Clay: As you wish.
He turned and gave me a smolder Princess Buttercup would have swooned under. But not me. No swooning here. I stared him down before turning to my computer, focusing on looking bored and unconcerned. Whatever. Clay just liked to mess with me. Just like I liked to mess with him. We were… messy. I wasn’t sure when my feelings for him had morphed from Parker’s annoying friend into a complicated person I wanted to get to know on my own, but a part of me wished I could go back to ignoring him. Real ignoring, not this denial of how aware I was of him at all times.
How had Jenny put it? I sat up a little taller around him. I felt more. I wished she wasn’t right.
I put my phone away so I wouldn’t be tempted to check it. No more texting Clay at work. Someone was bound to catch on, the way gossip and rumors flew around here.
Dad wanted another ownership meeting with Parker and I right before I planned to leave for the day. I sighed, knowing this wouldn’t be quick. I’d have even less downtime before I was supposed to call Noble.
I met up with Parker just outside of Dad’s office.
“Do you know what this is about?” Parker asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Get in here, you two.” Dad waved us in before turning to our tax guy, Barry, who was sitting in the corner looking like he was trying not to take up space. He glanced at the two of us before shuffling the papers in his lap nervously. He was a timid guy in general, but I had a bad feeling about what I was about to hear.
Dad motioned for Parker to shut the door behind him, and then rubbed his hands together. “Let’s get right into it. Barry’s here to help us with the paperwork. The long and short of it is, after meeting with him today, we think it’s best if we get the ball rolling on this while the two of you are single. If either of you were to marry and get shares of the business after the fact, your spouse would be entitled to half in the case of divorce. It’s a lot harder to take something that became yours before the marriage. And I hate to be crass about this, but it does happen.” He looked to Barry to confirm what he was saying.
Barry gave us a nod. “This is true. We also plan to put in a clause that in the case of your death, your spouse would get a payout from the company in return for cutting all ties to the business. The shares would revert to the other owners and not the living spouse. There would be no unexpected ownership transfer.”
Parker leaned forward. “So you’re saying, you’d take care of my wife and kids financially, but you’d take back the company’s shares?”
“Exactly.”
I frowned. Nothing they were saying was wrong; clinical maybe, but not wrong. But all I could think about was Clay being left out. We were signing paperwork today? If there was ever a time to say something, it was now. As fast as we were moving on this, it would soon be too late for regrets.
“What about Clay?” I asked.
Dad’s eyebrows furrowed. “What about him?”
Parker hitched up his pants and turned to look at me. “Yeah, what about him?”
“Did you ever consider making him an owner? He’s sort of like another kid, and he’s just as invested in the business as the rest of us.” Something I’d been so sure about managed to make me feel unsure the second it left my mouth. Especially based on the expressions from the other three in the room. Had I been wrong in thinking he should be included?
“You didn’t say as much to him, did you?” Dad asked, staring me down.
“No.” It came out automatically, and the panic hit me all at once. Because I was lying. I was lying to the two people who knew when I lied. I’d never been good at it.
“She did.” Parker ran his hands through his hair. “She totally did. I can tell.”
“Well, why not him?” I asked, trying to get back to the point. “It’s just, this is moving really fast considering you told us yesterday to be patient—that it was a process that would take years. I thought there’d be a better time to discuss this, but I guess it’s now.”
Dad sat back down and looked at Barry. “To be honest, it hadn’t occurred to me to include Clay.”
“You’re considering this?” Parker asked, looking from Dad to me and back again. “If I was the one who brought it up, you would’ve turned it down flat. But because Lauren says it, why not?”
I refrained from rolling my eyes. “This isn’t about us, Parker. And why didn’t it occur to you? Clay’s your best friend.”
Parker threw his hands up. “So this is about being better than me. Great. You win.”
“That’s not it at all.” I didn’t want to do this. It was like we were proving, right here and now, why we weren’t mature enough for this. Squabbling coworkers were one thing. Squabbling owners were a disaster.
I turned back to Dad. “I’m not getting engaged tomorrow. Neither is Parker. Can we reschedule this for next week, or next month, and have some time to think about it? Because right now I feel like rejecting ownership altogether, but you’ve always taught us that important decisions shouldn’t be made while we’re upset.”
“Yes, we’re done for today.” Dad shooed us both away, but called us back before we made it to the door. “We didn’t get a chance to discuss the last ownership issue, and I want you to think about it before we meet again, considering the disaster this meeting’s turned out to be. Owners cannot date employees of this company. Not now or in the future.” He was looking at Parker, but he wasn’t fooling anyone. He meant me. Yeah, Parker had dated a receptionist once, but nobody put up a fuss when she quit a few weeks later. He had been lucky enough to date an employee who wasn’t good at her job.
I stared my dad down. “Why do we have to make a rule about it? For the last time, I’m sorry Boyce quit.”
