it, but he did it anyway. “She was magic, Pop. If I’d imagined my perfect woman, she wouldn’t come close to Kendall. We have a shit ton in common and our chemistry…” He trailed off. Some subjects just weren’t for family. “It was unreal.”
Pop studied him for a moment. “Lucas said she had to leave the cruise early. Some kind of family emergency.”
Now Alex knew who to blame for this intervention. “Yeah.”
“So what are you waiting for?”
Alex frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Pop leaned forward and spoke slowly as if talking to a child. “Go get your woman.”
As if it was that easy. As if he hadn’t actually considered doing exactly that before he discarded it. Alex had little left but his pride at this point. If people walked away from him, he didn’t chase them, no matter how much their leaving hurt. Did his pride keep him warm at night? Fuck no. But at least he knew that he hadn’t debased himself for someone who didn’t give enough of a damn about him to stay. “When you chase down a woman who said she’d call and didn’t, that’s considered stalking and generally frowned upon.”
Pop harrumphed. “Under normal circumstances, hell yeah. I would whoop your ass if I thought you were going after some woman who didn’t want it.”
“You don’t know Kendall. You don’t know that she does want it.” Why was he even engaging in this argument? It didn’t matter what Pop thought. He wasn’t going after her. She hadn’t texted, called, sent a carrier pigeon. Easy enough to read in between the lines, and that said she enjoyed their time together but it was finished. End of story.
Pop sat back. “Lucas said her brother-in-law died. Apparently it was a stroke or something like that.” He narrowed his eyes. “And her older sister, the new widow, is pregnant.”
The knowledge shuddered around Alex. He cleared his throat. “Lucas seems to have a whole hell of a lot of information.”
“Guess he’s dating one of her friends. Nice boy from what I understand.” Pop gave a brief smile. “But we’re not talking about him. We’re talking about you and your stubborn pride. Your woman needs you and you’re sitting here, feeling sorry for yourself. I didn’t raise you to be this selfish.”
“Selfish?” Alex started to push to his feet and cut off the motion to slouch back in his chair. “It’s not being selfish to prioritize the company you spent your entire adult life building to the successful business that it is. The pillar of the community, though they’d never call it that. Pop’s is important. I’m needed here.”
“Pop’s is a bar,” Pop said almost gently. “It’s a building. Four walls and some shit inside. You’ve done good work, Alex. No one will say otherwise. But I never wanted you to end up like me—married to the place. You’re too young for that shit, have too much living left to do.”
“Pop’s needs me.” It will never leave me.
“Kendall needs you.” Pop pushed slowly to his feet. “I’ll be in town for a week or two. There’s a flight out to Portland tonight if you decide to get over yourself before then.” He stopped. “I’m proud of you, kid. I’ve been proud of you this whole time. It’s not selfish to fight to find and hold onto happiness. Life is too short to do anything else.” He turned and walked out of the office, leaving Alex staring after him.
He wanted to reject the words, to reject the knowledge of what Kendall was going through now. Easier to leave things black and white, cut and dried. She left, end of story.
Except… it wasn’t the end of the story.