The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6) by Heather Tullis Read Free Book Online Page A

emergency meeting for?”
    “Hey, pizza! I’m starving.” Vince flipped the box open. “I haven’t had a chance to eat anything in seven hours.”
    “Food first. Bad news second.” Gage pushed himself out of the sofa and snagged a slice of meat lovers.
    “Emergency meeting was discouraging enough. Now you’re saying it’s definitely bad news? I might need something stronger than Pepsi. Got a beer?” Jeremy asked as he crossed to the fridge.
    “Doubtful. I haven’t been to the store in almost a week. I used the end of the milk yesterday.”
    Jeremy looked and closed the door, shooting Gage a look of censure. “You’re a terrible host. Seriously, there’s beer in my fridge.”
    “Mine too,” Vince said.
    “Yeah, and I bet your women did the grocery shopping, didn’t they?” Gage took a fortifying bite of pizza, appreciating the melding of flavors on his tongue. It had been too long since lunch.
    Neither man responded, which was answer enough.
    The pizza and soda hit the spot, fortifying Gage with more energy so he was finally able to give them the bad news. “Those dividends you were expecting in a couple of weeks? Yeah, they’re not coming. Not unless you’d rather we sell the resort to that investor who was looking at it a few months ago.”
    “What happened?” Jeremy asked, setting down his half-eaten slice of pizza. Gage treated his friends like full partners when big decisions came up, even though he had the final say.
    “The haul ropes are wearing down—all of them. Not just a couple. I made a few phone calls about parts. We’ll have to use the profit from the winter receipts, and sink an extra twenty grand of personal cash if we don’t want them to shut down the lifts before the snow flies.”
    “Can we even get them here and installed that soon?” Vince asked.
    “My engineering department is cut to the quick for summer. I can give Ross a hand, but we’ll have to bring in some help—the companies I called for quotes both have crews who can come help with a lot of it—but they can’t guarantee that we can get the parts and timing right to get it all restrung unless we make the commitment in the next week or so. The big thing is coming up with the money—like yesterday—because they have to be paid for in advance and I have a lot of money sunk into the mountain bike festival and advertising for the other events we’ve got going.” His brain hurt from an afternoon of phone calls and calculations.
    “You wanna sell some more of your business to us?” Vince asked. “We can come up with the capital. Well, I can come up with it.” He flashed a grin. “Or rather, Cami can. All of it if we need to. I’ll have to talk to my wife, but I’m sure she would be okay with that. If you wanted to pay us back and just make it a loan for now, that would be okay too.”
    Gage had known they would pull through for him, but hated having to ask. “I doubt I’d be able to get the bank to front the money in enough time to beat the deadline, so I’d appreciate it.” But he felt like crap taking Vince’s money, like he was a failure. “And if it means selling you more of the business, I’m okay with that, on the same terms as before.”
    “Oh, hey, you’re not leaving me out of it,” Jeremy said. “If I can’t scrounge up my portion on my own, I’ll hit up Delphi and see if she wants in too. I’m sure she’s got enough set aside.”
    “This is getting to be a real family affair,” Gage said, not sure how he felt about it. Cami and Delphi’s dad had tried to buy the ski resort when he built the hotel but Gage had not been interested in selling. Now two of his daughters would have an interest in it anyway.
    He’d known Vince and Jeremy would come through for him. They always did. He wanted to seem unaffected by his friends’ generosity, but was struggling to talk around the lump in his throat. “Well, let’s not get all misty-eyed about it. Check with your women and we can get