By that point, most mornings had fallen into the same pattern, and Lip had come to like that more than he ever would have admitted a few years earlier. The house usually stayed quiet for a little while after sunrise, before the phones started buzzing, before somebody from the family decided to show up without warning, and before the rest of the day had a chance to turn into whatever it was going to turn into. He was almost always the first one up. Coffee came first, then the kitchen table, then whatever actually needed his attention.

A lot had changed in his life, but that part had settled into something simple enough to trust.

That morning was no different. The kitchen was still quiet, the light outside still pale enough to make the room look softer than it did later in the day, and Lip sat at the table with a cup of coffee on one side and his phone in his hand, scrolling through the usual mix of messages that came in before nine. Most of them were reports. Sales summaries. A message from one of the warehouse managers about expanding storage at one of the buildings. A note from the design team asking for approval on a new release. Nothing dramatic, nothing broken, nothing urgent enough to pull him out of the chair.

He skimmed everything once, calm and half awake in that way he had gotten used to, then answered what needed answering, flagged one message to come back to later, and locked his phone.

The company mostly ran without him hovering over every moving part now. Managers handled operations, warehouse supervisors ran logistics, and separate teams took care of design, marketing, distribution, and everything else that once would have landed directly in his lap. That had always been the point. He never wanted to build something that chained him to every small decision. He wanted it to keep moving even when he was not standing over it, and by then it did.

A second notification lit the screen before he could put the phone down for good.

Mickey.

That made him smirk.

Apparently the security company had already started getting more attention than either of them expected.

The message itself was short.

Three places asking about contracts. Call later.

Lip typed back with one hand.

Alright.

He had just set the phone aside when he heard footsteps coming down from upstairs. A minute later Mandy came into the kitchen wearing one of his hoodies and looking only half awake, her hair still messy from sleep.

“You’re up early,” she said, heading straight for the fridge.

Lip looked at her over the rim of his coffee cup. “You’re up late.”

She opened the door and frowned at him without any real energy behind it.

She pulled out a bottle of water, took a long drink, and leaned against the counter for a second like she was letting herself fully wake up before dealing with the day.

“Work stuff?” she asked.

“Just reports.”

“Anything interesting?”

“Not really.”

That got a small nod from her.

“Good.”

She came around the table and dropped into the chair across from him, curling one leg up under herself.

“How’s Mickey doing?”

Lip shrugged once. “Security company’s already getting calls.”

That woke her up a little more. “That fast?”

“Bars. Construction sites.”

Mandy took another sip of water and leaned back in the chair. “South Side always needs security.”

“Yeah.”

She studied him for a second. “Carl helping already?”

Lip smiled faintly. “Of course he is.”

That made her laugh, because there had never really been another answer. Give Carl one legitimate excuse to recruit people for something that sounded vaguely tough, and he was always going to throw himself into it.

Around noon, after the last of the quieter work had been handled, Lip grabbed his keys from the counter.

Mandy looked up from where she had ended up on the couch with her laptop open. “You heading to the Gallagher house?”

“Yeah.”

She shifted and glanced back at the screen once before closing it halfway. “Tell Fiona I’ll stop by later.”

“Alright.”

The Gallagher house looked exactly the way it always had. Same fence. Same old paint. Same front porch. Same sense that no matter how much time passed, some things never changed unless the house physically collapsed and even then somebody would probably still leave the door half open.

Lip went inside without knocking.

In the kitchen, Carl was sitting at the table while Kassidi leaned against him, half watching something on her phone and half listening to whatever Carl had been saying before Lip walked in.

Carl looked up first. “Morning.”

“Afternoon,” Lip said, heading to the fridge.

Carl waved one hand. “Same thing.”

Lip grabbed a beer and leaned back against the counter. “What’s up.”

Carl sat back in his chair a little farther, looking pleased with himself already. “Talked to Mickey.”

“That was quick.”

Carl shrugged. “Two guys from military school need work.”

Lip twisted the cap off the bottle and looked at him over the top of it. “Reliable?”

“Yeah.”

“Not idiots?”

Carl thought about that just long enough to make the answer funnier.

“…Mostly.”

Lip nodded once. “Tell them to call Mickey.”

Carl grinned immediately. “See? I’m already useful.”

Kassidi glanced up from her phone long enough to smile at that before going back to whatever she had been looking at.

Later that evening, after the rest of the day had passed in the usual mix of calls, check-ins, and work that only sometimes needed him directly, Lip and Mandy stopped by the Alibi.

The place looked exactly how it always looked. Sticky floor. Loud music. Somebody arguing in the corner about something not worth arguing about.

Kev looked up from behind the bar the second they came in and laughed.

Kev leaned forward immediately.

“You know what I’ve been thinking.”

V didn’t even look at him yet. “That’s never good.”

Kev ignored her. “We should open another place.”

Lip raised an eyebrow. “Another bar?”

Kev nodded. “Yeah. Same kind of place as this. Different neighborhood.”

V leaned beside him and folded her arms. “He’s been talking about it all week.”

“Chicago’s big,” Kev said. “Plenty of spots.”

Mandy laughed softly and looked at him. “You planning to run all of them yourself?”

Kev pointed at Lip. “He invests.”

Then he pointed at himself. “I run them.”

V added, calm as ever, “And I make sure the numbers don’t turn into a disaster.”

Lip took a sip of his beer, thought about it for maybe two seconds, and said, “Alright.”

Kev blinked. “That easy?”

“Yeah.”

For a second Kev just stared at him.

Then he grinned. “I like doing business with you.”

“Because I said yes too fast?”

“Exactly.”

V shook her head and took the bottle out of Kev’s hand before he could start gesturing with it.

The rest of the visit drifted into easier conversation after that. Nothing formal, nothing complicated, just the usual back-and-forth that always happened when they ended up at the Alibi. Mandy and V got into something about staff. Kev started throwing out names for the second place before there was even a building to attach them to. Lip mostly listened and let the room move around him the way it always did there.

By the time they left, the night had deepened and the air outside had cooled enough to make the street feel quieter than it had a few hours earlier.

Mandy unlocked the car while Lip paused for a second and glanced back at the Alibi.

She caught the look and smiled as she opened the driver’s side door. “Kev’s gonna turn Chicago into one giant bar.”

Lip got in beside her and shut the door. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”

She laughed under her breath, started the car, and pulled away from the curb while the Alibi shrank in the mirror behind them, still lit up the same way it always was.