When he was put somewhere for a few months, he just rented a house. Here it wasn’t that easy.
“My first place here was about eight hundred square feet and I won’t tell you what I paid for it,” Jamie said.
“I feel like he thinks because he’s used to it he can just get it now, but it doesn’t work that way. He could find someplace in his salary range, but he wants better.”
She was smirking now at her brother.
“There is nothing wrong with wanting better in life,” Nelson argued.
“No,” Jamie said. “There isn’t. Where I came from, I didn’t have a lot of material possessions. I can’t even get my parents to accept anything from me.”
“That’s crazy,” Nelson said. “Why?”
“They’ve got their pride. But it’s more their beliefs. My father feels money is evil.”
“Nah,” Nelson said. “Not if you’ve got enough of it and do good with it.”
She realized her brother was right. “True,” she said. “But doing good with it means helping others, not stretching yourself thin so that you can get a space you can’t afford to show off. It should be more important what you think of a place and not what other people do.”
“I’m starting to think I can get more for my money in New Jersey and I’m going to be out there a lot anyway. Even after this project is up and running, if West sends me somewhere, it might be easier to have a house to come back to.”
“Or an apartment to not worry about upkeep and mowing the lawn or plowing in the winter,” she said.
“I can get more space in a house. I just don’t know the best places to look.”
“I’m a pro at finding the best value in a great area,” Jamie said. “I can ask around if you want.”
“Thanks,” Nelson said. “I’m kind of in a hurry.”
“He’s in a hurry because West isn’t paying for his hotel either as if he was on the road traveling.”
She looked at Nelson and saw the frown again. “Hotel living isn’t all that much fun either,” Jamie said. “I did enough of it. I do it now at times too.”
“We’ve bored Jamie enough with our first-world problems. Work time,” she said. “Yes, I think it’s time to start looking for staffing. Abby can help you with that. She’s more than willing. We’ve been talking. Her years in HR will help you get the job descriptions set, then sent to HR to get them posted. HR will weed everything out into first interviews and send those that make the cut back to you.”
“Will Abby be able to help with that?” Nelson asked.
“Yes. She and I have already talked and gone over a few things. She’ll be waiting for you to reach out.”
“Thanks,” Nelson said.
They went back and forth covering a lot of ground for the next hour. Their lunch came and they ate and Nelson left her alone with Jamie for fifteen minutes before she had to meet with someone else.
“Wish you didn’t have such a packed afternoon,” he said.
“Me too. I never know if I’m coming or going. I’ve got a team under me, but they are stretched thin too.”
“Sounds to me like you need an assistant for you alone,” he said. “Just to take care of things that you’d trust to hand off. I get the feeling you don’t trust easily.”
“I don’t,” she said. “Not in work or my personal life.”
“Something we need to talk about?” he asked.
She let out a sigh. “No.”
“Do you not trust me?”
“I do,” she said. “I don’t know I would have trusted the pre-Daddy you, but the post-Daddy you is very trustworthy.”