Matthew grabs another waffle and slides off the stool. “I’m meeting the guys for a game in a half hour. Can one of you give me a ride?”
“I’ll drive you,” Eva says.
“Cool. Thanks, Mom.”
We watch him stroll out of the kitchen, all long gangly legs and skinny arms. He shot up this summer, and the rest of his body has yet to catch up.
“I can’t believe we’re taking advice from a thirteen-year-old,” I say as Eva gets up to pour two coffees.
“Matthew is a wise, old soul in a young body.”
“Isn’t that the truth.” I accept a mug of coffee from my wife. “Thanks, darling.”
“Let’s just think about it today, and we can talk later and make a decision then.”
“Fine. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Brad just resigned.”
Eva’s mouth drops open. “What?” she splutters.
“I know. He caught me off guard too.” I tell her what Brad told me about his priorities and how he came to this decision.
“This is a blow, but I don’t fault Brad for putting his family first. I feel bad we may have contributed to the situation. We never should have asked him to relocate overseas.”
“Hey, that’s not on us. He could have said no. He knows we would never have fired him.”
“True, but I feel some responsibility. He’s family.”
“They’ll be fine. Everything will work out.” I smooth my hand up and down her back. “He said he’ll work remotely until we find a replacement, and he offered to contact a recruitment agency in Dublin if we want to start the process ASAP.”
“I don’t know.” Eva props a shapely hip against the counter as she stares off into space. “Maybe this is an opportunity to reshape things. Brad has done a fantastic job and shown the potential in the European market. Maybe it’s time we target the market more aggressively. Hire someone in the UK and a couple of key European destinations and really go after those areas. If we hire local, it keeps the traveling to a minimum, ensuring we don’t face this again in a year or two’s time.”
“That’s a smart plan, and we have the market research data to back it up. We could also consider advertising the position within the sales team here. We have some talented individuals working for us who might be interested in the promotion. At the very least, we should look for someone internally to help with the recruitment and getting these new hires trained.”
She bobs her head. “We should head to the office tomorrow and talk to Gavin and Gina. Get this process up and running.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll call Gina now and get it on the calendar.” The stool screeches as I get up.
“Make it early,” Eva says, placing her small hand on my arm. “We have guests coming tomorrow night.”
“We do?” This is the first I’m hearing of it.
“Presley and Kent are coming over.”
“What have you done?”
“It’s time, Kade.” Eva circles her arms around my waist and peers up at me. “Presley and I are staging an intervention. If we leave it up to you two, you’ll never reconcile.”
“We talk,” I protest, hating to be forced into doing anything.
“You say the bare minimum at family events. That is not talking.”
“He made his feelings clear, and I don’t blame him. I let him down, and I don’t know how I can ever make it right.”
“That was almost eight years ago. It’s time to let it go. You’re both hurting, and you need to just sit down and talk it all out. I know you miss him, and I know he misses you. You’re both as stubborn as each other, so we’re not taking no for an answer this time.”
The girls have tried to resolve this before. Eva isn’t as close to Kent as she once was, because we’re all busy with family life, but she still talks to him more than my other brothers. She usually broaches the subject with me once a year, and I have no doubt she’s mentioned it to Kent too. I’m not sure if there is anything left to be said, but I should try. I didn’t do right by him, and continuing to let the years roll by without making an effort to fix things isn’t right either. “Okay.”
“Yeah?” Her eyes light up with hope.
