Page 16 of His Forever Girl

Graham ignored her and looked at him. In his eyes, Frank saw frustration and something else that looked like regret. “I’ll take a walk and return in half an hour.”

“Take a walk off the pier, why don’t you?” Tess said, before turning a frosty gaze to her father. No more defeated Tess. This was his pissed-off sunshine girl who had scored the winning goal in the state soccer finals. She didn’t know the wordsgive up.

Graham didn’t take the bait. He merely walked out.

The door snicked closed, and Tess put her hands over her face. “Why are you doing this, Dad? I’ve been working so hard to earn… I thought you wanted me in this company. I thought it was understood that I would take over when you retired.”

“There are things you don’t understand, honey,” he said, softening his tone.

“So why didn’t you come to me and discuss the issues you had? Instead of doing that, you went behind my back. In fact, you interviewed him on the day I took Granny B to the doctor so you could hide it. I suppose you swore Billie to silence, too?”

“Billie doesn’t know everything that goes on in this company.”

“Ha.” Tess sank back into the chair. “Well, the solution to all this is simple—tell Graham you were wrong. Tell him thanks, but no thanks. I’m totally prepared to run Frank Ullo Float Builders, and you can do a step-down retirement over the next several months. This is what I’ve been preparing for over the past seven years—an Ullo running our company. I’m going to pretend like you didn’t say the company belongs to you.”

“But it does.”

“Technically, but it’s ours. Our family’s.”

“I’m not firing Graham. He signed the contracts this morning.”

Her gaze went feral. “What I say doesn’t matter?”

Frank closed his eyes. Knowing that telling Tess would be hard was way different from actually doing it. He hadn’t told his children about his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, except for his son Joseph who’d been his consult during the whole process. Frank still wanted to talk to Maggie about how to handle telling them. Hell, he still hadn’t come to terms with the thought of not making it to next Christmas.

But he wouldn’t use his illness to make Tess relent. He knew he wasn’t the best father in the world, but he’d never resorted to manipulation with his children. He ignored the small voice that said he’d tricked Tess to get his way in the first place. “You matter to me more than you know, but in this instance I will stand firm. You’re not ready to run the company. Plain and simple.”

“But why? If you knew you were going to retire this soon, you should have brought me in and prepared me. You should have taught me what you do. None of this makes sense. You were always so proud I followed in your footsteps. I just thought…” Tess covered her face again with her hands.

For a few moments neither of them said anything.

“I’m not staying if you hire him.” Tess dropped her hands, her gaze resolute.

“So you’ll quit?” Frank had never even contemplated the possibility his daughter would leave if he didn’t give her the wheel. “Like a child taking her toys and going home, huh?”

“No. I’m not being unreasonable in leaving a place where I have little respect.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“Doesn’t feel like it, Dad.” Tess swallowed hard. “I refuse to remain where there is no future for me.”

“Tess, there’s always a place for you here. This is your home, your family.”

“No. This isn’t how family feels. Instead it feels like I don’t matter at all. Feels like you gave me some shell of a job to keep me in New Orleans, to keep me under your control.”

Now Frank felt as if he’d been slapped. “You love what you do.”

“Yeah, I do. I love this company, but I’m not staying while you wrap it in a bow and give it to some jerk a headhunter found for you. Really, Dad? It’s like a frickin’ nightmare, that’s what this is.” She rose. “But that’s the way it’s going to be. As you pointed out, this is your company and you can do what you want with it, but you might as well have disowned me.”

“Don’t be unreasonable, Tess.”

“Call it what you want, but I don’t work here any longer.”

“Tess,” he said her name like a prayer. Never had he wanted to hurt her.

Why couldn’t she see that?

Because she didn’t know his reasons. She didn’t know he had one foot in the grave and the other in quicksand.

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