He snorted. “I do, but not anything I want here. It felt right there. Here, I’m not so sure I’m ready.”
His father shut the door. “Are you regretting leaving?”
“Not at all.” He shouldn’t have said what he had, but if he didn’t or couldn’t talk to his parents it’d only be worse. They wouldn’t judge. “I probably stayed too long.”
“Why did you? Because it’s what you wanted or you didn’t want anyone to think you couldn’t make it?”
“I’d sound like a dick if I said the second.”
“But there was some of that there,” his father said. “We know. I’m not insulted if you’re worried. We’ve always told you kids to do what makes you happy.”
Gabe had an awesome voice and for years his parents encouraged his brother to try it as a singer, but his brother said he didn’t want to. He sang for pleasure, not for a paycheck.
“You did. And I have for years. When it stopped making me happy I should have looked at it more from the outside and instead ignored what my gut had been telling me.”
“Your gut was telling you to slow down or you were going to get sick. At least you listened.”
“After I got sick. The sad part is, if this shit with Levi didn’t happen, I might still be there having daily headaches and chasing it with more meds to eat a bigger hole. For the most part, I ate healthy.”
“Which could be why you didn’t notice it right away. For what it’s worth, we are glad you’re home.”
“I’m glad to be here. I just need to figure out where to live. I don’t want to disrupt your life too much, but I talked to Jocelyn. I think I might want to buy her condo.”
His father smiled. “That’s a good plan, but no one is forcing you out. My best advice to you is don’t jump. You might not want to be there in a year. Offer to pay her mortgage for her, she’ll hold on to it.”
“I’m positive she needs that money down that she’d make on the sale for her new house,” Jayce said.
“No,” his father said. “But you didn’t hear it from me. She’ll have her mortgage before she even puts the condo up because she didn’t want to rush.”
He hadn’t thought of that, but Jocelyn had mentioned it.
“We’ll work it out the best for her.”
“And don’t think for a minute your mother is trying to push you out, she’s not. You’ve been gone for a long time and she enjoys having you in the house.”
“I might enjoy it a little.”
Except for their knowing when he was coming and going. It wasn’t as if his mother asked him what he was doing, but he was positive she suspected something. He just wasn’t used to volunteering anything.
His father stood up. “I came in here to see if you wanted to take a ride with me to the new medical arts building we will be under contract with soon. It’s got some renters in it already. The other rooms are going to get a lot of work done on them. I’m meeting Richard, Grant, and Garrett there. Gabe can’t make it, Royce will stop in. Just trying to get a final number for the amount of work it needs.”
“Does Jocelyn need to go?”
“She’s been there a few times and knows what is going on from our end. This is more what Richard thinks needs to be done so all the partners signing the contract know. With Elise out, he’s got someone else putting things together for now, but we know it could change.”
He stood up. “Sure. Might as well dive right in. I guess a good question will be, am I doing much work in terms of marketing for these ventures or just McCarthy’s?”
His family business was vast enough to keep him busy.
“That will be a conversation we can have too. We haven’t gotten there yet. This week, I think it’s best for you to just check out all the projects we’ve got going on and go from there.”
“Probably the best way to start.”
And made him realize that maybe he should have had a bigger hand in or at least knowledge of the family business prior.
But it wasn’t as if he worked for them before. He just always thought there’d be no place for him with what he wanted to go to college for.
Guess he was wrong.
