I’m officially the least favorite member of the Whitlock family. I’ve upset the balance.
Kevin has been the most vocal about my Grandpa’s money, and the fact that he doesn’t want to share it with me. If he was here messing around at the building, maybe he thought it would be easy to get into my office space and read the will—which I definitelydon’thave a copy of. I keep some personal papers locked away in my office, but even I don’t have access to Grandpa’s will. And who cares about it anyway? Grandpa is sick. He’s dying, and all Kevin cares about is who gets the money.
“Would you excuse me while I make a quick call?” Ineed to make sure Kevin hasn’t been pestering Grandpa all morning. His health is fragile.
Anson gives me a nod, and I call Mary, my grandpa’s day nurse.
“He’s awake right now if you want to talk to him,” she says by way of greeting.
Mary is brusque, efficient, and quickly becoming one of my favorite people in the world. She raised four boys, then went back to nursing school, and now works full-time. She doesn’t take nonsense from anybody, which makes her the perfect caregiver for my grandpa. She’s kept him comfortable and protected him from overbearing family members.
“I’m heading that way in a few minutes. Just thought I’d check in before I do.” I clear my throat. “Lots of visitors today?”
Mary doesn’t bother to be tactful. “Kevin left a while ago, and Judith is still downstairs, drinking wine. Alexander’s sister is here with her daughters. They’re hovering in the hallway and annoying me.”
“All right. I’ll be there.”
Anson is more than capable of keeping everyone out of the building for the day and checking over everything. And that timeline would have given Kevin plenty of time to come to the building and pull the fire alarm.
I hang up the phone and deal with the mess in front of me. “Anson, I need to go check on my grandpa, but I’ll be back after lunch. Do you mind keeping everyone out? I’ll talk to as many of the bosses as I can find in the chaos.”
Anson nods. “I’m pretty sure it was that guy who set it off, but better safe than sorry. I’m sorry about your grandpa. I miss seeing him around here.”
Alexander Whitlock, my grandfather, is a man who’sunafraid to live. He loves big, fights loud, and brings a vibrant energy to every room he enters.
When his health started to fail, he asked me to take over management of this building for him. While I told Magnolia that I was in infrastructure here…that wasn’t exactly true. I own this building. Grandpa signed it over in a living trust when the doctor discovered his weak heart.
He trusts me to treat the businesses well that are renting the spaces, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. It’s good protocol to do a full systems check—even if someone did pull the fire alarm.
Weaving through the crowd, I spread the word that the building will be shut down for the rest of the day. Yes, it makes me the bad guy with the bosses, but it’s not a risk I’m willing to take.
The fire chief promises to go back through with special attention on the CO2 alarms.
Anson gives me a sardonic salute, and I take that chance to jump in my car, parked directly in front of the building, and get out of here before more bored first responders pull in.
A police officer helps direct people out of the way so that I have room to back out. Normally, I would stay until everything is cleared up, but Grandpa’s home on hospice, and every minute I have with him is a gift. The doctors deemed any kind of surgery at his age is practically a death sentence.
When I reach his neighborhood, I pass several nice estates before I pull onto the concrete driveway, drive past the wrought iron automatic gate, and park close to the main door. Grandpa started out in landscaping. And turned out, he was so good at building businesses that heended up getting into real estate, restaurants, breweries, and a ranch.
That man never did things in half measures—even his apologies.
The ranch was something he wanted to leave as a legacy to my dad and me. Mom and I joke that it’s his apology ranch. Grandpa wanted to show Dad that he had changed and was truly sorry for trying to separate him and my mom. He gifted my dad with a ranch. And that was how I became the owner of the Pine Ridge ranch. A few years after my dad passed, my best friend Max bought my dad’s half of the ranch and has been running it with me ever since.
Thinking about the ranch makes me homesick, but I know my Grandpa needs me here at this time.
I leave my car parked in front of the house, grab the folder, and run inside. My aunt Judith is coming down the stairs. She’s my father’s sister, and a big mark against her character is that she’s married to Kevin. She’s always been fairly quiet but never stops Kevin from being awful to everyone else.
“It’s good you’re here,” she says with a sad smile. “You always cheer him up.” And then she continues down the stairs with slow, deliberate steps.
Maybe I’ve always been a little harsh on her. She has to say goodbye to her father after all. I know exactly what that pain is like.
I sprint up the rest of the stairs and reach Grandpa’s room. Luckily, Great Aunt Catherine isn’t waiting in the hall anymore.
Mary is inside, adjusting the IV drip next to the bed.
Grandpa looks at me with a small smile. “Aren’t you supposed to be working?”
I sit down in the overstuffed chair close to his bedside. “I actually take a lunch break. It’s this new invention that allows employees to eat their food in peace.”
