“That’s so great,” Margot says. “I’m glad he’s healing.”
I nod. “Yeah, me too. Even if it means I’m back in my childhood bedroom.”
“Well, I guess this is a great time to tell you what I need to tell you,” Graham says.
I nod. “Please. Take my mind off of my jobless-loveless-homeless state.”
“I want to offer you a job,” he says.
“Offerme a job?” I ask. “You mean, you think you can get me a job with your company?”
He looks at Margot, then back to me. “No. I canofferyou a job.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The company I work for—IES—is my company. Mine and Clark’s.”
I frown. I look at Margot. She nods. I look back at my brother. “What do you mean?”
“I own Innovative Energy Solutions. Clark and I do. We’re partners. I don’t just work there. I’m the CEO. Clark is the CFO.”
“But…” I shake my head. “That company is worth millions of dollars.”
“Yes.”
“It’s doing incredible work. Everyone is talking about it.”
“I know.”
“Youowna company that everyone is talking about and that makesmillionsof dollars?” This shouldn’t be so hard to wrap my brain around. Our father owns a company like that.
“Yes.”
“So…you’re rich.”
He laughs. “Well, yes. But more importantly, my company is doing amazing work and I want to hire you.”
Yes. Of course, his company is doing amazing work. I thought so when I thought he just worked there. I thought that’swhyhe worked there.
This actually makes even more sense.
As does the name, now that I think about it. How did I miss that? Innovative Energy Solutions is clearly a nod to my dad’s company, Innovative Agricultural Solutions. They call it IAS for short, and that’s almost all I hear, so it didn’t click at first. And, I suppose, it never occurred to me that Graham had anything to do with naming the company.
“I’ve been working in pharmaceuticals,” I say. “Why would you want to hire me?”
But I’d love for him to hire me. I’m jobless. I’ll run through my savings eventually. I really like expensive coffee and electronic gadgets. I can’t bebroke.
My mom’s been having me help her at her bakery, and that’s actually been kind of fun. But so far, I’ve just been doing it since she’s housing me and buying me groceries. It’s not ajob.
“You can easily get caught up with what we’re doing. Your talents are exactly what we need as we seek to expand and start doing more projects in smaller communities. As you know, we’re going to be opening a second office in Sapphire Falls and teaming up with Dad and Carver on some things.”
I frown and lean in. “Dad and Carver don’t know, do they? They don’t know thatyou’rethe CEO of Innovative Energy Solutions? The name didn’t even tip them off?”
“No. They’ve been dealing with Clark.”
“Why?”
“Because they would have jumped in with money and advice. I wanted to do it on my own. I wanted them to want to partner with us without knowing it was me. I wanted them to choose us based on the merits and the work.”
