“It was the final straw, Mom. You all saw how I was this past year. I barely talked to anyone and when I did I snapped. I shouldn’t have treated Chance the way I did, but I couldn’t take on one more crisis to fix. Maybe it was enough for me to open my eyes to the person I became who was so different from who I used to be.”
“No one said you had to fix your sister’s life. She can do it herself and has. That’s on you for thinking less of her. Be happy I won’t share that fact.”
He knew a verbal beatdown when he was getting it. “Thanks.”
“The stress of it was eating into your stomach?”
“I think it was the bottles of Motrin I went through a week with headaches and tension in my neck,” he said.
“Jayce!”
“I know. I didn’t have the best diet on top of it on the road. Not always, but I tried. I’d get on these kicks with the players and feel good, but it never helped the headaches.”
“I’m glad you left that job. I truly am. And I know you don’t want to hear this, but your father and brother, even Jocelyn would love to have you at the company. Me too.”
He knew this was going to come up. “I don’t need a pity job.”
His mother laughed. “Really, Jayce. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. No one pities you and they never have. If you decide to work for us, you’re going to work. Just ask Jocelyn. We don’t go light on anyone.”
“Mom, I’ve got a marketing and communication degree, not engineering like Gabe or Dad. Not construction either.”
“And we are lacking in the marketing for McCarthys. We’ve always been. I’m doing it and hate it.”
“Why haven’t you hired someone then?”
His mother smiled. “Because it’s been waiting for you. No pressure, but it’s there if you want it. There are a lot of things your father, brother, Jocelyn and I do that could come off our plates. With the arrival of Hunter, Gabe is taking some time. Dad and I would like some too.”
He held his hands up. “I got it. And Jocelyn is with Mav now outside of work.”
His sister’s boyfriend was a fireman and worked nights and weekends, with Jocelyn stepping up to help with the childcare.
“Think about it. That’s all we are asking.”
“It’s more than that,” he said. “But I will. Until then, I’ve got an upper GI scheduled in the morning. Maybe I’ll get some answers there too.”
“Let’s make a deal,” his mother said. “We’ll give you three weeks to think about it. Even if you say yes, no work until then. You haven’t had a vacation in years, and the first two weeks here, you’ve been stressing over not wanting us to know what is going on. It’s off your chest. You’re getting the rest looked at. Take the next three weeks for yourself with no worries about anything in life.”
“Like a reset?”
His mother walked over and gave him a hug. “Exactly a reset. If anyone needs it, it’s you.”
6
STRIVING TO CONQUER
“Is he here?” Archer asked when they heard a car door four days later.
“It looks it,” Farrah said, pulling the curtain back to see Jayce walking toward her front door.
He still carried the same swagger he had years ago. A strut that dared the world to touch him, only for him to flick it away with the swipe of a finger.
The light breeze teased his hair, his long-sleeved cotton shirt clinging just enough to hint at the strength beneath, while his jeans hung looser but still revealed the hard muscle her teenage self had never quite noticed.
After exhausting all her contacts, she had no choice but to reach out and see if he was serious about watching Archer for her.
He was, which meant her son needed a bit more time with the man who was a stranger to her life, even though he’d been in it for so long as a boy.
Jayce had always been a good friend, she was in a bind, and he was trustworthy. She saw his parents at the doctor’s office;they talked about Jayce now and again and he was nice to her son. Showing he had changed little.
