“We’ve changed plans,” he said curtly.He reached for the tallest of the three sterling decanters that stood on the bar.“I want to be at the office in the morning.”
Pam came up from behind.Although she was growing taller, she still had the sweet look of childhood that never failed to annoy him.Sweet she might look, but she wasnot.She was too smart for her britches.“I thought Daddy wanted you here.”
“Simon will cover while he’s gone.”
“But there’s nothing to do in Boston.”
He took a healthy swallow of scotch.“Maybe not for you.I have more than enough to keep me busy.”
“Okay.You go back.Marcy and I will stay here.”
“Uh-uh.You have to be back by the weekend.I’m not making the trip again.”
“Then Marcy will drive me home.”
“Marcy doesn’t have a car.”
“We’ll borrow one.”
“No way, princess.”Highball glass in hand, he headed for the stairs.“Be ready in an hour.And tell Marcy to be ready.”
“John …” Pam’s plaintive voice followed him up the stairs.Neither missing a step nor looking back, he went down the hall to his room and began to pack.He had the few things he’d brought from Boston stowed neatly and was packing his shaving kit when Eugene appeared at his door.
“Pam says you’re leaving?”
John shot him a sharp glance.“I should have known she’d run straight to you.”
“She didn’t.I saw Marcy downstairs.I’m off to New York tomorrow, John.I was counting on you to keep an eye on things here.”
He was using his tempered voice, the one that he used more often now, the one John found patronizing.He preferred the big booming sound that had shaken him so as a child.He wasn’t a child anymore, and he didn’t shake.Moreover, he could give back what he got.He enjoyed a good shouting match with his father.
“Simon can do it.You trained him.He knows what you want.”
“I want you.”
“I have things to do at the office.”
“I want you here.You’re my son.I want you here when I’m not.”
John’s patience waned.It didn’t matter that Eugene was getting older and more gray, or that there were a few times when he actually looked lonely.He represented all that John despised, and John was helpless to hide that contempt.
“You don’t need someone here.You don’t need to be here yourself, but it’s the one place you can be yourself.You don’t fit in the city.Timiny Cove is where you feel comfortable, so you hang around here and tell yourself that they need you.Well, they don’t.The mines practically run themselves.If you want to waste your time up here, fine, but I don’t.”He tossed back the rest of his drink, then took mellow pleasure from his father’s reddening face.
“This is your living, these mines.You seem to keep forgetting that.Without them, you’d be back in the city in some small office kissing some big shot’s ass.That what you want?”
“It’s a moot point, since we do have the mines.”
“Ihave the mines.They’re not yours yet.”
“But they will be, because I’m the only one, next to you, who knows enough about the business to run it.You’ve done well in that sense.Even when I was fighting, you got me up here and involved.I have to hand that to you.”
But Eugene shook his head.“I don’t take credit for no failure.”
John bristled.“You’re calling me a failure?”
“I’m saying that I failed with you.Maybe I got you to know the business.Maybe I even got you to be important to the business.But I could never wring any feeling from you.You’re cold as a fish, John.Ever since your mama died—”
“Don’t bring her into this!”It was the one thing he couldn’t take.Eugene had abused her.Even thirteen years after her death, it hurt John to hear her name on his tongue.
