Conklin's Blueprints
Page 35
As for cherishing my boys… it was a hard task for me to show. Yes, I loved them. I wasn’t going to get the father of the year award, but I was young when we had them, and I wasn’t ready to be a role model. I think we have come a long way though. Mitch and I get along. We share the same interests for the most part. He doesn’t have a lick of common sense, but he is smart around the construction site and has helped me re-draft the RJ brick to make it more efficient. I pushed him to use these skills, just as I pushed my other two boys to use their special gifts as well.
Nathan and I get along fairly well also. We mainly talked business, and he was good at talking. He knows how to make deals and gain clients. My company would always be in good hands with Nathan around. He was loveable and could be manipulative, which is exactly what I needed for my marketing. He wasn’t worth a shit when it came to numbers and finance, and my head spun as well whenever account sheets were put in front of me. That is where Tyler came into play.
Tyler was the quietest of the bunch and showed the most animosity and resentment towards me. I didn’t fucking care. I made him a successful financial guru by pointing out his talents and forcing him to enhance them in college. He probably wouldn’t ever forgive me for making him “give up his dream” to play baseball. Maybe he would forgive me and maybe he wouldn’t, but he was making me millions. The kid could read numbers and knew where and how to cut costs and invest like a Wall Street maniac. He was my biggest asset, and I would do everything in my power to keep him.
Tyler wasn’t always an ice block towards me. Mainly after he graduated from college he brought on the chill. But lately he was an artic blizzard and very easy to rile. It was fun to get Tyler going, to see the steam practically pour off his face. He reminded me of Mary; she was easy to rile as well, and she was a turn on when she was fuming.
The little Miss Becca Stine seemed to get him all flustered. I never saw Tyler with a girl, and he seemed to think I hadn’t caught on to his infatuation with mogul Max Stine’s daughter. Nothing got by me, ever.
I noticed his eyes follow her every move when Becca came up to meet with me in my office for the first time. She was a very pretty girl, and she blushed easily--another expression I enjoyed. But I wouldn’t take her too far. I wasn’t going to fuck around with our main client’s daughter, and none of my boys better fuck with her either. But then I saw the look in Tyler’s eyes as he was chasing after her at Stine’s Christmas party.
He loved her.
I knew that feeling for one woman, and it unfortunately wasn’t my wife. I opened up the other folded piece of paper and brushed it with my fingertips, leaning over my desk holding my other hand under my chin I gazed at the few words on the crumpled paper.
RJ,
I’m sorry, I can’t run away with you. I can’t do that to your family. But know that I do love you. If things were different we could be together.
Love Always,
Margo
I wasn’t going to mess with Tyler and his swooning over Becca Stine anymore. Hell, I’m rooting for him. Tyler being with the city’s most prominent business owner’s daughter would guarantee every large building in the city to be contracted out by my company. And I would need more Conklin blood to continue on my empire when I was gone. Nathan wasn’t into that, and Mitch probably had a few bastard children, but would never settle down and become a father. Tyler and Becca might be my only hope to carry on the Conklin name.
Even though I wasn’t a perfect father, I wouldn’t mess with my son being in love. Well, not too much at least. I still enjoy making steam roll from his ears.
I sighed as I folded up the papers and put them back into the RJ brick. I would give anything to live on an island with Margo. I stood up and lifted it to put it back on my shelf. The fucker was heavy as a brick too. Cops would never figure it out. At least they hadn’t yet.
There was one problem my supposed glorified father created for this company. He sold the RJ bricks to the biggest drug dealers within each city we broke ground in. Yeah, it was a good idea, but now they were causing me a headache, coming into my office demanding my bricks. We had to keep them on a low profile or else the pigs were going to catch on, and it would be my ass at stake. Although I don’t think they could ever pin anything on me. I’m not dealing with the drugs; I just sell the drug dealers bricks that double for safety boxes and key holders. How am I supposed to know what people put in my bricks?
All I know is that if Lee Chino came into my office making more demands, I might have to put a kibosh on the whole scheme and retire my lovely bricks.
Special Thanks
I would like to give a special thanks to my wonderful husband, Andy. Thank you for putting up with hearing fingers on a keyboard at all hours of the night. Thank you for not getting irritated when dishes weren’t done or the floor wasn’t dusted. You are the dream husband who just wants me to be happy and who has given up way too many things for our family. You are selfless and the most compassionate man I know.
Without you I would have never been able to write about falling in love. I will forever feel like a 16 year old in love because of you. So many people thought we were crazy and we wouldn’t make it, but I fall in love with you more and more every day. You are my rock and my confident, and you have made all of my dreams come true. We have two beautiful children, a home to grow old and raise our family in, and you even let me have my two kitties and scoop their litter boxes when you can’t stand the “big nasty cats” that they are. Thank you for being my inspiration. Without you, life would be a heck of a lot harder to live. I love you, and I will always fight for us, no matter what hurdles we will come across, because that is what our marriage means to me. I can honestly say you are my soul mate, and I thank God every day for bringing us together so early in life. Keep rocking my world, love Schack.
Author Bio
Brooke Page
Brooke Page is the independent author of Conklin’s Blueprints. She and her husband live with their two children in the suburbs of Grand Rapids, Michigan. When she is not writing, she enjoys using the pottery wheel and reading. For more projects and insights on upcoming books and events, please visit Brooke Page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/authorbrookepage) and follow her on Twitter, (BrookePage05). Brooke Page would also love to hear from you via email if you have any questions or comments about her books, authorbrookepage@gmail.com.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Prologue for Conklin’s Blueprints: Revised
Author Bio
Table of Contents
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Prologue for Conklin’s Blueprints: Revised
Author Bio