Page 8 of A Christmas Bargain

All through the meal, though, it seemed he was chewing on not just turkey and mashed potatoes, but also what to say. He had yet to give us a reply about helping in this disastrous moment.

Until now.

He looked at us both, noting that I had yet to bring this one last spoonful of food to my mouth, utensil held midair, that Grace winced as she played with the food on her plate.

I knew from just an expression that he’d made up his mind.

“Girls.”

Please help. Don’t sit out on this. Please…

“I can’t help you out of this one.” He turned a stern frown on my sister, looking at her directly.

At least he knew it was all on her, not me.

Grace whined and dropped her fork to her dish. “But Dad?—”

He lifted his hand then wiped at his mouth with the other. He tossed the linen to the table and lowered his gaze at his mostly cleared-off plate.

“No.” He shook his head. “Grace, this isn’t the first time you’ve done something like this. And I doubt it will be the last.”

“Oh, thanks,” she scoffed. “What a vote of confidence.”

“What do you expect me to say?” he asked.

“That you’ll help!”

I sighed, lowering my laden spoon to my dish.

“No. I’m retired. When I gave the company to you two, that was with the expectation that you’d be responsible for your own ‘mistakes’.”

Grace pouted. “But?—”

“We’ll figure something out,” I cut in. I didn’t want our Thanksgiving meal to be completely destroyed with this topic.

“You will,” he said, looking at me.

I wasn’t sure if he was asking it, like if I thought I could fix this, or if he was stating it like, yes, Claire, this will fall on you and not your sister.

“There’s always a solution,” I said, determined not to panic.

“There is always an outcome,” he advised, frowning at Grace again. “But when willyoulearn to change your behavior?”

“It was justonemistake, Dad.”

He sighed. “Don’t try to make this something smaller than it is. You’ve lost enough money that I doubt several deals will survive. Haven’t you learned this yet? Haven’t you noticed or paid attention to how one thing impacts another? That the confidence in one proposal hinges on another?”

Panic crept into me, slight but insistent. He wasn’t bluffing. He wasn’t making this up.Iknew how things could ripple into complete disaster.

I swallowed hard, hating that I’d come to this very conclusion with stark detail last night before I packed to come home for the weekend.

If I couldn’t recoup some of the loss from Grace’s gambling, Barone Realty might not make it to survive and see the next year.

We could go under. And that terrified me. This job was all I’d ever learned. All I’d ever wanted to learn and have as my goal. I’d spent so many years focusing on this career that Dad more or less groomed me for when I was still a teenager. Real estate ran in my blood, but with my sister’s incident, I might be cut off from that circulation.

“Please, Dad,” Grace begged.

“No,” he repeated, firm with a no-nonsense tone. “I won’t stand back and enable you to behave so recklessly like this.”

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