by Penny Wylder
But, of course, that’s a pipe dream for another time. For now, I’ll have to settle for this closed test track, and the chance to pacify my inner speed demon from time to time—and earn a paycheck for it, no less.
I reach the makeshift finish line, really just a little dugout where we modify and prep the cars for the track, and squint through the visor of my crash helmet at my assistant, Greg.
Greg’s enormous arms are crossed, his brow lowered in the thunderous expression he gets when he doesn’t approve of something I’ve been doing. Of course, I’m his boss, so Greg can’t really protest too much when I do things like this. But that doesn’t mean he can’t allow his disapproval to show on his face.
I skid to a halt outside the engineer shelter, and climb from the car while several test engineers flood the area, bending to take measurements of the axels, the tires, and one popping the hood to study how the engine held up, as another inspects the fuel gauges.
“How about that turning radius, huh?” I shout over the clank and clatter of tools and measuring devices. I sidestep a pair of engineers to reach Greg, and he removes his own earpiece.
“You shut off your radio,” complains Greg, the voice in my ear, who has now become the constant voice in the back of my head. My conscience, one might even say. He’s constantly watching me, overseeing things, warning me to slow down, take it easy, be more careful. I know my father puts him up to half of these disapproving glares and lectures, but even so, it can wear on a man. Especially when I know what I’m doing.
You might say I have a lot of practice ignoring the conscience in the back of my head. “Your talking was distracting me,” I say. “It was a finicky turn.”
“Because you were driving at least twenty miles per hour faster than we’d run the car even in simulations,” Greg mutters.
“And look how well it turned out!” I clap my assistant on the back. “Now we can all skip a few of the intermediate stress tests and put this model straight into pre-production status.”
Greg rolls his eyes. “It was still an unnecessary risk—”
“But you say that about every risk,” I point out, jamming a single finger into Greg’s bicep. It barely makes a dent.
I take after my father’s side of the family—all lean, slim, sculpted muscle. We’re built for running. Descended from the first marathon runners of ancient Greece, Dad always claims. Me, I mention that a fair amount too, albeit for different reasons. I blame those ancestors for my need for speed. “My speed demon was inherited,” I always say. “Nothing I can do about it.”
But Greg, he’s a distant cousin, part of my dad’s grandmother’s vast clan. The line Greg comes from isn’t built like marathoners so much as like walls.
Greg narrows his eyes at me.
I smirk and stride toward the main building. “Come on, worry wart. Lunch is on me to make up for your stress-induced high cholesterol levels.”
“I would love to take you up on that, Jasper, but you have a lunch appointment.” Greg flips open his tablet and squints down at the screen, scrolling through it with a finger.
“With who?” I frown. I don’t remember any new clients planning to stop in and check out the factory today, and it’s far too early in the production schedule for any fellow manufacturers to be poking around. Maybe early buyers? Wholesalers we invited to view the pre-public models…?
“Your father,” Greg replies, and my stomach sinks. In an instant, the happy mood I manage to whip myself into on the test track evaporates, like a bubble popping in midair.
Not that my old man and I don’t get along. Quite to the contrary. I work for him, I spend every day helping build the family business—testing our latest models of cars, suggesting improvements or modifications to the designs, marketing and selling them on the front end… I have a hand in every part of our company, and Dad’s been grooming me to take over for him since I was about sixteen years old. I love this job, love my life, and I love my dad too. There’s nothing I’d change about my life right now.
Well. Except for one tiny thing…
Dad’s current mood. Because even without seeing his face, I can already guess what he’s going to be on about today. The same thing he’s been on about for the last several years. The same thing he railed at me over when I broke up with Karen, a friend-with-benefits who lasted a grand total of a month. The same thing he freaked out about again when I stopped seeing Meghan. Then Brooke. Then… who was that girl with the horses?
I can’t even remember her name, truth be told.
What can I say? I’ve never been the dating type. Or the relationship type. Or the anything more than casual sex type. And who cares? Certainly not the girls I hook up with—I make it clear up front that things will only ever be casual between us, and none of them have complained. Well, except Stacey, who smashed the taillights of my car when I broke things off. But, well, you can see why I had to break off our casual arrangement, given her temper and possessive streak.
No, that one anomaly aside, nobody cares that I’m not the settling down type… Nobody except my father.
And with our family reunion looming on the horizon, an enormous affair he hosts every five years, he has grandbabies on the mind worse than ever. This reunion will be the biggest of all, because at this reunion, Dad’s announcing his retirement. His retirement and the appointment of the new company CEO. The future heir apparent to Quint Motors. Me.
But with all the reflecting Dad has been doing on the company’s history, it just makes him more sentimental than ever about what’s still missing in his life. Namely, grandchildren.
“I’m suddenly feeling really dizzy,” I tell Greg. “Think I’m coming down with something. Head cold, maybe? Flu? Isn’t it still flu season?”
Greg narrows his eyes at me. “Your father is already waiting out front in the Andromeda.”
Ah, the Andromeda. The first car our company, Quint Motors, ever released, way back in the 1970s when my dad was barely old enough to drive himself. He loves that thing. Not only because his father gifted it to him on his (way too young, if you ask me) wedding day. But also because it reminds him of family. If there’s one thing that’s more important to my father than our business, building cars, and putting the best product we can out into the market—it’s the family behind all that.
“Family is the most important thing in the world,” he’s always saying. “Even when you want to strangle them.” He usually adds that last line while he’s glaring at me over a cup of coffee, having just learned from Greg (who, for being my personal assistant, can definitely be a real narc when it comes to sharing my extracurricular activities with the old man) about one of my exploits or another.
What can I say? It’s my job to keep this family interesting.
I just wish it wasn’t my job to listen to hours-long lectures on how interesting I make it. “No chance of talking my way out of this, huh?” I sigh and square my shoulders. “All right. Time to face the music.”
“Bring a coat,” Greg shouts at my retreating spine. “It’s the Waldorf again.”
Dad’s favorite lunch spot. I’m halfway through the office when one of our other admins, an older man named Marco, waves a hand to flag my attention. “Jasper, thank goodness, I’ve been looking all over for you.” He holds out a file almost as thick as my arm. “We got the list of interns for the summer season. We need to start sorting them into departments…”
“Tell Greg to put something on my calendar,” I say, already snatching a suit coat from the back of my chair and shrugging it on as I walk toward the distant front entrance, and the driveway where I can already see Dad’s car idling. Tugging the jacket on over my work shirt at least gives the appearance that I dressed for the occasion.
So I think. Then I drop into the front seat, and find Dad eying my neck, nose scrunched up in disapproval.
“No tie?” he says. “And when was the last time you shaved?”
“This morning,” I reply. “Not my fault I inherited your r
idiculously fast hair-growth genes.” Permanent five o’clock shadow, just one of the many markers of a Quint man. That, a tall but muscular frame, and our thick dark hair—mine and Dad’s look almost exactly the same, messy and wavy in front, with a shock falling across our eyes. Even though he’s pushing sixty now, his is still as dark and thick as ever. Pretty sure Quint men will still pass for young men in their mid-twenties from behind right up until we’re on our backs in coffins.
“Always blaming me.” Dad shakes his head, but I notice he peels out of the driveway just as fast as always, and cuts corners the whole way to the Waldorf, speeding through every yellow light along the route.
My speed demon genes didn’t pop out of thin air either, much as he never cares to admit where I got it.
We skid into the Waldorf parking lot, and Dad barely glances at the valet as he tosses his keys over his shoulder for the man to catch. I stride after him through the broad double doors, past the hotel lobby, and back into the dining room, where we’ve got our usual booth.
He’s in a mood today. I can tell by the way he starts in before we’ve even had a chance to sit down, let alone give the menus a once-over. “The reunion is in one month, Jasper.”
“Yes, I know. It would be impossible not to—it’s all you’ve been talking about for the last six months.” I shoot the waiter who’s appeared at our table an apologetic glance, then wave him off to come back later.
“The reunion is in one month,” Dad plows on as though I haven’t even spoken, “and I’m planning to announce the company’s future. My own retirement. My successor. But that’s not what I’m really looking forward to. Do you know what I’m looking forward to most?”
Here we go. “What, Dad?” is all I say.
“The family. We’ll get to see your cousin Sofia—you know she’s pregnant again. That’ll make five for her and her husband. And your cousin Alexander and his three little boys. Chloe and the twins; Luke and his newborn; and did I tell you Jason is married? I hear he and his wife are trying for a baby now, God bless them. I hope they don’t have the same trouble your mother and I did.”
“Dad…” Thankfully, the waiter returns to spare me for the time being. I order a glass of water, but don’t decide on any food for the time being. My stomach is already tensing up just listening to this.
Dad takes time to order his usual—steak, medium rare, a side salad and mashed potatoes, heavy on the gravy. He thinks it’s healthier than French fries. Who am I to deny the old man one of his few vices in life?
Mom would be throwing a fit if she knew. She’s always on about his cholesterol levels and the bad hearts that run in his side of the enormous family he’s just been listing off.
The pause for food ordering only spares me for so long. Then Dad lays down his menu and crosses his hands on the table once more. “Your Aunt Zoe is a grandmother how many times over now? Fifteen? Aunt Alyssa has Chloe’s little twins to keep her busy. Uncle Xavier spoils Sofia’s tribe rotten.”
“Dad—”
“Everyone’s family lines are carrying on except mine. Mine has stalled out like a bad clutch on a car destined for the junk yard.”
I grimace. “Look, I’m not like my cousins, okay?”
“You mean you aren’t a family man. More of a philandering man.”
“Philandering implies it’s not totally consensual on both sides.” I roll my eyes. “And I never said I’m against starting a family—“
“Well clock’s ticking, son, and you aren’t getting any younger. Neither are your mother and I, for that matter.”
“But I’m not going to throw myself into some crappy marriage with a wife I’m not that into just to satisfy you. Or anyone else, for that matter. It’s my life, Dad.”
“Your spoiled, easy life. Yes.” Dad heaves a sigh. “Your mother is right. She tells me I spoiled you too much. Gave you too much. We were both so happy to have you, Jasper, after all that time and all that money and all that heartache spent trying. You have no idea what it was like. To watch my brother and sisters having children, yet be unable to conceive a child of my own. And your mother, her heartbreak every time we failed, I cannot even describe…”
And yet you continually try, I think. After all, he’s told me this story—the saga of he and Mom trying to conceive me—about a hundred times. “Dad, I appreciate that you and Mom stuck with it. Honestly. But that’s the thing—you had Mom. You were married. You knew you wanted a family with her. I’m…”
“Enjoying sleeping around too much to ever get serious about one woman or choose a wife? Yes, I’ve noticed.” Dad glares at me over the top of his glass of water. “This is a family business, son. My grandfather founded Quint Motors, and then he passed the company on to my father before me. I’d planned to pass it on to you, son, after I go, so that one day, in the future, you can pass it on to your son or daughter next. But it’s looking more and more like there won’t be anyone for you to hand this company down to when the time comes.”
I groan and lean back in my seat. “Dad, you’re being ridiculous.”
“What do I always tell you is the most important thing?”
“Family, yes—”
“Even more important than money. Even more important than a successful business, or making good cars, or finding the right buyers. Family is all you have at the end of the day, when everything else fades. You say you know that, you claim to understand it, and yet here you are, no grandchildren, not even a decent prospect of a future wife to show for it. How can I believe that you really value family?”
“I put up with you every day, don’t I?” I mutter.
Wrong direction to steer in. Dad’s face goes white, then red-hot. “I’ve made this too easy for you. I’ve let you waltz through business school and through the last ten years of working for us like you’re the heir apparent. But this company would never have existed without family, and it won’t exist without that support in the future.” Dad leans forward and jams his finger into my face. “Plenty of your cousins would kill to be in your shoes. Given the real respect and family-mindedness they show, I have a mind to name one of them as the heir at the reunion.”
“What?” I nearly shout. Other faces swivel in our direction, other people in the restaurant lean closer to spy. I ignore them, though I do lower my voice a touch. “That’s insane, Dad. I’ve been involved in this business from the minute I was old enough to understand what a car was. I’ve devoted all my spare time to working for you, putting in the hours, understanding how every inch of this company operates.”
“And yet you failed to understand the most important lesson—the most important thing—in the world.”
“This is ridiculous. What does having a wife and kids have to do with owning a business?”
“Everything, son,” Dad snaps. “That’s what you don’t see. That’s what I won’t wait around for you to wake up to.”
“So, what? You’re just going to sign Quint Motors over to my cousins, and that’s it?”
“You could change my mind.” Dad leans back in his seat. He eyes me now, cool once more, his expression composed.
Beneath the table, out of sight, I clench my fists. “How?” I ask through gritted teeth. I know I won’t like whatever’s coming next. But whatever I expect, it isn’t this.
“Find a woman.” He holds up a hand, forestalling my protest. Because it’s not like I can’t find women just about anywhere I go. “A marriageable woman,” Dad clarifies. “A wife. If you can find a wife by the time we all leave for Greece, then maybe I’ll believe you’re as serious about this company’s future—and more importantly, this family’s future—as you claim to be.”
“You sound like a crazy person. I’m not listening to this.” I wave a hand to get the waiter’s attention. I need the check. I’m out.
Dad lunges across the table and grabs my wrist. “All your mother and I ever dreamed about was having a big family.” His eyes bore into mine as he says it, as though he’s willing me to understand
.
But I don’t. I don’t get it. I’ve never felt the way about a woman like he felt about Mom. I’ve never looked at a girl and thought, I’d like to have dozens of kids with her. I’m just not like him. On some core level.
“You’re our only shot at that now,” Dad is saying. “You’re our only hope at fulfilling our dream.”
“Exactly.” I stand, giving up on the waiter. “Your dream, Dad. That’s what you wanted. I’m different, okay?”
“Well.” Dad releases my wrist and turns his attention back to the table, unrolling his own silverware. Clearly he plans to stay and eat anyway. “If we’re so different, then you won’t care about my decision to hand the company over to one of your cousins instead. Maybe Alexander. He does always have good manufacturing suggestions…”
My blood boils. Alexander is half the salesman I am, I think. Last time we let him run a European business conference himself, he walked away without a single new buyer. Not a single one. You have to be completely incompetent to do that—Quint cars practically sell themselves.
“If you want to run this business into the ground, have at it,” I mutter as I turn to stride away.
“One month,” Dad calls at my retreating spine. “You have one month to prove to me you’re not a lifelong bachelor after all, or I drop you from the company roster.”
“I need a wife,” I tell Greg.
Once he finishes laughing, I scowl and snatch the stack of intern applications from his hands.
“I’m serious,” I say, fanning the pages of the applications, but not really paying any attention to the ink on the paper, what any of the words say. “Dad’s talking about giving Alex the company if I don’t get serious. Find someone to settle down with.”
“Alex?” Greg says in the same tone you’d use about a pile of manure you stepped in. “The same Alex whose accountant we had to fire because he was embezzling thousands of dollars that Alex didn’t even notice was missing?”
