“I will watch you closely, Tara, considering where work will take you next week.”
Huh?
“I have a task I am assigning to the two of you, one of the biggest assignments I have given you yet,” he said. “Between political pressure, shifting consumer changes, and emerging technologies, solar energy has become the new focus of NME Services. We have been seeking to build a solar farm for some time now, but unfortunately, we’ve struggled to find a new location that fits all our criteria. However, the board has homed in on one location in particular—a patch of land just south of Santa Maria.”
Where Brock and the rest of the boys are. Where…
Oh, shit.
“I told them it’s a small town of poor people and losers, that we will not be able to hire anyone worth a damn to help us build and maintain the solar farm, but the board says it is the location that will not only charge us the least, with the county tax breaks and other perks, it is a place that will all but pay us to go. I’ve fought for other locations, but this is a board decision that I will not win. So, the board has decreed that we at least get an office out there. And you two will be in charge of opening that office and establishing operations there.”
“What?”
Both Elizabeth and I had spoken, albeit with distinct tones. It shocked me I was getting a reason to go out there; it disgusted her she’d have to head over there. Even though the office itself wouldn’t be in Santa Maria, we’d have to pass through, which meant…
“We have already leased a building and installed offices and furniture in there,” my father said. “You two will come into our main office tomorrow, but starting on Tuesday, you will work out of Santa Maria. We expect to experience growth quickly and effectively and for the farm to be fully operational within eighteen months.”
“Dad!”
Again, we both spoke, but, again, it was for very different reasons.
“As much as I disagree with this decision, this is a battle that the board will win. We both want to expand our solar energy offerings, seeing as how that is where the industry is going, and while I think there are better locations than Santa Maria, I will defer to the board and pick my fights elsewhere. I suggest you both do some reading on Santa Maria and learn what our potential employee base may look like.”
And without another word, my father became engrossed in email and other work-related tasks. This was how he operated—without many pleasantries, without a soft landing, and without ever a clear dismissal. With work, we were not so much daughters as we were computer programs, given a task and then closed out. No one said “Goodbye” to Microsoft Word when they closed it.
I left first. It was only the late afternoon, but after a full day like today, I needed a glass of wine. I rummaged through our cabinet, found some Merlot—I liked the sweeter things in life—and poured myself half a glass.
“You reek of oil.”
Ah, Elizabeth.
“It’s like I told Dad, it’s hot and the reflection of the sun—”
“Save it, sis,” Elizabeth said as she accepted the bottle of wine from me. “You can fool Dad, or at least you can make him not want to hear the truth, but you can’t fool me.”
And here we go.
“What do you see in them?”
I glared at Elizabeth. This was an enormous assumption she seemed to make, that I had done something with them.
“What’s it to you?”
“What’s it to me?” she said with a laugh. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Tara. I saw you come home after Steele. You’d say, ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ or, ‘It’s not a big deal,’ and then behind closed doors, I would hear you sniffling.”
She was right. I just didn’t like to remember those moments.
“And whenever you were dating Steele, Mom and Dad always knew you wouldn’t work late into the night like I do.”
“Well, bully for you, sis,” I said. “Yes, I saw Steele, but only briefly. That was not why I was there, and I told him as much that I had no interest in talking to him, let alone seeing him.”
“How did he look?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, did he look like shit? Has he completely crumbled without his dream woman that he treated like a nightmare?”
I smirked. Like I said, Elizabeth could get on my nerves, but God, it felt so great having her on my side when she started going after someone I didn’t like.
