Chapter Eleven
TRISTAN CALLEDon Sunday evening. He was home from the hospital, planning to take a couple days off and then work part-time for a week or two. And he agreed to Liam’s proposal, in principle.
“It’s a good solution, really,” the old man said. “I’m not interested in the business side of things, and you are. If I have someone on hand to take care of the niggling day-to-daybureaucracy, it’ll free up more of my time for my serious projects. My passion.”
“That’s not quite what I had in mind,” Liam said, but he didn’t push it too hard. Tristan was saving face, trying to put a positive spin on things for himself and probably for his inner circle. “We can discuss details over the next couple weeks, get the lawyers involved to make sure everything’s clear. But in themeantime, I’ll go into the office tomorrow and provide some continuity. Do you want to draft up an announcement email for the staff and run it by me before you send it, or do you want me to draft it and run it by you?”
“Run it by—Jesus, Liam, I am not going to look for your approval of every communication I have with my staff. If you think this agreement is going to give you that sort of power,you need to think again!”
“No, of course not, just like I won’t run every email by you. But something this big, something that involves both of us equally, should be collaborative, right? I assume you wouldn’t appreciate it if I sent out an email announcing this to the staff without giving you a voice.”
“What are you planning on announcing, exactly? We haven’t worked out the details, yet. Wemay not be able to work out the details, and the whole thing will fall through.”
“Yes, that’s the sort of finesse we’ll need to come up with together. The staff will need to be toldsomethingin order to explain my presence tomorrow, but we won’t want to tell them too much. It’ll be a fine balance—do you want to draft up the first version or should I?”
This was what Liam was signing up for?A long future of placating a grumpy invalid who thought Liam was some sort of executive assistant?
No. It was a prestigious firm; it produced important work, and Liam would be part of that. A big part. Acreativepart, not just an administrator. This was a good thing.
He threw himself into the new challenge. Long days all week long, dealing with staff, networking with clients, and even, whenhe could find some time, working on projects. More idea bouncing than really getting into the details of things, but that was to be expected. And he didn’t really mind.
He went home late every night, usually after dinners with clients or colleagues, and fell into bed exhausted.
He was important, he was successful, his career was intense and exciting. It was what he’d always wanted.
And whenCalvin phoned on Thursday night, it was the most exciting thing that happened all week.
Notactivelyexciting. More actively bewildering, as was usual with Calvin.
“I was just calling to check whether you were going to be here in time for dinner tomorrow night,” the old man said, sounding completely reasonable.
“Uh… what? Dinner?”
“You weren’t thinking of driving up Saturday morning, I hope?We need to get started first thing, Liam. I want us on the ground, at work, by eight. Maybe nine at the absolute latest. I think you need to come up the night before. I’ve got Ben’s old room cleared out a bit, enough that you can at least find the bed. You can stay there instead of at the B&B.”
“Calvin. What are you talking about?”
“You’re not trying to back out, are you? Come on, boy! We needyou!”
Liam decided to try another tack. “Can you tell me what I should be bringing? Like… tools?” Because if they wereon the groundat work, that meant something physical, didn’t it?
“I’ve got all that taken care of. Just bring work clothes, steel-toed boots—you’ve got a hard hat, right? I wouldn’t bother with all that if it was just me, but because this is kind of official, we need to be morecareful. Follow all the rules, make sure the insurance guys are happy….” Calvin stopped talking, clearly expecting more questions, more absurdity, but Liam had been sitting at the computer when Calvin called, and there had been enough clues in the conversation for a quick internet search. The North Falls municipal website had a banner headline advertising their big event.
“Is Community Circlejust a Habitat for Humanity rip-off?” Liam asked. “Charities are great, but so’s originality.”
It didn’t take Calvin long to realize Liam was on to him and catch up. “I’ll be sure to let the Bindermans—they’re the family that’s moving in, after hopping from one rental to another for the last eight years—know you think their home is derivative.”
“I’m really looking forward to seeing little Julia’sface when she gets a look at the backyard,” Liam responded, skimming the article in front of him for any more tidbits. “We’re building a play structure for her, right?”
“I’m not sure it’s in the plans, but maybe there’ll be some extra materials… now if only we knew an architect who could draw something up.”
Taybec Briggs,eat your heart out. No time for your three-hundred-million-dollar project…I’m designingplay structuresnow!
The whole thing was ridiculous. Liam shouldn’t give in to Calvin’s nonsense, shouldn’t even consider making the drive up to North Falls, absolutely couldn’t afford to take time off from the firm right then, not even on a weekend. No. It couldn’t happen. No way.
“I won’t be there until after dinner,” he heard himself say. “I might be fairly late. Eleven or so?”That would give him time to take the staff out for a round or two of drinks to celebrate the new management at the firm. He needed to make sure they were all firmly on his side before Tristan came back early next week.Thatwas important. This project in the Falls? It wasn’t something he could allow to distract him. “And are you sure it’s okay for me to sleep at your place? I could call the B&Bagain, but I didn’t really get the impression they were the type to appreciate late arrivals.”
“I’ll be up. Or if you’rereallylate, you can just let yourself in. You know where the room is.”
