This venture with the other three businesses had been a very profitable endeavor, but all of them in their early to late sixties were ready to not work as hard. At least that was his and his wife’s opinion.
“That’s my thought. I know the Olsons have never gotten more involved than all the legal parts and that’s one less headache for us.”
“Most of the work falls on the three of us,” Grant said. “You guys do the upfront work, then move on.”
“Royce, Richard and your firm,” he said. “I know.”
The Kennedys did all the interior work, all the repairs, and Fierce did all the drafting, blueprints and anything else to get it to code. All McCarthy’s was responsible for was getting the structure ready for everyone else.
It was the perfect pitch to them. The rest was them just staying involved.
They were all getting to a point in their life when their kids could start to take over more. He was on board with it and more than thrilled all three of them were diving in.
“It’s a special feeling knowing we can sit back now and relax, isn’t it?” Garrett asked.
“Stacy and I were talking about that.”
“Which brings us back to Jayce. Last we talked there might be something with someone?”
“He’s dating an old classmate. Someone he had a brief relationship with in the past. Stacy had been doing some tiny poking, not even meddling, but nothing major. It’s working, but I’m trying to stay clear of it other than offering fatherly advice.”
“It takes the fun out of it for us, but maybe there comes a time we slow down there too.”
“Well, you guys have a lot more fingers in pies than we needed to. Two of my kids are on the right path and I think Jayce is darn close to getting there. Just has to not trip up too much.”
Like him not being completely transparent with Farrah, but his son had to live his life, and Jim’s job now was to be there when he was needed.
Even if his son didn’t want to admit it.
36
GAMES OF CONTROL
“Are you going to be okay without me for two weeks, Mom?” Archer asked three weeks later.
“I’ll be fine,” she said, a smile tugging at her lips. “You’ve been gone before.”
“But not two weeks at a time,” Archer argued, nodding his head as if he were the authority on all things mother-son. “Am I going to see Jayce before I leave?”
She was walking around her son’s room and packing for his trip to his father’s. Two suitcases. One all set for them to fly out tomorrow morning to Disneyland and the other to stay at his father’s house for when he returned. What a pain this was, but it was what Tucker asked her to do.
To her, her son was going to need the same clothing for both weeks regardless of if he was in North Carolina or California.
“He’s on his way over now,” she said. “He wouldn’t let you leave without saying goodbye.”
“Will he stay here with you while I’m gone? To watch out for you?”
She hadn’t had Jayce spend the night again since the slumber party. It was just one of those hard things to navigate. It wasn’tas if Jayce was pressuring her to do it either. Maybe if he was, she would have taken that step.
But there he was, being patient again. Maybe she didn’t want that.
Maybe she needed to be shoved a little to get her feet moving.
Like what her son just asked.
“Would you be upset if he did?”
“No,” Archer said, shaking his head. “Because then I’ll know you’re not alone. I know you like it sometimes but not two full weeks, right?”
