Jamal shrugged. “I’m still getting it all straight in my head.”
“What’s left to think about?” she asked. “You seem to be dragging your feet on this.”
“Hey, what’s with the third degree?” he asked, his discomfort ratcheting up.
“I don’t mean to pry—”
“Really?”
“—but what have you actually done to get your firm off the ground?” she continued. “You’ve got all these ideas for the business, but you’re still just sitting on them. The thing that usually stops most people is the money, but you don’t have that to worry about.”
“It’s not as if I’m in some huge rush,” he said.
“Why aren’t you?” she asked. “If this is what you really want to do… Itiswhat you really want to do, isn’t it?”
“Of course,” Jamal said, unable to keep the defensiveness from coming through his voice.
“Are you sure this isn’t like baseball? Is the architectural firm more your dad’s dream than yours, Jamal?”
He snorted a derisive laugh. “Oh, you are so off base it isn’t even funny,” he said.
Her forehead creased in annoyance, censure thinning those gorgeous lips.
Jamal released a weary sigh. He could tell by the look on Phylicia’s face that she had no intention of dropping the conversation.
“My father didn’t agree with my decision to leave the family business,” he told her. “He told me I was wasting my time trying to start a business from scratch when he’d already built an empire.”
“Well, he has a point, doesn’t he?” she asked, examining a set of copper-plated doorknobs. “Why build from the ground up when all the hard work has already been done? You can just incorporate your ideas for your firm into your family’s company.”
“That would never happen,” Jamal said. “If you think you have a problem with this new-age green technology, just sit down and have a conversation with Lawrence Johnson.”
“He can’t be completely against it,” Phylicia reasoned. “As much as I give you a hard time, I know there is merit to becoming eco-friendly. And, again, I am not completely against it. I agreed with your decision to add a solar water-heating system, didn’t I?”
He sent her a small grin. “It was time for me to leave the family business,” Jamal continued. “My dad and I were never going to see eye to eye, and he wasn’t about to give up the reins to the company.” He shrugged again. “I didn’t want to be under his thumb any longer.”
“Which takes us back to my initial question. Why haven’t you made more progress setting upyourfirm?”
Because if it failed, it would prove his father right.
He didn’t say it—hell, this was the first time he’d allowed himself to mentally voice the thought—but, in his gut, Jamal knew that’s what was holding him back.
He shrugged off her question, making him feel like a world-class coward. But he wasn’t up for this discussion.
Phylicia, on the other hand, just wouldn’t let it drop.
“If you want to do it, I say it’s time for you to go in one hundred percent. I’m not sure what you’re looking for, but I think the house we just visited was phenomenal. On the pro-versus-con tally I’ve been keeping in my head, the pros far outnumber the cons,” she said. “I think you should go for it.”
“Will you be available to help me restore it?” he asked.
“There’s nothing to restore,” she said. “The house is in pristine condition.”
“Hmm…” he said. “I guess I’ll have to come up with another way to keep you around.”
Her head reared back as she blinked in surprise. “I didn’t realize that was a priority on your list.”
“It is,” Jamal assured her, holding her gaze for several long, heated moments.
She finally broke the connection, returning her attention to the crates of mismatched fixtures.
