What Matters Most

by Longley, Barbara

“All right. So, you’re down in the dumps because of the way the vote went, and about the breakup. What else?”

  “Everything.” Jo leaned forward and slid the box of tissues closer. Just in case. “I can’t keep up with all the changes. Haney & Sons isn’t the same since you and Gram retired. I miss you both. I miss coming in to work and seeing you every morning. I miss gathering again at lunchtime for Gram’s home cooking. I even miss the mess on your desk. Sam has a family of his own now, and so does Wyatt.” And once again she was single and adrift. “I miss hanging out with them all the time.”

  She shrugged a shoulder. “I thought if I could get our company name changed, I’d feel better, more in control, like I was making changes too.” Oh, great. Tears. Snatching a tissue from the box, she tried to squeeze the suckers back where they came from. “Then I met Will, and for a while, everything was going so well.” She waved the tissue in the air, a white-flagged surrender to despair. “I’m sure Wyatt and Sam brought you up to speed on that whole fiasco.”

  “Nope. Haley and Kayla talked to your grandmother, and she brought me up to speed on that whole fiasco.”

  “Gramps, I used to feel like I belonged, and now I don’t. I was seeing a man I really, truly cared about, and now I’m not. I used to hang out with my brothers all the time, and now I can’t.” She bit her lip. “Not without feeling like I’m intruding, anyway. Everything together just got to me, and today I’m taking a time-out.” Jo pressed her lips together to keep from bursting into tears. “One day to mope.”

  “I see.” Grandpa Joe stared at her and nodded. “Here’s a thought.”

  Uh-oh. Jo tugged at a loose thread on the couch pillow.

  “I’ll wait right here while you shower and get dressed.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. Then you will ride with me to Sam and Haley’s house to celebrate our nation’s independence with your family. You can ride home with Wyatt.” He lifted the empty potato chip bag and began stuffing the scattered tissues inside. “Sam and Haley have gone to a lot of trouble to host us this year, and your grandmother is worried about you. I don’t like it when my Maggie worries.”

  He paused in his tidying to glower at her. “Jo, you’re a Haney; Haneys don’t mope. We fix things. Haneys don’t text away their problems either. We face them head-on … in person.”

  That last bit stung. “What am I supposed to fix? The vote? The fact that I can’t keep pace with all the changes I never asked for or wanted?” Fix things with Will? She squelched that thought. Because of pride? Stubbornness? Shame for the way she’d handled things? Yes. All of the above, along with misgivings about either of them fitting into the other’s world for the long haul. A lifetime of the Prescotts looking down their noses at her and possibly at her children? No thanks.

  “One day Dan and Jack will retire. Then it will be up to your generation to decide what to call the company you inherit.”

  “That’s …” She did the math in her head. “At least twenty years from now.”

  “At least.” Gramps grinned and patted her knee. “Go. And make it snappy. I’m hungry, and Sam is grilling his famous ribs.” He pointed in the direction of the hall leading to her bathroom.

  “Grrr.” Jo tossed the pillow on the couch and stomped off to the bathroom. In record time, she’d bathed, brushed her teeth, dressed, and brushed her hair into a ponytail. She marched back into the living room, sans makeup and her hair unwashed … her feeble protest at being forced to socialize. “All right,” she said, grabbing her purse and slipping her feet into a pair of sandals. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Grandpa Joe chuckled and pulled his car keys out of his pocket. Jo followed him down the front stairs, out the door and down the sidewalk to his truck. The ride to her brother’s house was quiet, and she was grateful. Mostly because she needed to prepare herself for the barrage of sympathy she’d soon face. By the time Gramps pulled up to the curb in front of the big old Dutch-hip two-story, Josey had steeled herself for the worst.

  Her brother had recently painted the exterior dove gray with white accents. Since the last time she’d been here, they’d added charcoal-gray shutters on either side of their new windows.

  She and her grandfather climbed out of his car and started up the walk to the front door. “Their house is really coming along.”

  “It is. I’ve been helping,” Grandpa Joe said. “I like to keep busy.”

  “I hope I’m like you when I’m in my seventies,” she said, casting her grandfather an affectionate grin. “Only without the caterpillars-for-eyebrows thing you’ve got going on there.” She waved a hand toward his eyebrows.

  He put his arm around her shoulders and have her a brief hug. “You already are like me, sweetheart. Stubborn, proud, smart as a whip … you’re a Haney through and through.”

  She glanced at him, her insides twisting at the thought of one day losing her beloved grandparents. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen for a long, long time. Her grandfather opened the front door for her, and she slipped past him into the foyer.

  Haley and Sam had refinished all of the original oak woodwork, including the curving bannister and stairs leading up to the second floor. Everything now looked light and airy, new, but with old-timey charm. She and Gramps walked through the first floor to the dining area and out the sliding doors to the backyard. Sucking in a fortifying lungful, Jo plastered a smile on her face. The scent of ribs and hickory smoke filled the air. “Smells good out here.”

  “Hey, Jo,” Sam nodded from his place by the grill. “About time you got here. We’re going to eat in ten minutes. You want a beer or a glass of wine?”

  “A beer would be great. Thanks.”

  “There you are,” Grandma Maggie cried. She crossed the patio and gave Josey a Grandmotherly hug.

  “Hi, Gram. Sorry I’m late,” she murmured, hugging her back. She waved, and greetings were exchanged all around. Haley handed her a beer, and Jo was soon ensconced within the group of people she loved most in the world. Haley’s parents, Frank and Trudy, and her brother Frank Junior were also there.

  No one asked how she was holding up after her most recent breakup, or how she felt about the vote, or about the way Will had showed up unexpectedly at their meeting. They must have discussed her situation and wisely decided not to bring up anything emotionally charged.

  She took a seat by Haley and Kayla in one of those cheap, folding, aluminum lawn chairs with the woven plastic seats and back. Perfect. Nothing spelled summer like cheap lawn chairs, the smell of freshly mowed grass and the scent of something yummy cooking on the grill.

  Haley’s brother, Wyatt and Brady were batting a shuttlecock around the yard with badminton rackets, ignoring the net that had been set up. Her grandparents and Haley’s parents were talking travel plans, and Sam manned the grill. Some of Jo’s tension eased. “Your house is really looking great, Haley. Are you finished with everything now?”

  “Almost. We have two bedrooms yet to do, but we’re not in any hurry. Right now the spare rooms are repositories for all our junk.” Haley smiled and rubbed her extended belly. “We probably won’t get to them until Sam Junior is a toddler and number two is on the way.”

  “Let me know if you need any help.” Early on, when Sam and Haley were still living in Haley’s house, she and Wyatt had helped the couple gut, replumb and rewire the entire house.

  “We will.” Haley’s eyes lit up. “Hey, do you want to see the nursery?”

  “You’ll love the theme,” Kayla said.

  “Oh, right. The wallpaper Sam wouldn’t let you help him put up.” Jo rose from her place. “I do want to see what you’ve done.” She and Haley returned to the house and headed up the stairs.

  Haley stopped before a newly refinished oak door. “Prepare to be impressed.”

  Jo laughed. “All right.” The door swung open soundlessly on its shiny new hinges, and Jo stepped inside. “Oh, wow. This is so adorable.” The lower half of the wallpaper held circus trains filled wit
h a variety of animals, clowns and other circus characters. The trains ran along tracks meandering through small towns surrounded by stylized forested hills. Puffs of steam rose from the smokestacks on the engines to mingle with the clouds. The upper half was sky blue with fat fluffy clouds making shapes like the animals on the train. “Where did you ever find this wallpaper?”

  “On an online site specializing in vintage designs.” Haley looked around the room, a happy smile on her face.

  “No furniture yet?”

  “No, we’re waiting until after the baby shower my mom and aunt are having for us.” She grinned. “We heard a rumor the grandparents and parents are all pitching in for a gift certificate toward furniture.”

  “Wow, that reminds me. Your shower is coming up next month already.” She needed to check their registry and get a gift soon.

  “Everything is happening so quickly, including becoming a mom. I’m excited and scared all at the same time.”

  They moved toward the door. “You and Sam are going to be fantastic parents.”

  “I hope so.”

  Not even Haley asked about Will, and her sister-in-law knew him well, having worked with him for years. How unlike her family not to meddle. The two of them rejoined the party in the backyard. Still no one asked how she was doing, or how she felt. No one mentioned Will or tried to convince her to talk to him. While their consideration warmed her heart, it didn’t quell the achy emptiness inside her heart. She’d been on the verge of tears since she walked away from him for the second time. Wishing she and Will were together tonight didn’t help.

  “Oh, good,” Haley murmured. “Time to eat. Junior and I are starving.”

  Everything had been set up buffet style on the breakfast bar in the kitchen, and the line had already begun to form, everyone eager to fill their plates. Sam walked into the kitchen with a large pan full of smoked ribs. “Help yourselves,” he said, setting the pan on the counter.

  “Auntie Jo, you know what?” Brady and Wyatt appeared at her side.

  She picked up a plate, napkin and utensils. “What, Superkid?”

  “We’re going to watch fireworks tonight.” He did his usual excited hop. “And they’re not gonna start until way past my bedtime.”

  Wyatt tousled his stepson’s hair. “We’re going to Harriet Island. Do you want to join us?”

  “Seeing as how you’re my ride home, sure.”

  “We can drop you off first if you want.”

  “No. I’d love to watch the fireworks. It’ll be fun seeing them with Superkid here.” She leaned down and tickled the kid’s ribs, grinning at his squealed protest. Somehow she knew it wouldn’t be long before Wyatt and Kayla added to the new crop of Haney cousins. Her heart skipped a beat, reminding her she’d added another rip in the seams of that vital organ, this one bigger and badder than the rest. She missed Will in a deeply visceral way, a way she knew wouldn’t let up for a very long time.

  Haneys don’t text away their problems. We face them head on in person. Unless of course the Haney in question happened to be an embarrassed coward. She needed to come up with a plan. At the very least, she owed Will an apology for breaking up with him in a text, rather than facing him in person.

  Will studied the résumés and the notes he’d taken about the two associate lawyers they’d interviewed Tuesday afternoon. “I like them both. Mai Yang is exceptionally bright. She has the right background, and she’s extremely committed. Plus, she’s well connected with the Hmong community, and she’s fluent in her native language. Brett Johnson is also an excellent candidate. Let’s call their references, and invite them both back for second interviews.”

  “I agree, and we’re getting more applicants daily,” Greg said, sliding an application and résumé across Will’s desk. “Here’s Gwen’s stuff, by the way. She’s the friend of Sondra’s I told you about. I’ve scheduled her interview for Monday afternoon.”

  “Good, I’m looking forward to meeting with her.” Will checked his watch. He had a property management company going through the building before writing up a bid for janitorial and maintenance services. “I’ll take Yang, and you can take Johnson. We can make the reference calls before lunch.”

  “Done.” Greg grabbed his stack of papers and stood. “Don’t forget we have our first two cases to go over this afternoon.”

  Will grinned. “How could I forget? We’ve been bleeding money, and these two cases will be our first billable hours. Prescott & Fletcher has begun.”

  “It has indeed.” Greg said, heading for his own office. He left, closing Will’s door behind him.

  They’d set their phones to go directly to messaging this morning, or else they wouldn’t have been able to get any work done at all. He’d listen to the message at the end of the day. Potential tenants had been calling nonstop since early morning. The sooner they hired office staff the better. Between managing the affairs of his building, and getting their law firm off the ground, he was swamped.

  The buzz of a power saw and the snap-bang-snap-bang of nail guns made it hard to concentrate. A kitchen was being installed in the space they’d designated as their staff lounge. The job was not being done by Haney & Sons. He couldn’t bring himself to request a bid with the way things currently stood.

  His stomach flipped. Tomorrow morning he’d set himself up one more time for the possibility of another rejection from Jo. This would be his last attempt. He couldn’t keep throwing himself in front of that busload of heartbreak. Will grabbed his cell phone, unlocked the screen and stared again at the picture he’d mooned over at least a hundred times a day. He couldn’t erase the image of how hurt she’d looked after her family had voted her down.

  A soft knock on his door brought his attention back to the present. He set his phone aside and grabbed the paperwork for the property management company. “Come in,” he called. His welcoming smile vanished. His gut wrenched and his eyes widened. “What brings you here, Dad?”

  “Thought I’d come see your new building.” His father roamed around Will’s office, the wood floor creaking beneath his expensive Italian shoes. His dad stopped at the large window overlooking the Mississippi and raised the blinds. “So … Prescott, Fletcher and Associates.” His father slid his hands into his pockets and fixed his gaze on something outside Will’s office. “I hear property values in this area are rising. This building is a good investment,” he said to his reflection in the glass in front of him.

  Will gritted his teeth. He hadn’t told them a single thing about his building, his new firm or anything else having to do with his life. “I’d appreciate it if the two of you would stop spying on me.”

  His father grunted and shot him a dry look. “What choice do we have? You tell us nothing.”

  “Why is that, do you suppose?”

  “I didn’t come here to start another argument.” His father crossed the room and took one of the seats in front of Will’s desk.”

  Will leaned back in his chair and stared his father down. “I believe I made my position clear the last time we spoke. Why have you come?”

  “Dammit, William.” His father scowled. “I’m here because you have it all wrong.”

  “To what are you referring?”

  “You’re mother is … upset.”

  “Because I don’t really intend to run for president? Or is she upset because I fell in love with a woman you and Mom view as undeserving of your respect or consideration?” He grabbed the pen resting on his desk, needing something to hold in his hands. “By the way, Jo broke things off between us after our brunch. She said she doesn’t want to come between the three of us.”

  “Hmm.”

  Anger formed a tight fist around his heart. “Look, if you have nothing new to say, please see yourself out. I have work to do.” He straightened, put down the pen and opened his laptop.

  “I have plenty to say.”

  Will stifled the urge to snort. His father had plenty to say? This was a first.

  “You’re wr
ong. Your mother and I do love each other. If it hadn’t been for her …” His breath hitched. He cleared his throat, and the muscle along his jaw twitched. “I’ve never told you this before, but—”

  “You’ve never told me anything personal before.” Will snorted after all.

  “I’m telling you now.” He leveled a glare at him. “You do know I was shuffled off to boarding schools. Even on holidays, I rarely saw my parents. My brother was eight years older, and though we attended the same school, we were so far apart in grade level our paths hardly crossed, and then of course, he graduated and went off to college.”

  “I’ve seen the class pictures, and you did mention boarding school now and then.”

  “I can’t complain. Not really. I never wanted for anything … materially speaking.” His father shot up from the chair and returned to the window. “Here’s what you don’t know. I was unhappy and miserably lonely. By the time my parents packed me off to college, I was well on my way to becoming an addict. Drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex—make a list of vices. I did them all to excess.”

  What? He tried to imagine his father high or drunk. He just couldn’t create that picture in his mind.

  Sighing, his father shook his head. “At first, I got into trouble in the misbegotten hope I’d gain my parents’ attention. They threw money at the legal problems.” He glanced at Will for a second. “Didn’t take long though, before I needed to be high just to get through the day.”

  Stunned, Will swiveled his chair to face his father. He’d always seemed entirely buttoned-up and straightlaced. Will had never even seen his father slightly tipsy. He’d seen him hold a drink in his hand occasionally, but he couldn’t say for sure the drinks included alcohol.

  “Then I met your mother. We were both at Harvard, you know. She was in one of my classes. Somehow, high or hung-over, I managed to pass my classes. Barely. The minute I laid eyes on Caroline, I knew she was the woman for me.” He grunted. “She was so put together, sharp, vivacious. Lord, she was a stunner. Still is if you ask me, and we’ve been married for thirty-six years.”