3. Claire
3
CLAIRE
I stared at the heap of mashed potatoes on the edge of my dish. Cleaning off my plate for the sake of being full never appealed. As far as I was concerned, when I was hungry, I’d eat until my stomach told me I was good to go.
But Thanksgiving only came once a year. Dad only tried to make a feast for the three of us on this day. Mashed potatoes weren’t my favorite. I preferred my veggies roasted or baked. Crispy.
This soft mound coated with salty and savory gravy simply could not go to waste.
I was stuffed. Turkey, potatoes, green bean casserole, and several other sides. He’d made way too much food for just the three of us. When I saw the spread after we’d helped him in the kitchen all morning, my first thought was one of amazement that we’d actually made a feast like this without catching anything on fire. Dad tried to cook. I was clueless. And Grace didn’t seem to care, too picky with fad diets most of the time.
My second thought was a worry, though. That he was making so much food to give us a preview of what he wanted to happen. Tons of food. Oodles of it. Enough to go around… like when it wouldn’t just be the three of us.
No. I can’t pass it up.
I drew in as deep of a breath that I could with my stomach already so full. Then I lifted my spoon. One last bite. Mentally, I was already groaning, though. I couldn’t eat another morsel of anything after this.
“There’s still pie, Girls,” Dad said.
Grace sighed, shaking her head. “This is way too much food, Dad.”
I groaned, knowing I wouldn’t be able to pass on pie.
He was uncharacteristically quiet. Then again, we all were over this meal, too busy filling our mouths. His silence was eating at me, though. While we prepared the food, Grace mentioned that she’d made a “little” mistake. And that she’d lost a “teeny” bit of money.
Her attempt at not painting a full picture was foolish, though. He, of course, already knew the damage. He was alerted, just as I had been, to the accounts summary. That was how closely he still watched the business. And that was why I prayed he’d help us out with this. If he cared enough to maintain surveillance after his retirement, he had to care enough to step up and help, too.
All through the meal, though, it seemed he was chewing on not just turkey and mashed potatoes, but also what to say. He had yet to give us a reply about helping in this disastrous moment.
Until now.
He looked at us both, noting that I had yet to bring this one last spoonful of food to my mouth, utensil held midair, that Grace winced as she played with the food on her plate.
I knew from just an expression that he’d made up his mind.
“Girls.”
Please help. Don’t sit out on this. Please…
“I can’t help you out of this one.” He turned a stern frown on my sister, looking at her directly.
At least he knew it was all on her, not me.
Grace whined and dropped her fork to her dish. “But Dad?—”
He lifted his hand then wiped at his mouth with the other. He tossed the linen to the table and lowered his gaze at his mostly cleared-off plate.
“No.” He shook his head. “Grace, this isn’t the first time you’ve done something like this. And I doubt it will be the last.”
“Oh, thanks,” she scoffed. “What a vote of confidence.”
“What do you expect me to say?” he asked.
“That you’ll help!”
I sighed, lowering my laden spoon to my dish.
“No. I’m retired. When I gave the company to you two, that was with the expectation that you’d be responsible for your own ‘mistakes’.”
Grace pouted. “But?—”
“We’ll figure something out,” I cut in. I didn’t want our Thanksgiving meal to be completely destroyed with this topic.
“You will,” he said, looking at me.
I wasn’t sure if he was asking it, like if I thought I could fix this, or if he was stating it like, yes, Claire, this will fall on you and not your sister.
“There’s always a solution,” I said, determined not to panic.
“There is always an outcome,” he advised, frowning at Grace again. “But when will you learn to change your behavior?”
“It was just one mistake, Dad.”
He sighed. “Don’t try to make this something smaller than it is. You’ve lost enough money that I doubt several deals will survive. Haven’t you learned this yet? Haven’t you noticed or paid attention to how one thing impacts another? That the confidence in one proposal hinges on another?”
Panic crept into me, slight but insistent. He wasn’t bluffing. He wasn’t making this up. I knew how things could ripple into complete disaster.
I swallowed hard, hating that I’d come to this very conclusion with stark detail last night before I packed to come home for the weekend.
If I couldn’t recoup some of the loss from Grace’s gambling, Barone Realty might not make it to survive and see the next year.
We could go under. And that terrified me. This job was all I’d ever learned. All I’d ever wanted to learn and have as my goal. I’d spent so many years focusing on this career that Dad more or less groomed me for when I was still a teenager. Real estate ran in my blood, but with my sister’s incident, I might be cut off from that circulation.
“Please, Dad,” Grace begged.
“No,” he repeated, firm with a no-nonsense tone. “I won’t stand back and enable you to behave so recklessly like this.”
Yet you’ll let me have to take the brunt of the fall?
“I gave you both this company with good faith that you’d both manage it wisely.”
“What that means is you want to turn Claire against me when she gets sick of fixing my mistakes.” She sniffled, shaking her head.
“No. It means you work together.” He looked at me. “Which means you shouldn’t enable her with this behavior, either.”
“Hey.” I smiled. “Let’s, um, let’s take this down a notch. No one’s enabling anyone. Lessons can be learned from mistakes.”
Dad raised his brows. Grace scowled.
“I’ll figure something out.” I glanced at Dad again, almost sad to make eye contact. I really had hoped he’d be more open to stepping out of retirement even slightly. This was his namesake, after all.
“I left the rat race to enjoy my life, girls. I’m not that young anymore. I deserve to relax. To get ready for grandkids to spoil someday.”
Grace groaned. I laughed once, nervously. “Dad, that’s not on the radar anytime soon, you know.”
“Because you’re only getting younger with each day?” he teased back, smiling.
“Well, I’m focusing on my career,” I replied.
“Me too,” Grace said quietly. “I mean…” She shrugged. “Yeah. Me too.”
I wasn’t going to comment on that. She was too busy gambling in the form of seeking “investments” and taking risks with damn near everything to focus on her job.
“Then maybe this ‘mistake’ is a blessing in disguise. You’ll throw the company away on a lousy gamble and then you’ll both be free to start families.”
“Dad!” I huffed, forcing a quick smile. “Don’t talk like that.” It wasn’t like we could swap roles or goals on the flip of a coin. I loved my job. I enjoyed being productive and successful. Having a family was one of those back-burner goals, but not prioritizing that didn’t make me a bad daughter.
He shrugged, lifting his hands in an indifferent manner.
“I will fix this.” I cleared my throat, wishing I could feel as confident as I made myself sound. I hoped I could, but dammit, that was a ton of money to bring in somehow. The holidays were upon us, and sometimes that could absolutely kill this quarter’s profits. The market could be seasonal like that.
“How?” he asked.
I licked my lips. I wouldn’t panic. I wouldn’t cringe. That wasn’t my style. “Any ideas?” I asked carefully. “Before I drove here, I looked over moving some things around…”
He nodded. “But that wouldn’t be enough.”
“So…” I winced at Grace, who looked near tears. “Any ideas?” That wouldn’t be asking him to step out of retirement and handle this, to broker any deals or anything. Asking him for advice was just seeking a favor.
“You need to bring in new deals. New properties.” He twitched his lips, a tell of his thinking deep. “Different deals with multiple avenues of development.”
That all sounded great. I nodded. But where? How? “Do you know of anyone I could contact?”
He shook his head. “No, but I have a suggestion of where you should look.”
I sat up, perkier and all ears. “Where?” I personally hadn’t thought of anyplace that could equal a potential boon for me. I could close a deal rather well, but I had to have something to offer or look into.
“Preston.” He smiled slightly, as though he felt silly to never have mentioned it before.
I dipped my chin as I raised my brows. “Preston? As in the… town next to us?”
“Yes. Preston. There is a significant amount of land that you could check out.”
Huh. I was so used to looking further from the small town area where I’d grown up. Denver felt more like home than here. My portfolio of real estate that I’d bought or sold included a variety of locations. Colorado was where I preferred to work, but I was licensed in other states with a varied degree of success.
“O… kay.” I smiled quickly, not entirely sure what I’d find in the quaint small town of Preston, or if anyone would be interested in selling or talking about property now so close to the end of the year, but I wouldn’t sleep on his suggestion. “Preston.”
“Seriously?” Grace grimaced. “I bet it’d be hard to get anyone to sell there. Lots of family land.”
And that usually meant they wouldn’t let go of it, either, passing it on to future generations rather than letting anyone come in and develop in their small communities.
“Never say never.” I grinned, hoping to alleviate her worries and to infuse a better mood on this holiday. “I passed a sign advertising their holiday market day downtown,” I said as I pushed my plate away. “I’ll go there tomorrow and look around.”
It felt like a tiny step in the right direction.
I’d planned on working this weekend, but not like this, in some small country town far from the bustling downtown I was used to.