“Vince and I have made a deal,” his grandfather, Bill, said. “We’ve shook on it. The wheels are in motion, and it will be happening very fast. We wanted to be the first ones to tell you about it.”
Vince let go of Ava’s hand and pulled out a chair for her. Ava missed the feel of his hand and the security of his touch, but she was determined that her mother-in-law would not intimidate her ever again. “We’ve decided to give our marriage a second chance,” she said with a bright smile.
Delores’s eyes flashed anger. Her lips set in a firm line, and she jerked her head around to stare at Vince. “You want to explain what is going on? I thought you were going on a cruise to get your mind settled and come back ready to work.”
“I was, and I did. Ava wound up on the same ship, and we managed to work things out this past week, and…” He reached under the table and took his wife’s hand in his. “We are moving to Australia.” He went on to tell them the story that Henry had told him and the plan that he and his grandfather had worked out.
When he finished, Delores glared at her father-in-law. “You can’t do this. You turned the business over to William, and that would be his decision to make, not yours.”
Ava’s heart took a nose dive all the way to the bright, shiny hardwood floor.
Bill stared her down without blinking, “I don’t think that would be a smart idea. I’m not dead yet, and most of what I signed over to William won’t officially be his until I’m six feet under. All it takes is a call to a lawyer, or hell, for that matter, we’ve got a good one right here at the table with us. Vince can redo my will, and I’ll step back in as CEO of our oil business. Vince needs to understand all the aspects of the job he’ll be taking on someday, and there’s no better way to do it than to start from the ground up with a small company. And it will put him and Ava out there on their own to work on their marriage.”
“I think this is a wonderful idea,” William said. “I wish you would have thought to do something like this for me when I was his age.”
“It can still be arranged,” Bill said with a chuckle.“There’s a little company out in Arizona, way back in the desert, that I’ve been looking at. You want to move there? The nearest town is about twenty miles from the site and has maybe a thousand people in it.”
“No!” Delores gasped.
“Then let’s celebrate Vince’s and Ava’s new start tonight with a bottle of champagne,” Bill said.
“I’d rather have a beer, right out of the bottle,” Ava said.
“Then beer it is.” Bill motioned for the waiter. “I think that’s what I’ll have, too.”
Vince leaned over and kissed Ava on the cheek. “Welcome home, my love.”
“I’m glad to be here, but I can’t wait to get to our place in Australia,” she whispered.
“Me, either,” Vince told her.
“Are you sure about this?” Delores asked.
“More than anything in my life, including getting my degree and asking Ava to marry me. I don’t deserve this second chance, but I intend to make the best of it,” Vince answered.
“And so do I,” Ava seconded.
“What if you fail? Do you expect to walk right back into this cushy job?” Delores’s tone dripped icicles.
“I can always go back into teaching to support us,” Ava told her, “but we aren’t going to fail. Don’t you know that love conquers all?”
“Yes, it does, and we will prove it.” Vince brought Ava’s hand to his lips and kissed the knuckles.
“The kids are leaving day after tomorrow,” Bill said. “That will give them time to get settled in their new place before the actual business starts next month.”
Ava whipped her head around to stare at Vince.
“That’s my surprise for you. Grandfather has agreed to take care of the sale of the house for us. The little house in Australia has a few pieces of furniture in it, and we can shop locally for anything else we need,” he said, and then leaned over to whisper in her ear. “I’m in a hurry to carry you over that threshold.”
Suddenly, everyone else disappeared, and no one else mattered. She smiled up at him. “Yes, I definitely can be ready in two days. I hope part of the furniture in the house is a bed, but if not, we can always sleep on the floor.”
Chasing Dreams
Chapter 1
“You have got to be kidding me.” Ford Holt removed his baseball cap with his old Army Ranger insignia and ran his fingers through his thick black hair.
“What?” His grandfather, Billy Joe, chuckled. “Don’t you like my bucket-list look?” He turned around slowly to give Ford a better look at his bell-bottom jeans with a butterfly embroidered on one leg and his neon-green T-shirt withChasing Dreamsprinted on the front. “Sharlene and Nita have matching shirts.”
