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“Cameron is resigning.”
I sank into my own seat. Knowing this had been coming didn’t lessen its impact. I jumped right in on offense.
“Dad, I have no interest—”
“Before you say anything, hear me out.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, now in position to give it his best.
“My turn first,” I said, knowing it was futile. This was the same man who’d pitched such an onslaught that I agreed to change my graphic design major to a minor and then ended up in hotel management, leading to this job.
The same man that convinced me to break up with Lucas all those years ago.
“I already know what you’re going to say,” my father forged ahead. “That you don’t want to be VP. You don’t want to be married to the job and want to have time for your art stuff.”
My art stuff. Just the one thing I loved to do. Sure, at this point I was relegated to some odd jobs online, but at least I was designing things. Creating. A dirty word in his business-obsessed mind.
“So, at least you get where I’m coming from,” I said. Of course, he didn’t pick up on my sarcasm.
“You are a perfect fit. No one knows the properties like you do, Charlee. People like and respect you.”
The praise always got to me. Of course, my father knew that.
“The fact that I have no interest in the job?”
“So this is what you want?” He waved his hand at my desk. “To manage Taughannock Falls. . . and that’s it? VP is the advancement to your position, Charlee.”
“I didn’t take this position looking for advancement. I took it because. . .” Because you pushed me into hotel management like you push me into or out of everything in my life. “Because it was the next logical step after graduation.”
I put my purse in a drawer and flipped open my laptop. Taking the coffee my father had brought, I sat back. And thought of Lucas in that bar last night.
“Fair enough. But what’s next for you?”
As if I knew.
Most likely, when I tried to talk to him, Lucas would push me away. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t try anyway.
Dad certainly didn’t want to hear about that “troubled kid from the west side of town and his drunk father” that I’d been daydreaming about.
“Not the VP job,” I said firmly.
His eyes narrowed. I could do this. Stand firm, Charlee. You are a thirty-year-old woman. Independent. You do what you want, when you want it, and do not need permission from your father.
Except. . . he could be very persuasive.
“Not even for double Cameron’s salary?”
My hand froze halfway to my mouth. “Double?”
He was playing hardball. “Double.”
That wasn’t possible. “How could you—”
“Cameron agrees selling Ridge Point is the right call. We spread ourselves too thin there and will stay on Seneca Lake for the foreseeable future. With the funds from the sale and what we’ll be saving there, your salary won’t be an issue. It was Cameron’s idea. He knows how important fulfilling his role with the right person will be for Lakeside’s future.”
“Dad.”
“Charlee.”
He said it so playfully, for a second, I forgot he was manipulating me. The man wasn’t all bad. He honestly wanted what was best for me. Or at least, what he thought was best for me.
