Page 34 of Wrong Number

“No, I’m done,” he said, holding up his hand. “It’s just too frustrating. If I can’t do it right and keep a close eye on everything, I don’t want any part of it anymore.”

“What are you saying?”

“That I’m retiring,” he said flatly. “My second cousin has a place in Southern California that he was looking to sell, but all of the finishes are really outdated. I bought it cheap because I don’t give a damn if it looks like the eighties in there.”

He finally looked at me, with a wry chuckle. “I’m going to go down there and finally spend some quality time working on my wood carving

.”

“You’re leaving? Just like that?”

He took a sip of coffee while scratching the back of his head with his other hand. “Well, I was gonna tell you in a week or two. I’ve got around three more months up here. Don’t worry, the entire company is yours. I sold my house to pay for the other one, and you know I don’t need much. So I’m taking fifteen percent out of the company for my retirement fund and leaving the rest to you.”

I blinked, staring stupidly at the red paper coffee cup in his hand.

“So you were trying to set us up with a ton of extra business so that I’d be so busy I didn’t care that you were leaving?” I asked.

“No,” he said, “I wanted to make sure that you had lots of different clients and kinds of work. You know, diversity. Just in case.”

I slumped with my back against the wall. “Thanks. I mean, I don’t know what to say, Uncle John.”

“You’re going to be great,” he said gruffly, probably nervous that I was about to get emotional. “You know how everything runs. If you don’t want to be involved with that one corporation, I’ll tell them no thank you soon as I’m back on the computer.”

“Good. Thanks.”

I straightened up, still absolutely shocked but trying to pull myself together.

“I know you like the warm weather,” he said with a smile, “So I expect you to come out to visit me a few times a year. The house has a huge guestroom, and the pool in the backyard, so there’s plenty of space.”

“You’re giving me an entire company,” I said slowly, “So don’t freak out, but this has to be done.”

Extending my arms, I took a step toward him, as he rolled his eyes. “Good grief, you kids and your–”

Shutting him up with a bear hug, I ignored the three men walking by in suits staring at two big construction workers embracing on the sidewalk.

“That’s enough now,” John muttered, backing away.

“You’re getting another one when I help you pack up your house,” I laughed.

He gave a heavy sigh, but his eyes were twinkling. “Get back to work, lazybones. Louis and Gus are a bit behind again, so you’ll probably have to sweep in and save the day.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” I said.

I raced to my job site, throwing myself into work for the day, feeling rattled, but relieved.

How funny that even though I was angry with Tana, my first thought was that she would be proud of me. God, I missed her, even though it had only been a day. But I wasn’t ready to speak with her quite yet. I needed a little time to settle down.

Oddly, now that I knew I had to forgive my uncle, I also knew that I had to forgive Tana. Even though her slight untruth was wrong, she was only trying to protect herself from my judgment. If I’d sounded angry the first time I mentioned Wright Construction, I might have made her too nervous to be honest with me.

Making the decision to call her first thing tomorrow, I needed an evening to shake my head clear. Grabbing my phone, I sent Greg a text, confirming that he and Dale were going to be at the pub. It would likely be louder and rowdier than I really needed, but I could just stay for an hour.

Dropping the car at home, I walked there quickly. I didn’t plan on having more than two beers, but there was no sense taking any chances, especially since I was still a bit distracted and off-balance.

As always, an hour with the boys yelling at the baseball game was the true distraction I really needed.

Dale clapped me on the back. “You’re right. All they needed was a new pitcher to give the whole team some energy.”

“See?” Greg said. “Tyler pretends that he doesn’t care that much about baseball, yet he’s always tracking everyone’s movements.”

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