“What can I do for you, Dad?”
He sat down across from me and crossed his legs. “Your mother and I want you both over for dinner tonight. We have business to discuss. Chloe will be there, too.”
“Chloe? She has nothing to do with the business.”
“This is family business.”
Fuck. I really didn’t want to. What I wanted was to find Atlas, dammit. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
“Dad, I’m wrapped up—”
“You and Lindenwillbe there. This is not a request. Donotbe late.”
“Yeah, sure. We’ll be there.”
When he left, he took all the fucking air with him. My father was good at that. Shit, as if I didn’t have enough stress.
“What do you think that was all about?” Linden asked.
“With bringing Chloe in? And she’s willing to come? I have no idea. We’ll just have to hit Legends a little later than we wanted.”
He closed his laptop and walked over to me, sliding between my legs and squatting. He rubbed his hands over my thighs as he looked up at me. “Hugh… I want a change.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m… going to quit. If we’re having a family meeting tonight, I think it’s a good time to announce that.”
Honestly, I wasn’t surprised by this revelation. I knew he’d always wanted to put his woodworking to the test in a business.
I grabbed his face and leaned forward to kiss him before resting my forehead against his. I would never again hold him back. “You should do what you need to do. I’ll back you up. In fact…”
He held onto my wrists and met my eyes. “What?”
“I want to leave, too. I’m not happy here, Lind. You and Atlas are the only ones who make it bearable.”
“You’ve bent over backwards for Uncle Hanley. You’ve been an amazing son, and he can’t even fucking see that. I love him, but he’s damn entitled and demanding. He’ll be mad at me for leaving. He’ll be even angrier with you leaving. But you know what?”
“What?”
“He’ll get over it. He’ll find people to replace us, people whowantour jobs.” Linden kissed my nose, and I closed my eyes. “He’ll never see you as an equal, Hugh. I think deep down he cares about us, but I don’t think he’s ever uttered a word about how proud he is.”
“You’re right.”
“I’m going to start my own business, remodeling and house-flipping. I want to focus on historical homes and bring back their original beauty. But I’ll work on other homes to bring in extra cash. Would you… like to help? You’re amazing at organizing and implementing. It’s why you do what you do here at Cross Corp. You get shit done. Uncle Hanley doesn’t appreciate it because he expects it, butIwill appreciate you.”
My heart beat so hard with love for this man. I tried not to dwell on how many years had passed before we said or didanything. I tried to remind myself that it happened this way for a reason.
“You’d want me there?”
“God, Hugh… more than anything. When we find Atlas, we’ll bring him with us, if he wants. We can call the business ‘Cross & Pierce Remodeling.’”
I huffed a laugh and kissed his head before pulling back, but still touching him because I hadn’t been able to stop touching him since last night. “We’ll call it ‘Pierce & Cross.’”
“I like it.”
“I love you,” I whispered.
“I love you more.”
