Page 13 of Faking I Do
“Working a deal over in Houston but I’ll be back tonight. Stop by tomorrow morning and we’ll have ourselves a nice, long chat.”
“Yeah, okay.” I didn’t particularly care if it was nice or long, but we’d be chatting, all right. And I wouldn’t give up until I had the answers I needed.
“See you tomorrow.” Dad disconnected.
I stared at my phone for a long moment. I’d chat with my dad, settle things with Lacey, and put together an action plan of steps I needed to take to get serious about finding a new job.
I’d become complacent. This latest stunt from my dad and pops was just another sign that I needed to separate myself from their unsavory way of doing business.
Before it was too late.
CHAPTER 7
BODIE
The next day,I wiped my boots on the outdoor rug before knocking on the door and entering my dad’s office.
“Son, glad you could stop by.” Dad sat behind a massive desk, a cigar on the edge of the ashtray in front of him. Mom wouldn’t let him smoke in their showplace of a house, so he spent the majority of his time in the office he’d had built onto the side of the family home.
“You said it was important.” I crossed the Mexican tile to where the desk sat, centered between two giant picture windows overlooking the three hundred acres we’d had in the family for generations.
Dad gestured to one of the leather chairs. “Take a seat. Your pops and I want to talk to you about something.”
“Oh yeah?” I settled in the chair. “Like how the two of you decided to shut down the warehouse without even mentioning it to me?”
“Bygones.” Dad picked up the cigar, taking a few brisk puffs. “You said you weren’t interested in the family business, remember?”
Yeah, I remembered. I’d always dreamed of carrying on the family name. For a brief period of time, I’d even consideredfollowing in the footsteps of my dad and my pops. But then I found out some of their business practices leaned toward the dark gray side of my black-and-white world. I couldn’t embrace the way they followed the laws that benefited the business and found a work-around for the ones that didn’t.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know when you’re making decisions that affect the town. People depend on you for jobs, to feed their families.” My pulse ratcheted up at the thought of all of our employees going without a paycheck.
Dad returned his cigar to the ashtray, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air above us. “Relax, it’s a temporary thing.”
“What do you mean?” I leaned forward, my forearms resting on my thighs. If my dad planned on reopening the warehouse, that would solve a lot of my problems. Like having to work so closely with Lacey.
“Pops!” Dad called out over his shoulder. “Care to join us for this part of the conversation?”
My grandfather ambled from the back room over to the desk. “I can’t figure out twenty-seven across. Four-letter word for appealing.”
“Sexy.” The word left my mouth before I had a chance to stop it. Damn, that’s what thinking about Lacey did to me.
Pops scratched his pencil against the page. “That works, thanks.” He held out a hand to me. “Glad you could join us.”
I stood and took his hand, not resisting the half hug my grandfather pulled me into. “What’s up, Pops?”
“We’ve got a situation.” Pops took the seat next to me.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“A business opportunity presented itself. We took it. But now we have a few, let’s say, loose ends, we need to wrap up.” Dad leaned back in his chair, folding his hands over the impressive belly he’d earned by eating too many tamales.
“Why did y’all shut the warehouse?” I asked. “I still don’t understand what prompted that decision.”
Pops leaned a sinewy forearm onto the desk. He was getting up there in years, but he still had the hard-earned physique of a man who’d worked the land for a large portion of his life. “We need you to drop the deputy title for this conversation. Think you can do that?”
I glanced back and forth between my dad and my pops. “What the hell did the two of you do?”
“Are we having a family conversation here, son?” Dad asked.
