Page 1 of The Grump

Chapter One

Xander

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“Xander, your grandparents are here,” my assistant, Lydia, said, poking her head into my office.

“Great. Bring them in, please.”

She smiled, looking a bit unsure of herself, which wasn’t like her at all. Then again, my grandparents—especially my grandmothers—could be a bit intimidating for those who didn’t know them well.

As they stepped into my office, I was overwhelmed with pride to be their grandson.

David and Isabeau LeBlanc and Celine and Felix Broussard were pillars of the Orleans Conglomerate. My five brothers and I were running the businesses now, after Dad ran it for decades, and we did so very successfully. But they were the reason the company had lasted for so many generations.

“So glad you could make time to come.”

“It’s not every day that the four of us are summoned into one of our grandsons’ offices. Do we have a reason to worry, darling?” Celine asked.

The two families were at odds once upon a time—they’d been rivals in business and dead set against my parents marrying—but now they were very tight.

“No, not at all.”

“I still don’t know why you don’t have an office in the French Quarter like everyone else,” Felix said, strolling to the window.

I’d chosen the financial district as my home base, with no regrets. “I can focus better here,” I replied honestly. “For me, the Quarter is for fun, not for working.”

“I quite like the view,” David exclaimed. He was sitting in one of the four chairs I’d arranged in front of my desk. “Since you asked us here, I’m assuming you mean business?”

I nodded. The Orleans Conglomerate was a vast enterprise that was doing extremely well. We dabbled in a lot of things, from shipping to restaurants, bakeries to bars, and several other types of businesses in between.

“As I told you before, I aim to make the Orleans Conglomerate as profitable as possible.” I leaned forward with my elbows on my desk, hoping they’d agree with what I was about to suggest.

“Yes,” Isabeau said in a warning tone. I bet she already knew where I was going with this.

“It’s about the confectionery, isn’t it?” Celine said, sighing.

I’d already mentioned this to them once before, in passing. But now I’d actually crunched the numbers properly, and that business had to go.

I looked from one grandparent to another, ending with Celine. The confectionery business was something she and Isabeau had started together years ago, which was why I wanted to break this to them face-to-face.

“I’ve been running the numbers, and several of our businesses aren’t profitable. The confectionery is the worst offender.”

Celine looked down at her hands as Isabeau sighed. “Oh, my boy. That was a passion project that Celine and I started years ago.”

“I know that,” I chimed in with as gentle a voice as I could, “but it makes no sense to keep it going.”

David looked at his wife and then turned to me. “Grandson, we can’t tell you what to do or not to do. You know the deal in our family. When someone chooses to retire, they also give up any decision rights.”

“I know, but I wanted to discuss this with you all, as I didn’t want it to come as a shock.” I found their approach very smart. Too many decision-makers could lead to problems, and with all my brothers, it was tough enough as it was.

We’d been successful with the way we were managing different branches of the business so no one would step on anyone’s toes. I was the self-appointed CFO. I’d gotten into it by mistake, and I realized I liked working with numbers. They were black-and-white and told a clean-cut story. My ambition was to make the Orleans Conglomerate the most profitable it had ever been. That was the main reason I didn’t make decisions with my emotions. Some business branches had sentimental value to my grandparents, I knew. For me, they were simply relics of times past.

“What do you intend to do?” Celine asked.

“I haven’t totally decided yet. The easiest thing would be to just sell it off.”

“But we’ve put so much work into it,” Isabeau said.

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