Page 17 of Nash Falls
“Try to have something, honey, you really can’t stand to lose any weight, you know.”
“Yeah,” he said, his tone now depressed.
Judith seemed to note this, so she perched on his lap, and played with the locket hanging off her chain necklace.
“What happened yesterday was so unfair to you. That… man who said those awful things to you?”
“Shock,” he noted.
“Yes, it was completely shocking, all of it.”
He took a few moments to explain the man’s nickname. “I don’t know where it came from, but that’s what my dad always called him.”
“And the language he used,” she continued. “I thought that poor minister was going to have a stroke.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Are you going to contact your father’s lawyer?”
He had forgotten about that. “I’ll call him today.”
“I wonder what all that’s about. It’s not like your dad had much.”
“Yes, that’s right,” he said absently.
“That woman he was living with? She seemed quite odd, almost frightened of you.”
“Yes, she did,” he agreed.
Judith seemed to sense his absence from the conversation and gently tapped his forehead. “A lot going on in there, right, mister?”
Oh, you have no idea, thought Nash. He said, “Yes. But I’ll get through it.”
“You always do.” She jumped up. “Coffee in five minutes. Chop chop.”
She disappeared out the door and Nash suited up for another day at the office, which now would be unlike any other day at the office ever.
CHAPTER
9
NASH WAS IN HIS STUDYpacking his briefcase when Maggie appeared in the doorway. She had on a velour warmup suit in a muted shade of rose. Nash could have sworn his mother had worn a similar outfit thirty years ago. But somehow his daughter lookedhipin it, he concluded.
She waved a folder at him. “Here it is,” she said.
“What?” said Nash distractedly.
She carefully laid the folder down in front of him with exaggerated solemnity. “My business proposal, Father dear.”
“Your what?”
She became all serious in a single beat. “For my social media influencer platform. I told you I was putting it together. I’ve worked on it for weeks now, staying up late and everything, drinking espressos and Red Bulls. My business plan, all the numbers, projections. And I was conservative in my forecasting,” she added with a knowing look. “Because I know you likeconservativeestimates.”
He opened the folder and saw colorful charts and graphs and what looked to be budget and revenue and income projections.
“Okay, I’ll take a look at it later.”
“Dad, I really need to get going on this.”
