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CHAPTER 21
GRAYSON
Dad knocks at my door, standing with one hand in the pocket of his tux. “We have to be at the hotel in twenty minutes. Why are you still working?”
I shuffle through the papers on my desk, still struggling with the layout for the new Sunday edition. “I have a lot to do still, and it seems like there isn’t any time to do it these days.”
“You would’ve had more help with that if you hadn’t taken it upon yourself to fire Jade,” he says, though there’s no anger in his voice.
Dad steps into the office, walks to one of the chairs on the other side of my desk and pulls it out. He unbuttons his tuxedo jacket before sitting down, one leg crossing over the other.
The tension that fills the room is stifling. It feels like the middle of a humid summer day when the air is so heavy and thick that you can feel it pressing down around you, making it hard to breathe.
He clears his throat. “I liked her, you know. She brought out the best and worst parts of you. Your mother was the same. I lovedAnnie more than anything, but if she wasn’t getting under my skin in some way or another, it wasn’t a normal day.”
I put down the papers, turning my full attention to him. I can’t remember the last time he talked about Mom.
Dad gets a distant look in his eyes. “I used to think that someone had to be playing some sort of joke to put the two of us together. It didn’t make sense. She was always too good for me, too, and I knew it. I did everything I could to sabotage that relationship.”
My mouth goes dry, throat thickening. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because any idiot with eyes could see the way you followed Jade around like a puppy. The pair of you might have argued a lot, but you always worked it out in the end. You seemed the happiest I’ve seen you in years.”
I press my lips together, afraid that if I speak up now, whatever connection happening between us is going to come to an end.
The corner of his mouth twitches. “I know I haven’t been the best father to you, Grayson. I’ve been a pretty bad one, if we’re being honest, but seeing you happy lately, it felt like maybe it was time to take a step back and finally hand the business over to you.”
“You weren’t going to give it to me if I wasn’t happy?”
All these years, I never understood why he was holding out on me. I used to assume that it was my age and inexperience, but I got older, and I gained experience. I was promoted through the company up until two years ago when it stopped.
Dad nods, glancing at the papers in front of me. “You spent a long time throwing yourself into what you thought I wanted you to be. Which is on me. I should have told you that I liked you theway you were, but instead, I pushed you harder. I didn’t tell you I love you enough.”
The words are a heavy weight lifting from my shoulders.
I didn’t know that he had been this observant all these years.
For a long time, I thought that he had quietly removed himself. He buried himself in work after Mom passed, and I thought that was just the way life was going to be.
It didn’t occur to me that he might have been struggling and doing everything he could to cope.
Dad sighs and lowers his leg, pushing to his feet. “A man who isn’t happy will only run his business into the ground.”
“I’m not happy now.” I swallow hard, torn between telling him everything and nothing.
This is him trying, though. Maybe it’s time that I start to try too.
I try to clear the lump from my throat. “I don’t know how to make things right with her. I was an ass and put all my issues on her. I accused her of trying to get the CEO position, even though she told me time and time again that she didn’t want it.”
“She never would’ve gotten it anyway.” Dad’s eyebrows pull together as he buttons his coat back up and tucks his hands into his pockets. “If there’s anyone who’s going to take over my company, it’s going to be my son. Jade is brilliant, but she doesn’t have the attachment to this place that you do.”
“I wish I had known that before I went and blew everything up with her.”
Dad nods sadly. “I think that if she means anything to you, you should start with an apology. Heaven knows your mother shouldhave left me a thousand times for the way that I screwed up with her.”
“The last thing I want is to screw up with her and then to have to keep fighting and trying to figure out how we’re going to work things out. I want to apologize to her, and then I don’t want to hurt her again.”
“You’re going to hurt each other from time to time,” Dad says. “It’s the nature of the beast.”
