Page 79 of Knot Your Sunshine
Josh looks at me like I've handed him the moon wrapped in starlight. "It would be my deepest honor, my queen."
My shoulders drop and I let out a breath. "Really? You don't mind?"
"Mind? We need champagne." Keanu's already on his feet, sand spraying from under him. "You guys have your phone with you? We need to call our supplier for the best bottle."
Josh pulls out his phone. For a second, his face drains of color. He blinks, swallows, forces his expression back toward normal. But tension radiates from every line of his body.
What the hell was that?
The hammock sways as I sit up straighter. "Josh? What's wrong?"
Silence.
"Josh, what's going on?" Noa asks.
Josh's throat works as he swallows. When he looks up, his eyes find mine first. "I just received intermediary test results for today. It's still early, but the numbers are..." He stops, tries again. "Total revenue is down."
The cocktail turns to ice in my stomach. "What? Down how much?"
"Mia—"
"How much, Josh?"
He winces. "Thirty percent from yesterday. But listen—"
My mind races. "Which franchises? Mine or Chadwick's?"
"I—I don't know. The attribution data still isn't available between individual franchise locations yet, so—"
"Of course it isn't." The hammock rocks violently as I swing my legs over, my feet hitting the sand hard. "So we have no idea if it's my approach or his that's dragging everything down."
"This could easily be a false signal." Josh's voice is careful, measured. "Dips happen in any business launch—"
"That's not a dip, that's a crater." I'm pacing now. "What the hell happened? Maybe something went wrong with the system. Maybe if I call Chadwick and check—"
"Sunshine." Keanu's hand finds my elbow, warm and steady. "Business hours are far from over on most of the mainland. This could be—"
"A third of yesterday's revenue, Keanu." My voice cracks on the numbers. "What if people realized overnight that my whole concept is ridiculous? What if—"
"Mia." Noa steps directly into my path, hands settling on my shoulders. His thumbs stroke slow, soothing circles on my arms. "Breathe."
"I can't when my dream might be—"
"Chadwick switched to twice-daily reporting starting today." His voice drops, not quite a full-on alpha bark but close enough to cut through my spiral. "He told us last night. Josh and I agreed we'd still only check end-of-day numbers because anything else would be statistically meaningless."
I blink, trying to process. "Then why did Josh look at—"
"Because the email notification popped up right as I was about to call for champagne." Josh's voice is strained. "I shouldn't have opened it. Shouldn't have reacted. Noa's right, it's too early on the mainland for this to mean anything."
The fight drains out of me all at once, leaving me hollow and shaking. They're right. Of course they're right. This is barely half a day's data.
"Okay." The word comes out as a long exhale. "Okay."
"It's going to be fine." Keanu tugs me against his side.
"I know." I lean into his warmth, trying to recapture that peaceful feeling from five minutes ago. "I know."
Josh still looks miserable. "I'm sorry. I should have—"
