Dad turns to Jane, reawakening his smile. “Jane, how about you and Colton stand in front of the company sign and get a picture like the old days. I still remember when the two of you climbed in that fountain when you were little.”
“How could I forget Colton jumping in and then running into the building yelling, ‘Why aren’t there pennies in that fountain?’” Jane chuckles.
“Ah, yes. Those were the days,” Dad says, seeming genuine. He must have forgotten how angry he’d been at me that day. I sure haven’t.
“What do you say, Colton? A picture by the sign for memory’s sake?” Dad says.
“Sure.” I step next to Jane so that we’re both standing in front of the sign. I leave several inches between us and tuck my hands into my pockets, but soon Jane’s arms wrap around my middle, sandwiching my right arm between us. Her grip is so tight I feel like I’m the eucalyptus tree to her koala.
“Colton, show some personality, why don’t you?” Dad teases.
Reluctantly, I loosen my right arm from my pocket and wrap it around Jane’s shoulder.
Once more, her arms find my waist. “I like this suit on you. It reminds me of the Dosan project.”
A smile lifts my lips as I look down at her, remembering the group project we’d worked on together at Yale and the suit I’d accidentally gotten dry-erase marker all over when we’d presented. She loved to tease me about that.
The click of Dad’s phone camera sounds, and Jane and I both look in his direction.
“Perfect,” Dad says.
“We weren’t even looking,” I say.
“It will do.” Dad tucks the phone into his pocket. “Now, it’s about time we get to a meeting.”
Minutes later, I enter one of the main conference rooms that’s paneled with frosted glass walls. At the center is a long black table with the capacity to fit up to twenty people; however, only five occupy the seats when Jane, Dad, and I enter. I recognize one of the partners from when I was younger—Margaret. She’s a woman with black hair pulled into a low bun, a sharp nose, and a mauve-colored blazer. Next to her sits one of the firm’s senior attorneys, though I can’t remember his name. He has severely parted hair that mirrors my dad’s and a face that looks like a woodland fox. The other three individuals at the table are people I’ve never seen before.
I smile and nod in greeting and they do the same; then each of them stand up one by one, shaking Dad’s hand with warm smiles as he thanks them for being here. Jane and I are motioned to two cushioned high-backed chairs across from Margaret, and we both sit down. Jane looks at me with a glimmer in her eye, clearly aware of something I’m not. I’m becoming more anxious by the second.
My body temperature rises, so I shrug off my suit coat and throw it over the back of the chair, only to find Jane looking pointedly in my direction and then at my discarded coat.
“Don’t you want to wear your suit coat?” Jane asks, sounding surprisingly like my dad, and her dad for that matter. We were both raised in this world, after all. We both know the etiquette.
I briefly consider shrugging my suit coat back on just to appease Jane, but I can’t help feeling like this little action is about more than just a suit coat. All of a sudden, the idea of putting on that coat feels stifling, restrictive, like I’d be slipping back into old territory that I’d thought I’d left in my pre-island days.
“I’m fine,” I say to Jane who looks like she’s trying to smile through the sour taste of a lemon.
“Well, it’s good to see each of you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some urgent business I need to attend to.” Dad nods to the table full of former colleagues just before reaching the door and looking back at us. “Jane, I trust you and Margaret can catch Colton up to speed.”
And with that, Dad leaves.
What? He isn’t staying?
I look back at the rest of the table who seem to take Dad’s absence with little to no surprise. Unable to bear it any longer, I turn to Jane. “Jane, what is it that you’re going to catch me up to speed on?”
Jane nods at Margaret, who takes this moment to pass me a leather-bound folder filled with a healthy stack of crisp white paper waiting to be read.
“Colton,” Margaret says formally. “Let me be the first to welcome you as the newest attorney in our brand-new Downing & West Sports Law Division.”
The stiff conference room fills with polite claps as everyone sends me nods of congratulations, welcoming me into the—what did she say? Newest attorney in their Sports Law Division?
Jane pins me with a stare as she holds her claps at eye level, code forsay something. But I can’t. Not when this new positionis nothing but a show of Dad’s distrust of me and my abilities. Is he so afraid that I’ll botch it on my own that he’s gone and pulled a few strings, getting his old firm to make up a Sports Law Division? Or is it that he just wants tighter reins on my life and career? Had he ever intended to keep his end of our deal?
I think of Dad’s genuine smile at the airport, this time seeing it for what it truly was. Control. He was never proud of me. He was baiting me. Luring me in until once more I was under his thumb again.
Filling the wordless void I created, Jane jumps in. “And the best part … I’m a new attorney in the division as well. Isn’t that great?”
“Great. Yeah,” I mutter under my breath. So not only did Dad want me at his old firm, but he wanted me back with Jane. He couldn’t have been more obvious if he’d walked me into a chapel and said my vows for me.
