"I'm growing a beard too," Isaac said.
"No, you aren't," I said. "You're going to look like a gutter-punk kid."
"I told her she could park her tiny house out back by the cottages," I informed Remy.
"You have cottages on the estate?" Josie asked.
"Yeah and a big garden and a castle!" Bruno said excitedly.
"It's a fake ruin that the Harrogates built. It was all the style back in the eighteen hundreds," I told Josie.
"It's like the royal family in Britain!" my assistant gushed. "They have the Windsor Estate and Sandringham."
"It would be a lot nicer with some goats," Remy said, rocking back on his heels.
I looked up at the ceiling. "We're not getting any goats."
* * *
LeavingRemy to help Josie unhitch the tiny house, I went back inside to answer emails and make a few phone calls. I knew my younger brothers always wanted me to play with them, but with the launch of the new gene therapy product, there was still a lot of work to do.
I watched through the window of the home office as Remy used a tractor to tow Josie's tiny house to a flat spot near the cottages. They had originally been built for guests or extended family. It was on the to-do list to renovate them. If they had been habitable, I would have just set that tiny house on fire and had Josie stay in a cottage.
My phone rang, and I picked it up.
"I just wanted to touch base with you," Tara said as soon as I answered. She sounded sort of breathless. "You know, we could meet at a bar. There's a great little place—"
"I'm at home," I said, cutting her off.
"Of course. I didn't mean to bother you."
"How is the marketing launch going?" I asked her.
"Great!" she chirped. "I think we're making real progress."
"You know," I said, thinking of Josie, "you might ask my new assistant for some of her thoughts. She seems to have a knack for marketing. We had a good discussion about it over lunch today."
That seemed like the wrong thing to say. I heard Tara take in a breath.
"Hello?" I couldn't tell if she'd hung up.
"I don't think your assistant needs to be on the marketing team, Mace," she said with a laugh. It sounded fake.
"Whatever you think is best," I told her.
I went back to stand at the window. Remy had put the house in position. It looked like Josie was pointing something out on the house while Isaac and Bruno wedged rocks under the wheels.
"Are we going to be ready for the conference?" I asked Tara. "You know, the presentation—actually no," I corrected, remembering what Josie had said. "The whole marketing package needs to tell the narrative about how we are a cutting-edge company and innovative. It can't just be about the product. It needs to be about the larger brand."
"We're already on that track," Tara assured me.
Henry ran into my office a few moments after I ended the call.
"Can we go visit Josie?" he asked.
"Sure," I said, picking him up.
Josie had changed into jeans and a T-shirt and was on the roof of the house with a giant container of Gorilla Glue and some duct tape.
