AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This damn thing,” he grumbled from Lacey’s office, and I grinned.
GG was a lot of things, but young with a good memory he was not. He might have worked in this office for decades, but he’d forgotten a lot more about the day to day running of a newspaper than he remembered. “Everything all right, GG?”
“Hell no, it ain’t all right,” he growled. A beat later his head popped out of Lacey’s office, mussed silver hair leading the way. “You know anything about putting a paper to bed?”
“Nope,” I told him. “Never worked in a traditional office until now.” And I had no real desire to learn something that was becoming more and more irrelevant with every passing day.
“Never?”
I shrugged. “I ran errands and transcribed notes for reporters in high school and did a semester at the college paper, but that’s about it.”
His lips pulled into a hopeful grin. “Want to learn?”
“Nah.” I shook my head and bit back a grin. “You’re awfully particular about how you want it all done, so I would think it’d be a treat for you to get reacquainted with the process.”
“Smart ass,” he murmured and disappeared into the office again. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to put the paper to bed, or redecorate Lacey’s office with the noises that came from that direction, so I kept my attention on the laptop screen and the stories I had to write before tomorrow. “Don’t think you and Lacey are foolin’ anyone, either.” GG’s tone was annoyed and slightly distracted. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out really, but I’ve never claimed to be a genius so why don’t you tell me what’s going on in my daughter’s head?”
I thought long and hard about what I should and would say before I answered. GG cared about his daughter, but he was also a proud man who would never admit his shortcomings. I sighed and leaned back with my feet propped up on my desk. “You mean other than the fact that you seem to think she’s incompetent? My guess is nothing.”
“What? That’s nonsense, Lacey is brilliant and she’s the most capable person I know.”
His words even shocked me, and I shook my head. “That may be what’s in your heart, but I have to tell you GG, that’s not obvious from your words or your actions.”
“Hogwash,” he grumbled and swatted a dismissive hand in my direction. “I just want to make sure she’s ready for the responsibility of running a paper. It’s not easy, the job or the life.”
That’s what he thought he was doing. “Seems like you want her to run the paper exactly the way you have all these years without making any changes.”
“What’s wrong with how I run things? This is what put food on the table for four kids and paid off a nice family home.”
“There’s nothing wrong with it GG, but do you know about all the changes in news media over the past twenty years?”
“I know what I need to know.”
“Yeah, and it worked for you, but how is Lacey supposed to compete in this new world?” I shook my head. “This is exactly why family businesses don’t often last but two or three generations. The older generations don’t want to keep up with the times and Lacey doesn’t want to work in the past.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“She didn’t have to. I have eyes and ears, GG. And I’ve been around the block a time or two, worked for owners who proclaimed the internet a fad until they owned dying newspapers.”
GG aimed an angry finger in my direction. “That’s not going to happen with this newspaper.”
“You hope,” I added with a smile.
“You think I’m too hard on Lacey, don’t you?”
“No, I think you have a hard time treating her like a grown woman. You still treat her the way you did when she started working at your side in high school. I think you don’t respect her or her ideas, and I’m guessing that’s close to what she thinks. But I can’t speak for Lacey, so maybe you should talk to her.”
GG nodded and stared at the carpet for a long time, saying nothing. “I’ll talk to her. I’ll apologize when she gets over her mad and comes back to the office.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“She will,” he said, more to himself than to me. “She will.”
I didn’t know how to tell him that pigs would fly before Lacey came back, and thankfully my alarm to pick up Mickey went off, so I didn’t have to tell the old man the harsh truth.
Chapter 21
Lacey
My site was live. Officially. I stared at the screen with a big goofy grin. It was a bare bones site for now, with just a few stories published by me and a few more pulled from the news wires. It wasn’t much right now, but it was a start.
