As Bad As Can Be

“H’lo.” The mumbled greeting sounded half asleep and wholly fogged.

She raised one eyebrow and gave a wicked grin. “This is the Newport Department of Health,” she said, pitching her voice higher than her usual husky murmur. “I’m looking for Devlin Carson, partner of record in the Bad Reputation bar. We’ve had complaints of a salmonella outbreak in your kitchen.”

“What?” Dev’s brain was obviously still cobwebbed with sleep.

“Salmonella, Mr. Carson,” Mallory said testily, enjoying herself. “Your customers have been leaving your establishment weaving and getting sick. We need you to appear to address the complaints.”

“But I can’t…I live in Baltimore,” he said in groggy confusion while she smothered a laugh.

“That’s really not our problem, sir. We want answers and we want them now.”

“But we don’t even serve food. My sister Mallory is the managing partner. She’ll…” His voice trailed off. “Mal? That’s you, isn’t it?”

Mallory gave a delighted giggle. “Rise and shine, sleepyhead.” She turned onto Route 38, headed for Newport. “What are you doing still in bed? I don’t think I ever remember you sleeping in this late in my entire life.”

“Oh, I went out with a couple of the guys last night and tied one on.” He groaned. “God, my head.”

“Paying the price, are we?”

“This is nothing.” His voice was dry. “The price I pay will be when Melissa comes back from shopping with her sister and lays into me.”

“For going out with your friends? Seems harmless enough to me.”

“She wanted me to take her to dinner last night. I went out with the guys instead. It was Riley’s birthday.”

“It’s not exactly like you’re the world’s biggest party animal. People go out once in a while. Tell her it’s normal.” Mallory searched for diplomacy. “I know she’s gorgeous and you guys are engaged and all, Dev, but this isn’t exactly sounding like premarital bliss. Are you sure she’s the one?”

“When things are going right, I can’t get enough of her. You just got a bad impression of her when you visited. She can get a little jealous,” he said, and gave a creaking yawn Mallory could hear over the phone.

“I’m your sister. What’s to be jealous of?” Mallory asked, mystified.

He laughed. “We went out and all the guys were looking at you.”

“She’s engaged to you. What does she care who the other guys are looking at?” Mallory’s radar went up.

“Pride? I don’t know. I just know she keeps track of stuff like that.”

Mallory shook her head. She couldn’t get around it, she didn’t trust Melissa as far as she could throw her, however much Dev was hung up on her. “So, what, you go out with your friends and she worries that you’re hanging out with loose women?”

“Christ, I got to get some aspirin here,” Dev muttered. “I’m going cordless.” The line clicked and turned fuzzy, and she could hear the thuds of his feet as he walked, presumably to find medication. “I don’t know, maybe she has a right to be ticked. We’re supposed to be getting married in five months. Maybe I should have gone out with her. Anyway, she’s always telling me that you’ve got to give up things to make a relationship work.”

That sounded like Melissa, Mallory thought. She’d grown wary of her brother’s then-girlfriend the moment she’d found out Melissa was dragging him to couples counseling. Mallory sighed. “Yeah, well, make sure you don’t compromise yourself into oblivion.”

“I’m just trying to figure out how to do this stuff right. I mean, let’s face it, it’s not like we learned anything from our parents.”

“Sure we did,” she said without thinking. “Don’t let anyone get too close to you or you’ll be sorry.”

“You’re so tough,” he mocked her gently. “Marriage doesn’t have to be a bad thing when it’s done right.”

“Next you’ll have me thinking we grew up in different houses. I know you’re older than me so maybe you remember their bliss phase, but we both know how ugly it got.” She sniffed derisively. “Might as well put a Kick Me Hard sign on your butt.”

She heard a snap in the background followed by the sound of water running and guessed he’d found the bottle of pain reliever. “Okay,” he said indistinctly, and sighed. “That’s better. Anyway, you probably didn’t call just to ruin my morning. What’s going on?”

“I was just out at the distributor’s and Dave offered me a good price on adding Sam Adams draft. Long-term contract. It’s still more expensive, but I think it’ll pay off in terms of sales. Not everyone who steps in the door wants Bud.”

“You’re the manager,” he pointed out. “As long as we stay on plan, I’m just a silent investor.”

“Well, the problem is, to go up we need to adjust the terms of our deal with Dave. It’ll require a bigger deposit and payment.” She squinted her eyes. “Long-term, it’ll be fine, but opening costs set me back a bit.”

“I saw the numbers. Looks like business started out slow.”

Mallory nibbled on her lip. “It’ll work out, but I might need a little more working capital next month.”

Dev sighed. “Mal, I want to help out, but I’ve got wedding stuff to pay for, too. Are you sure we need to do this? The last set of numbers you e-mailed didn’t look too promising.”

“Dev, we’ve only been open for a month,” she said reasonably, her hands tightening on the wheel. “You can’t expect to make money on a new bar in the first year. We talked about this going in. We’ll be lucky to break even.”

What she didn’t say was that if it took walking out into the street and personally hauling clientele inside, she was going to carry a profit back to Dev at the end of the first year. If it weren’t for him, she’d still be pouring drinks in small town Massachusetts and saving every penny in the hopes of one day having her own place. He’d taken a chance on her, just like he had all those years ago after their father had died when she’d wound up on his front porch, a teenager with nowhere to go. Now she had something that was hers. She wanted, more than anything she wanted to make a success of Bad Reputation. For Dev.

For herself.

Dev cleared his throat. “Look, Mal, I’m not expecting to make a pile of dough. I’m just wondering if the current financials mean we’d be smarter to hold off on the Sam Adams until business is more steady.”

Mallory considered. “I’m estimating an initial 10 percent more outlay, with probably 12 percent more on sales long term. It’d pay for itself in…” She crunched numbers in her head. “I’d say about three months. That’s a quick ballpark estimation,” she added.

“Did you just work that out in your head? Jeez, remind me again why you’re not pulling down big bucks in some corporation somewhere?”

“You have to follow rules in corporations, big brother,” she said with a smile.

“And you never were much on those.”

“No,” she agreed. “Anyway, I’ll run some numbers on it and we can talk about it in more detail. And by the way, business is picking up.”

“Oh, yeah? Is it something you’re doing or is word just getting around?”

“Oh, a little of both.” The corners of her mouth tugged up in a smile. “I just sat down and thought about why people go to bars.”

“For deep philosophical conversation?”

Mallory laughed. “Nope. Drinks, music and sex,” she said matter-of-factly. “We supply the big three and we’ve got a full house every night. Obviously we’ve got the alcohol. We’re licensed for live music, so I’m going to start auditioning bands for Saturday nights. We can pay for it out of the cover charge.”

There was a short silence. “And the sex part?” Dev asked suspiciously.

Mallory grinned. “What did you say? I’m in a dead spot right here.”

“Your reception sounds fine to me. You said business is up and you’re doing something to make it happen. What?”

“I’m losing you,” she lied, smothering a laugh.