2. James #2
I sigh. “Thomas, I asked you not to call me that. James is perfectly fine.”
He chuckles. “Sorry, James. I’ve been around a long time. Some habits are hard to break.”
He climbs out and rounds the SUV to open my door.
I stuff my papers into my briefcase and nod my thanks.
Thomas likes everything the traditional way, and I try my best not to force change on him too often.
I let him get the door each time, but I’m trying to break the sir comments. They make me feel pretentious.
“Thanks, Thomas. I’ll be right back out.” I jog up to the building since I’m on a time crunch. When I open the door, the store manager is there to greet me. “Mark, good to see you,” I say. “I take it you got my message.”
“Yes, yes, Mr. Edward. I have everything right around the corner here and it’s all rung up the way you like.
It’s ready for payment whenever you are.
” I round the corner to the cash register at the end of the long counter and swipe my card without looking.
The machine starts spitting out the receipt.
It takes a full minute for it to finish.
Mark neatly folds the yard-long slip of paper and hands it to me.
“Thank you. Do you have someone who can help me get it to the SUV, or should I ring my driver?” I ask.
“Not to worry. I have it all handled.” He waves two male employees over, and they start pulling two long carts stacked with ten boxes on each cart that are overflowing with books and toys.
Perfect.
“These two are going to follow you out and load everything inside for you.” Mark extends his hand, so I reach out and shake it. “Thank you so much for your business.”
“Thank you for your speedy service. The children are going to love everything,” I say, and he beams up at me.
This is by far my favorite part of having seemingly endless funds.
Being able to buy things for children in shelters and orphanages.
It may seem small on my account, but to them, it’s a bright spot in their day.
The older ones can have new books to escape into, and the smaller kids get beginner books and stuffed animals.
I started having the store throw games in the boxes too, for variety.
It doesn’t feel like I’m doing enough for the kids, but seeing Avery, the blonde three-year-old’s face light up when she grabs a new stuffy and a book has me coming back as often as I can.
It doesn’t take long for the employees to load the SUV, then Thomas pulls back onto the road towards the Boys and Girls Harbor. It’s a short drive before Thomas winds up the gravel drive, parks, and makes his way to my door.
A volunteer rushes to our vehicle.
“Can I help you?” she asks.
I gesture to the trunk and Thomas clicks it open. “I have some donations for the kids.”
Her shoulders relax. “That’s amazing. I’ll get a dolly and we can take it to the lunch room, but the children are all on a field trip right now.”
“That’s fine. I’ll see them next time.”
She takes off for the dolly, so we can unload everything.
After taking five loads of boxes back and forth, we are back on the road and heading out of the city.
Since we decided to add this new expansion, I always have more paperwork to do and applications to go over.
I pull out my laptop and get to work as Thomas drives the half hour out of the city to the acreage.
I originally bought the property for my dad.
He was the one who suggested the first company we signed with while he was sick in the hospital.
I thought we were going to have more time together than we did, so I wanted him to have a nice place to finish out his days.
We unfortunately didn’t get much time, so now it sits empty.
As we pull up the long driveway lined with trees for privacy, I take in the fifty acres of land with cattle moving through the trees and creek, some huddled in the barn for warmth.
Northern Minnesota is nice this time of year, right before the snow falls.
I don’t mind the small city of Shadowbrook.
It’s growing quickly, so it’s the perfect spot for us to plant our expansion.
I just prefer being in the middle of nowhere.
The silence of the country gives my mind a break. I can just exist for a while.
Thomas parks in front of the garage, his eyes meet mine in the mirror, filled with sympathy, but he doesn’t say anything. I look away, pull the handle, and climb out. I go to the front door, unlocking it and stepping through when a memory takes over.
I walk into the house and smell the fresh pot of coffee brewing. “Dad? Where are you?”
“Living room, setting the TV up for the big race later.”
I smile to myself, thinking of my dad back when he raced dirt bikes, before the diagnosis.
Before they told him he had stage four genetic lung cancer, and they didn’t know how long had left.
He was the only sixty-year-old I knew who would still jump on a bike and race around the track in the summer, but he loved it.
It didn’t matter what place he got the last few years; he just loved being out there in his gear.
That had to stop when he found out about the cancer and began treatments.
He’s been making the most of his time, and he loves being out in this new home with cattle to look after.
I pay a ranch hand to do any manual labor and keep up on the day to day, so Dad can do what he’s able and still enjoy it out here.
A nurse comes daily to check on anything else he needs and make sure his meds are laid out and marked for when he needs them.
Otherwise, he keeps himself busy, walking every day, grilling in the summer, and watching his show or dirt bike races.
He’s not as active as he used to be, but he’s here.
I check the fridge on the way to the living room and make a note to have someone do a grocery run and meal prep healthier meal options for him.
In the living room he’s prepping his big chair with an extra blanket. His side table has a few electrolyte drinks, protein bars, and a bowl of popcorn.
“You look like you’re ready to not move for a few hours,” I say.
He looks up from messing with the remote, his face breaking into a smile.
“My boy! I am ready. Have you seen the kids set to get into the qualifiers? It’s going to be a wild race–lots of money on the line.
” He walks towards me and pulls me into a hug.
“I’ve missed you. You’ve been busy. Have you met a lady yet? ” He wiggles his eyebrows at me.
I chuckle, trying to ignore the fact that he’s more skin and bones lately. “No, just busy with work. You know I don’t have time for women right now.”
We walk to the kitchen, and he pours us both a cup of coffee and slides a blueberry muffin towards me.
He takes a sip, watching me over his mug. “You know you’ll have to slow down eventually and enjoy life, or you’ll end up alone on your death bed.”
I give him a look. “You’re not alone on your death-bed.”
He throws his head back and lets out a deep belly laugh.
“I know! You’ve staffed me with a hot young nurse who always checks on me, and half the time another young lady comes with groceries.
I had the love of my life already. That was enough for me.
I’m not worried about me; I also have you.
You’re everything to me. I just worry that you’re working too much.
You haven’t taken the time to actually enjoy life.
” He really looks at me then, pulling me in.
“I’ve lived a long full life. I went to all the places I wanted to.
I have enjoyed living and seeing the world.
You haven’t lived outside of work. You barely experienced a year of college before you moved onto building your company, which I’m proud of, but if you’re traveling, it’s for work.
I think you should take time off soon and do something for you. That’s all.”
I scratch the back of my neck, trying to avoid agreeing with him because he’s not wrong. But he picks up his mug and turns back to the living room. “Come on. Let’s sit and watch the pre-races for a little bit before you leave for work again.”
I shake off his comments and make my way to the chair next to his, my coffee and muffin in hand. I need to come out here more and spend time with him before anything happens. I can always travel later. My time with him is limited, but I don’t like being the one to remind him of it.
We sit and watch motocross together for an hour, talking about all the new riders, before I have to head back into town.
Now I walk around the empty house, imagining him here in his chair, smiling. I continue to have people come take care of the house when I can’t be here, but it’s not the same.
I tap the counter, ready to leave again.
I’ve seen enough. Made sure the place is still standing.
I could listen when the people I pay tell me the house is fine, but there’s something about coming and seeing it for myself.
It’s too lonely out here for me to stay, but one day I might.
Having a nice place my dad would enjoy was one of the main selling points, but we both knew he wouldn’t last forever.
I created the design in a way I knew he would enjoy, but I also set it up to be my home base away from work.
I lock up the house and climb in the backseat again. As we drive back down the driveway, another memory from that day with Dad floods my mind.
Dad waves from the wrap-around porch, his big smile still stuck to his face.
He loved the porch. He would get up early and drink his morning coffee out there.
He said that mom would have loved it, and it reminded him of her every time he watched the sunrise with his coffee.
The same way they would have done if she hadn’t died when I was young.
They were madly in love, and dad never wanted to marry again.
He had a few ladies in town he spent time with–some used to come and visit him during the week–but they all knew he wouldn’t settle down again.
I check my watch and let out a sigh. “I won’t have time to go home before the meeting, so we will just have to go straight to the club. I’m sure Ryder is already there.”
“Yes, sir,” Thomas says and tries to hide his smirk, but he’s been with the family long enough that he knows exactly how all three of us operate. I ignore the ‘sir’ this time. He’s trying to break it, but he’s from a different generation that shows respect with their words.
I pull open my laptop again so I can continue working.
Getting this new location up and fully functioning in Shadowbrook is our top priority.
Our other locations in New York and California have all the employees necessary so we don’t need to micromanage them, which allows us to expand to the Midwest, where we’re from.
Ryder, Alester, and I had always wanted to create a home base here, especially with the acreage.
We just couldn’t do it as fast as we wanted.
The three of us got into New York University straight out of high school.
I wanted to do business and marketing, Alester settled on computer science and programming, and Ryder went for accounting and economics.
We knew then that we would eventually create a business together.
We just needed to figure out what type of business .
During the end of our first year, Dad got really sick.
I flew back home to be with him, continuing my projects online.
Dad gave us that first company to reach out to.
With him dying in the hospital, I didn’t want to be states away, so I deferred the rest of my program, pitched the idea to my cousins, and we decided to give it a shot.
Marketing for large companies, working with artists to create one-of-a-kind material agencies couldn’t find anywhere else, and connecting them with other businesses that aligned with their ideas took off like a forest fire.
Family Farms was our first company out of Minnesota that we signed.
That check allowed me to get the acreage for Dad outside of Shadowbrook, but closer to Faith, Minnesota.
And set up our small hub in rural New York, so we could keep our connections and grow within a large marketing location.
When Dad passed, I didn’t need to fly back and forth to Minnesota anymore, so I went deep into gaining clients.
We set our sights on California to find small up-and-coming companies that wanted to invest in themselves and us.
I worked around the clock, hiding from my grief and building our empire into what it is today, but it became exhausting.
Alester and Ryder wanted our next location to be closer to where we all grew up.
Faith, Minnesota, is too small of a town for a marketing company, but there are plenty of cities nearby for our work to succeed.
I knew I needed to face my dad’s ghost of memories, so here we are.
Building a base near where it all started.
Faith is where Ryder and Alester’s families are.
About two hours from Shadowbrook. It’s a small town where everyone knows everyone, and you could spend the day walking through downtown enjoying all the small businesses.
It’s full of sympathetic smiles when they see me, so I’ve avoided it for the last eight years as much as possible.
Lost in my head, I shake myself out of my thoughts and glance from the window to my computer. I shoot a couple of more promising applications over to Ryder and Alester as we pull up to the club.
How did so much time pass already?
I close my computer and slide it into my bag, ready to get this over with.
The bass from inside the building is vibrating the vehicle. I rub my hands over my eyes and glance up at Thomas. “I won’t be long. Stay somewhat close, but get a nice dinner.”
He chuckles at me as I slide out of the vehicle, not giving him a chance to come around, and make my way inside. He never listens to me about the dinner, but I wouldn’t mind. I could always go for a long walk to clear my mind. Stop thinking about work for half a second.
Sometimes that scares me, though, because if I’m not thinking about work, I’m probably going to start thinking about one of the hardest days of my life.