Page 34 of Knot Your Sunshine (Snugverse Romcom #2)

Chapter thirty-two

Noa

"What the hell is going on?" My voice cuts through Chadwick's corporate babble. I press the phone harder against my ear, pacing past our office window, past the couch, back to the window.

"As I mentioned, Mr. Hale, we're seeing approximately thirty percent—"

"I know the numbers. I want to know why."

"My team and I are investigating all possible—"

"Yeah, well, I don't have much faith in your investigation." I grip the window frame, knuckles white. "You haven't even been able to track revenues by individual location yet. How is that possible? You're getting total revenue but can't break it down?"

"Our reporting systems work differently than our detailed tracking.

" Chadwick's voice maintains that infuriating corporate calm.

"We get total revenue instantly through our payment processor, but breaking it down by individual franchise locations means pulling from multiple databases.

And since our systems have had major delays compiling the raw performance data per franchise location.

.." He pauses. "This is all significantly more complex than—"

"Complex?" I spin from the window. "I was told you were the best before I hired you. Now I'm questioning if you're even qualified for this job."

A pause. Then, stiffer: "I can assure you, Mr. Hale, no other firm would be handling this better. My team has decades of combined experience in franchise launches. Please believe me when I say—"

"What I believe is that we're the ones dealing with the emotional fallout while you shuffle spreadsheets."

"I understand your frustration, and I sincerely apologize for—"

"You know what, double the marketing spend." The words shoot out like bullets. "Full push across all platforms. I want visibility tripled by tonight."

"Mr. Hale, I'm not certain that's—"

I end the call. The silence rings.

Keanu and Josh watch me from the couch.

"Thirty percent is huge, Noa." Keanu drags both hands down his face. "Throwing money at this could make things worse."

"He's right." Josh pulls off his glasses and cleans them with shaky hands. "Without knowing the root cause, we could be—"

"Burning cash. I know." I set my phone on my desk, though my fingers twitch with the urge to launch it through the window. "But it could also stabilize things. Buy us time."

"Time for what?" Josh leans forward and puts his glasses back on. "The test launch is called a test for a reason. If something fundamental is wrong—"

"We don't know that anything's wrong." The words come out sharper than intended. "Half a day's data. That's what we have. Half a day. As far as I'm concerned, her model is fundamentally sound, so the marketing push is really just moving up money we would have spent later anyway."

They exchange that look. The one where their eyes meet for exactly two seconds before sliding away.

They think I'm losing it. Fine.

"You saw her face." I stop mid-pace, turning to face them. "Twenty minutes ago on that beach. The second Josh mentioned the dip, she went from glowing to spiraling in three seconds flat."

Keanu's shoulders drop. Josh's fingers go still on his glasses.

"Do you really want to walk out there and tell her things might really be bad without getting more data first?"

"No." Keanu's voice comes out rough. "That's not what we want."

Josh's sigh fills the room, but he nods slowly. "Okay. But if the end-of-day numbers are still bad—"

"Then we tell her. Together. With a plan." I hold each of their gazes in turn. "In the meantime, we stick to today's plan. Take the boat out, watch dolphins, give her the day she deserves. And we leave our smartphones behind."

Josh's head snaps up. "What? That wasn't part of the plan."

"But it's better this way," I counter. "No smartphones. Any of us. She needs to disconnect, and frankly, so do we. We won't have signal out there anyway."

The door swings open. Mia stands there in a white sundress that flows around her legs. All three of us go still.

"Ready for dolphins?" Her voice carries forced brightness, but underneath I hear the strain.

"Absolutely," I manage. "In fact, we were thinking of having a proper ocean day. No distractions." I hold up my phone. "These stay here."

Her eyebrows rise. "Really?"

"When's the last time any of us went a full day without screens?" Keanu stands, already pulling his phone from his pocket. "I say we go old school. Just us and the ocean."

A real smile starts at the corners of her mouth. "That actually sounds... good. We have all day before the franchise data comes in tonight anyway."

"Then it's decided." Josh adds his phone to the growing pile on the table. "Digital detox starts now."

Mia pulls her phone from her bag, hesitates for just a second, then sets it with ours. "Let's do this."

Keanu crosses to her in two strides, arm sliding around her shoulders. "Can't wait for you to see the dolphins up close."

Her smile finally reaches her eyes, crinkling at the corners. "Then what are we waiting for?"