Chapter 2
Denise had barely made it back to her office from the coffee shop before her cell phone started ringing.
She checked the caller ID, not surprised to see it was her dad.
Normally, they talked face-to-face multiple times throughout the workday, but ever since he’d broken his leg while checking out the construction site of a new roller coaster two weeks before, he’d been stuck at home.
Now he checked in with random phone calls.
As usual, he didn’t wait for her greeting when she accepted the call. “Denise. Hi! Any word from the new contractors yet?”
His upbeat, boisterous voice boomed through her phone’s speaker, prompting her to move it away from her ear. She’d known him her whole life, but the volume and energy of his tone still always managed to catch her off guard.
“Not yet. If I don’t hear anything this afternoon, I’ll ask Ray to bug them again.” She scribbled a reminder on a sticky note. “Oh, that reminds me, I wanted to let you know that Jeremy Schumacher will be leaving his department and working under Ray moving forward.”
“Why the heck would he wanna do that?”
She drew in a deep breath. “He disclosed to me that he’s in a romantic relationship with one of his direct reports, Derrick Steves. Rather than losing either of them because of our policy, I suggested moving Jeremy to a different department.”
Her dad went uncharacteristically quiet for a few seconds. Finally, he said. “Oh. I didn’t realize he was like that. Gay, I mean.”
He cleared his throat, and another awkward silence descended. She could picture him leaning back in his big office chair with his broken leg propped up, scratching at his short reddish-brown beard.
Her dad had never said much about queer people, but Denise sometimes wondered what his comfort level was.
He worked so hard to maintain a wholesome family image for Farrington Parks.
Did his reaction to this news indicate an underlying issue with having two men who were a couple work for his squeaky-clean brand?
She wondered, not for the first time, what he would say if he knew his only daughter was bisexual…
if he was even familiar with the term. She wasn’t exactly hiding it from him, but she also wasn’t particularly interested in his opinion.
Deeper feelings weren’t something they discussed.
What did it matter, anyway? She had no plans to have a partner of any gender, so she certainly didn’t plan on introducing anyone to him.
“He is,” Denise answered before moving on. “He agreed to change departments to avoid ethical questions.”
“Oh, well great,” her dad replied. “If you think that’s the best solution for everyone, then it sounds like everything’s great.”
Denise sagged in her seat, only now realizing how tense her body had become as she’d waited to see how her dad would respond. But he supported her decision, and she couldn’t ask for more.
That was the thing about their working relationship.
Even though they communicated a lot, he rarely second-guessed her.
He tended to give her plenty of autonomy in making decisions for the business, showing a surprising level of trust, given how his whole life revolved around this company.
More often than not, Denise felt his trust actually exceeded her capabilities.
Given all that, it shouldn’t be a shock that he didn’t push back on her handling of Jeremy and Derrick’s situation. Nor did he seem interested in continuing that part of the conversation. Maybe he’d really just called because he was bored from being cooped up at home.
“How’s the leg today?”
“Just fine. Just fine. I feel ridiculous being laid up and half mummified, but it’s all right.
Nan has extra work now, but so far she hasn’t tried to kill me over it yet, or worse…
ask for a raise.” He chortled at his own joke before muttering, “I’m already sick of uselessly rattling around the house, though. ”
Guilt trickled through her as she realized she’d only visited him once at home since he’d been stuck there. “I can come over for a while this weekend and hang out, if you want.”
She wasn’t entirely sure what they’d do while she was there if they ran out of business things to discuss. Watch TV together? Play board games? The thought was laughable. They had never done any of that when she was a little girl; she couldn’t imagine starting now.
“No, that’s all right,” he grumbled. “I’m not an invalid that you have to sit and keep company for hours on end like—”
Denise’s throat closed up. Like her mother had been. She didn’t say it, and neither did he. Apparently, even the memory was more than he could deal with, just like the reality had been then.
“Ah, there’s no need to go into all that,” he finished quickly. “But you can do the old man a favor since you’re asking.”
She swallowed her complicated feelings and focused on the conversation at hand. “What’s that?”
“With this stupid injury, I obviously won’t be able to head up the FunDaze retreat next week.”
She hadn’t considered that, since she’d had no involvement with planning the retreat in the two years since she’d worked there. But it made sense. Whoever he had organizing the details would probably have to take his place.
FunDaze was a Farrington subsidiary Denise’s dad had formed several years before to focus on selling vacation and event packages to Farrington Park properties and other destinations across the country and tropics.
Every year, the company held a retreat at a non-Farrington resort for FunDaze salespeople.
It was a time for reviewing the successes and non-successes of the previous year, rewarding top salespeople, and strategizing for the next sales year.
In general, Denise steered clear of salespeople as they tended to be high energy, competitive, and loud in a way that discomfited her.
She could only imagine what a raucous event the annual conference must be, where they all gathered in one place.
Ruminating and cringing over that thought distracted her so much that she missed her dad’s next words.
“Sorry, Dad. What was that?”
“I said I’ll need you to head up the conference for me.”
Her fingers convulsed around the phone. Now she wished she hadn’t asked him to repeat himself. Head up the conference? As in the one in front giving speeches, moderating discussions, and schmoozing with the FunDaze salespeople? It sounded like an overwhelming nightmare.
“Dad! I don’t think that’s a great idea. Someone with more sales experience should run it or at least someone who’s been involved with the conference planning up to this point. Maybe Marcus or Shauna. Or what about Darby?”
As soon as she said her cousin’s name, she could’ve kicked herself. She knew he would shut that one down right away.
“No, not Darby,” he replied in a clipped tone. “It needs to be someone with our family name, Denise. We owe that to our salespeople, but it’s especially important this year.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Dad, as I’m sure you remember, we are about a month away from my two-year anniversary.
That’s the deadline we agreed on for me to stay, and then I can pursue the plans I’ve been making to start my nonprofit.
Taking on the conference when I’m trying to wrap things up to leave… it’s just too much.”
“Yes, yes. I know all about your plans, baby doll,” he cooed, and Denise had to swallow back a growl.
She hated it when he called her that. The nickname hadn’t fit her when she’d been five years old, and it got even more out of place with each passing year. Plus, the condescending way he mentioned her plans irked her as well.
“You’ll get to all that soon enough. But I need your help with this one last thing while you’re here, and you’ll see why it’s big and exciting once I explain!
” Now he adopted the cajoling tone he’d used when she was a kid and was promising her a ride on the newest roller coaster.
She suspected deep in her bones that whatever he was about to say would appeal to her about as much as the wild and noisy park rides had appealed to her back then.
Without waiting for her prompting, he continued, “The conference is going to be at a small resort in Arkansas, as you know.”
She didn’t know, because she hadn’t been involved or even interested in the conference planning, but she didn’t bother pointing that out to him.
“And it’s on the short list of potential properties to buy. That area in the Ozarks is the prime spot for the newest Farrington Park and Resorts location!” His voice boomed even louder. “You see, baby doll? We’re finally going to be a multi-state operation!”
“W-wow,” she stammered. For years, he’d talked about his dream of having the name on parks across not only Oklahoma but Arkansas and Missouri as well, but she didn’t realize he was this close to moving on those goals yet. “That’s great, Dad, but—”
“So now you understand why I need you to be my representative, right?” he interrupted her. “We may very well be negotiating a purchase with that resort owner soon, and we need to put our best foot forward with him. It’s crucial to the plan.”
The plan.
She couldn’t help noticing the weight of feeling and conviction he put into that word when it represented his dreams, compared to the dismissive way he talked about her plans.
But it was no surprise. Farrington Parks was everything to him, and it always had been.
And for as long as she wanted any kind of relationship with him, she’d have to accept it would always be that way too.
Hours later, when the workday was finally over, Denise rested her elbows on her desk and massaged her temples where the tension throbbed mercilessly.
Her thoughts were still on her dad’s request. Before ending the call, she’d agreed to handle the sales conference as her last big project with the company, and he’d seemed satisfied.