An Old Fashioned book two Full Circle Series

Starting Over

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Chapter 1

Starting Over

Trent

My brother is a fool

He knew Frankie was fed up with everything. She had every right to be. The kid has been through enough and has been a rock through some pretty rough times. She was the only female in our group for years until Maggie came along. She needs to find her wings.

When I got in later today and found the resignation letter Frankie stuck in my mailbox. I wasn't surprised to see it. I knew it was coming. I also wasn't surprised to find Mitch in the kitchen slamming pots and pans as he prepped for the dinner rush while the rest of the kitchen crew cowered around him. All of them have learned over the years that Mitch is pretty easy going but when it comes to Frankie, he's got a short fuse.

Which explains why I avoided the kitchen and escaped out of there before the shit really hit the fan. Mitch and Cole were on duty tonight while Harper and I have tomorrow's shift. I promoted Harper to a manager. I've watched how hard he works, I've seen the initiative he takes to run things. He deserves the promotion and after losing Jeremy and Frankie at the same time, it made us short handed all the way around. But we changed some hours here and there, changed the way we split out duties and made it work.

It's not like Harper or I aren't close by in case something happens that the others can't handle. We've jumped in to help when things got too busy plenty of times over the years. That doesn't mean I'm not going to look for someone to replace Frankie. I can't be down two bartenders and give good service.

For now Harper has moved into a studio we added in the rehab. He's close by if he's needed and we're closer now that we've expanded our family. Zoe loves having her Uncle Harper over for dinner every Sunday night. She kicks his ass in her video games. We've even gotten him to babysit so Maggie and I can get a night out.

This morning though I'm meeting him down in the basement in what we have converted into a gym. I think my baby brother is going to need to burn off some steam. He's been way too touchy lately about Frankie and what he's going to do about her. We've all warned him if he didn't do something he would lose his chance.

It looks like we called that right

Walking into the gym, I see Harper is already there. The head banging rock throbbing through the walls, I get a vicious growl as a hello from Harper as he struggles with the heavy weights. He presses the bar over his chest and releases it onto its place.

"You're late!" Switching to the butterfly machine he adjusts the weights and sits down. "I'm not waiting for you and I don't want to hear why you're late."

"Frankie turned in her resignation letter this morning. I got the letter in my box." The weights clanked and clattered against each other as Harper stopped to let this news sink in. "I'm sorry, Harp. I knew she was thinking about leaving but I didn't know she made her decision."

His eyes hardened in the mirror and the twitch of a vein in his temple throbbed as he clenched his teeth. His eyes snapped away from mine and he went back to his workout.

Pushing himself harder than necessary, I see the hurt in his eyes. Dropping the subject and knowing I'm not going to get anywhere with him in this mood, I set down my keys, water and phone in one of the lockers . Changing the conversation back to work seems like the best thing for both of us.

"We need to find a couple of bartenders. We can't keep running short staffed. Cole's putting an ad in today." I step onto the treadmill and start to jog. "I'm going to schedule interviews for next week. You want in on that?"