Initiative (Suncoast Society #31)(54)

Susie kept her mouth shut.

A great feat that was.

“A lot of people are hurt by what happened,” Ed said. “I will advise you that, upon the expiration of the window you’re guaranteed a job, my client is very eager to revoke your employment as soon as possible. If you truly loved your brother, you know how much he loved Susan and wanted to provide for her. He had already been planning to buy back all of the shares when he died.”

“He was?” Jack looked at her but Ed answered.

“Yes, he was. He’d talked to me about it just a few weeks earlier and we were looking at the best way to do that. So I think you understand that, for the sake of everyone involved, it would be far easier to end this business relationship amicably.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch. She’s actually being more generous than John was going to be by offering to pay your health insurance. I advised her not to do that, but she insisted because she wanted to be fair.” Ed laid a pen on the table in front of Jack.

Wow. She had to hand it to the attorney, he was laying it on thick and selling it better than her most talented salesman could schmooze someone into a car.

“My parents are going to be pissed,” Jack said. “Dad once told me to talk to him before I ever got rid of my shares.”

“And Susan will deal with that, and him,” Ed said. “As per the will, Susan has right of first refusal. Do you honestly think your father would be as generous as she’s being?”

He snorted. “No,” he quietly said.

For the first time, she actually felt a tiny bit sorry for Jack.

Jack picked up the pen and signed the paper, as well as another one that Ed put in front of him. Ed used the phone’s intercom to call in his administrative assistant, who notarized the forms.

Ed handed Jack a copy of the agreement, as well as the title to the car, information on the health insurance, and a cashier’s check. “There you go,” he said. “That was easy. You can clean out your desk whenever you want this week, and you’ll be paid a base rate for the rest of the week, direct deposit as per usual.”

Jack stared at the check before looking at Susan. “You really hate me, don’t you?”

She caught Ed’s warning stare and carefully considered her words before she spoke.

“John was your big brother, but he was my soul mate. He was the love of my life. We’d started talking about having kids. When I lost him, I lost all my dreams. All that I’m left with now is this business, which was also his dream. I swore that I would do whatever it took to keep it going in his memory. It’s all I have left of him besides my memories. Dealing with you every day has done nothing but remind me of everything I lost when he died. I know he loved you, but I’m only human. There’s only so much one person can take before something breaks. I think the best thing for everyone is if you go pursue your options elsewhere. I know you’ve been doing side work. Hopefully that money gives you enough of a cushion, if you’re smart, to keep you going until you get another full-time job.”

Jack’s face reddened a little. “How’d you know?”

“It’s not hard to figure out. Car sales or boat sales?”

His blush deepened. “Boat.”

“Okay, then. The fact that you thought you were hiding that from me says something, right?” She hoped that didn’t come out snarky. “Face it, you’re not happy working for me. I was a safety line you couldn’t afford to cut because of the health insurance. If your parents give you hell about it, send them to me. I’ll take the heat. Blame me—I don’t care.

“Maybe one day I can forgive you for what happened, but not today, not yet. I need more time and distance before I can do that. And having you in my face at work every day, and worse, having to play referee between you and other employees, is rubbing salt in my wounds. Can’t you see that? Do you have any idea of how many people have asked me some variation of the question, ‘Gee, how can you stand looking at him every day?’ And I’ve had to defend you to those people because it was my husband’s wish to have you working for me, without him realizing you were the reason he was dead in the first place.”

Jack’s gaze dropped to the table. “Yeah,” he softly said. “I guess that would be tough. I never thought about it like that before.”

“I’m sorry I can’t embrace you and be the big sibling John was to you. I can’t. Maybe that makes me a horrible person and I’ll own it if it does, but without John, you and I will never be ‘family.’ I can’t be family to you. I’m sorry.”

He sat there for a moment in quiet contemplation. “Yeah,” he finally said, subdued. “I guess I can see where you would feel like that. You know what my parents are like. I was a mistake baby. They never bothered to hide that from me, that I was a late oopsie.”

He snorted. “John was the golden child. He could do no wrong. I think my parents were upset when he married you because they thought they’d help him run the business and John had already decided no, he wasn’t going to let Dad have a controlling stake.”

She let him talk, suspecting he needed to get this out of his system. She wasn’t his therapist, but if it meant she was done with him, she’d damn well sit and let him say it.