“Ouch,” he said. “And that’s for me to know that if I decide it’s not what I want, they will do just fine without me again?”
“You said it,” his father said, laughing. “But we’d like you to stay. Seems to me you’ve got another reason to, but you have to do what makes you happy, not what you think makes everyone else happy.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I can argue until I’m blue in the face, and you’ll just say it’s new yet, and you’re good if I change my mind. I get it. I appreciate it. I made my bed by being so vocal in the past and it’s something I’m fighting now with Farrah. But in the past month I’ve never been more relaxed. I’ve never had so much free time and I’m still working over forty hours a week. Closer to fifty-five if I count what I’m doing at home.”
“That’s your problem. Don’t count the hours, just get it done.”
“I’m not counting, I’m just saying that I find myself doing more because I like it, not because I have to do it or get it done. My work is done pretty quickly, the extra is me digging in.”
His father nodded. “There you go. Gabe, he has other headaches. He’s out there trying to keep people on track, getting supplies to show up, filling staff.”
“I might have a smoother handle on dealing with some of that with vendors or even clients.”
“There you go,” his father said. “Your mother handles it now. It’s tiring for her. She’s always hated playing nice like that but does. She’s better than Jocelyn.”
“Jocelyn doesn’t have enough of a filter,” he said, smirking. “We both know that.”
“We do. Where I’m going with this is, being the owner doesn’t mean you only work on one section. It means you do it all.”
“I’ll talk with Mom and start getting that switched to me. I can schmooze with the best of them.”
“You always could. And maybe that bothers you because people still see that part of you when you’d rather they don’t.”
He knew it would get turned back to this. “It does. I worry Farrah doesn’t believe me when I say I’m staying, just as much as I worry you don’t either.”
“Stop worrying about everyone else and focus on yourself. It takes time for people to change their minds or opinions. If they don’t, it’s on them. Your actions are going to speak louder and that takes longer. Just remember that. Nothing worth having in life is easy nor is it fast.”
“I’m really learning that,” he said. “I don’t think I thank you and Mom enough for always being in my corner, even when I didn’t deserve it. The last year was a rough one and I was distant and kind of a jerk.”
“Yes, to both things.”
Nothing like his father being brutally honest. “I’m not anymore.”
“We see it. What does Farrah know about why you left your career and life behind in Charlotte?”
“The basics. The truth. I was burned out, I thought it was something other than it ended up being and I held on hoping to find it. When I was feeling sick, it was just time to end it.”
“I expected she knew that. Does she know about the incident with Levi and his girlfriend?”
“No. It’s irrelevant. It was a tiny part. If everything else hadn’t built prior, I would have laughed that off and moved on with that job. I mean it. I’ve accepted that. I’m guilty of nothing there.”
“No one thought otherwise, but I will tell you one thing about relationships—don’t have secrets. It’s never good for anyone if they come out.”
Since he wasn’t guilty of anything, in his eyes it wasn’t a secret.
Did he convince himself of this because he didn’t want to deal with it? Maybe.
But this was his life now, not what was in the past. The rest could just stay there.
“So fill us in with Jayce,”Grant said at the end of the day.
His son had just left along with Gabe, Richard and Royce. It was Jim and the two Fierce men, exactly as he’d thought it’d be.
“Not much to say. You saw for yourself. He’s got some great ideas. He’s diving in. If you want him to back off some on the rental properties, he won’t take offense.”
“Nonsense,” Garrett said. “We are all trying to slow down some in our lives. It’s time for the next generation to step in. If Jayce likes getting out there and mingling, shaking hands, and being the nice one to take clients to lunch and boast of all the good features we offer, who are we to hold him back?”
Jim nodded. It was exactly his thought on it.
