“Nope.”
“Stuffie brigade?”
“Nope.”
“Your name?”
“Nope.” Well, maybe, just not in the way Daddy was thinking.
“I’ve got it,” he typed in, “Castle, knight, unicorn.”
Hmm. “Take off the unicorn.”
His eyes widened. “You love unicorns.”
“I do but if I’m gonna do a knight scene it’ll be more realistic with jousting and stuff.” Too much work so… “Nope.”
Daddy pushed away from the desk and spun us around in the chair. My giggles filled the room, lightening my mood, then suddenly, he stopped. “I’ve got it.”
Was I ready for this?
“A castle with knights jousting and you can ‘tag’,” he air quoted the word, “your favorite things on the block wall of the castle.”
“Isn’t that the same thing as giving a sharpie to someone in a public restroom after telling them not to write on the stall walls?”
“Maybe, maybe not, but this might be the way for you to finally forgive yourself for that phase of your life.”
Smart Daddy, he always knows…
Maybe my struggle was personal after all. It was almost like deep down inside I didn’t believe I deserved this for myself and Daddy saw that, even when I didn’t.
2
CHUCK
I hated seeing my boy so frustrated and upset. Granted, Tae was a bit shy, and I understood why, but to have him nearing a depressive state and wanting to be away from others was something else. How had I not seen this coming on?
Easy, because we’ve been far too busy.
A vacation was well and truly warranted for my boy and me.
“Morning, boss,” Oscar said as he came into the office. Since it was generally just the two of us, we ran Ashwood out of our home office. “Everything alright?”
Oscar and I were early risers and generally had everything in order for the day before Tae joined us and currently, he was still upstairs asleep.
“I’m not sure. Tae is continuing to struggle with the mural for his playroom and honestly, it’s really getting him down. Would you have a problem with us taking a few days off so I can get him out of his head and away somewhere fun?”
Oscar’s brows rose. “You do remember you own the business so asking me for time off is kinda backwards, boss.” I loved that about Oscar, he always saw things for what they were and never sugar coated them.
I chuckled. “Speaking of that. We’ve been far too busy and it’s almost to the point where we need to hire a couple of part-timers. What do you think?” Oscar, Tae and I would still handle the club jobs, but word had gotten around and we’d picked up quite a lot of work outside of that realm now.
“Well, that depends.”
“On?”
“Where does that leave me?”
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, Oscar, and I’d like to offer you an equal partnership in the business.”
