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“Isn’t it?”
“No. I’m sure as hell not gonna ask her about it, and neither are you.”
He studies my phone. “How did he survive it?” he asks, after a moment or two’s scrolling.
“Survive what?”
“Ken Bevan stealing all that money.” We’re back on that, are we?
“I don’t know. I guess the cops must have got it back. Either way, he worked it out.”
“And now you’re running the show.” He looks up at me again, handing me back my phone so I can choose my own pizza.
“In a way.”
He frowns. “You might try to seem a little more cheerful about it. You chose to go into advertising long before Dad got sick, just like I chose to become a photographer, and Ella chose to flit around Europe learning to cook.”
“You’re assuming she’s still doing that? She only lasted two years at college before she decided it wasn’t for her. Knowing Ella, she’s given up the cookery school, left Paris, and has moved to the Alps to study mountaineering, or something.”
He chuckles. “I’m not sure you can study mountaineering, but nothing she does would ever surprise me.” I order the pizzas, choosing the same as Drew, but with extra chili, and put down my phone, taking a sip of beer. “Are you unhappy about running the business?” Drew asks, watching me closely.
“No. Like you say, I chose this career.”
“Whatever else Dad got wrong, at least he never tried to force us into doing something we didn’t want.”
“Because he was never at home enough to notice what we were doing, and he never cared enough to ask.”
He waits a second or two and nods his head. “Okay. But the point is, he’s not responsible for you being the CEO, is he? When he died, despite being a lousy father, he left us the house in Rhode Island and a serious amount of cash each. He didn’t leave you the business, or put you in charge.”
“He couldn’t, Drew. TBA wasn’t his to leave anymore. He took it public not long after his cancer was diagnosed.”
“Yes, because running it by himself was too much for him. The guy was sick.”
“Don’t be so naïve. Dad wasn’t running the business then. I was. He’d already brought me back in by that stage.” I shake my head, smiling at him. “The only reason Dad went public with TBA was to ensure none of us could inherit the company outright from him.”
“I know you think he didn’t care about us, and I don’t disagree, but if that’s the case, why did he leave us all his money?”
“I don’t know. He never believed in any of us, so he probably thought we’d give up our jobs and blow it all on fast living.”
“Even if that is the case, he still left us his shares,” he says, like he’s trying to justify what Dad did.
“You mean shares in the business we have no control over, even if we have the controlling interest? Everything is run by the board, not by me. I might be the one who carries the can, but Dad didn’t want me to do things my own way, and if he wasn’t going to be around to control me, he made sure the board would be there instead.”
“Are they holding you back, then?”
“I don’t know if that’s the best way of putting it, but I’m wondering if they knew something I didn’t when they confirmed my appointment.”
“Like maybe you’re the best man for the job?” I shake my head and he sits forward. “You are, Hunter.”
“I was already in the job when Dad died. It was easier for them to keep me on than to find someone else.”
He frowns. “Has something happened… other than Doreen announcing her resignation?”
“Nothing specific, but since Dad’s death, we’ve lost several of the older clients; the ones who were loyal to him, but not necessarily to me.”
“Have you been able to replace them?”
“Some of them, but not as many as I’d like.”
