“Okay, listen—” I start.
“Tell me exactly what he said,” Graham says.
I pause. He? Whathesaid? Wait, what are we talking about?
“When?” I ask, stalling for time.
“When you talked most recently.” Graham seems frustrated. “When did he call?” He sits forward, forearms on his thighs. “Or did Sofia tell you?”
Sofia. Okay. So the ‘he’ must be Eduardo, her father.
I haven’t talked to either of them since the week right after Christmas and certainly not about anything that would cause Graham to frown like this.
I lean in. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what we’re talking about.”
“Eduardo is having second thoughts,” Graham says. “He wants to scale back the project. He thinks it’s too much too fast.”
Oh.
Shit.
Yes, that is definitely frown-worthy. For a number of reasons, but most importantly now because I’ve decided that the only way I can be with Ginny is tonotbe her boss, and the only way to make that happen is to get the company into a position where I can comfortably step away and sell my shares to Graham.
I’m not worried about…well, anything… after that.
Graham is the heart of the company. I’m just the money guy. What IES actuallydoesis all because of Graham. I just make sure his brilliance is well-funded.
I’ll be sure that’s in place before I step back, but I’m not worried.
I’ll be fine financially if I step away. I’ll find another amazing company to support. Or a bunch of companies. And I’ll still consult with IES and keep up with what they’re doing. Hell,maybe I’ll retain a minor share. Just nothing that makes me Ginny’s boss in any way.
As for Graham and me and our friendship, I’ve finally realized over these past few months that wetrulyhave a deep bond. I’ve never had a friend like him before, so it took me a bit to understand that our relationship extends far past the bounds of IES. We’ll be close no matter what.
Besides, I fully intend to be his brother-in-law eventually. That’s even better than best friends.
Graham and I will be fine.
But Ihave toget IES secure, and Eduardo Romero is a large part of that.
“How did you hear this?” I ask, matching Graham’s frown.
“Dad and Lauren. Eduardo told them not to ship the supplies for the next indoor farm building.”
That isnotokay. “I didn’t know,” I tell him. “Eduardo and Sofia have said nothing to me.”
Graham sits back with a heavy sigh. “That’s also not good that they don’t want to talk to us directly about it.”
I agree. Innovative Agricultural Solutions, Mason and Lauren’s company, builds the indoor farms, which is, obviously, the first step. But Eduardo decided to do that because of Graham and me andourpresentation. We power the indoor farms with IES’s technology, and the whole package intrigued Eduardo.
Well, it intrigued Sofia, who convinced her father to partner with us.
“Soweneed to talk to them about it,” I say. “And we need to be sure Sofia is a part of the conversation. I wonder if she knows Eduardo cancelled the second build?”
Graham shrugs. “I came straight to you. But we need to deal with this right now. That second building is supposed to go in next week.”
“Are there problems with the first one?” I ask.
The plan is to build six IAS indoor farms on Eduardo’s land, all fully powered by IES technology. Eduardo has a huge operation and could eventually have fifteen buildings. But these first six will transition a good portion of what he sells locally into indoor farming. We’re also excited to introduce some new crops to him and his customers. Indoor farming allows farmers the flexibility to grow anything anywhere. Climate, weather, soil conditions—none of that matters with indoor farming—and we thought Eduardo was on board.
