“And why not? We need to face reality. I now see just how precious and fleeting life is. And it’s taken a while for me to get here, but now I know how I want to spend the time I have left.”
“Hold on, are you sick?” Logan barked out.
“For the hundredth time,no,” Dad chuckled. “I should give you access to my medical record portal so you can stay on top of my health, because I feel like it’s the only way you’ll believe me. This is not a rash decision, or one that’s motivated by a crisis. I’ve been working up to it for some time.”
No one spoke as we all seemed to process how serious he was about moving on.
He glanced at the three of us. “Hello? Yes? Are you hearing me?”
“We are,” I replied. “Just coming to terms with what it means.”
“Well, you have some time,” he said. “I’ll put together my game plan and share it with you, so there aren’t any surprises.”
We all mumbled agreement. He moved on to scheduling our next meeting with the executive board to announce the new leadership team, then finished up with handshakes that turned into hugs.
The three of us stepped onto the elevator together and rode down in silence.
“I need to work through all of that,” Logan said as we reached the ground floor. “Lunch?”
“Definitely,” Harrison said. “I feel shellshocked. Can you swing it, Drew?”
“Yeah, I can make it happen,” I said.
Truth be told, I was killing time until I figured out what I wanted to do about Hilton Head. The Carmel property was already thriving again thanks to the social media coverage in the lead-up to the Carten wedding. The show hadn’t even aired yet and we were already seeing an uptick in event bookings, so I could step back and take a breath for a change.
And fuck knows I needed it.
We walked to the little deli around the corner from the building that had served as our go-to lunch spot whenever we had reason to be at HQ. It was the last place where anyone would expect three CEOs to eat, which was the perfect cover. We all wanted to be invisible as we discussed what had just happened.
Thankfully, the place was empty. We made our way to the back and took over two tables while we waited for our sandwiches.
“Where do we start?” Harrison asked. “I’m overwhelmed.”
“Same, but you have to admit that the co-CEO thing makes sense. It’s incredibly generous of him to not force us into some kind of sword-in-the-stone test to pick the next head of the business,” Logan added. “I’m more freaked out about the house stuff.”
I nodded silently. I was overwhelmed too, but for different reasons.
“That fuckingCandace,” Harrison muttered.
“Hold on, I get the sense that this really is his decision,” I said. “Sure, she’s chiming in and making suggestions, but he’s steering the ship.”
“Yeah, right away from the way thingsshouldbe,” Logan complained. “Noah loves the house. He calls it the castle, and he’s convinced that there are knights hiding in the basement. I don’t know how I’m going to explain that his grandpa is selling it.”
“Yeah, that makes two of us,” Harrison sighed. “Gwen considers it her retreat, and she was already talking about taking newborn photos in Mom’s gardens. Oh well.”
The counter guy called our names and we shuffled over to get our food.
I still had zero appetite. I unwrapped my Reuben and stared at it.
“You afraid of that sandwich?” Logan joked. “What’s the deal?”
“Just not hungry, I guess,” I answered.
I saw Harrison and Logan exchange a glance.
“You look like shit,” Harrison finally said. As usual, he didn’t bother softening his blows. “Like you haven’t slept in days. What’s going on?”
I wasn’t in the mood to talk about the break-up or that she’d quit. I knew they’d gang up on me to try to convince me that somehowIwas wrong for the end of our relationship.
