“Are you okay?” I asked.
“That my parents look like they’re breaking up?” she asked.
“When you put it that way …” I let hang and then took a deep breath. “They did say there was a chance, though.”
“I guess. Mom said she looked at this as a way to find out what she really wanted. Dad said that things couldn’t get much worse, but he was willing to give her the space and time to figure out what she wanted. My grandmother has always tried to get my mom to be more involved in her business. I think she looks at this start-up as a way to pass her knowledge on to my mom,” Brook explained.
“Are you going to do it? Are you going to sell your business?” Cassidy asked.
“I think I need to. I see Grace’s point about me not wanting to be involved in running it and what the consequences could be. Someone like her could give it the vision and experience to do more. I could see from everyone else they were eager to accept it. I’m just not interested in giving it the attention it needs.
“One of my life goals is to learn to say ‘no.’ Learning that lesson is more than just saying the words. You have to know what you want to take on and be honest about what you don’t. Kent came to me with the idea of the management company. I could see what he did for me, and could see the value of him spreading his wings and offering the services to others.
“Caryn pointed out that in business, you should look at different income streams and try to pull them together. It’s sort of like my mom’s real estate business. Listing and selling houses is her core business. She works with investors, so she took on doing rentals—another source of income. Rentals and some of her listings need lawn care, repairs, and the like. So, you can see why I accepted when Frank Ingram, with his PR firm, and Jack Mass, investments, wanted to partner with me,” I explained.
“Is that why you helped Wolf get started in the lawn-care business?” Brook asked.
I gave her a little smile.
“That was me being lazy. My dad kept getting on me about yard work, and Wolf needed some money because his dad had been out of work for a while. He wouldn’t take any cash from me when he wanted to go to a school dance, so I made him a deal. I might have mentioned to my mom that she should hire him for her business needs,” I admitted.
Both Cassidy and Brook smiled at me in a way that made me uncomfortable.
“You really are a good guy,” Brook said.
“Not that good, I hope,” I shot back and raised one eyebrow.
“She says you’re good at not being good, too,” Cassidy shared.
“Really?” I asked with a huge grin.
“Now look what you’ve done,” Brook pouted.
Cassidy jabbed me under the arm. I swear she had an uncanny ability to find just the right spot to cause the maximum amount of pain. If I hadn’t seen Brook’s smile when our little ninja brought reality crashing in around me, I might have been upset. In the back of my mind, it reminded me I needed to get back to the dojo where I could exact some revenge.
When our pizza arrived, I received a text. I flagged down our waitress.
“I need six, no, make that seven Family Pleasers to go,” I ordered.
“What’s up?” Brook asked.
“I’m supposed to bring back lunch. We have to talk about the sale, and also the money that I received from Southwest Central State,” I explained.
My dad had set up a call with the lawyers to figure out what to do with that mess. If I hadn’t been a teenage boy, the thought of dealing with the NCAA and FBI would have made me lose my appetite. Since I was one, I was able to wolf down several pieces of pizza while we waited for them to make our to-go order.
◊◊◊
Megan and Scarlet came down to help carry in food. I popped into my mom’s real estate company and dropped off the extra one for Ashley, who was covering the office.
“I can’t eat all that,” she said when she saw I had enough to feed four.
“Either share it or take it home,” I reasoned.
There was no such thing as too much Monical’s pizza. I hoped we would have leftovers from all the food I’d ordered. It was the perfect late-night snack or breakfast.
“When is your mom coming back?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“Here, she has some calls she needs to return.”
I took the pieces of paper she handed me.
“How are you doing?” I asked.
“Good. You should come over for dinner while you’re in town. I know the boys would love to see you.”
“Do you have tomorrow off?” I asked.
“Yeah, your mom is closing the office until Monday. You could come over for lunch.”
“I would like that. I’d hoped to spend time with all the little ones today, but all this came up,” I said, pointing to upstairs.
My original plan was to spring them from daycare and hang out with them. I also wanted to spend time with my niece and nephews. It was probably good that I hadn’t because that many would have been a nightmare.
“Scarlet didn’t say what was going on,” Ashley said, fishing for information.
In a way, I was surprised that she hadn’t, but it raised my estimation of Scarlet up a notch. It was nice to know she wasn’t talking about my business outside the office.
