Chapter 20
20
W ednesday morning Quinn hurried into Margo Price's office to sign the papers. As he signed his last signature to the final paper, which looked to be the size of a small mountain, he grinned.
Margo clapped her hands once. "Congratulations, Quinn."
She reached across the table to shake his hand, and his smile grew.
"Thank you. Now, I'm off to work."
Margo laughed. "I can't wait to see what you do with the place."
He sauntered out of the office, a folder full of copies of his signed paperwork tucked under his arm, a huge smile on his face, and excitement coursing through him.
He pulled out his phone and texted Hanna. "It's mine."
"Congratulations. Want to celebrate tonight?"
"I sure do. I'll call you later."
He drove to his office just as Jared arrived .
"Hey there. Let's have a little chat."
"Okay."
Jared followed him into his office with a fresh cinnamon roll and a cup of coffee in his hands. Quinn grinned as he watched his son devour the cinnamon roll. "There will come a day when you won't be able to devour those cinnamon rolls like you do now."
Jared chewed a bit, then mumbled with a mouthful of food. "I sure hope not."
Quinn chuckled. "Anyway, I signed the papers this morning and the barracks are mine. I'd like you to take the lead on this project."
"Really? That's awesome, Dad."
"I think you're ready, and I want to give you the opportunity. Besides, you'll need to work those cinnamon rolls off."
Jared laughed, took a drink from his coffee cup, and shrugged. "Jealous."
"Maybe." Quinn chuckled. "Anyway, take a crew to the barracks and begin with cleaning up the place. I've ordered the dumpsters to be delivered this morning. Leave Sam and Brian to finish the stage at Jace's. They can join you once that's finished. I have an interview with a potential new hire later this morning. Anyway, begin the demo after cleanup. We're starting with building one, and I'll be around with the architect later this morning to go over all of his plans with you."
Jared chuckled. "Seems as though you're pretty excited about this."
"I'm very excited."
Jared finished his cinnamon roll, then drank the rest of his coffee. He stood up, "Okay. Well, I won't let you down. "
"I'm sure you won't. By the way, what were you doing the other night with the flooring you were hauling out of here?"
"That's the flooring for the job at Mom's. Remember, she's redoing the flooring in her sunroom."
Quinn nodded. "Don't order any more products for her without talking to me. She's beginning to take advantage. And I'm being generous with beginning ."
Jared nodded. "I get it, Dad."
Jared left his office, and Quinn sat at his desk. The folder with his new paperwork lay in front of him. He unlocked, and pulled out his bottom file drawer, tucked the paperwork into his personal folder, and closed and locked his drawer.
He wiggled the mouse for his computer and brought it to life, then quickly opened his project management software. He changed the access to allow Jared to make changes in the barracks job then sat back and let his thoughts run back to Hanna.
They'd spent every day for the past week together in the evenings, having dinner together, getting to know each other, and making love. Best week of his life. But always at the apartment above the bakery.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and sent her a text.
"How about we have a picnic dinner on the beach tonight?"
She didn't respond right away and assumed she was probably busy, so he wasn't going to worry about it. She had a business to run as well.
He pushed back from his desk, eager to meet the architect at the barracks. Just as he was about to leave his office, a man walked in the front door with a folder in his hand.
His tone was clipped and businesslike. "Are you Quinn Kurtz?"
Quinn nodded. "Yes, I am."
The man pulled some papers out of the folder and held them in front of Quinn. "You've been served."
Quinn numbly took the papers from the man just before he turned and stalked out of the office. Quinn looked down at the papers in his hand. He was being taken to court by his ex.
Didn't that just figure? He read through the paperwork. It was just as she had told him. She was taking him to court to receive a portion of his business. The ask was twenty percent. He damn near choked on his spit. No way in hell he was going to give her twenty percent of his profits for doing absolutely nothing.
So rather than heading to the job site, he was now going to his attorney's office to drop off these new papers. He told himself, it didn't matter. Grant was a great attorney.
He walked down the street instead of hopping in his truck, because he needed to work off this irritation. That bitch followed through on her threats this time.
Grant was on the opposite end of the square as Quinn's office. The walk would do him good. He himself had been imbibing in a few extra cinnamon rolls this past couple of weeks. But that was the good part of his life right now and he wasn't sorry.
He walked into Grant's office, and Jailisa, Grant's receptionist, greeted him with a smile. "Morning, Mr. Kurtz. How are you? "
He nodded. "I'm fine, Jailisa. How are you? How's your boy?"
"Oh, he's doing very well. He's in college now you know."
"College? My goodness I didn't realize he was that old already."
She raised her hand up in the air. "Tell me about it. I can't believe he's in college either."
Quinn nodded. "Good luck to him. I'm sure he'll do fine. He's a smart boy."
"Thank you, Mr. Kurtz. How can I help you?"
"Is Grant in? I know I don't have an appointment, but I just received some papers. I've been served."
Jailisa nodded slowly. "I'll see if he's available. Hang on."
She pushed herself out of her chair and walked down the hall to Grant's office. Within a couple of minutes, Grant followed Jailisa down the hall toward him. "Hey, Quinn."
Grant reached forward and shook his hand. "I understand problems are afoot."
Grant motioned toward the conference room, and Quinn followed. "Yeah, it appears the ex wants twenty percent of my business for writing out a couple of bills back in the early days."
Grant scoffed. "Well, let's see what she's saying."
He sat quietly as Grant read through the motion. He hummed a couple of times and Quinn tried not to squirm.
"Well, let me first ask you this," Grant said. "Are you willing to offer her anything? And before you say no, let me advise you that she does have certain rights under the law. She didn't work while you were married. She did stay home and raise the kids. And she helped out with things around the house and took care of the home. In the courts’ eyes, that's going to mean something. So they're going to be inclined to offer her something. As painful as it is for you to offer her anything, please know that I'm going to encourage you to offer her something. And it can be small, but at least it looks like you're willing to work with her. And for another thing, you're going to have to give it up, anyway. So how long do you want to drag this out? How much of a fight do you have in you? Because that's what I'm asking you now. And it does appear that she's willing to fight."
Quinn leaned back and huffed out a breath. He should have known it was too good to be true.
"Is five percent too much or too little?"
Grant shrugged. "Here’s what I think we’ll respond with. I need financials from you from the beginning of the business until the day of your divorce. She isn’t entitled to anything from the business from the date of divorce until today. That’s all after the fact. And I can’t believe her attorney didn’t fight for this for her in the divorce.”
Quinn took in a deep breath. “If you’ll remember, that’s where the alimony payment amount came from. That’s why it was so high. It was partially alimony and partially a settlement from the profits of the business at that time paid over five years.”
Grant nodded. “Yes, I recall that now. I’ll pull those papers and the Divorce Order and reacquaint myself with the terms and conditions. In the meantime, don’t engage in conversation about this with her. Every communication about this goes through my office.”
Quinn nodded, "Got it.”
"And also, I understand you're working on the barracks. May I suggest that we create a separate LLC for that and put it in a separate account so it's not under Quinn Kurtz Construction, but as the owner and landlord it'll be under a whole separate entity? That’s just protection moving forward, and we’ll do the same with any other properties you purchase in the future."
"I just signed papers on that today.”
"Yes, and she isn't in any way entitled to that property, but let's keep it nice and clean, okay?"
Quinn nodded. "Okay we'll go ahead and set up a new LLC for that. I can bring the closing paperwork down here in a few minutes, so you have the information on that and the copy of the deed to put that in the LLC's name."
Grant nodded, "Perfect. I'll get that straightened up. I’ll look over this paperwork more completely, pull out the Divorce Order, and work up a response to this. I’ll let you know when that’s available to take a look at.”
Quinn nodded. "Okay, thank you. Just give me a call when I need to come in and look at anything."
Grant nodded his head. Made a couple of notes on his tablet and Quinn settled in to resigning himself to the fact that his life wasn't perfect either. He'd tell Hanna tonight, so she'd feel a bit better about the shit going on in her life. They'd have a drink and laugh about it all, and then he'd make love to her again. It sounded like the perfect evening.
He shook hands with Grant and walked out the door. His phone chimed that he had a text. Glancing at his phone briefly as he strode toward his office, he saw Hanna's name and his spirits immediately soared.
"Congratulations! balloon emoji happy face emoji. I'm proud of you," she said.
His heart beat a little faster just seeing her name on his text. His heart swelled seeing that she was proud of him. He responded back with the lips emoji as a kiss, and said, "See you later."
Pocketing his phone, he got in his truck and headed toward his architect's office. Things could be worse. He was making great money. He was going to do just fine with this new venture, and he had a new girl in his life that he was so darned excited about.