Patrick now understood fully why his father felt the way he did about he and his brother’s relationship. He’d have to work extra hard on Robert, but a relationship took two people and right now, his older brother didn’t seem interested.
Hearing that story caused Patrick’s heart to weigh heavily, because he hoped he wouldn’t discover something illegal going on that would implicate Robert. But he also had to come to grips with the fact that if they wanted to pass this limo business down to the next generation, things had to change.
Patrick noticed his father had been staring into space for a while. He didn’t have to guess where his thoughts had gone since they’d just finished talking about his uncle. “Have you decided what you’re going to do for the holidays?” Patrick wanted to know.
It had been a while since he’d been home for Thanksgiving. He’d heard that his Aunt Bernice always brought his father a plate, since he would give Mrs. West that whole week off.
“I’ll probably do what I’ve always done. But Kathy did invite me over.”
Patrick smiled. “I think that would be great, Pop.” He knew that Kathy Winslow cared deeply for his father, but it seemed that James wasn’t interested in pursuing anything. The loss of a spouse was tough, Patrick understood that, but it had been many years since his mother passed away. His father deserved a companion, but to Patrick’s knowledge had never dated.
“Do you have anything planned?” James asked. “Since you’re home maybe we both can go to Kathy’s for dinner.”
“Where does Robert go? He’s not married and there’s no steady girlfriend that I know of,” Patrick said.
“Robert always has someplace to go for the holiday, but he never asks me if I want to tag along.” James hunched his shoulders. “I guess he doesn’t want an old man in the way.”
Patrick wasn’t surprised at his brother’s behavior. He’d always been selfish, so having his dad tagging along wouldn’t work.
“We can do whatever you want. If you want to have dinner here, we can. If you want to go to Kathy’s for dinner, we can do that as well.” Patrick stood. “Right now, I need to get dressed, get over to the warehouse, and pick up my car so I can get to the airport.”
“I don’t have anything to do today, so I’d been thinking about going into the office, but maybe I should just piddle around here,” James said, standing.
“I’ll see you later then, Pop.” Patrick hugged his father, all the while hoping his relationship with his brother didn’t end up like his father’s had with his brother, especially once his investigation of the company books was complete.
* * * * *
Renee, her sisters, and Cara were meeting for lunch so they could update each other on details for the gala. They hadn’t gotten together for a while just to hang out, so they planned to do that as well. Everyone had arrived except for Faith, so the others looked over the menu while they waited.
“Where’s your sister?” Patrice asked.
“The last time I spoke to her, she was wrapping things up at the boutique and was on her way,” Jennifer said.
Just as Renee opened her mouth to say something, Faith weaved her way through the room to the table.
“Sorry, girls, I was trying to get my display window finished and I didn’t want to leave Margaret there alone.”
“It’s okay,” Renee said, kissing Faith on the cheek when she sat down. Her sister was very protective of her mother-in-law. Renee admired their working relationship. Margaret Montgomery was a very nice woman, always treating her sister more like a daughter than an in-law.
They placed their order and Renee removed a small notebook from her purse. “I want to check and see where we are with the gala plans from the last time.”
“I’d like to talk about the guy you ended up staying with at the bed and breakfast,” Patrice said.
“Me too,” Jennifer said, chiming into the conversation. “She wouldn’t give me any information when she called me.”
Just as she suspected, Jennifer had told Patrice about her overnight stay.
Faith touched Renee’s arm. “You don’t have to tell us anything if you don’t want.”
Renee didn’t care, because they were going to find out soon enough anyway, especially if she invited him to any of the family gatherings. “I went to a winery up in Michigan with this guy I’ve been seeing and we ran into a bad snowstorm on our way back,” she said plainly.
“What does he do?” Jennifer asked.
Renee paused at first, but was cut off when she opened her mouth to answer by Patrice.
“What is he this time, a lawyer, doctor, rocket scientist?” Patrice said, then snickered.
“No, he’s a limo driver,” Renee said simply.
Renee saw all her sisters’ eyes widen. “What?” she asked. “Why are you guys looking at me like that?”
Everyone was quiet before Patrice spoke up. “We’re just surprised that he’s a regular guy. You know you have that damn list of yours you’re always comparing guys to.”
“Patrick is really a nice guy. I can’t wait for everybody to meet him.”
“Did you invite him to Thanksgiving dinner?” Faith asked.
Renee hadn’t thought to ask. “No, I didn’t, but I promise you guys will all meet him soon.”
“Well, do you think we could go out for dinner tonight and meet him?” Patrice asked.
“I haven’t spoken to him today, Treecie,” Renee replied.
“That’s easy, call him,” she said, reaching into her purse, pulling out her phone. “You want to use my phone?”
Jennifer and Faith both shook their heads. “Treecie, you are shameless,” Faith said.
“Y’all know you want to meet him too. I just can’t wait to see this guy, because if he has Renee glowing, smiling, and running her mouth about him, he must be something. I just want to see for myself.”
Renee handed Patrice her phone back. “I can call him on my own phone, Treecie.”
Patrice stared at Renee.
“I’m not calling him now, I’ll call him after the meeting, and we can decide where to meet up.” Renee opened her folder. “Let’s get down to business.”
For the next hour, the women talked about every aspect of the gala, since the deadline was fast approaching.
Chapter Fourteen
Patrick headed to the office in between clients so that he could talk to the head of accounting. He wanted to find out if they could pull the financials, and he knew just the person to ask for help. He walked past the receptionist and down the hall where Kathy was sitting at her desk outside his brother’s office.
“Afternoon, Kathy,” Patrick said, rounding the desk, giving the older woman a kiss on the cheek.
“Patrick, I’m afraid Robert isn’t in today.”
Patrick frowned. He’d noticed that his brother either came in late or not at all more than he was present.
“Kathy, would you mind coming into my office?”
The woman pushed her chair back and got up. “Sure, Patrick. Just let me get my pen and a notepad.”
“Thank you,” Patrick said, heading toward his office.
He sat down and waited for her to enter the room.
“I’m ready,” she said, taking one of the empty seats in front of his desk.
Patrick’s office wasn’t as extravagantly furnished as his brother’s, which wasn’t a problem for him. He only needed a desk, computer, and chair. It wasn’t necessary to have a Persian rug on the floor and mahogany bookcases, especially since he was spending most of his time out in the field.
Patrick cleared his throat, trying to think how to ask the questions that were needed. He knew Kathy was loyal to his father, so he didn’t really have to hesitate, but on the other hand, he didn’t want it to seem like he was against his brother.
“Kathy, can you giv
e me an estimate of the amount of hours Robert spends in the office per week?”
As soon as he heard Kathy clearing her throat, he had his answer.
“I’m not asking you to betray anyone’s trust. Pop asked me to look into some things here. In order to do that I need to find out as much as possible about Robert’s habits and business practices, since he’s been running things.”
Kathy slid to the edge of her seat. “I’m so glad that you’re here, Patrick. I didn’t want to say anything to your father, because I felt it wasn’t my place.”
Patrick’s curiosity was piqued by her statement. Now, he wondered what Kathy knew and if she had proof. “So you’re willing to answer my questions?” he asked her.
“I’ll help you as much as I can. If I know, I’ll tell you,” Kathy said, shifting in her chair. “Your father worked very hard to build this business.”
Patrick nodded. “He did indeed,” he said, resting his elbows on the desk. “So, how often does Robert come to the office?”
“I’d say it depends.”
Patrick frowned. “Depends on what? A certain time of month or how he’s feeling?”
“All of that. He takes a lot of trips and has many visitors.”
“Visitors? Like who? What do they want?”
“I’d never seen these guys before. They had on long trench coats and one of them looked kind of shifty. You know what I mean?”
“Shifty, huh?” Patrick said, leaning back in his chair, rubbing his chin. Hearing Kathy describe the men didn’t sit right with him. Robert had to be up to something, and he hoped it wouldn’t be their downfall.
“How many times did they come looking for him?”
“About twice in one month.”
“Is that right?”
Kathy nodded.
Patrick reached for a pen and a Post-It note. “Kathy, who is the supervisor in accounting?”
“Monica Simpson, why?”
“I need to talk to her. But before I do that, is there anything else you’d like to tell me?”
“I have something I think you should see,” she said, standing. “I need to go and get it.”
“Okay,” Patrick said, watching her disappear through the door, then return quickly.
Kathy handed him an accordion file. “When you have time, please look at this, and let me know if you need anything else from me.”
Patrick took the heavy folder and laid it on his desk. He stood and extended his hand to her. “Thank you so much for your help.”
Kathy accepted his hand. “Anything that will help James, I don’t mind doing.”
Patrick looked down at the folder, then at Kathy. He could see the sadness in her eyes. “I’ll talk to you later, Kathy.”
“Have a good day,” she said, walking out of the office.
Patrick wanted to dive right into the information he’d just received, but he had a feeling that he needed to speak to Monica first.
Several moments later, Patrick walked with determination down to the accounting department to talk to the person in charge. He’d never met Monica Simpson before, so he didn’t know what she looked like. The last supervisor in that group was a heavyset guy named Sid who had retired several years ago.
When he walked into the small office at the end of the hall, he saw a beautiful woman standing at the secretarial station. The woman wore a pink, button-down silk blouse with a string of pearls around her neck. Her dark brown skirt was snug against her hips, and she had matching brown pumps on her feet. She looked up from whatever she was doing and right into Patrick’s eyes.
As soon as she batted her lashes at him, he knew it was Monica. He wouldn’t be able to talk to her about the company’s books without her telling Robert. His brother loved beautiful woman, and there was no doubt in Patrick’s mind that Robert had already hit on Monica. Whether or not he scored with her was another story, but Patrick didn’t want to take a chance. He would just put the independent audit in motion and let the chips fall where they may.
Turning on his heels quickly, he made his way back down the hall. It was time to call the auditor and schedule a meeting. Then he’d head home so that he could sift through the information Kathy had given him and pray his brother hasn’t destroyed their father’s company.
* * * * *
Renee waited for an email from Julia so they could begin to work together on the next phase of the campaign for the soft drink company. She didn’t like the way things were left between them last time, but it was nothing new. Julia always manipulated people into thinking they’d done something to her, but Renee knew better. She’d never wanted to get caught up in Julia’s shenanigans and wasn’t about to start now.
All Renee wanted was to have the meeting and get ready for the Thanksgiving. Celebrating a special occasion always made things better for her. Her family was big on holidays, so she was looking forward to the festivities.
After another fifteen minutes had passed, Renee checked again, and still nothing from Julia. She didn’t want to get her kicked off another project, but if Julia didn’t send the link to the file they needed to use for their presentation soon, she was going to have to speak to Priscilla.
Never known as a complainer and definitely not a snitch, Renee still had to consider her own reputation. She always did things with the spirit of excellence and Julia’s current behavior was not representative of that. Renee picked up the phone to call when Julia walked through the door.
Renee looked up at her and tried to muster up a pleasant attitude. In truth, she wanted to get up and choke Julia. “I was just calling you. Do you have everything ready?” Renee asked, trying to hide her frustration. All she wanted from Julia was the file and nothing more. Getting into a back and forth argument with her wasn’t something she wanted to deal with today.
“No, I haven’t finished it yet,” Julia snapped.
By the tone of her voice, Renee knew right away that Julia wasn’t happy.
“How long before you get done?” Renee wanted to know.
“That’s why I came. I’m going to need at least until tomorrow before I have everything together. I’m still waiting on Creative to send me the template for the deck background.”
Renee’s eyes widened. “Really? Maybe they’re overworked with deadlines, since the holiday is approaching.”
“I guess, but I just didn’t want people going around saying that it was my fault that we don’t have it yet.”
Renee shook her head at Julia’s nonsense. She wondered where all the negative thoughts came from, but she didn’t feel like getting into it with her. “Let me talk to Priscilla and tell her what’s going on. We might be able to table it until after the holiday.”
“Do whatever you need to do, Renee,” Julia said, walking to the door.
“You could send me what you have completed so far, and that way I can work on it over the weekend,” Renee said.
“If you insist. I’ll send it over to you as soon as I get back to my office,” Julia said, walking out the door.
Renee just stared at the place where Julia stood. Something is wrong with that girl.
Several minutes later, she received a message from Julia that included the link to the file on their shared drive. She clicked on it to be sure that it wasn’t password protected and downloaded it to her hard drive, just in case. She didn’t want any mishaps or slip-ups, so it was safer to have it on a thumb drive. With that completed, she could finally head out to enjoy her time off with her family.
* * * * *
With the completion of his last route, Patrick was done for the day, so now he could give his attention to the woman that he couldn’t stop thinking about. He had both a business and personal reason for wanting to talk to Renee.
“Hey, Patrick. How have you been?”
“Did I catch you at a bad time?” Patrick asked.
“No, I was just getting ready to leave for the day.”
“I wanted to call you this morning before going to work, but I was talking to my father.”
“No worries. I got up this morning and went straight to work myself, but now I think the project I was working on has gotten pushed back.”
“I want you to know, I’m always thinking about you,” Patrick said sincerely. After what they’d shared the other night, she’d never been far from his thoughts.
“Honestly, I think about you all the time as well,” Renee said.
“Good, because I didn’t want you to think anything else,” Patrick said, pausing before he continued. “I was wondering if we could have dinner this evening. I’d like to talk to you in more detail about my idea for the business.”
“Speaking of dinner. My sisters are eager to meet you,” Renee said.
Patrick smiled. “I’d love to meet your family. Did they want to have dinner tonight?”
“They mentioned it, but I think they can wait a bit longer. They’ll understand and I would love to help you. You really do care for these people, huh?”
“Yes, I do. It’s a good company, I just think they need an overhaul in the marketing department.”
“We can talk about it over dinner. Do you want to come to my place?”
“If you don’t think of it as an imposition.”
“Are you going to pick up something for us to eat? I don’t feel like cooking. I’m going to be doing a lot of that in the next few weeks.”
“Ah, yes, the Thanksgiving meal,” Patrick replied.
“I thought I told you about my family’s big feast.”
“You mentioned it before. No problem, I’ll just go and pick up something from the barbecue joint we went to a couple of weeks ago.”
“Mmm, that sounds good. I think I want to try the brisket this time.”
“Brisket, it is. I’ll see you in about an hour and a half. I just have one more thing I need to do here.”
“I’ll see you later, Patrick.”
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