She gave him a hug.
“Sorry I’m late, Dad. I know you think it sets a bad example for our employees, but I don’t think anyone at this bank is keeping track of my lunch break besides you.” She drew back. “If theyare, I’ll be happy to point out all the overtime I put in. I’m here early and leave late every day.” He started to say something, but she held up a hand. “Yes, I know. You work even longer hours. But that’s your choice. If you wanted to take a long lunch break, you’d certainly deserve it. In fact, why don’t you? Why don’t you head over to the pharmacy soda fountain and get yourself the pastrami and rye you love and just sit there and enjoy it for as long as you want. I’d be happy to finish anything you’re working on.”
Her father’s eyes didn’t soften one iota. “What I’m working on? What I’m working on is the loans for this past year.”
Jolene’s happy mood dissolved, and she realized that her father hadn’t called her into his office to get after her about being late. He’d called her here because he’d discovered Cal’s loan. That explained the thunderous look in his eyes and the tight clench of his jaw. He got perturbed when she was late. He never got this angry. She knew he would discover the loan eventually. But she’d hoped it would be after the holidays.
“By the expression on your face, you obviously know what I’m angry about,” her father said in a soft voice. The madder he was the more softly he spoke.
Since there was no way to lie her way out of it, she nodded. “You found the loan I gave to Cal Daily.”
His breath released in a long huff. “I rejected that loan and for good reason, Jolene. Cal Daily has a horrible credit rating and no experiencerunning a business. No banker in their right mind would’ve given him a loan. And yet, my daughter did. She went behind my back and gave him a loan that will no doubt be defaulted on within months.”
“I don’t believe that,” she said. “Cal is a hardworking man who hates to be indebted to anyone. He’ll pay the loan back.”
Her father snorted. “Obviously, he’s conned you just like his father conned me.”
Jolene couldn’t remember much about Cal’s father. He had died when she was in high school. What she did remember was a jovial man who was always smiling and joking. She found it hard to believe that he’d been a con man. Or that her father could be conned. Otis Applegate was much too skeptical to get hoodwinked.
“Exactly how did he con you?” she asked.
Her father hesitated for so long that Jolene thought he wouldn’t answer. But then finally he did. “I was working here at the bank for your grandfather at the time. Cal’s father showed up with a big cock-and-bull story about how he’d found a piece of land that he was sure had oil on it. He even brought in some oil survey maps to prove it. I was young and stupid and wanting to prove myself to my father. So I gave him a loan at a high interest rate, thinking it would make a lot of money for the bank. It ended up costing the bank. Mitch Daily didn’t pay a dime back. We got the title to the land he’d bought, but it wasn’t worth as much as he’d paid for it. And if you talk to anyone in town, they’ll havea story about how Mitch Daily conned them or one of their family members out of something. Everything he owned, he’d mooched or cheated someone out of.”
Jolene’s stomach tightened. No wonder Cal was so set against taking anything from anyone. He didn’t want them thinking he was like his father. And he wasn’t. She knew it.
“Cal isn’t like his dad,” she said. “If you looked at the loan, you’ll see that he’s made all his payments on time.”
“You mark my words. He’ll fall behind eventually on the payments. And as soon as he does, I’m calling in the loan. He shouldn’t have gotten it in the first place.”
Jolene knew business at the garage was good, but what if it slowed down in January like many other businesses? If he couldn’t make his payment, or was even late, she knew her father wouldn’t hesitate to call in the loan. It was obvious that he held a grudge against Cal because of what his father had done. Otis Applegate was an extremely proud man. Cal’s father had made him look like a fool, and that wasn’t something he could forget.
Jolene couldn’t let her father punish Cal for his father’s sins.
“I won’t let you do that.”
His father’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
She was just as shocked as her father by the words that had popped out of her mouth. But she couldn’t back down. She had to stand up for Cal. And for Emma. And for anyone else who struggled to keep a small business going.
She ignored the jittery nerves in her stomach and lifted her chin. “I won’t let you call in Cal’s loan for just one or two missed payments. I won’t let you take away a man’s livelihood just because you’re still holding a grudge against his father.”
Her father’s face darkened. “You won’t let me? Just who do you think is in charge here?”
It was a ridiculous question. There had never been any doubt who was in charge. Nothing happened without his approval at the bank. At home, Hanna couldn’t serve a meal without his okay and the lawn guy couldn’t trim a branch or plant a flower without first talking to him. And he’d been in charge of Jolene ever since she’d been a little girl—telling her want classes to take in school and how to dress at the bank and what car to drive. The only person he wasn’t in charge of was Charlotte. She had refused to let him take charge of her life and now she was living happily in Austin . . . while Jolene was here in Simple still letting her father tell her what to do.
“You’re in charge, Dad,” she said.
“Exactly.” He moved around his desk and started to sit down as if that was the end of the conversation, but Jolene realized she wasn’t finished yet.
“But between me and Charlotte, we own the majority of the shares. So ultimately we have the final say on what loans get called in.”
The look on his face could only be described as pure disbelief. “Charlotte doesn’t care what happens at the bank and never has.”
Jolene knew she was stepping out on a ledgethat she could never come back from, but she couldn’t let him hurt Cal and Cheyenne. “She will if I ask her to.”
“Are you saying you’ll get your sister to go against me?”
It took every ounce of willpower she had not to crumble beneath her father’s hard stare. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
