“Moving on,” Caryn said to change the subject. “The German government has offered to buy the software we got from the Ukrainian con artist, as long as they get exclusive rights to it.”
“That’s the stuff on the thumb drive?” I asked.
Peggy had been conned by a man who’d tried to break into my parents’ home-office computer. Fritz had ‘confiscated’ the software and shared it with people he used to work with to determine what we had.
Caryn pushed a sheet of paper over to me, and I wasn’t sure if I should be happy or not. It seemed like a lot of money. Then I had another thought.
“Why are they paying us this much?”
“They don’t want us to sell it to others,” Caryn said.
“This is sort of ‘found’ money. What did you propose to do with it?” I asked.
Scarlet lit up.
“My father always says you don’t get paid what you’re worth, you get paid what you negotiate. I have some ideas.”
“Do they include me buying a company plane?” I asked.
I thought I was the owner of this company. How could everyone ignore my perfectly reasonable request?
“I think you need to set up trusts for all your kids,” Scarlet suggested. “They could use it for their college funds or something else later.”
I could tell I wasn’t going to get a plane when Megan handed out a sheet that showed how it would all work. To be fair, I’d told them to run with it. I might have to clarify that in the future, all windfalls of cash should be run by me.
“Before you get started on that, what happened to the Ukrainian guy?” I asked.
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement came and took him. They’re deporting him and have contacted the appropriate authorities overseas. He was here using a forged passport. Since he didn’t manage to drain your bank accounts, they didn’t have much to hold him on, according to the local police,” Dad told us.
While they worked out the details, Carol found her way between my feet and was in the process of untying and gnawing on my shoelaces. I wondered where my keys had gone. I sure hoped she hadn’t swallowed them. If it had been Coby, I could imagine him figuring out how to get them off the keyring and doing just that.
Carol was a good baby. She mostly entertained herself, which was a blessing. That didn’t mean she wasn’t my little princess. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a good idea to set up trusts for the kids. My parents always teased Greg and me that they planned to spend it all before we ever saw an inheritance.
I didn’t want to worry about them and hoped that my success would give them a leg up. What I didn’t want to happen was to have my little ones turn into trust-fund kids like some Wesleyan students seemed to be. I said as much to the assembled group.
All the details started to give me a headache. I was sure this was something they didn’t need me for. I picked up Carol and found my keys.
“We’re going to go get something to eat,” I announced.
Dad nodded, and I left them to it.
◊◊◊
Granny’s West was packed when we walked in. Someone had gotten smart and advertised that the week’s leftovers would be sold at a reduced price. We usually had a busy breakfast and lunch crowd, but things tapered off for dinner on Sundays. They’d solved that problem.
I spotted Mary talking to some customers. She waved me over, and I said hello to the couple. They were part of the Booster Club, which made them VIPs, as far as I was concerned. When we were done, Mary led me to the kitchen.
“I’m putting you upstairs tonight. We’ve decided to open Our House for the overflow,” she explained.
“Thanks for the recipes for last night. Everyone loved the steaks. I vote you get the equipment that’ll let us add sous vide as a featured item.”
“Already in the works. Dad’s steakhouse uses them, and they were consistently voted the best steaks in Indianapolis. What I like about it is that you can train anyone to make a perfect steak every time.”
Carol and I rode up the back elevator and found the staff had pulled tables together, which told me my whole family was coming to dinner. Given how busy it was downstairs, it made sense to seat us all upstairs. It didn’t take long for everyone to show up. I noticed that they were also seating other customers there. I realized Sunday night might turn out to be one of our busiest as the upstairs restaurant began to fill up.
My grandma and Duke came in. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to have a dog in the restaurant. But I soon figured out that Grandma Dawson was taking him around to each table for the campaign. One of Duke’s favorite tricks was ‘shake.’ We had him sit and then ask him to shake, and he would lift his paw up to shake hands.
Duke proved what a pro he was at campaigning when he got to our table, stood up on Carol’s high chair, and licked her face. All politicians needed to kiss babies. It might be better with a little less tongue.
“How did he do on the campaign trail?” I asked.
