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I try to smile back, but it’s hard to when I know Laney is in so much pain, pain that I can’t help but feel I caused by allowing Mason to sneak up on her. Pain I exacerbated by embracing her, kissing her, carrying her to bed. “It was interesting.”
“You remain a bad liar, Nate,” Dad says.
Sonia elbows him.
He gasps and she laughs before returning her attention back to me. “Maybe the executive floor isn’t for you. I think you’d do well on the floor, working with the actual nuts and bolts rather than the big picture.” Sonia glances at Dad as she speaks, though her words are directed at me. “You know, maybe there’s something about working more with the day-to-day and the people that will speak to you.”
“He just started. He should try it out a bit more.”
“Heis right here,” Sonia retorts.
Dad regards her and then me. “Maybe you should try it out a couple more days, Nate.” When he turns his back to grab a beer out of the fridge, I mouth, “Thank you,” to Sonia.
She smirks. I’m glad sometimes she’s still on my side of things even though she sleeps in my father’s bed.
And now that I’ve thought aboutthatfact more than enough for one day let alone a lifetime…
Dad closes the door and pops off the cap of his beer.
“Dad, if this is going to work, you’re going to have to let me do it my way.”
The hard edge of his jaw softens, and so do his eyes.
I remember how hard it used to be to look my father in the eye, how nervous he’d make me. Now, though, he looks at me like his son. Not a business protégé. “You’re right. Okay. So, what’s that way going to be, Nate?”
I look at Sonia. She nods toward me as if to say,Go on.
I take a deep breath. “You and I both know I’m not cut out for the executive suite type of stuff. I’m just not…that kind of leader.”
“You are a leader, Nate,” Dad says as if that’s somehow hurt him.
“That’s not what I mean. I lead from the inside, not from the top. I prefer to be with other people, prefer to be doing work that has immediate impact and gives me freedom and flexibility to…be me, you know?”
Dad’s lips quirk into a smile. “So, what you’re saying is, you don’t want to wear a suit?”
Both Sonia and I laugh.
I nod. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” I sigh. “Look, I’m sorry, Dad, but sitting in business meetings and keeping a stiff upper lip is the furthest thing from who I am. I like to smile and crack jokes, and if that gets me something in the process, that’s great. There’s got to be a job like that at the Lyons Club for me.”
Dad smiles.
Sonia beams.
Nodding, Dad agrees to allow me to shadow in a different department tomorrow, and I’m more relieved than I can say.
After that’s all settled, I go to check on Laney again.
Her door is still closed.
I debate knocking, but I think I’d just upset her further.
We’ll get a fresh start tomorrow with our PT session. And then I’ll get a fresh start at the club too.
Yes, tomorrow is going to be a good day.
Today has not beena good day.
Okay, that’s not totally true.
